事实：金星上一天竟比金星上一年要长-A Day on Venus is Longer Than a Year on Venus

Pre-Listening Vocabulary

revolution: to go around something (Earth revolves² around the Sun.)

rotation³: the spinning of something (Venus’s rotation is backwards⁴.)

axis⁵: a real or imaginary line that something rotates on

retrograde: in a backwards movement

 A Day on Venus is Longer Than a Year on Venus

The scientific definition of a year is the amount of time it takes for a planet to make one revolution around the Sun. Earth’s neighbouring planet, Venus, takes 225 Earth days to revolve¹ around the sun. The definition of a day is how long it takes for a planet to do one complete rotation on its own axis. It takes Venus 243 Earth days to do this. In other words, a day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus. The rotation of Venus on its axis is retrograde. It rotates in the opposite direction of Earth and the other planets in the Solar System (Uranus spins on its side).

1 revolve   

vi.(使)旋转；循环出现

参考例句：

• The planets revolve around the sun.行星绕着太阳运转。
• The wheels began to revolve slowly.车轮开始慢慢转动。

2 revolves   

v.（使）旋转( revolve的第三人称单数 )；细想

参考例句：

• The earth revolves both round the sun and on its own axis. 地球既公转又自转。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Thus a wheel revolves on its axle. 于是，轮子在轴上旋转。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。

4 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

5 axis   

n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线

参考例句：

• The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.地轴是南北极之间的线。
• The axis of a circle is its diameter.圆的轴线是其直径。