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万物简史(MP3+中英字幕) 第498期:多灾多难的生命进程(18)

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The KT meteor had the additional advantage — advantage if you are a mammal, that is — that it landed in a shallow sea just ten meters deep, probably at just the right angle, at a time when oxygen levels were 10 percent higher than at present and so the world was more combustible. Above all the floor of the sea where it landed was made of rock rich in sulfur. The result was an impact that turned an area of seafloor the size of Belgium into aerosols of sulfuric acid. For months afterward, the Earth was subjected to rains acid enough to burn skin.

KT陨石还有一个优势——那就是说,要是你是个哺乳动物的话,那是个优势——它在只有10米深的浅海里着落,角度很可能恰好合适,当时的氧气浓度又比现在高10%,因此世界比较容易着火。尤其是,着落地区的海底是由含硫丰富的岩石构成的。结果,那个撞击把一片比利时大小的海底变成了硫酸气雾。在此后的几个月里。地球遭受酸雨的袭击,酸的浓度足以烧伤皮肤。
ammonites

In a sense, an even greater question than that of what wiped out 70 percent of the species that were existing at the time is how did the remaining 30 percent survive? Why was the event so irremediably devastating to every single dinosaur that existed, while other reptiles, like snakes and crocodiles, passed through unimpeded? So far as we can tell no species of toad, newt, salamander, or other amphibian went extinct in North America. "Why should these delicate creatures have emerged unscathed from such an unparalleled disaster?" asks Tim Flannery in his fascinating prehistory of America, Eternal Frontier.

在某种意义上,还有一个比“是什么毁灭了当时存在的70%的物种?”更大的问题,那就是“剩下的30%是怎么存活下来的?”为什么那个事件对每个存在的恐龙是个灭顶之灾,而别的像蛇和鳄这样的爬行动物却能安然度过劫难?就我们所知,北美的蟾蜍、水螈、蝾螈,以及别的两栖动物没有一个物种灭绝。“为什么这些纤弱的动物能安然无恙地逃过这场空前的灾难?”提姆·弗兰纳里在他精彩的描述史前美国的著作《永久的边疆》里发问。
In the seas it was much the same story. All the ammonites vanished, but their cousins the nautiloids, who lived similar lifestyles, swam on. Among plankton, some species were practically wiped out — 92 percent of foraminiferans, for instance — while other organisms like diatoms, designed to a similar plan and living alongside, were comparatively unscathed.
海洋里的情况十分相似。菊石统统消失了,但它们的表亲鹦鹉螺目软体动物却存活下来,尽管它们有着相似的生活方式。在浮游生物中,有的物种实际上全部覆灭——比如,有孔虫丧失了92%——而像硅藻这样的别的生物尽管体形相似,还同有孔虫在一起生活,却受伤害较轻。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
shallow ['ʃæləu]

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adj. 浅的,薄的
n. 浅滩,浅处

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combustible [kəm'bʌstəbl]

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adj. 易燃的,燃烧性的,易激动的 n. 燃质物,可燃

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extinct [iks'tiŋkt]

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adj. 灭绝的,熄灭的,耗尽的

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fascinating ['fæsineitiŋ]

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adj. 迷人的

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advantage [əd'vɑ:ntidʒ]

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n. 优势,有利条件
vt. 有利于

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frontier ['frʌntjə]

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n. 边界,边境,尖端,边缘

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species ['spi:ʃiz]

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n. (单复同)物种,种类

 
eternal [i'tə:nəl]

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adj. 永久的,永恒的
n. 永恒的事

 
disaster [di'zɑ:stə]

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n. 灾难

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mammal ['mæməl]

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n. 哺乳动物

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