VOA慢速英语2018--本世纪最长月全食

Longest Lunar Eclipse¹ of the Century

This is What’s Trending Today…

The longest lunar eclipse of the century will happen late Friday or early Saturday, depending on where you live.

The American space agency NASA says the moon will move into the Earth’s shadow on Friday night. For four hours, it will be partly in the Earth’s shadow. The total eclipse will last 1 hour 42 minutes and 57 seconds.

The eclipse will be visible to people in Europe, Africa and the Middle East on July 27 between sunset and midnight. Those who live in Asia and Australia will be able to see the eclipse between midnight and sunrise on July 28.

The eclipse will turn the light color of the moon to deep red. Scientists call this kind of moon a “blood moon.”

Andrew Fabian is with the University of Cambridge. He spoke² with the Reuters news agency. “It’s called a blood moon because the light from the sun goes through the Earth’s atmosphere on its way to the moon and the Earth’s atmosphere turns it red in the same way that when the sun goes down, it goes red.”

Unlike a solar eclipse, people can look at a lunar eclipse directly with their own eyes.

On the same day as the eclipse, the planet Mars³ will be at its brightest as it travels close to Earth.

The eclipse, however, will not be visible from North America or most of the Pacific.

The next lunar eclipse of such length will happen in 2123.

I’m Dorothy Gundy.

Words in This Story

lunar eclipse - n. an occasion when the moon looks like it is completely or partially⁴ covered with a dark circle because of the Earth's shadow is on it

visible - adj. able to be seen

shadow - n. a area of darkness created when a source of light is blocked

bright - adj. filled with light

1 eclipse   

v.使黯然失色，使相形见绌，日食，月食

参考例句：

• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。
• There will be an eclipse of the moon next month.下个月有月食。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 Mars   

n.火星，战争

参考例句：

• As of now we don't know much about Mars.目前我们对火星还知之甚少。
• He contended that there must be life on Mars.他坚信火星上面一定有生物。

4 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。