Earths Inner Core
Scientists have long struggled to understand what lies at the planets center. Direct observation of its center is impossible, so researchers must to other evidence.
In 1889, a German scientist detected a severe earthquake in Japan. Geophysicists concluded that shock waves jolts from one side of Earth through the center to the other side. Then in 1936, Danish geophysicist Inge Lehmann studied the waves to determine that within Earths core of molten iron lies a solid inner core - but that core was made of eluded her. Other geophysicists quickly determined that Lehmanns inner core was composed mostly iron. Since then, Lehmanns discovery has conventional Earth science.
But now scientists are challenging traditional theory with new and radical . For example, Earths center could actually contain an inner core within the inner core, claim Ishii and colleague Adam Dziewonski.
Analyzing hundreds of thousands of earthquake wave , they maintain that the inner core has at its heart a tiny, even more solid sphere . This sphere may be the oldest fossil from the formation of Earth, says Dziewonski.
Dziewonski and Ishii speculate that shortly Earth formed around 4.8 billion years ago, a giant asteroid smashed into the young planet and nearly melted it. But Earths center didnt quite melt; it mass as the planet cooled. The core within a core may be the kernel that endured. Its presence could change our basic ideas about the of the planet, Dziewonski says.
Dziewonskis idea is tame compared to the theories of independent geophysicist J. Marvin Herndon. Earths inner core is made not of iron, he claims, but a of nickel and silicon. Herndon has a truly revolutionary notion: Within the nickel silicide inner core is also an inner inner core - an 8 km-wide ball of the element uranium. Uranium is radioactive. Herndon thinks the uranium releases heat energy as its atoms fission-split and crash into one another in a chain reaction. In other words, we may live on top of a gigantic, natural nuclear power plant.
1 A try B leave C turn D point
2 A create B receive C feel D overcome
3 A work B solution C job D patterns
4 A whether B what C why D how
5 A from B within C of D to
6 A followed B dominated C restored D opposed
7 A ideas B demands C phenomena D movements
8 A things B acts C methods D records
9 A taken B benefited C left D kept
10 A after B before C since D when
11 A expanded B modified C gained D melted
12 A size B origin C structure D shape
13 A radical B traditional C classical D conventional
14 A system B copy C model D compound
15 A charge B last C experience D show
参考答案:
1. C 2. A 3. D 4. B 5. C
6. B 7. A 8. D 9. C 10. A
11. C 12. B 13. A 14. D 15. C