英语听力文摘 English Digest 199、AMANDA望远镜

　　A Deep Hole in the Pole
AMANDA望远镜（新华社电讯稿用的是“南极μ介子和高能中微子探测器阵列”名字），被埋藏在南极冰块下1.5公里深处。路透社2001年3月21日报道，这台望远镜首次探测到中微子。中微子的发现将为科学家研究神秘的黑洞、γ射线爆发和恒星爆炸提供启示。这台望远镜有667个光学模块，它在冰层深处往下看而不是往上看以寻找宇宙射线与大气层碰撞后出现的大气中微子。
'A Deep Hole in the Pole' on today's moment of science.

　　Nowadays we have telescopes of all different sorts, from ones that orbit the planet to giant radio dishes in the deserts. The neatest new idea for a telescope, though, is a deep hole in the pole.
AMANDA II stands for Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector¹ Array. You know what “Antarctic” means: this baby lives at the south pole. The international project members who built it dug half a mile down into polar ice. Then they lowered in a series of light detectors², on the lookout³ for one of the most elusive⁴ particles in the universe: the neutrino.
Neutrinos are so tiny and zippy they can pass through the entire planet without hitting anything. Every now and then, however, one will collide with something–say a water molecule⁵ in the crystal-clear polar ice. When neutrino meets molecule, tell-tale flashes are given off,and AMANDA registers these.
Now comes the really neat part: that makes AMANDA into a kind of telescope. Imagine some cool extra-galactic event, like a supernova or the collision of two black holes. This gives off a stream of neutrinos, some of which travel to earth and make it almost through the planet, only to tag a water molecule on the way out.
AMANDA spots the collision and, because neutrinos travel in straight lines, tells exactly which direction the neutrino came from. With that,scientists can generate a neutrino map of the sky.
Telescopes are old, but a neutrino telescope is new. Odd as it may sound, this deep hole in the ice is helping⁶ researchers dig even deeper into space and time.

1 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

2 detectors   

探测器( detector的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The report advocated that all buildings be fitted with smoke detectors. 报告主张所有的建筑物都应安装烟火探测器。
• This is heady wine for experimenters using these neutrino detectors. 对于使用中微子探测器的实验工作者，这是令人兴奋的美酒。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技

3 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

4 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

5 molecule   

n.分子，克分子

参考例句：

• A molecule of water is made up of two atoms of hygrogen and one atom of oxygen.一个水分子是由P妈̬f婘̬ 妈̬成的。
• This gives us the structural formula of the molecule.这种方式给出了分子的结构式。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。