英國(guó)學(xué)生科學(xué)讀本 Lesson 86 太陽(yáng),月亮與星星(2)

Each of the fixed stars is a sun, very much like our own sun, but so far away from the earth that it only looks like a speck of light.

每一顆恒星都是一個(gè)太陽(yáng), 與我們頭頂上的那個(gè)太陽(yáng)非常相似, 只是距離地球太遠(yuǎn), 所以看起來(lái)只是一個(gè)亮點(diǎn)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(yáng)是一個(gè)由多種炙熱物質(zhì)構(gòu)成的球體, 與太陽(yáng)相比, 我們能夠制造出的最熱的火焰根本不值一提。如果沒(méi)有太陽(yáng)散發(fā)的熱量, 那么地球上的生靈萬(wàn)物很快都會(huì)因?yàn)楹涠廊ァ?/p>

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(yáng), 眼睛可能就會(huì)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(guò)這片深色玻璃去觀察太陽(yáng), 不必?fù)?dān)心眼睛會(huì)受到強(qiáng)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(gè)由多種物質(zhì)構(gòu)成的大球, 它的尺寸卻比不上地球。你是否注意過(guò), 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(lái)非常明亮, 不過(guò)我們看到的亮光只是來(lái)自太陽(yáng)的反射光而已。月亮本身是一團(tuán)寒冷、黑暗的物質(zhì);它之所以明亮是因?yàn)樗軌蚍瓷涮?yáng)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(guò)一組數(shù)據(jù)來(lái)說(shuō)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(chē)以每小時(shí)60英里的速度晝夜不停地前進(jìn), 那么它需要166天才能到達(dá)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(yáng)比我們的地球要大上很多, 而月亮的尺寸跟太陽(yáng)相比則更是微不足道了。然而, 太陽(yáng)看起來(lái)似乎比月亮大不了多少, 這是因?yàn)樗嚯x我們更加遙遠(yuǎn)。能夠用166天時(shí)間帶領(lǐng)我們前往月球的那輛火車(chē)需要耗費(fèi)177年才能開(kāi)到太陽(yáng)之上。

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