英语听力文摘 English Digest 370、太阳会消失吗？

So Long, Sun
再见了，太阳

 

D: Wow! What a beautiful sunset.

Y: Enjoy it while it lasts, the sun won‘t be around forever, you know.

D: You mean, one day the sun will disappear?

Y: Not exactly disappear, but the sun will eventually burn out and die.

D: Won't that make things really cold down here?

Y: Actually, there won't be any here, here. When the sun dies,the earth will be destroy too.

D: Wow, hold on, start from the beginning.

Y: Okay. Like all stars, the sun is basically a giant nuclear reactor that burns hydrogen to create energy. But like any reactor, the sun needs fuel to keep going. It’s been going strong for around four-point-five billion years, and will probably keep burning for about five billion more.

D: But then, the fuel will run out?

Y: Exactly. When it does, gravity will cause the sun’s core to contract. When it contracts the core will get hotter, which will heat up the sun’s upper layers and make them expand. The sun will then become what’s called a red giant, and its radius¹ will reach just past the orbit of Venus.

D: Which is bad for us.

Y: We’ll be burned to a crisp.

D: That's sounds painful.

Y: After a few billion years the core will begin to cool and expand. The sun’s upper layers will expand and lose material, and eventually the core will cool enough to become a white dwarf star, and finally a black dwarf.

D: So, we’re pretty much doomed².

Y: Yes, but not for billions of years. Who knows? By then, human's might been living on another planet.

D: 哇！多么美丽的夕阳啊！

Y: 尽情欣赏吧，太阳不会永远存在的。

D: 你的意思是，有朝一日太阳会消失？

Y: 不是完全消失，太阳的能量最后会耗尽并枯竭。

D: 那样的话，地球就会变得很冷了。

Y: 实际上，那时地球就不存在了。没有了太阳，地球也将毁灭。

D: 等一下，你从头开始说。

Y: 好的。像所有的行星一样，太阳从根本上说，是一个巨型核反应堆，通过燃烧氢气产生能量。但是，就像任一反应堆，太阳需要燃料来保持运作。它已经良好运作大约45亿年了，并且将会持续燃烧50亿年左右。

D: 到那时，燃料就会耗尽。

Y: 是的。当太阳能量耗尽，地心引力会使得太阳核心缩小。缩小地同时温度变得更得高，这样就加剧了太阳外层的燃烧并使其膨胀。太阳就变成了所谓哦红巨星，它的半径将会达到以前金星的运行轨道。

D: 那样会对我们有害。

Y: 我们会被烧成土豆片的。

D: 听起来很痛苦。

Y: 数十亿年后太阳中心开始冷却并扩大。太阳的上层也将扩大，失去物质重量，最后中心冷却到一定程度就成了白矮星，最终成黑矮星。

D: 那时，我们就注定要完蛋了。

Y: 是的。但那是几十亿年以后的事了。谁知道呢？到那时，人类也许已经生活在另一个星球上了。

 

 

1 radius   

n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限

参考例句：

• He has visited every shop within a radius of two miles.周围两英里以内的店铺他都去过。
• We are measuring the radius of the circle.我们正在测量圆的半径。

2 doomed   

命定的

参考例句：

• The court doomed the accused to a long term of imprisonment. 法庭判处被告长期监禁。
• A country ruled by an iron hand is doomed to suffer. 被铁腕人物统治的国家定会遭受不幸的。