外刊精读十八

1、外刊精读（十八）Scientists close to first sighting of black hole in the MilkyWayAstro no mers attempti ng to capture the first images of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way have given early hints that the ambitious project has bee n successful.The observati ons, by the Eve nt Horiz on Telescope, ar

2、e expected to be unveiled in the spring in one of the most eagerly awaited scientific announcements of 2019. Now, a senior scientist on the project has said “ spectacular data was gathered during observations of two black holes, in clud ing Sagittarius A* at the centre of our own galaxy.“Wemanaged t

3、o get very high-quality data at the very high resolutions necessary to observe the black hole ' s shadow, if it really sthere, said Sera Markoff, a professor of theoretical astrophysics and astroparticle physics at the University of Amsterdam, who co- leads the EHT s Multiwavelength Working Grou

4、p.The team is in the final phase of reviewing data that was gathered in 2017 and Markoff could not confirm yet whether the observati ons had produced the first direct image of a black hole' s silhouette.Prof Peter Galison, who is based at the department of the history of science at Harvard Uni v

5、ersity and is also invo Ived in the project, said that, if successful, the EHT ' s firs image would become one of the most significant in the past 50 years of astronomy. “If we get an image out of it, it will become one of the iconic images of scie nce,” he said. “It ' s an extraord in arily

6、 ambitious project.There is little doubt about the existe nce of black holes : the phe nomen ally dense objects distort the fabric of space-time in their vicinity, causing objects and light to appear to swerve off course. More recently, the gravitational wave observatory Ligo has detected ripples se

7、nt out across space-time whe n pairs of black holes collide.Un til now, though, a black hole has n ever bee n directly observed. The main barrier is that black holes are so compact that a telescope roughly the size of Earth would be required to see eve n the n earest one.The EHT gets around this by

8、linking together 15-20 telescopes spanning the South Pole, Europe, South America, Africa, North America and Australia.Collectively, the array has a resoluti on equivale nt to being able to see a draw ing pin in New York from London.The EHT uses a tech nique known as in terferometry, i n which astro

9、no mers at observatories on differe nt con ti nents simulta neously observe the same object, then comb ine the collected data on a supercomputer.This requires all the telescopes in the array to swivel towards the target black hole and measure every radio wave coming from its direct ion. Coord in ati

10、 ng this was a“ huge accomplishme nt of diplomacy an dorga ni sati onaccord ing to Galis on.The EHT has two primary targets: Sagittarius A*, at the centre of the Milky Way, and a super massive black hole called M87 in the Virgocluster of galaxies. M87 is about 50m-60m light years away, but at more t

11、han six billion solar masses (1,000 times larger than our local black hole), astronomers hope it should be visible.No one is sure what the image will look like but theoretical predictions show a black silhouette, set aga inst a surrounding glow of radiatio n, somethi ng like the depiction in the fil

12、m Interstellar .“You' dmagine seeing a blackshadow or depression,” bfearkoff.Besides telling us what black holes look like, the EHT could also reveal whether they have properties predicted by Einstein' s theory of general relativityand give in sights into exotic processes that occur in the e

13、xtreme en vir onment close to the eve nt horiz on.Detailed observations will also be made of dramatic jets of material that are thrown out from some black holes, including M87. It is not clear whether Sagittarius A*, a relatively small black hole, has jets -it is possible that they are too feeble to

14、 have bee n spotted previously and the EHTcould resolve this questi on.“ Wesee these enormous jets of plasma moving almost at the speed of light, ” said Markoff. “ They can be hundreds of millions of times the size of the black hole itself -bigger tha n the galaxy. ” Black hole jets are believed to

15、play a major role in cosmology, contributing to the formation of the cosmic web, in which galaxies are strung in clusters across the uni verse.According to the passage, what are primary targets of EHT?A. Sagittarius and Nept une.B. Sagittarius A* and M87.C. The Milky Way.D. Unidentified Flying Objec

16、t.2. What can EHT do besides telling us what black holes look like ?A. Revealing if they have properties predicted by Einstein ' general relativity theory.B. Measuri ng radio wave coming from black hole.C. Causing objects and light to appear to swerve off course.D. Combining the collected data o

17、n a supercomputer.3. What is the main barrier that prevent us from directly observing the black hole ?A. They are too feeble to have bee n spotted previously.B. These eno rmous jets of plasma are moving at the speed of light.C. Black holes are so compact and we n eed a telescope roughly the size of

18、Earth.D. They are about 50m-60m light years away.4. Which of the following description of Sagittarius A* is incorrect ?A . Sagittarius A* is at the cen tre of the Milky Way.B. Sagittarius A* is about 50m-60m light years away.C. It is not clear whether Sagittarius A*has jets.D. Sagittarius A* is a re

19、latively small black hole.5. Which of the the following conclusion is correct according to the passage?A. The first direct image of a black hole' s silhouette is con firmed.B. 15-20 telescopes are roughly the size of Earth.C. Black hole called M87 is much bigger than Sagittarius A*.D. The image

20、of a black hole is used as depict ion in the filmIn terstellar .导读：文 章选自卫报 nce/2019/ja n/11/scie ntists-close-to-capturi ng-first-image-of-black-hole-at-the-ce ntre-of-the-milky-way【文章大意】本文主要介绍天文学家对黑洞的研究。天文学家试图捕捉到银河系中心黑洞的第一张照片，由“事件地平线”望远镜进行的观测，预计将在今年春天公布。人类以前从 未直接观察到黑洞。EHT （“事件地平线”望远镜）通过连接横跨南极、欧洲、南美

21、、非洲、北美和澳大利亚的15-20个望远镜来解决这个问题，并且将对从一些黑洞（包括M87 ）中抛出的物质的剧烈喷射进行详细观察。【词汇】astr onomers n.天文学者，天文学家（astr ono mer 的名词复数 ）unveil v.揭露；揭去的面罩；拉开的帷幔；使公之于众silhouette n. 轮廓，剪影；（人的）体形；（事物的）形状phe nomen ally adv.现象上地，明白地collide v. 碰撞；相撞；冲突；抵触barrier n.屏障；障碍;栅栏;分界线in terferometry n.干涉测量（法）feeble adj.虚弱的，衰弱的；无效的，无意的；缺

22、乏决心的，缺乏活力的cosmology n.宇宙学短语精选：theoretical astrophysics 理论天体物理学in the past 在过去；以往；平昔;往昔more recen tly最近以来off course不在规定的过程中appear to 似乎，好像equivale nt to等于，折合according to根据，按照；据所说;如；比照set against靠着；把与相比；与抗衡；在映衬下hundreds of millions亿万；亿万的【参考答案及解析】1. 【B 】细节题。由本文段落中提到的"TheEHT has two primary targets

23、: Sagittarius A*,at the centre of the Milky Way,and a supermassive black hole called M87 in the Virgo cluster of galaxies.”中可以很容易得出答案。2. 【A】细节题。根据文章内容" Besides telling us what black holes look like, theEHTcould also reveal whether they have properties predicted by Ein ste in'theoryofgeneral

24、 relativity ."，可以得出只有 B项是正确的。3. 【C 】细节题。根据文章中提到的" Un til now, though, a black hole has never bee ndirectlyobserved.The main barrieris that black holes are so compact that atelescoperoughlythe size of Earth would be required to see even the nearestone. ”，其他几个选项虽然是原文，但并不是题目中的原因。4. 【B】分析题。需要通

25、读全文后，按照文中对Sagittarius A*的介绍和解释一一排除，最后可以发现B项说的并不是Sagittarius A* 。5【C】整理归纳题。这四个选项分别对文中不同的段落做出了内容小结，很容易判断错，需要自己对原文进行深度阅读和理解才能答对。尤其是正确答案C,并没有直接在文中给出，而是需要考生自己做出判断。【参考译文】科学家们接近首次观测到银河系中的黑洞天文学家试图捕捉到银河系中心黑洞的第一张照片，这一雄心勃勃的计划已经取得了成功。这项由“事件地平线”望远镜进行的观测，预计将在今年春天公布，这是2019年最受期待的科学声明之一。现在，该项目的一位资深科学家说，在观察两个黑洞的过程中，包括我们银河系中心的人马座A*都收集了“惊人”的数据。阿姆斯特丹大学理论天体物理学和天体粒子物理学教授塞拉 马尔科夫(SeraMarkoff )说：“我们设法以非常高的分辨率获得了观察黑洞阴影所需的高质量数据，如果真的存在的话。”该小组正在审查2017年收集的数据的最后阶段，马尔科夫还不能确认观测结果是否描绘了黑洞轮廓的第一个直接图像。哈佛大学科学史系的彼得加利森教授也参与了这个项目，他说，如果成功的话，eht的第一个图像将成为过去50年天文学中最重要的图像之一。他说：“如果我们从中得到一个图像