VOA慢速英语:Many Life Forms Discovered Deep under Antarctic Ice

短语讲解：

1. They just finished up their research on our southernmost continent.

finish up <非正>结束，告终
例句：We must finish up this business ahead of time. 
我们必须提前把这件事了结。 

2. “The central focus of the research was to try to get some actual physical constraints on what the ice sheet looks like over time and what it is doing right now.”

look like 看起来与（某人或某物）相像[相似]
例句： He doesn't look like a dead fox. 
他不象一只死狐狸。 

3. “And so we chose a study site where, in the first year, we went into the subglacial lake and tried to understand the environment in there, both ecologically and in terms of the ice dynamics about how the lake operates, and how the sediment underneath the ice sheet operates, as well, because it's the water and the sediment underneath the ice that controls how fast the ice is flowing into the ocean.”

in terms of 根据; 用…的话; 就…而言; 以…为单位
例句：It can not be measured in terms of money. 
这是不能用金钱衡量的。 

4. The camp was near a subglacial lake, where an earlier study took place.

take place 发生
例句：Earthquakes take place far underground. 
地震则发生在地球的极深处。 

5. We know that the ice is melting there at the moment and so by opening up the cores once they get back, we hope to be able to understand what the ice was doing in the past, relative to what it is doing now.

be able to 能够
例句：We must be able to stay impartial at all times. 
我们必须经常保持公正的态度。 

6. Together with other researchers, he is planning to ask for financial help to continue studies of the frozen continent.

ask for 要求
例句：He had the audacity to ask for an increase in salary. 
他竟然厚着脸皮要求增加薪水。