▍课程导读
1月31日晚，被媒体称为“152年一遇”“错过就等下辈子”的奇观——“超级蓝血月”(super blue blood moon)上演。但是，什么是“超级蓝血月”？超级月亮（supermoon）：月亮处于其轨道的近地点之时，显得比平时要大一些——每年平均4-6次；蓝月：一个月出现的第二次满月——平均两三年一次；血月：即月全食，地球挡住了月亮之后，太阳光折射到月球表面，形成暗红色的月亮——血月确实是比较少见。一句话总结，超级蓝血月就是"一个月内第二次满月时，出现了大一点的月全食”。其实，这三种现象分开来看并不稀奇，但如果三种现象一起同时出现，就是百年难遇的奇观了。
注：本节讲解后半段，Mat 老师分享了6个月亮小常识。请小伙伴们认真学起来，长知识必备哦~
本篇课程首发于2018年2月5日
难度系数：★★☆☆☆ 无用系数：★★☆☆☆
▍原文
DON'T CALL IT A BLOOD MOON. OR SUPERMOON. OR BLUE MOON
①介绍出现超级蓝血月现象
①LAST WEDNESDAY, HUMANITY was treated to a celestial 【天上的，天空的】feast 【宴会】for the eyes: A supermoon (meaning it was relatively close to Earth), but also simultaneously a blood moon (it was orange or red), but also simultaneously a blue moon (the second full moon in one calendar month), it passed in the shadow of Earth, for a total lunar eclipse月蚀. It looked awesome.
②-⑤ 如何定义？
②But supermoon? Blue moon? Blood moon? Hang on, let's think about these names.
③So we saw a "blood" moon. But … hold on. This term has been made popular by religious zealots【狂热分子】 that keep proposing that it's the end of the world. The term has been around for centuries, even the Bible says something about a blood moon. Many things can make the moon look red: forest fires, for instance, or a volcanic eruption. It's never blood though, and so far it's never signaled 【发出信号】the end of the world.
④The next term, the supermoon, is kind of problematic 【a 有问题的】as well. A supermoon is, I'm sorry to say, really not all that super. The supermoon that we saw on January 31 was the second "supermoon" of the year and it'll be followed by 12 more this year.
⑤Now, the third: the blue moon, which means there's two full moons in a month, but this really depends on where you happen to be on Planet Earth, because one person's 'blue moon' is another person's 'not a blue moon'. In one time zone you might get two full moons in a month, in another time zone that same month might only get one full moon. The moon didn't invent the calendar—humans did.
⑥-⑦ 总结
⑥So, what happened last Wednesday? A total lunar eclipse, it was orange or red or even brownish褐色的. Call it that, a beautifully breathtaking【令人激动的】 total lunar eclipse.
⑦It was visually【形象上的】 gorgeous, I took pictures of it. It almost certainly wasn't the end of the world.
▍生词好句
① the end of the world: if we say "sth. is not the end of the world", then it might feel like a bad situation at this moment, but it will not cause very serious problems. So we use "it's not the end of the world" for saying that sth. is maybe not as serious as you think it is to tell someone that a problem is not as bad as it seems. 塞翁失马焉知非福
② I'm sorry to say: it means the information I'm giving you might be a little bit disappointing or negative. 说不好的消息时会用这个短语
③ this depends on where you happen to do sth.: (举例讲解) Everyone says London is a beautiful city but this really depends on where you happen to live in London. (Meaning some parts are nice, some parts are not so nice.) 视情况而定
④ one man's X is another man's Y: There's a famous English expression, "One man's meat is another man's poison." The expression was first written by the Roman poet Lucretius, and the original meaning is a situation where two people disagree over something. So we use "one man's meat is another man's poison" to emphasise that different people like different things. 两人有不同的观点
▍6 fun moon facts
1. The moon seems larger when it's nearer the horizon. 在地平线附近月亮会变得更大
2. The moon is moving away from the Earth at the rate of 4 centimeters a year. 月亮以4光年的速度远离地球
3. The full moon makes people go crazy and do strange things. Except, they don't. 满月不会让人变得疯狂和做奇怪的事（这只是故事而已）
4. The moon doesn't orbit / spin around the Earth; it travels with the Earth and revolves around the sun. 月亮不绕着地球转，它跟地球一样绕着太阳转
5. There are moon trees on Earth. 地球上有moon trees
6. The moon could possibly solve Earth's energy problems. 月球会解决地球的能源问题