【英语时差8,16】流星体

 In his book Cosmos¹, the late scientist Carl Sagan talks about the way in which the earth is regularly struck by material from outer space. These collisions with space debris² can be minor–as in a shooting star on a summer night–or amazingly destructive, as in the collision that probably killed off the dinosaurs³. Thankfully, the biggies are extremely rare. Sagan makes the point that the most dangerous collision facing us now, however, is one that might be mistaken for something else: a nuclear attack. He warned that thinking an asteroid⁴ is actually an ICBM could result in the worst possible destruction–an unintended war. Was this just paranoid thinking? Unfortunately, no. Carl Sagan is no longer with us, but in testimony⁵ before congress just last year, a United States Air Force brigadier general warned that just such a thing almost happened in June of two thousand and two. That’s when a meteoroid entered the earth’s atmosphere over the Mediterranean⁶ and was picked up by U.S. early-warning satellites on the lookout⁷ for high-altitude explosions and incoming missiles. The alarming object falling from the sky was recognized for what it was, this time. The generals’ point, though, was that we never know where space junk will fall. Turn the globe by just a few hours earlier on that day in June and the meteoroid would have been over the border of Pakistan and India–exactly where everyone was fearing a nuclear attack. We’ve been lucky so far. But Carl Sagan’s warning came perilously⁸ close to becoming a prophecy and a harmless natural event in the sky, to triggering a terrible event here on earth.

1 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

2 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

3 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

5 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

6 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

7 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。

8 perilously   

adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地

参考例句：

• They were perilously close to the edge of the precipice. 他们离悬崖边很近，十分危险。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It'seemed to me that we had come perilously close to failure already. 对我来说，好像失败和我只有一步之遥，岌岌可危。 来自互联网