【英语时差8,16】奥尔特云与彗星2

 Ancient people believed comets were omens¹. Sometimes they were thought to signal the fall of empires, other times the birth of kings. Even today, when we’re all supposed to be much more intelligent, people do crazy things when comets pass by. But even though they’re beautiful to look at, comets aren’t supernatural. In fact, they are big, dirty clumps² of ice, that can be a mile wide or more. So Who’s Throwing Giant Snowballs At Us? Well, if you lived in the time of the Roman Empire you might have said the gods were doing it. But nowadays we know that comets come from the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud gets its name from the Dutch astronomer³ Jan H. Oort, who hypothesized its existence around the middle of the twentieth century.

1 omens   

n.前兆，预兆( omen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The omens for the game are still not propitious. 这场比赛仍不被看好。 来自辞典例句
• Such omens betide no good. 这种征兆预示情况不妙。 来自辞典例句

2 clumps   

n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声

参考例句：

• These plants quickly form dense clumps. 这些植物很快形成了浓密的树丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bulbs were over. All that remained of them were clumps of brown leaves. 这些鳞茎死了，剩下的只是一丛丛的黃叶子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。