英语听力：探索发现 科学新发现：我们的大气层-21

 And above it the fragile air of the mesosphere is shielding us from a another deadly barrage¹ from space.

In east Texas, Jeff and Steve are searching for the remains² of cosmic missiles that have been shattered by our atmosphere, fragments rarer than diamonds and worth their weight in gold, meteorites³. These two professional hunters seek out space rocks buried in the fields and prairies.

This search for meteorites allows me the chance to touch little bit of what's from out there, bits of the cosmos⁵ that have found their way to us.

The hunter has taken Steve and Jeff from Siberia clear down to Chile, and some of their finds have been spectacular.

The largest meteorite⁴ I have found was 1,430 pounds, it was a large stone ion meteorite from up in Kansas, we didn't realise it was that big of a deal, the media kind of pick it up and ran with it.

He is very modest, it is not only Steve's greatest find, it is one of the greatest finds ever made in meteorites.

The massive space rock has been valued at up to a cool million dollars, but this is a rare find, because most meteorites simply don't survive a brush with Earth's atmosphere.

Most of them don't make it to the surface, the atmosphere is our friend in the sense that it protects us from these rocks from space, but for meteorite hunters, it's also not our greatest ally because it burns up a lot of what we are looking for.

1 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 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》

4 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。

5 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？