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      考研英语水平的进步，不仅要记单词，还需要阅读外语文献等资料。接下来，小编为2024考研者们，整理出——2024考研英语同源外刊4月:黄金究竟是怎么来的?供考生参考。

2024考研英语同源外刊4月:黄金究竟是怎么来的?

That ring on your finger made of platinum or gold contains a secret that has been at the center of a cosmic mystery. Scientists have been combing the galaxy to figure out where these so-called "heavy elements" come from.

你手指上戴的白金或黄金戒指蕴含着一个一直处于宇宙奥秘中心的秘密。科学家们一直在梳理银河系，想弄清楚这些所谓的“重元素”究竟从何而来。

Lighter elements—everything from helium, with its two protons per atom, on up to iron, which has 26 protons in each nucleus—are better understood. Most of these form inside stars. But our knowledge gets fuzzy after iron.

人们对所有较轻的元素(从每个原子有两个质子的氦到每个原子核有26个质子的铁)基本都理解透彻了。它们大多形成于恒星内部。但我们所了解到的知识，直到铁元素后，就都是谜团了。

Gold, which has 79 protons in each atom, can't be made that way. The same goes for platinum, xenon, radon and many rare Earth elements. For decades scientists theorized where these "heavy metals" came from and how they arrived on Earth.

金的每个原子含有79个质子，无法通过恒星聚变的方式形成。铂、氙、氡和许多稀土元素也是如此。几十年来，科学家一直在研究这些“重金属”的来源以及它们是如何到达地球的。

The leading idea was an extremely violent cosmic event—a collision between two neutron stars. Until recently this was just a theory—but that changed a few years ago, when scientists detected gravitational waves from such a crash—and saw light at the same time.

一种主流观点是这些重金属来源于一种极其剧烈的宇宙事件——两颗中子星的碰撞。直到近期，这还只停留在理论上——但在几年前，当科学家探测到来自这样一次碰撞的引力波时(同时观察到了光)，情况发生了变化。

This light held the chemical signatures of these heavy elements—offering the first evidence supporting the theory of where they came from. It also helped scientists fill in some of the details of how this process might work.

这束光含有这些重元素的化学特征，为支持它们来源的理论提供了首个证据。它还帮助科学家填补了这一过程如何起作用的一些细节。

Neutron stars are the densest things in the universe except for black holes. They are born when heavy stars die and their cores collapse. The incredible gravitational pressure squishes the atoms together, protons and electrons smush, all leaving a star almost entirely made of neutrons.

除了黑洞，中子星是宇宙中密度较大的物质。它们是在质量较大的恒星死亡及核心坍缩时诞生的。令人难以置信的引力将原子挤压在一起，质子和电子相互碎裂，留下了一颗几乎完全由中子组成的恒星。

In the rare case when two neutron stars slam together—the explosion creates mind-blowing temperatures and pressures. It also pumps out a lot of free neutrons—up to a gram of neutrons spills into every cubic centimeter of space.

在罕见的两颗中子星相撞的情况下，爆炸会产生令人惊叹的温度和压力。它还会释放出大量的自由中子——每立方厘米空间中就会溢出多达一克的中子。

These rare conditions ignite what's called the rapid neutron-capture process, otherwise known as "R-process" for short. It all starts with a seed nucleus, such as iron. The iron nucleus starts out with 26 protons and around 30 neutrons. But during the R-process, it will quickly capture many more neutrons in a matter of milliseconds.

这些罕见的条件引发了所谓的快速中子捕获过程(也被简称为“R过程”)。这一切都始于种子核，比如铁。铁原子核一开始有26个质子和大约30个中子。但在R过程中，它会在几毫秒内迅速捕获更多的中子。

The new nucleus is highly unstable because of its lopsided quantity of neutrons, so some of the neutrons will decay into protons. The result of this extremely fast, complex process is a new form of matter.

新原子核由于其中子数量的不平衡而极度不稳定，因此一些中子将衰变为质子。这一极其快速、复杂的过程的结果就是产生了一种新的物质形式。

Just think, that piece of gold on your finger—every bit of it started off in a cosmic cataclysm that is among the most violent and powerful forces in the universe. A cosmic mystery on the way to being solved, and a piece of the universe, all in the palm of your hand.

想想看，你手指上的那块金子，它的一分一毫都起源于一场宇宙大灾难，那是宇宙中猛烈、强大的力量之一。一个正待解开的宇宙之谜以及宇宙的一部分都在你的掌心。

 

重难点词汇：

theorize [ˈθiəˌraɪz] v. 作理论推定;使理论化

smush [sməʃ] v. 压碎;打碎

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