英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行指南：火星 Mars—2

 It’s been said that the first person on Mars is alive somewhere on earth today. Imagine it’s you. What do you need to know? How much you get there? What should you pack? What are some of the must-see sights and what should you avoid? Think of this as your personal travel guide to exploring the red planet.

 

Mars has always had a mystique. It’s one of the easier planets to spot in the night sky, a constant dot of red light moving through the heavens. And now we know for sure that of all the planets, this red, rocky one is the most similar to home. 

 

Here are polar caps and sun-baked deserts, giant volcanoes and mighty¹ canyons². Mars even spins at about the same speed as earth, making a Martian day only about 40 minutes longer than ours. Although it’s further out from the sun and takes twice as long to circle it, the long Martian year has identifiable seasons. And what’s more, our two planets share a common childhood. 

 

“In many ways it’s a sister of the earth. It was formed at roughly the same time, about 4.5 billion years ago, a little change here and there. It also was formed of the same sorts of materials, bombarded by comets and asteroids³. So it has the same delivery system we have.”

1 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

2 canyons   

n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This mountain range has many high peaks and deep canyons. 这条山脉有许多高峰和深谷。 来自辞典例句
• Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? 是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存？ 来自互联网

3 asteroids   

n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星

参考例句：

• Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星，亦称为“小型行星”，在外太空中不计其数。
• Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。