Life in the Freezer 冰雪童话 - 2

Rivers of ice spill down from the icecap as great glaciers¹ and creep slowly towards the edge of the continent and the sea.

When you get beneath the snout of one of these huge glaciers, you begin to appreciate the immense power and size of the Antarctic ice sheet. The ice here towers 100 feet above me, and the whole front of the glacier² is about 2 miles across. But this is a small glacier, the largest glacier in Antarctic and in the world is the Lambert Glacier, and that's 25 miles across. But this is not a place where you want to linger. The glacier moves forward at a rate of about 2/3 of a mile a year and the front-end is continually breaking away to form icebergs⁴. And if one came down now, well, the surge could easily overturn a small boat.

These icefalls disintegrate⁵ into brash ice. But when a large chunk⁶ of a glacier or an ice sheet breaks away, it floats off as an iceberg³. At first these bergs are slab-like. But winds and waves above water and currents below slowly carve them into the loveliest of the shapes. A large berg can survive for up to ten years before it ultimately breaks up and melts. Only 1/5 of an iceberg is above the surface, the rest is hidden beneath the water. Streams of minute air bubbles released from the melting berg carve grooves⁷ in its submerged flanks.

words and expressions

spill :溢出, 涌流

disintegrate:分裂成小块；使瓦解

brash:碎片

chunk:大块

flank:侧面

1 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

2 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

3 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

4 icebergs   

n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The drift of the icebergs in the sea endangers the ships. 海上冰山的漂流危及船只的安全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The icebergs towered above them. 冰山高耸于他们上方。 来自辞典例句

5 disintegrate   

v.瓦解，解体，（使）碎裂，（使）粉碎

参考例句：

• The older strata gradually disintegrate.较老的岩层渐渐风化。
• The plane would probably disintegrate at that high speed.飞机以那么高速飞行也许会四分五裂。

6 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

7 grooves   

n.沟( groove的名词复数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏

参考例句：

• Wheels leave grooves in a dirt road. 车轮在泥路上留下了凹痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Sliding doors move in grooves. 滑动门在槽沟中移动。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》