Icebergs
冰山
Icebergs are among nature’s most spectacular creations, and yet most people have never seen one. A vague air of mystery envelops them. They come into being -- somewhere -- in faraway, frigid waters, amid thunderous noise and splashing turbulence, which in most cases no one hears or sees. They exist only a short time and then slowly waste away just as unnoticed.Objects of sheerest beauty they have been called. Appearing in an endless variety of shapes, they may be dazzlingly white, or they may be glassy blue, green or purple, tinted faintly or in darker hues. They are graceful, stately, inspiring -- in calm, sunlight seas. But they are also called frightening and dangerous, and that they are -- in the night, in the fog, and in storms. Even in clear weather one is wise to stay a safe distance away from them. Most of their bulk is hidden below the water, so their underwater parts may extend out far beyond the visible top. Also, they may roll over unexpectedly, churning the waters around them.
冰山是大自然最壯觀的創(chuàng)造之一，但大多數(shù)人卻從未看到過(guò)冰山，一種朦朧神秘的氣氛籠罩著它們。冰山形成于久遠(yuǎn)的、寒冷的水體中，而且伴隨著雷聲轟鳴般的嘈雜和水花洶涌的風(fēng)暴，但卻無(wú)人耳聞目睹。冰山僅存在短短的一段時(shí)間就慢慢地悄無(wú)聲息地融化掉。冰山具有最純粹的美，人們?nèi)缡钦f(shuō)。冰山呈現(xiàn)出千姿百態(tài)，可能白得耀眼，或者是閃耀著藍(lán)色、綠色或紫色的玻璃般的光芒，或濃或淡。它們?cè)谄届o的陽(yáng)光照耀的海水中顯得優(yōu)雅堂皇，令人浮想聯(lián)翩。但是人們亦把冰山稱為恐怖的和危險(xiǎn)的。它們的確如此--在夜間，霧天和風(fēng)暴肆虐時(shí)。即便是在晴朗的天氣里，與它們保持一段安全距離也是明智的。冰山的大部分體積穩(wěn)藏于水下，因此其水下部分的伸展遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)可見(jiàn)的頂部。冰山也可能出人意料地翻滾，劇烈地?cái)噭?dòng)周圍的水體。
Icebergs are parts of glaciers that break off, drift into the water, float about awhile, and finally melt. Icebergs afloat today are made of snowflakes that have fallen over long ages of time. They embody snows that drifted down hundreds, or maybe thousands, or in some cases maybe a million years ago. The snows fell in polar regions and on cold mountains, where they melted only a little or not at all, and so collected to great depths over the years and centuries.
冰山是冰川的一部分，從冰川斷裂漂流進(jìn)水中，一段時(shí)間后融化。今天的冰山由多年前降落的雪花形成。它們的體內(nèi)是數(shù)百年，或數(shù)千年，有時(shí)甚至是數(shù)百萬(wàn)年前的降雪。這些雪花落在極地或寒冷的山上，僅有少量融化或根本不融化，這樣經(jīng)過(guò)許多年或許多世紀(jì)后積累了巨大的深度。
As each year’s snow accumulation lay on the surface, evaporation and melting caused the snowflakes slowly to lose their feathery points and become tiny grains of ice. When new snow fell on top of the old, it too turned to icy grains. So blankets of snow and ice grains mounted layer upon layer and were of such great thickness that the weight of the upper layers compressed the lower ones. With time and pressure from above, the many small ice grains joined and changed to larger crystals, and eventually the deeper crystals merged into a solid mass of ice.
由于每年的雪花積累在表面之上，蒸發(fā)和融化使得雪花慢慢失去其羽狀尖端而變成微小的冰粒。當(dāng)新的雪花降落到舊的表面上，也變成了冰粒。因而雪花覆蓋層和冰粒層層堆積起來(lái)直到如此之大的厚度以致較上層的重量壓縮較下層。在時(shí)間和壓力的作用下，許多小冰粒結(jié)合到一起變成更大的晶體，最終較底層的晶體合并成龐大而堅(jiān)固的冰塊。
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備考資料歷年真題
