英语听力：探索发现 2014-06-20 BBC 地平线：陨石的真相-17

 Really, its’ a balance between the size of the object, its speed into the atmosphere and critically the altitude at which it explodes. Too high, if it’s too small and it explodes too high, the shockwave has little effect on the ground. If it’s quite low in the atmosphere, it’s a large object, then that shockwave is completely devastating¹. Actually seeing it in real life really brings home to you the energy that these things carry. And even though it exploded tens of kilometers, perhaps, up in the air, so quite a long way from the ground, the force of the explosion, the shockwave was able to damage buildings over a huge area and injure people and that was quite a shocking thing to see.

 

The destructive power of an air blast is immense, but in a way the people of Chelyabinsk are lucky because out there in the cosmos² is a different kind of asteroid³, one that poses an even greater threat. 

 

I’ve seen the evidence of what one of those can do, the damage that it leaves behind, and what you realize is the Earth’s own destructive forces, you know, the great earthquakes, the volcanic⁴ eruptions⁵, seem trivial in comparison. 

 

This is Barringer Crater⁶, Arizona, the 50,000-year-old remnant of a massive meteorite⁷ impact. This place really gives you a sense of the destructive power of incoming meteorites⁸. The blast here would have vaporized a city larger than London. But the lump of rock that did it measured barely 50 metr

1 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

2 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

3 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

4 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

5 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

6 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

7 meteorite   

n.陨石；流星

参考例句：

• The meteorite in Jilin Exhibition Hall is believed to be the largest in the world.吉林展览馆的陨石被认为是世界上最大的。
• The famous Murchison meteorite smashed into the Australian ground in 1969.1969年著名的默奇森陨石轰然坠落在澳大利亚。

8 meteorites   

n.陨星( meteorite的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Small meteorites have left impact craters all over the planet's surface. 这个行星的表面布满了小块陨石留下的撞击坑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• One theory about the existence of extraterrestrial life rests on the presence of carbon compounds in meteorites. 地球外存在生命的理论是基于陨星上存在碳化合物质这一事实的。 来自《简明英汉词典》