| “半夜的太阳”和北极光 |
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作者：徐振芳 文章来源：中学英语之友·高一版 点击数： 更新时间：2008-3-14 18:25:59  |
“半夜的太阳”和北极光
如果你对格陵兰文化有一些了解的话， 就让我们开怀畅游来欣赏一下“半夜的太阳”——极昼现象吧！还有北极光。正如本文所说，北极光的神奇一点也不亚于“半夜的太阳”。它是如何形成的？下面有简单介绍。我们就在欣赏美景的同时加以了解吧！
Midnight sun is a state of mind. Time makes no sense in this world. You can leave your watch in your suitcase. The day has no end.
The children will roller-skate down the streets in the middle of the night—with sun in their faces. Small motorboats chug1 out of the harbour. Groups of people sit on the rocks here and there, enjoying the never-ending sunlight.
The midnight sun can be encountered2 north of the Polar Circle. In Ilulissat, for example, the sun never sets from May 25th to July 25th, and during that period “normal” calendar time is virtually non-operative.
1.chug：chug当名词讲时是“轧轧声”，指火车等缓行时发出的声音；当动词讲就是“发出轧轧声”。格陵兰极昼时，太阳整天不落，时间失去了意义，小孩在我们所谓的“半夜”出来滚轴溜冰，摩托艇轧轧叫着驶出了港湾，多有趣的景象啊！
2.encounter：“遭遇”、“邂逅”的意思。这里The midnight sun can be encountered north of the Polar Circle.的意思是“在北极圈以里可以看到半夜的太阳”。
It is light around the clock. At what used to be nighttime the soft, warm light and the long shadows from the low-hanging sun bring the scenic backdrops3 into dreamlike and almost supernaturally beautiful relief.
The northern lights are no less impressive. White, yellow, green and red they sweep across the dark sky in a state of eternal, rapid flux.4 Accumulative5 in intensity and culminate6 in scenery beyond imagination.
Northern lights appear all year round in Greenland, but they can only be observed against a clear, dark night sky. They appear at a height of about 100 kilometers (65 miles) and have the shape of a flapping7 curtain or points radiating from a single dot.
3.backdrop：“背景、背景幕布”的意思。有没有注意过太阳落山、夜幕低垂时，一切景物在暮霭的笼罩中，变的朦朦胧胧？极昼时，太阳终日低垂，就如我们所见的落日。所以极昼时的景象带给我们的是一种如梦如幻的美妙感觉。
4.flux：a state of flux是固定用语，表示“变迁”、“不断的变化”等。
5.accumulative：与cumulative同义，表示“累积的”之意，accumulative in intensity的意思就是“密度不断地增大”。北极光出现时，色彩斑斓，且变化纷呈，展现在我们面前的是何等美妙的世界啊！想去看看吗？
6.culminate：“达到颠峰、达到顶峰”等意思，culminate in scenery的意思就是“景色美得无以复加”。
7.flap：“拍动、飘动”等意思。The shape of a flapping curtain就表示“飘动的帘子”。
The phenomenon is due to electrically charged particles8 from the sun entering the earth’s atmosphere and being conveyed from there by the magnetic field lines. When the particles meet the molecules9 in the atmosphere, the northern lights arise, their colour being determined by the nature of the molecules.
The winter darkness is the companion to the midnight sun, and equal fascinating. For weeks the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon. The landscape is all white from the snow and the frozen sea. The stars, the moon and the northern lights provide the few candelas10 necessary to light up the snow. The world turns real and unreal like a dream.
8.particle：“微粒”， electrically charged particles from the sun就是“太阳光中的带电微粒”。它穿过地球磁场，与大气中的molecules相碰撞，就形成了神奇的北极光。
9.molecules：“分子”的意思。
10.candela：是科技用法，表示“烛光”的意思。夜空中的点点烛光，多么有诗意的风景啊！这是在形容格陵兰极夜时，整天没有阳光，只有月亮和北极光时而带来如烛光般的点点亮光。与“半夜的太阳”相比，同样是一幅美妙画卷。
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