VOA常速英语:Simulated Disasters Provide Earthquake Data

短语讲解：

1. Research professor Heather Savage fires up a machine that simulates, in miniature, real earthquake conditions - the rubbing, slipping and sliding of the Earth’s massive plates, generating data for analysis

fire up发动(机器)
例句：We are having difficulty in firing up the ship's engines.
我们很难发动这艘轮船的引擎。

2. And then we look at things like how much stress did we have to put on those rocks until they started sliding?

put on穿上, 戴上; 把…放在…上
例句：The trees have put on their new coats of green.
树木披上了新绿。

3. The problem comes in when you start to think of how complex fault zones really are.

come in进入；到来；出现
例句：That's where the trouble often comes in.
那就是经常出现纠纷之处。

4. And as soon as you start to slide things past each other, you start to break some of that roughness up and create little particles.

break up (使)破碎, 分解
例句：The specs fell on the cement floor and broke up.
眼镜掉在水泥地上破掉了。

5. Now it’s got a layer of what we call ‘gouge’ in between, which is all those busted up particles of your original two surfaces.

bust up使终止; 破坏
例句：It was money troubles that busted up their marriage.
是金钱纠纷使他们的婚姻破裂了。

6. And that opens up a whole new branch of physics which is also not well understood and that is the behavior of granular material.

open up变宽; 展现; 揭示
例句：The chance meeting with the president opened up new possibilities for him.
与总统邂逅提供给他新的机会。

7. So there are lots of interesting things that go on in faults and a lot of different sciences that get pulled in.

pull in吸引; 招引
例句：The film pulled in large audience when it was shown in the city.
那部影片在该市上映期间, 吸引了大批观众。

8. One answer lies in the fact that the initial major quake only relieves some of the pent-up energy between two opposing plates.

lie in在于
例句：Your problem lies in lacking efficient methods.
你的问题在于缺少有效的方法。

9. Another reason for aftershocks are the “seismic waves” that earthquakes generate, which Savage likens to what happens when you jiggle the end of a loose metal spring.  

liken to把…比作…
例句：She likened the building to a ship.
她把这座楼房比作一条船。

10. If you just tweak that spring, just give it a little push, you can watch a wave travel from where I pushed it and it will end up at you and then a smaller wave will come back at me, and so forth, depending on how hard I pushed it.

end up结束; 最终成为〔变得〕
例句：The hooligan ended up dead in a car accident.
那个恶棍最后在一次车祸中丧命。
depend on随…而定; 取决于
例句：Whether the game will be played depends on the weather.
比赛是否举行要看天气而定。