【看纪录片学单词】之《旅行到宇宙边缘》_许泽传

影片看点：这是一部非常好看的宇宙科普纪录片！影片从离我们最近的月球开始，旅行到宇宙边缘，一路引导我们探索太阳系到银河系以至人类所认知的宇宙的“边缘”。细致呈现太阳系八大行星的神奇地貌，奇幻的气象变化，3D制作效果极致真实，带领你逐步走出太阳系，饱览整个宇宙的神奇景象，科幻和天文爱好者绝对不能错过的好片。

影片长度：90 分钟

词汇统计：

★ 四级词汇：152 个

★★ 六级词汇：56 个

★★★ 雅思、托福及以上词汇：152 个

学习指南：以下单词均出自影片台词，前面标一星的为四级词汇，二星的为六级词汇，三星的为雅思、托福及以上词汇。大家根据自己的考试要求选择性学习。【看纪录片学单词】可分三步进行，第一步：把影片完整看一遍，可看中文字幕，了解影片内容。第二步：看一小段，然后对照下面的单词进行学习。学完以后进行第三步，即再次把影片从头到尾看一遍，重温重点词汇和好的口语表达以及背景知识，最后还需反复浏览以下这些词句。

在线观看：http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjc1MjMyNTcy.html

下载地址：http://bbs.musicool.cn/thread-459916-1-1.html

本资料PDF打印版地址： http://vdisk.weibo.com/s/yZ6I_6beFFJ8i

★★★ cosmos n.宇宙

★★★ celestial a.天空的

★ hostile a.怀敌意的

★ ultimate a.终极的

Our world, warm, comfortable, familiar, but when we look up, we wonder: Do we occupy a special place in the cosmos? Or are we merely a celestial footnote. Is the universe welcoming or hostile? We could stand here forever, wondering, or we could leave home on the ultimate adventure. 我们的世界温暖、舒适熟悉，但当我们仰望天空，我们想知道，我们是居住在宇宙中一个独特的地方或仅仅是太空的小小一隅? 宇宙是友善的还是充满敌意？我们是一直站在这里猜想，还是离开故园来一次终极探险。

★ confront v.面对

★★★ malevolent a.邪恶的

To discover wonders, confront horrors, beautiful new worlds, malevolent dark forces, the Beginning of time， the moment of creation. Would we have the courage to see it through? Or would we run for home? There's only one way to find out. 去发现奇观，直面恐怖，美丽的新世界，邪恶的黑暗势力，时间的起点，创世的时刻，我们是否有坚持到底的勇气或是逃回家？想找到答案只有一个方法

★ astronaut n.宇航员

★ spacecraft n.宇宙飞船

Dozens of astronauts have come this way before us. Twelve walked on the moon itself, just a quarter of a million miles from home. Three days by spacecraft. 在我们之前，已有数十名宇航员前往月球，其中12人踏上了月球，月球距离地球只有25万英里（40万公里），坐宇宙飞船需要3天。

★★ barren a.贫瘠的

★★ desolate a.荒凉的

★★★ battlefield n.战场

★★★ oddly ad.奇怪地

Barren, desolate，It's like a deserted battlefield. But oddly familiar, so close, we've barely left home. 贫瘠，荒芜，月球看起来就像一个遗弃的战场，但是惊人的熟悉，那么近，就像我们几乎没有离开家。

★ gravity n.重力

★ probe n.探测器

★★★ dazzling a.耀眼的

★ deadly a.致命的

★★★ sulfuric acid 硫酸

★ choking a.令人窒息的

★ carbon dioxide 二氧化碳

A sister to our planet, she's about the same size and gravity as Earth. We should be safe here, but the Venus Express space probe is setting off alarms. It's telling us, these dazzling clouds, they're made of deadly sulfuric acid. The atmosphere is choking with carbon dioxide. 金星是地球的姊妹星，大小和引力与地球相仿。我们在这里应该是安全的，但是金星快车空间探测器却时刻提醒着我们，告诉我们那些耀眼的云层是由致命的硫酸构成，金星的大气层充斥着二氧化碳。

★★★ noxious a.有毒的

★ unbearable a.承受不住的

★★ corrode v.腐蚀

★★★ suffocate vi.窒息

★ crush v.压碎

Never expected this Venus is one angry goddess. The air is noxious, the pressure unbearable. And it's hot, approaching 900 degrees. Stick around and we'd be corroded suffocated, crushed and baked. 没想到金星是一个愤怒的女神，有毒的空气，难以忍受的压力，还有炙热温度接近900度（500°C），多呆一会我们会被腐蚀、窒息、压碎和烤焦。

★★★ hideous a.可怕的

So lovely from Earth, up close, this goddess is hideous. She's the sister from hell. Pockmarked by thousands of volcanoes.从地球看她是多么可爱，近观这个女神却是可怕的。她是来自地狱的姊妹，数千座火山犹如长满了痘疮。

★★★ twinkling a.闪烁的

★ sphere n.球体

★ glide v.滑动

★★★ hypnotic a.催眠的

★ resist v.抵抗

★★ lure vt.引诱

★★★ moth n.飞蛾

★ flame n.火焰

Where are the twinkling stars, the beautiful spheres gliding through space? Maybe we shouldn't be out here, maybe we should turn back, but there's something about the sun, something hypnotic, like the Medusa, too terrible to look at, too powerful to resist, luring us onward on, like a moth to a flame. 那些闪烁的星星哪里去了？美丽的圆球滑进了太空？或许我们不应该来这里，我们应该回去。但是太阳有催眠般的魔力象美杜莎（古希腊神话中3位蛇发女怪之一），可怕的让人无法正视，也无法抗拒她的力量，引诱我们继续前进，像飞蛾扑火。

★★ obscure vt.掩盖，使模糊不清

★★★ Mercury n.水星

Wait, there's something else, obscured by the sun. It must be Mercury. 等等，这里还有其他东西被太阳炙烤，它一定是水星。

★ swing vi.摇摆

Get too close to the sun, this is what happens. Temperatures swing wildly here. At night it's minus 275 degrees, come midday, it's 800 plus. Burnt then frozen. 太靠近太阳，就会这样。这里温度剧烈变化，晚上会到零下275度（-170°C），正午则超过800度（400°C），烧焦再被冰冻。

★ probe n.探测器

★★★ Mercury n.水星

★★★ gravitational pull 万有引力

★★★ veneer n.外表

The MESSENGER space probe is telling us something strange. For its size, Mercury has a powerful gravitational pull. It's a huge ball of iron, covered with a thin veneer of rock. The core of what was once a much larger planet. 信使号空间探测器发现了一些奇怪的现象，相对体积来说，小小的水星具有强大的引力，它就像一个裹着薄薄岩石层的大铁球，这是一颗大行星留下的核心。

★★ stray a.迷路的

★ slam v.猛烈撞击

★ blast v.爆炸

★★★ cosmic a.宇宙的

★★★ pinball n.弹球戏

So where's the rest of it? Maybe a stray planet slammed into Mercury blasting away its outer layers in a deadly game of cosmic pinball. 其他部分去哪里了呢？或许是一个迷路的行星猛地撞进了水星，在一场致命的宇宙弹球游戏中水星的外层被炸掉了。

★★ vulnerable a.脆弱的

★ defy v.违抗，挑战

★★★ mesmerizing a.有魅力的

★★★ splendor n.光彩

Whole worlds on the loose careening wildly across the cosmos, destroying anything in their path, and we're in the middle of it, vulnerable, exposed, small. Everything is telling us to turn back. But who could defy this, the sun, in all its mesmerizing splendor. 这些游荡的行星在宇宙中疯狂地掠过，毁掉他们道路上的一切，我们就在其中，脆弱、裸露而且渺小。这一且都在告诉我们该回去了，但是谁又能抗拒的了，散发着迷人光彩的太阳？

★★★ chariot n.战车

★★★ summer solstice 夏至

★★★ Stonehenge n.巨石阵

★ stare vi.凝视

It's the Greek god Helios driving his chariot across the sky, the Egyptian god Ra reborn every day, the summer solstice sun rising at Stonehenge. For millions of years, this was as close as it got to staring into the face of God. 它是驾着战车穿越天际的希腊美男子太阳神，是每天重生的埃及神“拉”（埃及神话里的太阳神），以及巨石阵夏至的日出。数百万年来，我们对太阳神的景仰止于远观。

★★ turbulent a.动荡的，汹涌的

★★★ incandescent a.炽热的

★ thermometer n.温度计

We see it every day, a familiar face in our sky. Now, up close, it's unrecognizable, a turbulent sea of incandescent gas. The thermometer pushes 1000 degrees, can't imagine how hot the core is could be tens of millions of degrees. 我们每天看到太阳挂在天空的熟悉面孔，现在近观它，又陌生起来，由炙热气体形成的汹涌大海，表面温度超过1万度（5000°C），难以置信的是它的核心温度则可以到数千万度。

★ magnetic a.磁的

★★ erupt v.喷出

★★★ molten a.熔化的，炽热的

★ loop n.环

But up close, there's nothing comforting about the Sun. Its electrical and magnetic forces erupt in giant molten gas loops. Some are larger than a dozen Earths, more powerful than 10 million volcanoes. 近距离观看时，却是令人感到不安。太阳的电磁活动迸发出巨大的炙热气体环状物（日珥），有的足有一打地球那么大，释放的能量超过一千万个火山。

★ burst v.爆发

★★★ sunspot n.太阳黑子

★ fraction n.部分

★ massive a.巨大的

And when they burst through they expose cooler layers below, making sunspots. A fraction cooler than their surrounding, sunspots look black but they're hotter than anything on Earth. And massive up to 20 times the size of Earth. 当它喷发的时候，就会露出下面温度较低的部分，形成太阳黑子。太阳黑子比周围温度低一些，所以看起来是黑的，但仍比地球任何东西都热。太阳黑子同样巨大，超过地球大小的20倍。

★★ comet n.彗星

★★ stray v.流浪

★ stretch v.延伸，伸展

This comet strayed too close, the Sun's heat is boiling it away creating a tail that stretches for millions of miles. 这个彗星太靠近太阳了，它被太阳的热量蒸发，产生绵延数百万英里的彗尾。

★ crash v.碰撞，坠落

★ organic material 有机物

★ raw a.原始的

★ ingredient n.原料，要素

★ sow v.播种

★ evolve v.进化

Say a comet like this crashed into the young Earth billions of years ago. Maybe it delivered organic material and water, the raw ingredients of life. It may even have sown the seeds of life on Earth that evolved into you and me. 如果像这样一颗彗星在数十亿年前撞到年轻的地球，也许带来了生命原始物质，有机物和水，彗星甚至可能在地球上播下生命之种，后来进化成你和我。

★ crash v.碰撞，坠落

★★ comet n.彗星

★★★ asteroid n.小行星

But say it crashed into the Earth now. Think of the dinosaurs, wiped out by a comet or asteroid strike. It's only a question of time. Eventually, one day, we'll go the way of the dinosaurs. 如果彗星现在撞上地球，想想恐龙吧，被彗星或是小行星的撞击彻底灭绝。这只是时间问题，毫无疑问，总有一天我们会步恐龙的后尘。

★★★ adrift a.漂泊的

★ hostile a.环境恶劣的

If life on Earth was wiped out, we'd be stuck out here, homeless, adrift in a hostile universe. 如果地球上的生命灭绝了，我们会被困在这里，无家可归，漂泊在危险宇宙中。

★ extraterrestrial a.地球外的 n.外星人

For centuries, we've looked to Mars for company, for signs of life. Could there be extraterrestrial life here? 几个世纪以来，我们一直都在寻找火星上的同伴，寻找生命迹象，那里有外星生物吗？

★ fossil n.化石

Hard to imagine, though, up close, this is a dead planet. The activity that makes the Earth livable shut down millions of years ago here. Red and dead, Mars is a giant fossil. 无法想像，近观火星是一个死去的行星，使得地球适宜居住的演化过程几亿年前在火星上就停止了，红色、死寂，火星是一块巨大的化石。

★ devil n.魔鬼

★★ twister n.龙卷风

★ sustain vt.维持

★★★ extraterrestrial a.地球外的

Wait. Something is alive, a dust devil, a big one, bigger than the biggest twisters back home. There's wind here, and where there's wind, there's air. Could that air sustain extraterrestrial life? 等一下，还有东西在活动，一个巨大的尘暴，绝对超过地球上最大的龙卷风。这里有风，有风说明有空气，这可以维持外星生物吗？

★★ ozone layer 臭氧层

★★ ultraviolet rays 紫外线

It's too thin tor us to breathe. And there's no ozone layer, nothing to protect us against the Sun's ultraviolet rays. 但对我们的呼吸来说，火星的空气太稀薄了，而且这里没有臭氧层，没有什么能够保护其不受太阳紫外线的伤害。

★★★ frigid a.严寒的

★ constant a.持续的

There is water, but frigid temperatures keep it in a constant deep freeze. It's hard to believe anything could live here. 这里有水，但在彻骨的严寒中只能永远被冰冻。很难相信有什么可以在这里生存。

★★★ replenish vt.补充

Even in the most extreme conditions life usually finds a way. But on a dead planet, with no way to replenish its soil, no heat to melt its frozen water, all this dust, it's hard to see where we're going. 即使在最极端的环境里，生命都会找到生存的办法，但在这个死去的行星上，没有活动去补充它土壤中的成分，没有热量使其冰冻水融化，还有大量尘埃，让我们无法辨别方位。

★★ extinct a.熄灭的

★★★ Everest n.珠穆朗玛峰

Olympus Mons, named after the home of the Greek gods, a vast ancient volcano, three times higher than Everest. There's no sign of activity. Since its discovery in the 1970s, it's been declared extinct. 奥林匹斯山，以希腊众神的家乡命名，一座巨大的古火山，超过珠穆朗玛峰的三倍高。没有活动的迹象，自1970年代发现它时就宣告它是一座死火山。

★★★ lava n.岩浆

★★★ obliterate vt.消灭，涂抹

★★★ meteorite crater 陨石坑

★★★ magma n.岩浆

★ crust n.外壳，地壳

★★★ unleash v.释放

Hang on. These look like lava flows. But any sign of lava should be long gone, obliterated by meteorite craters, unless, this monster isn't dead, just sleeping. There could be magma flowing beneath the crust right now building up, waiting to be unleashed. 等等，好像是熔岩流。但是任何熔岩流早就该静止了，在陨石撞击下都会被毁灭，除非这个怪物没有死，只是休眠了。火星的坚硬地表下可能有岩浆积累着，等待喷发的一刻。

★★★ the Grand Canyon 美国大峡谷

★ crack n.裂缝

★ sidewalk n.人行道

★★ desolation n.荒芜

★ stretch v.伸展

This makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the sidewalk. Endless desolation, so vast it would stretch all the way across North America. 这让美国大峡谷看起来像是人行道上一条裂缝，无尽的荒凉，长度足以横跨北美洲。

★★★ spearhead vt.带头

★ humble a.简陋的

★★★ rover n.漫游者

★★ barren a.贫瘠的

★ harbor vt.怀有，庇护，藏匿

The hunt for life is spearheaded by this humble fellow, the NASA rover, Opportunity. It's finding evidence that these barren plains were once ancient lakes or oceans that could have harbored life. 搜寻生命的前锋就是这个简陋的家伙，美国宇航局的机遇号火星漫游车。它找到的证据证明这些贫瘠的平原曾是古代湖泊或海洋，这些有水的地方可能会藏匿着生命。

★★★ gully n.水沟

★ probe n.探测器

★★★ alive and kicking 活蹦乱跳的

★ sustain vt.维持

★★★ Martian a.火星的

Look at those gullies. Probes orbiting Mars keep spotting new ones. More proof that Mars is alive and kicking that water is flowing beneath its surface right now, Water that could be sustaining Martian life. 看看这些山沟，火星轨道探测器总能发现一些新的山沟。这进一步证明火星仍活蹦乱跳。也许是火星地表之下的水正在流淌，水可能维持火星上的生命。

★ migrate v.迁徙

Now, all we have to do is find it, Maybe we've already found what we're looking for on Earth, some think that life started here and then migrated to Earth. 现在我们要做的就是找到这些生命，或许我们已经找到了，不是在火星，而是在地球，有人认为生命起源于火星，后来迁移到地球。

★★★ asteroid n.小行星

★ impact n.撞击

★ blast v.爆炸

★ fragment n.碎片

★★★ microbe n.微生物

★ sow v.播种

★ fascinating a.迷人的

★★★ Martian n.火星人

An asteroid impact could've blasted fragments of Mars, complete with tiny microbes out into space, and onto the young Earth where they sowed the seeds of life. No wonder we find Mars fascinating, this could be our ancestral home. It could be we are all Martians. 可能是一颗小行星撞击火星，使得包含微生物的火星碎片飞向太空，进入年轻的地球，在地球上播种下生命的种子。难怪我们觉得火星那么迷人，它可能就是我们祖先的家园，我们可能都是火星人。

★★ compass n.指南针

Our compass points across the cosmos, back in time 14 billion years to the moment of creation. 我们的方向指向宇宙，回到140亿年前创世的那一刻。

★ scary a.吓人的

★★★ asteroid n.小行星

This is getting scary. It's like being inside a giant video game. But these are all too real, asteroids, some of them hundreds of miles wide. 此情此景开始让人害怕，就像置身于一个巨大的视频游戏，但这些也是真实的，小行星，其中有些有数百英里宽。

★★★ perch v.栖息

★ probe n.探测器

★★★ asteroid n.小行星

This one must be about 20 miles long. And there, perched on it, a space probe can't have been easy parking on an asteroid traveling at 5000 miles an hour. 这个约有20英里长，你看，上面有个空间探测器，降落在一个时速达5万英里的小行星上可不是件容易的事。

★ investigate v.研究

★★★ rubble n.碎石

★ collide v.碰撞

★★★ meteorite n.陨石

It's a lot of effort just to investigate some rubble. Rubble that regularly collides breaks up and rains down on Earth as meteorites. 我们一直在努力研究这些碎石，碎石之间经常碰撞，碎片后来落在地球上，就形成了地球上看到的陨石。

★★★ omen n.预兆

Our ancestors saw shooting stars as magical omens. And they were right. Rubble like this came together to make the planets, including our own, pretty magical. 我们的古人把流星雨看做是魔法的征兆，他们是对的。就是这样一些碎石聚在一起就会形成行星，包括我们的地球，多美的魔法。

★ certificate n.证书

By dating the meteorites found on Earth, we can tell the planets were born 4.6 billion years ago. These are the birth certificates of our solar system. 通过测定地球上发现的陨石年龄，我们知道行星诞生于45亿年前，这些殒石是我们太阳系的出生证明。

★ massive a.巨大的

★ dominate v.支配，主宰

★ gravity n.重力

★★★ asteroid n.小行星

★★★ breathtaking a.惊艳的

Jupiter, what a monster, at least a thousand time bigger than Earth. So vast you could fit all the other planets inside it. Something this massive dominates its neighbors. Its gravity is pulling the asteroids apart. And it's breathtaking. 木星，犹如巨大的怪物，至少比地球的大1000倍，大到可以装下太阳系其它所有行星。木星的巨大体积对它周围产生很大的影响，它的引力正在把这些小行星形成扯开。真是美极了。

★★★ oblivion n.湮没

But this beauty is a beast. It's almost all gas. Land here and we'd sink straight through its layers into oblivion. 但这个美人是个巨兽，木星几乎都是由气体构成的，如果在这里着陆，我们会径直穿过它的外层一去不复返。

★★★ ferocious a.凶猛的

★ spin vi.旋转

★ whip v.抽打，搅打

★★★ contort v.扭曲

★ stripe n.条纹

★★★ eddy n.涡流

★★★ whirlpool n.漩涡

★ rage vi.大怒，肆虐

And Jupiter's good looks, the product of ferocious violence. It's spinning at an incredible rate whipping up winds to hundreds of miles an hour, contorting the clouds into stripes, eddies, whirlpools and this, the legendary Great Red Spot. The biggest, most violent storm in the solar system, at least three times the size of Earth, it's been raging for over 300 years. 木星的美丽面孔是它极端狂暴的产物，木星自转极快，卷起时速数百英里的飓风把云层扭曲成条状和大大小小的漩涡，这就是传说中的大红斑。它是太阳系中最大、最猛烈的风暴，至少有地球的3倍大，已经肆虐了超过300年了。

★★★ churn v.搅拌

★ spark n.火花 vt.发动

★ bolt n.闪电

★ intense a.强烈的

All these churning clouds must have sparked an electrical storm. Just one bolt is 1000 times more intense than any at home. 这些翻腾的云产生闪电雷暴，任何一个闪电都比我们地球上的强一万倍。

★★★ aurora n.极光

★★★ lethal a.致命的

★ radiation n.辐射

Looks like the safest place to see Jupiter is from a distance. Up there at the poles those dancing lights, they're like the auroras back home. But the Geiger counter is going wild. Even these are deadly, generated by lethal radiation. 远观眺望才是最好最安全的，在它的两极，那些光就像我们地球的极光一样在翩翩起舞。但盖格计数器的读数开始发狂，致命辐射产生的光看起来也是能致人死地。

★ brilliant a.闪耀的

★★★ molten rock 熔岩

★★★ spew v.喷涌

★★★ lava n.岩浆

Wrong, very wrong. Those brilliant colors are molten rock, volcanoes spewing lava. 错了，大错特错，那些闪亮的颜色是融岩、火山喷出的岩浆。

★ gravity n.重力

★★★ Europa n.木卫二

★ friction n.摩擦

★ crust n.外壳

But we're half a billion miles from the Sun. Surely, Europa is frozen solid, unless, Jupiter's gravity is creating friction deep inside heating the ice into water, allowing life to develop in the water beneath its frozen crust. 但是这里距离太阳有5亿英里，木卫二是冰冻固体，除非木星的引力在它内部造成摩擦，使冰融化，允许生命在它的冰冻外壳下的水中发展。

★★ alien a.外星的

★★ ecosystem n.生态系统

★★★ microbe n.微生物

★★★ crustacean n.甲克类动物

★★★ squid n.乌贼

We might be feet away from aliens, from a whole ecosystem of microbes, crustaceans, maybe even squid, the only thing between us and the possibility of alien life, this layer of ice. 我们距离外星生物也许只有几英尺远，下面有微生物、甲克类，甚至有乌贼构成的生态系统，我们和这些可能存在的外星生物之间只隔着一层薄薄的冰。

★ drill v.钻，钻孔

But until we send a spacecraft to drill here, Europa's secrets will remain beyond reach. 但在我们派出飞船钻透它的冰层之前，木卫二仍会一直保守它的秘密。

★★★ captivate vt.迷住

★ haunt vt.萦绕于

★ spin vi.旋转

★★★ Saturn n.土星

★★ reign v.统治

★ harmony n.和谐

It's captivated our imaginations, haunted our dreams, And here it is, spinning before our eyes, Saturn, named for the Roman god who reigned over a golden age of peace and harmony. 它挑逗着我们的想像，萦绕在我们梦中，现在它就在我们面前自转，土星，由古罗马农神的名字命名，他曾统治过一个祥和安宁的黄金时代。

★ spectacular a.壮观的

★ stretch vi.伸展

This planet's a giant ball of gas, so light it would float on water. Its spectacular rings would stretch almost from Earth to the Moon. 这个行星是一个巨大的气体球轻到可以漂浮在水面上。壮观的土星环展开的长度几乎等于地球到月球的距离。

★★★ orbiter n.人造卫星

★ emission n.发射

★★★ aurora n.极光

★ sphere n.球体

There's the Cassini orbiter. It's picking up ghostly radio emissions probably generated by auroras around Saturn's poles. This is the real music of the spheres. 那是卡西尼探测器，它收到鬼魅般的无线电信号，可能是由土星两极的极光产生的，这是真正的天体音乐。

★★ remnant n.残骸

★★ shatter v.粉碎

★★★ gravitational pull 万有引力

★★★ incomparable a.无比的

★ destruction n.破坏，毁灭

Cassini's telling us where these rings came from. They're the remnants of a moon shattered by Saturn's gravitational pull, incomparable beauty from total destruction. 卡西尼告诉我们这些土星环的来历，它们是被土星引力撕碎的卫星残骸，彻底毁灭产生的无比美景。

★★★ shard n.碎片

★ collide v.碰撞

★★★ reassemble vi.重新集合

★ lump n.块，块状

★ emerge v.出现

Billions of shards of ice, some as small as ice cubes, others the size of houses, they collide, break apart, reassemble. It's like a snapshot of our early solar system as dust and gas orbited the newly born Sun and gravity worked this magic pulling the lumps together until from space trash like this, our home emerged. 无数的碎坚冰，有些很小，就像冰块，有些则有房子那么大，他们碰撞、破碎、重新聚集。就是我们太阳系的早期快照，尘埃和气体环绕着初生的太阳，然后引力施展魔力，吸引碎块聚在一起，直到这些碎块形成地球。

★★★ Uranus n.天王星

★★ tilt v.使倾斜

★★ axis n.轴

★★★ topple v.倾倒，颠覆

★★ stray a.流浪的

★★★ eerie a.可怕的

Those rings make it look like Uranus has been tilted off its axis toppled over by a stray planet. It's eerie out here. Already beginning to feel small, lonely, maybe this is how we'll feel at the edge of the universe. 那些光环，天王星的倾斜的自转轴看起来似乎被游荡的行星给弄偏了。这里让人毛骨悚然，让人开始感觉渺小、孤独，或许在宇宙边缘我们就会有这种感觉。

★★★ Neptune n.海王星

★★★ methane gas 沼气

★ whip v.抽打，搅打

★★ savage a.狂怒的

Out of the deep, another strange beast, the god of the sea, Neptune. This world is covered in methane gas. And a storm as big as Earth whipped up by savage thousand mile-an-hour winds. 太空深处出现了另一个怪兽，海洋之神 - 海王星。一个被甲烷包围着的世界，平均时速1000英里的飓风，形成一个像地球一样大的风暴。

★★★ ferocious a.凶猛的

Back home, it's the Sun that drives the wind. But Neptune's far away. Something else must be creating these ferocious winds. 地球上的风是由太阳照射引起的，海王星离太阳太远了，一定是什么东西造成这些暴风。

★★★ Triton n.海卫一

★★★ geyser n.喷泉

★★★ smokestack n.烟囱

★★★ soot n.烟灰，烟尘

★ revolve v.旋转

★ spin v.自转

★★ destine v.注定

After all those balls of gas a solid moon, Triton, solid but not stable, Just look at those geysers cosmic smokestacks pumping out strange soot. And this moon is revolving around Neptune in the opposite direction of the planet's spin. A cosmic battle of wills that this angry moon is destined to lose. 经过那几个气体星球后，终于找到了一个固体卫星，海卫一。固体的，但不稳定，看看这些间歇泉，仿佛喷出奇怪烟尘的宇宙烟囱，海卫一绕海王星旋转的方向与海王星自转方向相反，一场意志的宇宙之战，这颗愤怒的卫星难逃一劫。

★★★ Neptune n.海王星

★ massive a.巨大的

★ gravity n.地心引力

★★★ Triton n.海卫一

★★ reel vt.卷，使旋转

★ rip v.撕裂

Neptune's massive gravity is pulling on Triton. Slowing it down, reeling it in. One day, it will be ripped apart by Neptune. 海王星巨大的引力正在拉扯着海卫一，使它慢下来，靠近海王星。总有一天，海卫一会被海王星撕碎。

★ grip n.紧握，掌控

★★★ gravitational a.引力的

★★★ tentacle n.触角

★★ void a.空的

★★★ teem v.充满

Pluto n.冥王星

It's getting colder, we're getting further from the Sun, slipping from the grip of its gravitational tentacles. But this isn't a void. It's teeming with frozen rocks. Like Pluto. 温度越来越低我们距离太阳越来越远，慢慢脱离太阳引力的束缚。但这里并非空的，这里充满着冻结的岩石，就像冥王星。

★ chaotic a.混乱的

Our solar system is far more chaotic and strange than we had imagined. 我们的太阳系比我们想象得更加混乱与陌生。

★ voyager n.航行者

★ bundle n.捆，束

★ aluminum n.铝

★★★ antennae n.天线

Ten billion miles from home the space probe, Voyager 1, this bundle of aluminum and antennae gave us close up views of the giant planets and discovered many of their strange moons. 旅行者1号星际探测器已经飞行了100亿英里，它的这些铝和天线使我们能够获得那些巨大行星的近照，了解它们那些奇异的卫星。

★★ comet n.彗星

★ raw material 原材料

★★★ dislodge vt.使移动

★★★ hurtle v.冲向

These comets look like the ones we saw earlier. There's a theory that the raw materials for life began out hereon a rock like this until something dislodged it sending it hurtling towards the Earth. 他们很像我们先前看到的彗星，有理论认为生命的原始材料产自这里，直到什么东西动到了它，使之朝着地球飞去。

★★★ interstellar a.星际的

★ infinite a.无限的

Interstellar space, billions of stars like our own Sun, many with planets, many of those with moons, it's hard to know which way to go. There are infinite possibilities. 星际空间，数十亿颗像我们太阳一样的恒星，很多有行星，很多行星有卫星。不知道该选择哪条路了，存在着无限的可能性。

★★★ Centauri n.半人马座

★ spin v.旋转

★★★ celestial a.天体的

★★ standoff n.对峙

★★★ blazing a.闪耀的

★★★ vaporize v.蒸发

Alpha Centauri, not one but three stars, spinning around each other, locked in a celestial standoff, each star's gravity attracting the other, their blazing orbital speed keeping them apart. Get between them and we'd be vaporized. 半人马座α星，不是一颗，而是三颗恒，它们互相围绕公转，形成一场宇宙对决，每颗恒星都吸引的另一颗，他们极快的轨道速度使它们能够保持距离，进入它们之间，我们会被蒸发。

★★★ mind-boggling a.令人难以置信的

Light travels 6 trillion miles a year, so we are over four light-years from home. Distances so vast they're mind-boggling. 光一年可以飞行6兆英里，我们已经离开地球4光年，远到我们几乎无法理解的距离。

★ spectacular a.壮观的

★★ debris n.碎片

Ten light years from Earth, the star Epsilon Eridani, spectacular rings of dust and ice, and somewhere in there planets forming out of debris, being born before our eyes. 天苑四恒星距离地球10光年，它有由尘埃和冰构成的壮观圆环，在圆环里的某些地方，有碎片形成的行星，就在我们眼前诞生。

★★★ infancy n.幼年

★ primitive a.原始的

★ at best 最多

At the center of all the action, a star smaller than our sun still in its infancy, any life in this solar system would be primitive at best. 主导这些行为的是一个比我们太阳小一些的恒星，这颗恒星还处于幼年，这个太阳系的生命应该还很原始。

★ mature a.成熟的

★★★ haystack n.干草堆

There must be more mature solar systems out here, but finding them is like looking for a needle in a cosmic haystack. 这里应该还有更成熟更进化的太阳系，但是找到它们却像在宇宙海洋里捞针。

speculate v.推测

They could be tuning into our TV signals, watching shows from 20 years ago. But until we devise a way of communicating, over these vast distances, all we can do is speculate. 他们可能正调到我们的电视信号，观看我们20年前的电视节目，但是在我们找到跨越这么远距离的，通讯方法之前我们只能猜测。

★★★ haystack n.干草堆

★★★ habitable a.适合居住的

★ encounter n.遇到

This is the needle in the cosmic haystack, the closest we've come to a habitable solar system like our own, but it's a chance encounter. 这就是那根宇宙海洋里的针，是最像我们太阳系的那样适宜生存的太阳系，但这只是碰巧而已。

★★ obscure vt.使模糊不清

★ brilliance n.光辉

★ minute a.微小的

★★★ gravitational pull 引力

From Earth, we can't see planets this far out. They're obscured by the brilliance of their neighboring stars. But the planets have a minute gravitational pull on those stars. Measure these tiny movements and we can prove they exit. 我们在地球看不到距离这么远的行星，他们都被周围的恒星耀眼的光辉掩盖住了。不过行星对恒星施加微小的引力作用，通过测量的种微小移动我们就能证明这些行星的存在。

★ faint a.微弱的

★ whisper n.私语

Almost 100 light years from home, faint whispers from one of the first ever radio broadcasts. 这里距离地球接近100光年，最早的无线电广播信号也只是模糊的低语。

★★ bizarre a.奇异的

★★★ startling a.惊人的

We've learned one thing for sure, the universe is too bizarre too startling for us to guess what lies ahead. 有一点我们已经确认，我们无法预测前方的宇宙会是怎样的奇异和惊人。

★ jet n.喷射

★ tremendous a.巨大的

★ blast v.爆炸

This doesn't look right, jets of gas exploding out with tremendous force blasting dust and gas out for millions of miles. 好像不太对劲，气体喷流的巨大力量，把尘埃和气体喷射到数百万英里之外。

★★★ Nebula n.星云

★★ disperse v.驱散

★★★ stellar a.星球的

★★ sculpture n.雕塑

It's unbelievably violent and creative, Nebula, vast glowing clouds of gas hanging in space. With no wind out here, they'll take thousands of years to disperse. They seem to be forming a vast stellar sculpture. 不可思议的狂暴和富有创意，星云，巨大的发光气体云团悬浮在太空中。这里没有风，它们会存在数千年才会散去。它们看起来形成了巨大的星际雕像。

★★ luminous a.发光的

★ suspend v.悬挂

★★★ encircle vt.环绕

★ nuclear reaction 核反应

Luminous clouds, suspended in space, encircling what was once a star like our own sun, all that's left of it are these brightly colored gases, elements formed by nuclear reactions deep inside released into space on its death. 发光云，悬挂在太空，环绕着曾经类似我们太阳的恒星，唯一剩下就是这些五彩亮丽的气体，在恒星内部深处核聚合反应形成的各种元素，在恒星死亡之时被释放到太空中。

★ hydrogen n.氢

★★★ helium n.氦

★ raw material 原材料

★ nitrogen n.氮

Green and violet, hydrogen and helium, the raw materials of the universe, red and blue, nitrogen and oxygen, the building blocks of life on Earth. 绿色和紫色的是氢和氦，它们是宇宙的原始原料，红色和蓝色的是氮和氧，它们是构成地球生命的材料。

★★★ nuclear fusion 核聚变

For us to live, stars like this had to die. Every atom in our body was produced by nuclear fusion in stars that died long before the Earth was even born. We are all the stuff of stars. Our family tree begins here. 为了我们的生存，这样的恒星必须死去，我们身体的每个原子都产自这些已经死亡的恒星核聚变，很久以后地球才诞生，我们都是恒星材料，我们的家谱溯源至此。

★★★ white dwarf 白矮星

★ dense a.稠密的

At its heart, the ghost of a star, a white dwarf, white, hot, small, but unbelievably dense. 云团的核心是恒星的鬼魂，一颗白矮星，白色、炙热体积很小，但是密度却是高的难以置信。

★★ chilling a.令人恐惧的

★★★ premonition n.征兆

★★★ white dwarf 白矮星

★★★ herald vt.预示……的来临

It's a chilling premonition of our sun's fate. Six billion years from now, it will become a white dwarf. Its death will herald the end of life on earth. 我们太阳也是这种令人胆寒的下场，60亿年后，太阳会变成一颗白矮星，它的死亡即宣告我们地球生命的终结。

★ scatter v.分散，散布

★★★ Crab Nebula 巨蟹星云

★★★ stellar graveyard 星际坟墓

The scattered remains of dead star, the Crab Nebula, six thousand light years from home, deep inside a stellar graveyard, seen things we'd never have believed possible, we've learnt so much. 散布着死去恒星的残骸，蟹状星云(隶属金牛座)，我们距离地球6000光年，深入到一座星际坟墓。我们已经学到了很多，看到一些本来不可思议的事情。

★ massive a.巨大的

★★★ supernova n.超新星

This is the calm after the storm, after a massive explosion, a supernova that turned a star into dust and gas. 现在风暴过后的平静，大爆炸后的平静，超新星把一颗恒星变成一团尘埃和气体。

★ spin v.旋转

★★★ pulsate vi.脉动

★★★ pulsar n.脉冲星

★ squeeze v.挤压

★ dense a.稠密的

★ shrink v.收缩

The eye of the storm, a spinning pulsating star, a pulsar, the gravity has squeezed the giant star's core down to this. It's just 12 miles across, unimaginably dense. One pinhead of this would weigh hundreds, maybe millions of tons. And as it shrank, like a figure skater spinning on the spot arms outstretched, then pulling them in it began to spin faster. 暴风眼，是一颗旋转脉冲的恒星，脉冲星。重力把巨大恒星的核心挤压成这么小，它的直径只有12英里，密度之高无法想像。一个针头大小的物质可能就有几百吨，甚至几百万吨重，当它收缩时，就像花样滑冰运动员在原地旋转一样，展开双臂然后收缩回来，它开始越转越快。

★★ sensation n.感觉

★★★ malevolent a.恶意的

★ encounter v.遇到

★★★ blot n.污点 v.弄脏

★★ extinction n.灭绝

Getting a strange sensation, A feeling as though there's something bad out here, a malevolent presence, The one thing we didn't want to encounter, impossibly black, blotting out the stars behind it, We’re staring into the face of extinction, the remains of a giant star, a black hole. 现有有一种奇怪的感觉，似乎这里有某种不祥的东西，一个不怀好意的家伙，这是我们不想遇到的东西，无比的黑暗遮挡了它后面的星星，我们正在凝视的就是灭绝，巨大恒星的残骸，黑洞。

★★★ asteroid n.小行星

★ lump n.块

★ stretch v.伸展

★ drag vt.拉

★ collapse v.崩溃

This asteroid, it's a lump of solid rock but it's actually stretching, being dragged towards the gaping hole. Inside, there's no matter as we know it. No time, no space, all the rules of physics collapse. 这颗小行星就是一块岩石，但它正在被拉长，被黑洞吸引过去，黑洞内部没有我们已知的物质，没有时间，没有空间，所有的物理定律在这里都会崩溃。

★★ spiral v.螺旋

★★★ sinkhole n.排水沟

★★ reel vi.眩晕

Like this star, spiraling, disappearing, down an invisible sinkhole, who's to say we don't live inside a vast black hole that the whole universe isn't inside one right now, inside another universe? Think about it for too long and your mind reels. Sometimes it feels like the more we see, the less we know. 像这颗恒星，旋转，消失在一个隐形的黑洞中，谁能说我们不是生活在一个巨大的黑洞中，整个宇宙说不定也是处于另一个宇宙的黑洞中。这些东西想久了，你会头晕脑胀。有时感觉我们看到的越多，了解的却越少。

★ fascinating a.迷人的

★★★ clearing n.空地

★★ galaxy n.星系

Seven thousand light years from home, it's as though we're in a forest thick with trees. Each so beautiful, so fascinating, it's impossible to look beyond to see the bigger picture. We have to find a way through to reach the clearing at the galaxy's edge. 距离地球7000光年，似乎我们置身于树木浓密的森林中，每棵树都那么美丽、迷人，不可能遥望外面去看到全局，我们必须找到出路，抵达星系边缘的开阔地带。

………………

博客版由于字数限制不是完整的，请下载 PDF打印版，地址： http://vdisk.weibo.com/s/yZ6I_6beFFJ8i

附：许泽传老师【看纪录片学单词】系列作品集

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_64056dbf0101oagt.html

阅读┊ 收藏 ┊ 喜欢 ▼ ┊打印┊举报/Report

前一篇：2014秋·四级词汇班 W4K4113

后一篇：2014秋·天府广场校区考研住宿班 WYQ4113 结班聚餐

新浪BLOG意见反馈留言板　欢迎批评指正