【英语时差8,16】北极光

 Perhaps you've seen pictures of the northern lights. These fiery¹ curtains of light often dance across the night skies in the far north. The northern lights probably seem far away and exotic, but the same process that makes them shine can be found much closer to home. It's happening right now, inside the nearest fluorescent² lamp. The northern lights, or aurora³ borealis, are powered by energy from outer space. Energetic particles from the sun are captured by the Earth's magnetic field and spiral downward toward the poles. When these particles reach Earth's upper atmosphere, they strike the atoms there so strongly that their very electrons begin to shake loose. When electrons are disturbed this way, they can give off light. It's this microscopic⁴ turmoil⁵, miles above the Earth's surface, that gives the northern lights their eerie⁶ glow. A fluorescent lamp is powered by ordinary, household electric current. This current races through the lamp's glass tube, which is filled with a mixture of gas and mercury vapor⁷ at low pressure. When the current passes through this mixture, it jostles the electrons there just as electrons above the poles are jostled by solar particles. This causes the same kind of microscopic turmoil that lights up the arctic skies. Fortunately for us, our supply of household electric current is more uniform and dependable than the erratic⁸ energy that powers the northern lights. This makes fluorescent lights much brighter and steadier than their shimmering⁹ and shifting cousins above the north pole. They might not be as exotic, but fluorescent lamps help us see to brush our teeth, read the paper, and go about our daily business. So the next time you long for the romance of the northern lights, switch on a fluorescent lamp! You'll lose some of the mystique, but the principle will be the same.

1 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

2 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

3 aurora   

n.极光

参考例句：

• The aurora is one of nature's most awesome spectacles.极光是自然界最可畏的奇观之一。
• Over the polar regions we should see aurora.在极地高空,我们会看到极光。

4 microscopic   

adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to read his microscopic handwriting.不可能看清他那极小的书写字迹。
• A plant's lungs are the microscopic pores in its leaves.植物的肺就是其叶片上微细的气孔。

5 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

6 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

7 vapor   

n.蒸汽，雾气

参考例句：

• The cold wind condenses vapor into rain.冷风使水蒸气凝结成雨。
• This new machine sometimes transpires a lot of hot vapor.这部机器有时排出大量的热气。

8 erratic   

adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• The old man had always been cranky and erratic.那老头儿性情古怪,反复无常。
• The erratic fluctuation of market prices is in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。

9 shimmering   

v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The sea was shimmering in the sunlight. 阳光下海水波光闪烁。
• The colours are delicate and shimmering. 这些颜色柔和且闪烁微光。 来自辞典例句