英语听力：自然百科 金星和水星旅行指南(12)

And here in a freezer that MESSENGER will encounter another puzzle: can ice exist on a planet so close to the sun?

在冷冻中,“信使”号将遇到另一个难题:如此接近太阳的行星,冰存在吗?

It's only when the first radar¹ observations to the surface of Mercury were obtained, back in the 90s. 早在90年代，只有第一个观测水星表面的雷达知晓。

That was discovered that Mercury in fact,had what appeared to be polar caps in these first radar images.

而事实上在水星上的发现,似乎是在雷达图像上有类似的冰帽。

Some corners of Mercury polar craters³ are in permanent shadow.Here, on the most sunbaked planet of all, water seems to survive frozen in the eternal darkness.

水星极地陨石坑永久的阴影中的一些角落里。在这里,就像地球上的所有太阳炙烤下一样,水似乎冻结存活在永恒的黑暗中。

The ice is contained in places where literally⁴ the sun never shines,

冰也包含在太阳绝对不会照射到的地方,

and so the ice sequestered⁵ in these dark,

因此这些冰在黑暗中被束缚，

interiors of craters of high latitude⁶ regions.

在这些高纬度地区的陨石坑内部。

We found the same thing on our moon.

我们在月球上也发现过同样的东西。

In late 2009,the LCROSS mission crashed a probe into a deeply shadowed crater² confirming ice hidden near the lunar South pole.

在2009年末,LCROSS任务探测到了陨石深坑附近的阴影确认冰隐藏在月球的南极。

Where did it come from? A comet? 它从何而来?来自彗星吗?

1 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

2 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

3 craters   

n.火山口( crater的名词复数 )；弹坑等

参考例句：

• Small meteorites have left impact craters all over the planet's surface. 这个行星的表面布满了小块陨石留下的撞击坑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The battlefield was full of craters made by exploding shells. 战场上布满弹坑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 sequestered   

adj.扣押的；隐退的；幽静的；偏僻的v.使隔绝，使隔离( sequester的过去式和过去分词 )；扣押

参考例句：

• The jury is expected to be sequestered for at least two months. 陪审团渴望被隔离至少两个月。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Everything he owned was sequestered. 他的一切都被扣押了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 latitude   

n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区

参考例句：

• The latitude of the island is 20 degrees south.该岛的纬度是南纬20度。
• The two cities are at approximately the same latitude.这两个城市差不多位于同一纬度上。