BBC News Review: World's largest telescope


source: BBC Learning English    2016年9月20日
The world's largest radio telescope has been built in China. It is the size of 30 football fields and may even be able to detect alien life! Find out more with Neil and Sian as they look at how the world's media is reacting and the words you need to talk about the story.
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The story
China has completed the installation of the world's largest radio telescope. The last panel was fitted into the centre of the giant dish located on a remote mountain in the South Western province of Guizhou.
Celia Hatton - BBC News
It's difficult to overstate the size of China's new radio telescope. With a diameter of 500 meters, it equals 30 football fields. Or, as one of its creators explains, if the dish-like telescope was filled with wine, every individual on earth - about seven billion people - could drink about five bottles from it. The radio telescope will function like a giant ear, detecting sounds from far-off galaxies. Scientists say the new instrument will explore distant places like never before, finding new stars and even searching for alien life.

Key words and phrases:
giant / massive / gigantic: very big
extraterrestrial: from outside planet Earth
eavesdrop: secretly listen to a conversation