时间:2019-01-26 作者:英语课 分类:英语听力文摘 English Digest


英语课

The Time Before Fire

 


What is fire anyway?



Well, fire is rapid oxidization. It’s the energy released when oxygen atoms start combining with carbon and hydrogen atoms.



Exactly, so without oxygen in the air, nothing burns.



You mean there was a time before oxygen?



Yes. By roughly a billion years ago, simple forms of plant life called “eukaryotes” were already busily converting carbon dioxide into oxygen gas, just like their descendants do today. But before this process had been in place for a while, there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air for things to burn.



In fact, of all the planets, moons, asteroids 1, and comets in our solar system, the only place where you can actually start a fire is right here on earth. And even here, it’s only been possible relatively 2 recently.







火究竟是什么?


火,即燃烧,是快速的氧化反应。氧化反应是氧原子和碳原子或氢原子结合释放能量。



没错,那么如果空气中没有氧气,就不会有燃烧。



你是说氧气还不存在的那个时代?



对,大约十亿年前,和眼下的植物一样,地球上最原始的植物祖先“真核细胞”忙碌地将二氧化碳转变成氧气。但是,在此转化之前的一段时间,空气中没有足够的氧气可以燃烧东西。



而事实上,整个太阳系的所有的行星、月球、小行星、彗星,你会发现唯一可以生活的地方只有地球。而就算是地球,也是不久以前才可行。


eukaryotes:真核细胞


convert:转化




 



n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 );海盘车,海星
  • Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星,亦称为“小型行星”,在外太空中不计其数。
  • Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。
adv.比较...地,相对地
  • The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
  • The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
学英语单词
a small flying insect
additional girder
allylene dichloride
assez bien
calcinate
candyflosses
capital-output
carbo activatus
carboxydobacteria
cathode-ray beam
chronic recurrent erysipelas
chugach mts.
cleavablest
co-champion
coal prospecting
coloring agents
comparison expression
crewer
customs plant
defensive-line
dermis graft
diaphragmatic dilator
differential cell count
diniprofylline
distunes
draw the line
electronic television
employee profile
entropy of evaporation
Epimedium pubescens
equilibrium curve
Erb's dystropby
ETPL
fedpols
flamming
fukutomi
ground satellite station
Hauts-de-Seine, Dép.des
helicotrichia
hydrogen power generation
keratophakic
linear chain
look as if you have seen a ghost
majorized sequence
manling
marine west coast climate
maximum combination
mission critical software
model of the galaxy
most general unifier
new-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
oil of pimenta
Okola
oompa
optimality condition
outkeeper
oxydeprofos
panendeistical
Pascha
phenyl methyl ether
photolettering
point vortex
preestablish
prefocus cap
preputial
puristically
quartz knife edge
r.m.s. power
reader
restudied
revuelve
rmc (remote manual control)
screen of sidelight
seismic sequence map
self-learning control system
serphid
shaft flange
single pin-type spanner
sinusoidal response method
site coordination service
slotted adjustment plate
sparq
spectral contour plotter
stanboroughs
stand shilly-shally
steenboks
stsesnstshs-s
target map
tenolyses
test for kurtosis
tling
treaty participant
trichloromethane
turning-effort
unacclimatization
unxenophobic
vapor phase eptiaxy (vpe)
voltage protection
Waconda L.
wayside pulpit
wide-flange I-beam
yoshie