新概念美音版第四冊 Lesson 40 Waves 海浪

 

  


Lesson 40   Waves 海浪

First listen and then answer the following question.
 
聽錄音，然後回答以下問題。

What false impression does an ocean were convey to the observer?

    Waves are the children of the struggle between ocean and atmosphere, the ongoing signatures of infinity. Rays from the sun excite and energize the atmosphere of the earth, awakening it to flow, to movement, to rhythm, to life. The wind then speaks the message of the sun to the sea and the sea transmits it on through waves -- an ancient, exquisite, powerful message.
 
    These ocean waves are among the earth's most complicated natural phenomena. The basic features include a crest (the highest point of the wave), a trough (the lowest point), a height (the vertical distance from the trough to the crest), a wave length (the horizontal distance between two wave crests), and a period (which is the time it takes a wave crest to travel one wave length).
 
    Although an ocean wave gives the impression of a wall of water moving in your direction, in actuality waves move through the water leaving the water about where it was. If the water was moving with the wave, the ocean and everything on it would be racing in to the shore with obviously catastrophic results.
 
    An ocean wave passing through deep water causes a particle on the surface to move in a roughly circular orbit, drawing the particle first towards the advancing wave, then up into the wave, then forward with it and then -- as the wave leaves the particles behind -- back to its starting point again.
 
    From both maturity to death, a wave is subject to the same laws as any other 'living' thing. For a time it assumes a miraculous individuality that, in the end, is reabsorbed into the great ocean of life.
 
    The undulating waves of the open sea are generated by three natural causes: wind, earth movements or tremors, and the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. Once waves have been generated, gravity is the force that drives them in a continual attempt to restore the ocean surface to a flat plain.
 
           from World Magazine (BBC Enterprises)
 
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
 
    signature
n.  簽名，標記
    infinity
n.  無窮
    ray
n.  光線
    energize
v.  給與…能量
    rhythm
n.  節奏
    transmit
v.  傳送
    exquisite
adj. 高雅的
    phenomena
n.  現象
    crest
n.  浪峰
    trough
n.  波穀
    vertical
adj. 垂直的
    horizontal
adj. 水平的
    actuality
n.  現實
    catastrophic
adj. 大災難的
    particle
n.  微粒
    maturity
n.  成熟
    undulate
v.  波動，形成波浪
    tremor
n.  震顫
    gravitational
adj. 地心吸力的  

參考譯文
 
    海浪是大海和空氣相鬥的產物，無限的一種不間斷的標誌。太陽光刺激了地球的大氣層，並給予它能量；陽光使空氣開始流動，產生節奏，獲得生命。然後，風把太陽的住處帶給了大海，海洋用波浪的形式傳遞這個信息 -- 一個源過流長、高雅而有力的信息。
 
    這些海浪屬於地球上最複雜的自然現象。它們的基本特征包括浪峰（波浪的最高點）、波穀（最低點）、浪高（從波穀到浪峰的垂直距離）、波長（兩個浪峰間的水平距離）和周期（海峰走過一個波長所需的時間）。雖然，海浪給人的印象是一堵由水組成的牆向你壓過來，而實際上，浪從水中移過，而水則留在原處。如果水和浪一起移動的話，那麽大海和海裏所有的東西就會向岸邊疾湧過來，帶來明顯的災難性後果。
 
    穿過深水的海浪使水麵上的一個微粒按照一種近乎圓形的軌道移動，先把微粒拉向前移動的海浪，然後推上波浪，隨著波浪移動，然後 -- 當波浪把微粒留在身後時 -- 又回到出發點。
 
    從成熟到消亡，波浪和其他任何“活動中”的東西一樣，都受製於共同的法則。一度它獲得非凡的個性，但最終又被重新融進生命的大洋。
 
    公海上起伏的波浪是由3個自然因素構成的：風、地球的運動或震顫和月亮、太陽的引力。一旦波浪形成，地球引力是持續不斷企圖使海麵複原為平麵的力量。