(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
An American spacecraft is moving closer to a dwarf planet called Ceres. The American space agency's Dawn spacecraft is set to reach the planet-like object in March.
Space agency scientists will then place Dawn in an orbit around the dwarf planet. Agency scientists want to know more about ice on Ceres. The spacecraft will gather clues about whether Ceres may have once had conditions to support life as we know it.
Dawn left Earth more than seven years ago on a trip to explore Ceres and another dwarf planet, called Vesta. Both dwarf planets are in the main belt of asteroids, a group of large objects, between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
Marc Rayman is the chief engineer and director of the Dawn mission.
"This is the first time in more than 57 years of space exploration that we have a spacecraft targeted to orbit any two extraterrestrial destinations."
Scientists call Vesta and Ceres "protoplanets." Mr. Rayman says they were in the process of becoming full-size planets when, in his words, "their growth was terminated."
Scientists believe Ceres is made of rock, and covered with ice.
The Dawn mission is based in Los Angeles, California. Scientists there send second-by-second commands to the spacecraft. They direct its every move, including telling it what pictures to take. Dawn will make a map of the dwarf planet. It will also try to discover how Ceres' surface has changed.
Carol Raymond is the deputy principal investigator of the project.
"One of the interests in bodies like Ceres and other icy bodies in the outer solar system is that when objects like that impacted the terrestrial planets, they brought a lot of water. So there's a very vigorous debate at the current time as to whether wet asteroids like Ceres -- and we know there are other wet asteroids in the outer edge of the main belt -- whether they were the dominant source of water in the Earth's ocean."
Carol Raymond says Dawn made an unexpected discovery while orbiting Vesta.
"Instead of being bone dry, which we expected, there were patches on the surface of Vesta that showed significant amounts of water bound in the rocks and possibly even free water that could have flowed on the surface in the past."
She says that if Earth's water came from wet worlds like Vesta and Ceres, then life could have developed there, too.
If Dawn finds that the environment of Ceres could have supported life, scientists may seek to explore the dwarf planet with other scientific instruments.
Dawn will gather information about Ceres until the middle of 2016. It will then continue to orbit the small planet.
I'm Marsha James.
词汇解释
1.asteroid n. [天] 小行星；[无脊椎] 海盘车；小游星 adj. 星状的
There is an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth.
有一颗小行星可能会与地球发生碰撞。
2.extraterrestrial adj. 地球外的 n. 天外来客
NASA has started a 10-year search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
美国航空航天局已经启动了一个为期10年的寻找外星生物的项目。
3.patch n. 眼罩；斑点；碎片；小块土地 vt. 修补；解决；掩饰 vi. 打补丁
There was a small patch of blue in the grey clouds.
乌云中透着一小块蓝天。
内容解析
1.If Dawn finds that the environment of Ceres could have supported life, scientists may seek to explore the dwarf planet with other scientific instruments.
seek to 追求；争取；力图
Those who seek to grab power through violence deserve punishment.
企图通过暴力夺权的人理应受到惩罚。
He also denied that he would seek to annex the country.
他还否认会试图吞并该国。
参考译文
一艘美国飞船正在逼近一颗名叫谷神星的矮行星，美国航天局的曙光号飞船即将于3月份抵达这颗类行星。
航天局的科学家们将把曙光号安置在这颗矮行星周围的轨道上，他们希望能更多地了解谷神星上的冰。这艘飞船将收集线索，了解谷神星是否如我们所知的那样具备支持生命的条件。
曙光号是7年前离开地球的，其旅程是为了探索谷神星和另一颗名叫灶神星的矮行星。这两颗矮行星都位于火星和木星之间的小行星主带。
马克·雷曼是这次曙光号行动的工程师和负责人。
“这是57年来首次有飞船对任何两颗外行星进行太空探索。”
科学家称谷神星和灶神星是原行星。雷曼称，在变成正常行星的过程中，它们的成长被终止。
科学家认为谷神星是岩石构成的，上面覆盖着冰。
曙光号行动的基地在加州洛杉矶，那里的科学家们逐秒向飞船发送信号，指挥飞船的每个动作，包括告诉它拍摄什么。曙光号将对这颗矮行星绘制地图，还将努力探索谷神星的表面是如何改变的。
卡罗尔·雷蒙德是该项目的副首席调查员。
“我们对谷神星和其他结冰星球这类外太阳系行星的兴趣在于，当这类行星撞击类地行星时，会带来大量的水。所以目前争论很激烈的是，像谷神星这样的小行星是否是地球上海洋水的主要来源，当然我们知道在小行星主带的外边缘还有其它含水的小行星。”
卡罗尔·雷蒙德说曙光号在绕灶神星航行时有了意想不到的发现。
“灶神星并非我们想象的干燥，其表面有裂纹，这明显表明过去岩石中含有大量水，甚至可能有流水曾经在星球表面流动。”
她说如果地球水来自灶神星和谷神星这样的含水行星，那么这些行星上也可能有过生命。
如果曙光号发现谷神星上的环境能支持生命，科学家可能会用其他科学仪器探索这颗矮行星。
曙光号将在2016年年中之前收集有关谷神星的信息，然后继续绕着这颗小行星航行。
我是玛莎·詹姆斯。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
