纪录片《地球劫难日》 第23期 格陵兰岩层

We were astounded¹ by just how much, how much cliff there was to examine.

我们都很吃惊竟然要测定这么宽的崖壁。

The whole Permian extinction² story seemed to be spread through tens of meters of cliff,

看起来这几十米的崖壁应该包含二叠纪生物大灭绝的完整故事，

and the fossils that we could collect were showing us a beautiful detailed³ story

收集到的化石能讲述更详细的故事情节，

that was telling us a lot more than we'd known previously⁴ about the timing⁵ of what was going on at this time.

告诉我们先前不知道的关于这一时期的更多信息。

Even to the naked eye, one thing was blindingly obvious.

即使用肉眼观察，有一点是显而易见的。

The meteor theorists had got the timing wrong.

天体碰撞论在时间上大错特错。

The Greenland rock showed that the extinction had been a gradual event.

格陵兰的岩层表明大灭绝是一个渐进的过程。

In fact, it appeared to drag on for tens of thousand of years.

事实上它显然延续了数万年。

We could see that the extinction wasn't occurring instantaneously,

我们看到大灭绝并不是突然发生的，

but in fact was spread over several, a certain amount of rock,

事实上它分布于好几个岩层，

so we could see it was being spread over a certain amount of time.

可见它一定持续了较长的一段时间。

1 astounded   

v.使震惊(astound的过去式和过去分词)；愕然；愕；惊讶

参考例句：

• His arrogance astounded her. 他的傲慢使她震惊。
• How can you say that? I'm absolutely astounded. 你怎么能说出那种话？我感到大为震惊。

2 extinction   

n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种

参考例句：

• The plant is now in danger of extinction.这种植物现在有绝种的危险。
• The island's way of life is doomed to extinction.这个岛上的生活方式注定要消失。

3 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

4 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

5 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。