新概念英语第四册自学导读：第十四课蝴蝶效应(上)

14-4. Errors and uncertainties multiply, cascading upward through a chain of turbulent features, from dust devils and squalls up to continent-size eddies that only satellites can see.

【译文】误差和不确定性剧烈放大，它们通过一系列湍流状态，从小尘暴和暴风剧增到只有卫星才能观察到的大陆范围的气旋。

【讲解】that only satellites can see系定语从句，修饰eddies。

【单词和短语】

turbulent在文中意为“湍流的”（turbulent air or water moves around a lot），该词的常见意为“动荡的，骚乱的”（a turbulent situation or period of time is one in which there are a lot of sudden changes），

例如：
a turbulent childhood 动荡的童年

a turbulent period of history 动荡的历史时期

a turbulent crowd 骚乱的人群

turbulent的名词形式为turbulence。

14-5. The modern weather models work with a grid of points of the order of sixty miles apart, and even so, some starting data has to be guessed, since ground stations and satellites cannot see everywhere.

【译文】现代气象模型以一个坐标图来显示，图中相邻两点约间隔60英里。既使是这样，有些开始时的资料也得靠猜测，因为地面工作站和卫星不可能看到每个地方。

【单词和短语】

of the order of：大约（approximately），

例如：
His income is of the order of $6000 a month.
他的月收入约为6000美元。

14-6. But suppose the earth could be covered with sensors spaced one foot apart, rising at one-foot intervals all the way to the top of the atmosphere.

【译文】但假设地球上可以布满间隔1英尺的传感器，并按1英尺的间隔从地面一直排到大气层顶端。

【单词和短语】

space：（用间隔）分隔开（to arrange objects or events so that they have equal spaces or periods of time between them），

例如：
a closely spaced series of explosions 相隔紧密的一系列爆炸

space one’s time evenly 均匀地分配时间

Letters might be spaced to two or three days. 每隔两三天会有信来。