英國學生科學讀本 Lesson 86 太陽,月亮與星星(2)
每一顆恒星都是一個太陽, 與我們頭頂上的那個太陽非常相似, 只是距離地球太遠, 所以看起來只是一個亮點而已。
The sun is a great ball of hot matter, very much hotter than the hottest fire which we can make. If it were not for the heat which comes from the sun, everything upon the earth would quickly die of cold.
太陽是一個由多種炙熱物質構成的球體, 與太陽相比, 我們能夠制造出的最熱的火焰根本不值一提。如果沒有太陽散發(fā)的熱量, 那么地球上的生靈萬物很快都會因為寒冷而死去。
If you look at the sun with your naked eyes, it may hurt them; but if you smoke a piece of glass over a candle-flame, you can then look at the sun through the darkened glass without any fear of your eyes being hurt by the strong light.
用肉眼直視太陽, 眼睛可能就會被灼傷;然而, 如果你拿起一塊玻璃并且放在蠟燭的火焰上方熏烤, 就可以透過這片深色玻璃去觀察太陽, 不必擔心眼睛會受到強光的傷害。
The moon is a large ball of matter, but it is not nearly so large as the earth. Have you noticed any markings on the surface of the moon? The dark parts are great plains, and the bright parts are mountains.
月亮是一個由多種物質構成的大球, 它的尺寸卻比不上地球。你是否注意過, 月球表面上的斑紋? 顏色較暗的是巨大的平原, 而明亮的部分則是山脈。
The moon looks very bright, but the light which it sends to us is only reflected sunlight. The moon itself is a cold, dark mass of matter; but it looks bright because the sun is shining on it.
月亮看起來非常明亮, 不過我們看到的亮光只是來自太陽的反射光而已。月亮本身是一團寒冷、黑暗的物質;它之所以明亮是因為它能夠反射太陽光。
Here is a fact which will give you some idea of the distance to the moon: —If there were a railway from the earth to the moon, and if a train were to travel along it day and night at the rate of 60 miles an hour, it would take 166 days to complete the journey.
我們通過一組數(shù)據(jù)來說明月亮與地球之間的距離：如果月亮與地球之間有一條鐵路, 而一輛火車以每小時60英里的速度晝夜不停地前進, 那么它需要166天才能到達目的地。
The sun is very much bigger than our earth, and therefore bigger still than the moon. But the sun does not look any larger than the moon, because it is so much farther away. The train that would carry us to the moon in 166 days would take 177 years to reach the sun.
太陽比我們的地球要大上很多, 而月亮的尺寸跟太陽相比則更是微不足道了。然而, 太陽看起來似乎比月亮大不了多少, 這是因為它距離我們更加遙遠。能夠用166天時間帶領我們前往月球的那輛火車需要耗費177年才能開到太陽之上。
英語美文
