时间:2018-12-24 作者:英语课 分类:Scientific American(六)月


英语课

This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.


Last month, President Obama pledged nearly half a billion dollars toward the development of solar and geothermal energies, but what about wind? A team of scientists estimates that wind turbines in the continental 1 U.S. could produce 16 times more electricity than we currently use. They present their data in the current Proceedings 2 of the National Academy of Sciences. We all know that wind can be harnessed to do work. But this power source can be a bit fickle- today it might gust 3, while tomorrow could bring barely a breeze. So how much can we count on the movement of air to meet all our energy needs? The scientists used data from satellites, balloons, and aircrafts, to estimate wind speeds around the planet. They excluded cities, forests, and ice-covered areas, which would all be hard to harvest. Crunching 4 the numbers, they concluded that a global network of land-based turbines could make 40 times more electricity than the world currently consumes, even if they only operated at 20 percent of their capacity. People may balk 5 at the sight of a sea of wind turbines. And flying wildlife may be bollixed by the blades. But wind power’s benefits may blow away its problems.


 


Thanks for the minute for Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Karen Hopkin.


 



1 continental
adj.大陆的,大陆性的,欧洲大陆的
  • A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
  • The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。
2 proceedings
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼
3 gust
n.阵风,突然一阵(雨、烟等),(感情的)迸发
  • A gust of wind blew the front door shut.一阵大风吹来,把前门关上了。
  • A gust of happiness swept through her.一股幸福的暖流流遍她的全身。
4 crunching
v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 );嘎吱作响;(快速大量地)处理信息;数字捣弄
  • The horses were crunching their straw at their manger. 这些马在嘎吱嘎吱地吃槽里的草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The dog was crunching a bone. 狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 balk
n.大方木料;v.妨碍;不愿前进或从事某事
  • We get strong indications that his agent would balk at that request.我们得到的强烈暗示是他的经纪人会回避那个要求。
  • He shored up the wall with a thick balk of wood.他用一根粗大的木头把墙撑住。
标签: SSS continental
学英语单词
agonious
aircraft gun mounting adapter
Allium trifurcatum
aloresinotannol
alperidine
aluminium foil
ambrette oil
assorted pickle
balance of make-up water
block out
capillary height
carbonized fuel
carburetor internal vent
carnifice
chrominance demodulation
columellate
creosote-pitch mixture
crepon georgette
Cumberland R.
Dayrut
debenzylations
debt guarantee
deceptive conformity
differential pressure valve
dna hybridization indicator
domiphen bromide
dual effect
dumb cake
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody
Entomobirnavirus
epi-precambrian platform
erythro form
fluctuating echo
four-momentum
freeze cleave
full-face attack
goal getter
grounded-up read-only memory
height of gravity center
heteromorphemic
Himalayan shrews
holding boom
holoimages
hot oil line
humble
hydraulic top cover
in full feather
in the green
indoor recording
indoorsman
inverse correlation
iodophenin
LDAR
light-concrete structure
Lithocarpus cyrtocarpus
loamy sand soil
Loglan
Loup, The
Mandan
manned flight
maximum depth setting
midthought
mirifically
mixed support
modern sonata
monotheist
nanophytoplankton
navigation notes and cautions
Nobel elutriator
noncompressed
Novanglian
olethreutids
order of singular point
outposted officer
peeksies
phone call
PhoneGap Build
polyclinid
polygonials
pork sausage
postindustrially
pre-decrementing
ram circle
rotation flow system
sapiency
schi
scythelike
seeding rate
self-latching relay
semi-illiterate
semirigid container
shavable
Sir Robert Robinson
Soerendonk
stirrup fixation
struma maligna
systemist
triger
under applied factory overhead
vanadium carbonyl
yin deficiency involving yang