科学家发现新星球“葛利斯581g” Scientists discovered a new planet

Scientists say a newly discovered planet that’s about 20 light years away from Earth could be the closest thing they’ve found out there so far to our home world. It’s called Gliese 581g. And this is an artist’s conception of what it looks like. That red thing is a dwarf star. Gliese 581g orbits the star kind of like the Earth orbits the sun. And the similarities don’t stop there. Experts think this planet has enough gravity to keep an atmosphere around it. They say there’s also a good chance that there’s water on the planet. But there is at least one difference and it is pretty significant. One of the scientists who discovered the planet explains.

This planet doesn’t have days and nights. Wherever you are on this planet, the sun is in the same position, or the star is in the same position all the time. So, it keeps one side facing towards the star, and that’s fairly warm. And the other side is in perpetual nighttime.

科学家称，一个新发现的距离地球20光年的行星可能是迄今他们发现的离地球最近的行星。它名叫“葛利斯581g”。葛利斯581g这个名字是它的形象在艺术家心中的概念。红色的东西是矮星。葛利斯581g绕着这颗矮星旋转，就像地球绕着太阳旋转一样。相似点还不止这些。专家认为这一行星有足够的重力保持大气环绕在其周围。他们说这颗行星上很可能有水。但是，至少有一处不同的地方，而且非常明显。其中一名发现这个行星的科学家解释说。

这颗行星没有昼夜。不管你在这颗星球上哪个地方，太阳都在同一个位置，或者说矮星永远都在同一个位置。所以，它保持一面面向矮星，那一面相当暖和，而另一面则永远都是黑夜。

1. 0’24” And the similarities don’t stop there.这句虽短，却有承上启下的作用。首先，similarities一词是对前面Gliese 581g orbits the star kind of like the Earth orbits the sun（葛利斯581g绕着这颗矮星旋转，就像地球绕着太阳旋转一样）的总结。而句中的don’t stop there（不止这些）又暗示我们下文中会提及更多它与地球的相似之处，需要我们仔细聆听。

2. 0’33” But there is at least one difference and it is pretty significant.此句中播音员在but处做了重读处理，提醒我们在前面阐述了一系列这个星球与地球的相似之处后，语篇的意义要发生转折，即接下来要提到的是二者的不同之处。