万物简史 第255期:大地在移动(9)
英语课
It was scored everywhere with canyons 1, trenches 2, and crevasses 3 and dotted with volcanic 4 seamounts that he called guyots after an earlier Princeton geologist 5 named Arnold Guyot. All this was a puzzle, but Hess had a war to take part in, and put such thoughts to the back of his mind.
那里到处都是悬崖、沟壑和裂缝，还有星罗棋布的海底火山，即平顶海山。他称其为盖约特，以纪念早年普林斯顿大学的地质学家阿诺德·盖约特。这一切都是个谜，但赫斯的任务是打仗，他便把这些想法搁置脑后了。
After the war, Hess returned to Princeton and the preoccupations of teaching, but the mysteries of the seafloor continued to occupy a space in his thoughts. Meanwhile, throughout the 1950s oceanographers were undertaking 6 more and more sophisticated surveys of the ocean floors. In so doing, they found an even bigger surprise: the mightiest 7 and most extensive mountain range on Earth was—mostly—underwater.
战争结束以后，赫斯回到普林斯顿，主要从事教学工作，但海底之谜仍在他的脑海里占有一席之地。与此同时，在整个20世纪50年代，海洋学家对海底的考察日渐深入。在此过程中，他们发现了一件更加出人意料的事：地球上最雄伟、最大的山脉是在──主要部分是在──水下。
海底结构
It traced a continuous path along the world's seabeds, rather like the stitching on a baseball. If you began at Iceland, you could follow it down the center of the Atlantic Ocean, around the bottom of Africa, and across the Indian and Southern Oceans, below Australia; there it angled across the Pacific as if making for Baja California before shooting up the west coast of the United States to Alaska. Occasionally its higher peaks poked 8 above the water as an island or archipelago—the Azores and Canaries in the Atlantic, Hawaii in the Pacific, for instance—but mostly it was buried under thousands of fathoms 9 of salty sea, unknown and unsuspected. When all its branches were added together, the network extended to 46,600 miles.
它沿着世界的海床不断延伸，犹如网球上的花纹。要是从冰岛开始向南进发，你顺着这山脉可以抵达大西洋的中心，然后绕过非洲底部，越过印度洋和南太平洋，进入澳大利亚下方的太平洋；接着，它从斜里穿越太平洋，仿佛要去加利福尼亚半岛，实际上突然隆起，成为美国本土到阿拉斯加的西海岸。偶尔，它的山峰戳出水面，形成海岛或群岛──比如，大西洋上的亚速尔群岛和加那利群岛、太平洋上的夏威夷群岛，但大部分淹没在几公里深的海水下面，无人知晓，无人想到。如果把所有的支脉加在一起，该山脉总长达75000公里。
那里到处都是悬崖、沟壑和裂缝，还有星罗棋布的海底火山，即平顶海山。他称其为盖约特，以纪念早年普林斯顿大学的地质学家阿诺德·盖约特。这一切都是个谜，但赫斯的任务是打仗，他便把这些想法搁置脑后了。
After the war, Hess returned to Princeton and the preoccupations of teaching, but the mysteries of the seafloor continued to occupy a space in his thoughts. Meanwhile, throughout the 1950s oceanographers were undertaking 6 more and more sophisticated surveys of the ocean floors. In so doing, they found an even bigger surprise: the mightiest 7 and most extensive mountain range on Earth was—mostly—underwater.
战争结束以后，赫斯回到普林斯顿，主要从事教学工作，但海底之谜仍在他的脑海里占有一席之地。与此同时，在整个20世纪50年代，海洋学家对海底的考察日渐深入。在此过程中，他们发现了一件更加出人意料的事：地球上最雄伟、最大的山脉是在──主要部分是在──水下。
海底结构
It traced a continuous path along the world's seabeds, rather like the stitching on a baseball. If you began at Iceland, you could follow it down the center of the Atlantic Ocean, around the bottom of Africa, and across the Indian and Southern Oceans, below Australia; there it angled across the Pacific as if making for Baja California before shooting up the west coast of the United States to Alaska. Occasionally its higher peaks poked 8 above the water as an island or archipelago—the Azores and Canaries in the Atlantic, Hawaii in the Pacific, for instance—but mostly it was buried under thousands of fathoms 9 of salty sea, unknown and unsuspected. When all its branches were added together, the network extended to 46,600 miles.
它沿着世界的海床不断延伸，犹如网球上的花纹。要是从冰岛开始向南进发，你顺着这山脉可以抵达大西洋的中心，然后绕过非洲底部，越过印度洋和南太平洋，进入澳大利亚下方的太平洋；接着，它从斜里穿越太平洋，仿佛要去加利福尼亚半岛，实际上突然隆起，成为美国本土到阿拉斯加的西海岸。偶尔，它的山峰戳出水面，形成海岛或群岛──比如，大西洋上的亚速尔群岛和加那利群岛、太平洋上的夏威夷群岛，但大部分淹没在几公里深的海水下面，无人知晓，无人想到。如果把所有的支脉加在一起，该山脉总长达75000公里。
n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 )
- This mountain range has many high peaks and deep canyons. 这条山脉有许多高峰和深谷。 来自辞典例句
- Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? 是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存？ 来自互联网
深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕
- life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
- The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。
n.破口，崩溃处，裂缝( crevasse的名词复数 )
- Splays are commonly formed by currents from crevasses in levees. 嗽叭形堆积通常由堤防决口的洪流所形成。 来自辞典例句
- The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses. 冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。 来自辞典例句
adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的
- There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
- Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。
n.地质学家
- The geologist found many uncovered fossils in the valley.在那山谷里，地质学家发现了许多裸露的化石。
- He was a geologist,rated by his cronies as the best in the business.他是一位地质学家，被他的老朋友们看做是这门行当中最好的一位。
n.保证，许诺，事业
- He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
- He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。
adj.趾高气扬( mighty的最高级 )；巨大的；强有力的；浩瀚的
- \"If thou fearest to leave me in our cottage, thou mightiest take me along with thee. “要是你害怕把我一个人留在咱们的小屋里，你可以带我一块儿去那儿嘛。 来自英汉文学 - 红字
- Silent though is, after all, the mightiest agent in human affairs. 确实，沉默毕竟是人类事件中最强大的代理人。 来自互联网
v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交
- She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
- His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
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