英语听力：2013-10-18 地平线：黑洞吞噬—13

 It was a stunning¹ discovery. After a quest lasting² decade, Donald Lynden-Bell had been proved right. Here indeed, just where he had predicted, was a super massive black hole. But in the last year, the quest to find and understand black holes has suddenly become even more exciting. That's because out there in space, something is about to happen that really is going to drag black holes out of the shadows, to reveal them as they really are. 

 

The reason for the excitement is all because of a discovery made in Munich. Here a group working with the European Space Observatory³ had shed credit for discovering the black hole at the heart of the Milky⁴ Way. In late 2011, they made an almost accidental discovery, a discovery that's triggered this year's rush of excitement. It was while reviewing some data which had previously⁵ been dismissed as second rate that they noticed something unusual. 

 

We decided⁶ in 2011 we should look at our data which is B-rated so to say data, which is of somewhat lower quality because the resolution is not as good as it would get under the best weather conditions. And then boom, there was all of a sudden one source which was very close to the black hole. 

 

The object didn't appear to have the profile of a star.

1 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

2 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

3 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

4 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

5 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。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。