【英语时差8,16】海浪的声音（下）

 Whitecaps are small waves that grow too tall to support themselves on their short bases. It’s kind of like piling up dry sand on the beach. You can make a sand hill only so high before it collapses². If the base is very wide, though–as is the case with sand dunes–collapse¹ is less likely. So waves that grow too high for their bases collapse quickly and lose their energy. This is what’s happening when you see whitish foam³ being tossed around out on the ocean. The longer waves, however, can support themselves better and don’t collapse. Not only that, longer waves move faster than shorter ones. So they get away quickly from the windy region where they were first formed, and roll on smoothly⁴ toward the beach.Next stop,woosh!

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 collapses   

折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 )； 倒塌； 崩溃； （尤指工作劳累后）坐下

参考例句：

• This bridge table collapses. 这张桥牌桌子能折叠。
• Once Russia collapses, the last chance to stop Hitler will be gone. 一旦俄国垮台，抑止希特勒的最后机会就没有了。

3 foam   

v./n.泡沫，起泡沫

参考例句：

• The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
• The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。

4 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。