纪录片《侏罗纪之谜》 第12期 火山爆发

It's very hard to imagine just the scale of the volcanism which starts off at this time.

当时的火山爆发规模大到无法想象的地步

It's vastly greater, several orders of magnitude greater, than anything we see on earth today.

它太剧烈了，级别比当今地球上任何一次火山爆发都要高得多

Thousands of square kilometres of, of red hot lava¹ just pouring out of these fissures² in the ground covering a vast area.

数千平方公里的炽热熔岩从裂缝中喷涌上来，覆盖了大片地表

And it wasn't just the lava. These eruptions³ had pumped out millions of tons of poisonous gases.

而且不只是熔岩。火山爆发还喷出了数百万吨有毒气体

The theory was that these gases had effectively suffocated⁴ life in the oceans.

科学家们认为这些气体将使海洋生物窒息

Paradoxically, all this death could have been the dinosaurs⁶ big evolutionary⁷ break

反过来说，这些死亡可能正是恐龙伟大进化历程的开始

because it's a well known evolutionary theory that mass extinctions can have a dramatic effect on evolution.

因为根据众所周知的进化论，大灭绝能对进化产生戏剧性的作用

Extinction⁸ events are obviously bad news for the things that are around at the time,

灭绝事件对于当时那些生物来说无疑是噩梦

but in a way evolution's able to experiment quite a lot at this time

但是从某种程度上，进化能在那个时候进行大量尝试

because there's less sort of competition going on at these moments of time

因为当时竞争之类的因素少了很多

and you often get the sort of major innovations and new, new groups start appearing in the aftermath of extinction events.

而大批新生物种，新生群落就会在大灭绝之后纷纷出现

So could a mass extinction have been responsible for the transformation⁹ of the dinosaurs in the mid-Jurassic?

那么，大灭绝真的会导致恐龙在中侏罗世发生剧变吗

It would have created a world free of competition allowing the survivors¹⁰ to evolve into all the new types of dinosaur⁵.

它创造了一个没有竞争的世界，幸存者们得以在此进化成各种新型恐龙。

1 lava   

n.熔岩，火山岩

参考例句：

• The lava flowed down the sides of the volcano.熔岩沿火山坡面涌流而下。
• His anger spilled out like lava.他的愤怒像火山爆发似的迸发出来。

2 fissures   

n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Rising molten rock flows out on the ocean floor and caps the fissures, trapping the water. 上升熔岩流到海底并堵住了裂隙，结果把海水封在里面。 来自辞典例句
• The French have held two colloquia and an international symposium on rock fissures. 法国已经开了两次岩石裂缝方面的报告会和一个国际会议。 来自辞典例句

3 eruptions   

n.喷发，爆发( eruption的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year. 今年火山爆发了好几次。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Over 200 people have been killed by volcanic eruptions. 火山喷发已导致200多人丧生。 来自辞典例句

4 suffocated   

（使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气

参考例句：

• Many dogs have suffocated in hot cars. 许多狗在热烘烘的汽车里给闷死了。
• I nearly suffocated when the pipe of my breathing apparatus came adrift. 呼吸器上的管子脱落时，我差点给憋死。

5 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

6 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

8 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

9 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

10 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者