美国学生世界地理教材 第12期:世界是圆的 我围着它绕了一圈(4)

 But the world kept getting cooler and cooler until at last the steam turned to water and fell on the world—rain, rain, rain,  但是世界还在持续冷却，直到最后水蒸气变成了水落到地球上—那就是雨，雨不停地下，

until there perhaps was one big ocean covering the whole world. 直到形成了一个巨大的海洋覆盖在世界上。

But the World still kept on cooling and cooling, and as it cooled it shrank and shriveled and wrinkled and crinkled and puckered¹ like the outside of a prune².  但是世界还在继续变凉，它在变凉的同时开始收缩、枯萎、起皱、卷缩、皱缩，最后变成像梅子干的外皮那样。

You know a prune was once smooth and round when it was a plum.  你知道梅子干或梅子是光滑滑圆溜溜的。

These little wrinkles and crinkles rose up out of the ocean and were the continents and mountains,  地球上的这些小皱褶从海洋上升起变成了大陆和高山，

so you see how big the wrinkles and crinkles really are.  这下你就明白这些皱褶有多么的大了。

The earth is still wrinkling a bit even now, and when it does so it shivers and shakes and we say there has been an earthquake.  我们的地球甚至现在还在一点点地皱缩，当它皱缩的时候，会摇晃、震动，我们就说是发生地震了。

But the earthquakes nowadays are as nothing to what may have been the tremendous shudder³ when the continents rose out of the first single ocean.  但是和陆地在巨大的抖动中从最初的一整片海洋中升起的时候相比，现在的地震根本不算什么。

The thunderous roar of that quake may have reached the stars with a stupendous and appalling⁴ boom of a bursting, cracking, rending⁵, groaning⁶ World,  当时的地震肯定发出了轰隆隆的呼啸声，世界发出了大得惊人的、可怕的爆裂声、割裂声和呻吟声，这声音大得都能传到星星上去了，

as if the last day had come.  好像世界末日来临一样。

Don't you know what stupendous and appalling boom means? 你不知道什么是大得惊人的、可怕的轰隆声吗？

Why, it means stupendous and appalling boom. 嗯，那就是可怕的、大得惊人的轰隆声。

But that's all guess—for the continents may have risen out of the sea as softly, slowly,silently as a blade of grass grows out of the ground.  但这都是我们的猜测，因为也许陆地是非常轻柔地、缓慢地、悄悄地升出了海面呢，就像一片小草叶悄悄地钻出了地面一样。

No one knows. 没有人知道。

We only know the continents did rise out of the water—we can find seashells on the tops of high mountains,  我们唯一确定的就是陆地确实是从水下升上来的，因为我们能在高山顶上找到贝壳，

and we know they could only have been made under the water when the mountain was under the water. 而我们知道那只能是高山还在水下的时候形成的。

1 puckered   

v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His face puckered , and he was ready to cry. 他的脸一皱，像要哭了。
• His face puckered, the tears leapt from his eyes. 他皱着脸，眼泪夺眶而出。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 prune   

n.酶干；vt.修剪，砍掉，削减；vi.删除

参考例句：

• Will you prune away the unnecessary adjectives in the passage?把这段文字中不必要的形容词删去好吗？
• It is our job to prune the side branches of these trees.我们的工作就是修剪这些树的侧枝。

3 shudder   

v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动

参考例句：

• The sight of the coffin sent a shudder through him.看到那副棺材，他浑身一阵战栗。
• We all shudder at the thought of the dreadful dirty place.我们一想到那可怕的肮脏地方就浑身战惊。

4 appalling   

adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions.恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• Nothing can extenuate such appalling behaviour.这种骇人听闻的行径罪无可恕。

5 rending   

v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破

参考例句：

• The cries of those imprisoned in the fallen buildings were heart-rending. 被困于倒塌大楼里的人们的哭喊声令人心碎。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She was rending her hair out in anger. 她气愤得直扯自己的头发。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 groaning   

adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
• The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着，无人救助。