英语听力精选进阶版 14360

Grand Canyon¹ 'formed recently'

Summary

27 January 2014

The world-famous Grand Canyon in the American state of Arizona may be a lot younger than we thought. New research suggests it might be only five to six million years old. Earlier studies had claimed the canyon was perhaps 70 million years old.

Reporter:

Jonathan Amos

Report

Millions of tourists are drawn² each year to the Grand Canyon to see its impressive rocks, which record nearly two billion years of Earth history. Running for almost 450km and to a depth of 1,800m, it is almost too vast to take in. 

Its huge scale has also been problematic for scientists who've spent years gathering³ data from different locations through the canyon to try to work out its true age. 

Some of the most recent investigations⁴ had indicated an ancient origin, while others thought it was much younger. 

Now a new study in the Nature Geoscience journal pulls it all together. It finds, yes, the Grand Canyon has very old segments⁵, but the full system was only cut into the form we know today by the Colorado River just over five million years ago.

1 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

2 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

3 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

4 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

5 segments   

部分( segment的名词复数 )； 瓣； [计算机]（字符等的）分段； [动物学]节片

参考例句：

• He is eating oranges in segments. 他正在一瓣瓣地吃橘子。
• Gene cloning provides a means of purifying and propagating specific DNA segments. 基因克隆化提供了一种纯化和扩增特定DNA片段的方法。