英国学生科学读本 第86期:太阳,月亮与星星(2)

 　　Each of the fixed¹ stars is a sun, very much like our own sun, but so far away from the earth that it only looks like a speck² of light. 每一颗恒星都是一个太阳, 与我们头顶上的那个太阳非常相似, 只是距离地球太远, 所以看起来只是一个亮点而已。

　　The sun is a great ball of hot matter, very much hotter than the hottest fire which we can make. 太阳是一个由多种炙热物质构成的球体, 与太阳相比, 我们能够制造出的最热的火焰根本不值一提。

　　If it were not for the heat which comes from the sun, everything upon the earth would quickly die of cold. 如果没有太阳散发的热量, 那么地球上的生灵万物很快都会因为寒冷而死去。

　　If you look at the sun with your naked³ eyes, it may hurt them; but if you smoke a piece of glass over a candle-flame, 用肉眼直视太阳, 眼睛可能就会被灼伤；然而, 如果你拿起一块玻璃并且放在蜡烛的火焰上方熏烤,

　　and you can then look at the sun through the darkened glass without any fear of your eyes being hurt by the strong light. 就可以透过这片深色玻璃去观察太阳, 不必担心眼睛会受到强光的伤害。

　　The moon is a large ball of matter, but it is not nearly so large as the earth. 月亮是一个由多种物质构成的大球, 它的尺寸却比不上地球。

　　Have you noticed any markings on the surface of the moon? 你是否注意过, 月球表面上的斑纹?

　　The dark parts are great plains, and the bright parts are mountains. 颜色较暗的是巨大的平原, 而明亮的部分则是山脉。

　　The moon looks very bright, but the light which it sends to us is only reflected sunlight⁴. 月亮看起来非常明亮, 不过我们看到的亮光只是来自太阳的反射光而已。

　　The moon itself is a cold, dark mass of matter; but it looks bright because the sun is shining on it.  月亮本身是一团寒冷、黑暗的物质；它之所以明亮是因为它能够反射太阳光。

　　Here is a fact which will give you some idea of the distance to the moon: 我们通过一组数据来说明月亮与地球之间的距离：

　　If there were a railway from the earth to the moon, 如果月亮与地球之间有一条铁路,

　　and if a train were to travel along it day and night at the rate of 60 miles an hour, it would take 166 days to complete the journey. 而一辆火车以每小时60英里的速度昼夜不停地前进, 那么它需要166天才能到达目的地。

　　The sun is very much bigger than our earth, and therefore bigger still than the moon. 太阳比我们的地球要大上很多, 而月亮的尺寸跟太阳相比则更是微不足道了。

　　But the sun does not look any larger than the moon, because it is so much farther⁵ away. 然而, 太阳看起来似乎比月亮大不了多少, 这是因为它距离我们更加遥远。

　　The train that would carry us to the moon in 166 days would take 177 years to reach the sun. 能够用166天时间带领我们前往月球的那辆火车需要耗费177年才能开到太阳之上。

1 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

2 speck   

n.微粒，小污点，小斑点

参考例句：

• I have not a speck of interest in it.我对它没有任何兴趣。
• The sky is clear and bright without a speck of cloud.天空晴朗，一星星云彩也没有。

3 naked   

adj.裸露的；赤裸裸的，无遮蔽的

参考例句：

• To the east of our school,there's a naked hillside.我们学校东边有片光秃秃的山坡。
• The children stripped off their clothes and swam naked in the river.孩子们脱得光溜溜的在河里游泳。

4 sunlight   

n.日光，阳光，日照

参考例句：

• The room was flooded with warm and golden sunlight.房间充满着温暖、金色的阳光。
• In the bright sunlight she had to narrow her eyes.在强烈阳光下她必须眯着双眼。

5 farther   

adj.更远的，进一步的；adv.更远的，此外；far的比较级

参考例句：

• I can throw the ball farther than you can.这个球我能比你扔得远。
• The farther hill is five kilometres away.那座更远的小山在五公里以外。