发射嫦娥四号月球探测器英语(如何用英语解释)(1)

中国成月球背面登陆首国,很多人注意到这个“月球背面”,外媒不是用了back,而是the far side of the moon。月球背面到底是什么?如何用英文解释这个词?今天这篇小文,抠几句维基百科中对the far side of the moon的解释。

The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that always faces away from Earth. 月球背面指的是永远背对着地球的那一面。

背对着……, face away from ... face away可以理解成把脸转向别处,那就是背对着,不是正面对着。

The far side's terrain is rugged with a multitude of impact craters and relatively few flat lunar maria. 月球背面的地形主要为一大堆起伏不平的撞击坑,而平坦的月海则相对较少。

impact crater撞击坑,应该就是陨石坑了。lunar maria月海,这些词都得去查,光是中文,也触及到了我的知识盲区……

rugged崎岖不平的,现学现卖一个,月球上高低起伏的美景,the rugged beauty of the moon. be rugged with因为……而崎岖不平。

a multitude of sth.一看到这个词组就想起满天繁星,a multitude of stars。

其他表示“大量的”词组还有an army of, an array of, a flock of(这个词组侧重表示大量的同类事物), a legion of, a stream of(侧重表达一连串的人事物), a horde of(侧重表示吵吵闹闹的一大群),a swarm of(侧重表示快速移动的一大群,有点蜂拥而至的赶脚)。

发射嫦娥四号月球探测器英语(如何用英语解释)(2)

The two hemispheres have distinctly different appearances, with the near side covered in multiple, large maria(Latin for 'seas,' since the earliest astronomers incorrectly thought that these plains were seas of lunar water). 两个半球的外观有着显著的不同,正面有许多巨大的月海。

原来Maria一词是从拉丁文衍生来的,意思是seas大海。因为最早的天文学家误以为这些平原有水these plains were seas of lunar water,才起了这么个名字……想想也是很美腻,就好像我们的祖先一直以为月亮上有个天宫一样。

The far side has a battered, densely cratered appearance with few maria. Only 1% of the surface of the far side is covered by maria, compared to 31.2% on the near side. 另一边受到撞击,有着密集的陨石坑,只有少量月海,仅占表面积的1%。相较之下,正面月海覆盖的面积高达31.2%。

battered破旧的,残旧的,形容人的时候,表示这个人遭受暴击虐待,毕竟batter动词的原意是“殴打、连续撞击”。

表示数据对比,compared to是顶顶好用的,比如:In 1800 Ireland's population was nine million, compared to Britain's 16 million. 1800年爱尔兰的人口是900万,而英国人口是1600万。这种句式get起来。

One commonly accepted explanation for this difference is related to a higher concentration of heat-producing elements on the near-side hemisphere, as has been demonstrated by geochemical maps obtained from the Lunar Prospector gamma-ray spectrometer.对于这种差异,最广为接受的解释是热量的生成集中在月球正面,正如来自月球勘探者的γ射线光谱地质化学图所展现的那样。

注意此处的as引导一个非限制性定语从句,它和which引导的非限制定语从句最常见的不同在于,as可以放在主句前后,也可插入主句之中;而which引导的非限制性从句只能位于主句之后。比如:

As is known to all, fish can’t live without water.

Air, as we know, is gas.

而且,在非限制性从句中,which后的be动词不可省;as而后的be动词可以省略,比如..., as shown in the figure.

While other factors such as surface elevation and crustal thickness could also affect where basalts erupt, these do not explain why the farside South Pole–Aitken basin (which contains the lowest elevations of the Moon and possesses a thin crust) was not as volcanically active as Oceanus Procellarum on the near side.而其他的因素,如表面的高度和地壳的厚度,也会影响到其中的玄武岩爆发的地点,但是这些都不能解释为何南极-艾托肯盆地(在月球上高度最低,地壳薄)没有像月球正面的风暴洋一样剧烈的火山活动。

都是术语,脑阔疼……

发射嫦娥四号月球探测器英语(如何用英语解释)(3)

不知天上宫阙,今夕是何年?

看到这则新闻,

你脑海中浮现出的第一句和“月”有关的古诗词是哪一句?

下方评论区告诉我

我让嫦娥四号带个话过去……

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