【英语时差8,16】月亮的黑暗面（下）

As the moon orbits the earth, the illumination from the sun gradually slides in and out of our view. Depending on the positions of the moon and sun, we on earth see the moon as waxing, full, or waning¹. During a new moon, the moon looks completely dark from earth. But that’s just because the light is now falling entirely² on the other side. Another thing that confuses people is that the moon always shows us the same side. That’s because its rotation³ around the earth takes just as long as one complete spin: 27 and 1/3 days. The result is the moon as seen from earth seems not to spin. But it is spinning, just like the earth. So “the dark side of the moon” is only “dark” in the sense that we never see it. It gets just as much light as the side we can see.

1 waning   

adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡

参考例句：

• Her enthusiasm for the whole idea was waning rapidly. 她对整个想法的热情迅速冷淡了下来。
• The day is waning and the road is ending. 日暮途穷。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

3 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。