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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
探索世界奥秘之Life Story(生命物语) Unit6
...is actually the result of immeasurable activity inside our bodies.
We are performing literally1 thousands of different tasks every second of every day. Simply being is part of an intricately complicated balancing act, the mechanics of which are completely hidden from us. And just as our bodies hide from us the miracle of everyday life, so they hide from us an even bigger surprise.
It's the story of how we came to be the way we are. And it is an amazing story. It will change the way you think about your body, the way we live, the shape we are, even the way we think was decided2 for us thousands, millions even billions of years ago, when the human body didn't even exist, and planet earth was almost unrecognizable.
Here we are. 8,000 feet above sea level, in America's Yellowstone National Park. If you'd been on the surface of the planet earth three billon years ago, it would have looked something like this. The earth would have been covered in volcanoes and billowing vents3 of steam and sulphurous water.
Had you been standing4 here, you'd have been present as the story of life was unfolding. And had you been standing here, you'd have been standing by the most advanced life form on the planet. In this almost boiling water, there are thousands of long thin strands5. They are actually colonies of tiny heat loving creatures, they are bacteria. Once, long ago, this was the most complex form of life anywhere on earth. What's so surprising is that it's still here today, just like it was three billion years ago. Whereas dinosaurs6 came and went, and literally millions of other species developed, withered7 and died out, this has survived practically unchanged.
words and expressions
billow:A great swell8, surge, or undulating mass, as of smoke or sound.
似巨浪翻腾:巨浪、波涛或波浪形团块,如烟雾或声音
sulphurous:[化]硫磺的, 含有硫磺的
wither: 消亡,衰退
1 literally | |
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实 | |
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2 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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3 vents | |
(气体、液体等进出的)孔、口( vent的名词复数 ); (鸟、鱼、爬行动物或小哺乳动物的)肛门; 大衣等的)衩口; 开衩 | |
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4 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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5 strands | |
n.(线、绳、金属线、毛发等的)股( strand的名词复数 );缕;海洋、湖或河的)岸;(观点、计划、故事等的)部份v.使滞留,使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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6 dinosaurs | |
n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 );守旧落伍的人,过时落后的东西 | |
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7 withered | |
adj. 枯萎的,干瘪的,(人身体的部分器官)因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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8 swell | |
vi.膨胀,肿胀;增长,增强 | |
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