Secrets of the Iceberg

Look below the surface to learn about these giant islands of ice.  冰山的秘密，深入了解这些巨大的冰之岛。

What does the word iceberg make you think of ? Do you think of a large block of ice in a cold northern ocean? Or do you think of something that ships can crash into? While these are both correct, in truth there's far more to icebergs than meets the eye.

According to scientists, only the largest blocks of ice count as icebergs. They must rise at least 5 meters above the water and be 15 meters wide at the water line. But only about 10 percent of an iceberg can be seen. The rest lies hidden beneath the water.

Icebergs begin forming when layers of snow fall year after year without melting. The snow is pressed together into large blocks of ice called glaciers. When chunks of ice break off of these glaciers. icebergs are born. In Greenland alone, about 40,000 icebergs are formed each year. Since they begin as snow, icebergs are made of fresh water, not salty ocean water. Tiny bubbles of air inside the ice give them their white color.

While most icebergs are white, smoe are blue because they have melted and frozen again. This action allows the air bubbles to escape. Other icebergs have brown, block or yellow parts because of dirt mixed with the ice, Algae can also get trapped in the underwater parts of an inceberg. If the iceberg turns over, all or part of it is green!

Icebergs can be flat, cube-shaped, round like a turtle shell or U-shaped. Some even look like mountains. The large underwater parts of icebergs are hard for ships to avoid. They have destroyed and sunk many ships, including the Titanic. As a result, the International Ice Patrol now monitors icebergs in areas with heavy ship travel. But there's yet another side to icebergs. Many microscopic animals live inside icebergs and in the water around them. These creatures feed on minerals that the icebergs store and release as they melt.

Scientists are still studying all the ways icebergs affect sea life.


Writing Tips:
below the surface -
more (to somebody/something) than meets the eye.
Most time Those two idiom are used on people, it also can use on the situation.

Grammar Tips:
But there's yet another side to icebergs
"but", and "yet " is same meaning.
"yet" is a formal way for "but".
"yet another" - addressed that some additional information about something. Surprisingly, it means there is something more.
Yesterday, the bank robber have robbed yet another bank.

Vocabulary Tips:
iceberg-冰山
*The ship hit an iceberg and sank.
the tip of the iceberg.- 冰山一角。庞大问题的一小部分
*During the economic crisis, the increase of the unemployment rate is just the tip of the iceberg.
more to somebody or something than meets the eye-，关于某人或某事的事实比所见的更多更复杂
meet the eye-眼睛所看见的
*The conflicts between these two boys might look minor, but there's more to it than meets the eye.
melt-溶化，溶解，熔化。
*The ice sculpture began to melt in high temperature.
*The sugar in the iced coffee melted slowly.
melt-消失，消失无踪。
*My worries melted when I saw my kids came home safe.
escape-逃脱，此指“液体，气体的漏出或外泄。goes away, get out of it.
*The fireman checked to see if there was any gas escaping from the stove.
*Tons of oil escaped into the ocean from the damaged cargo ship.
cube-立方体，立方体的物质。
*Cut the carrots into cubes  before adding them to the soup.
*Samuel loves to drink soda with lots of ice cubes.
cube-shaped -立方体的形状。
a cube-shaped building. 立方体形状的建筑物。
destroy-毁坏，破坏，消灭。
*The bombing completely destroyed the military base.
*Large areas of rainforest were destroyed by lumbering industry.
*The hope of peace talk was destroyed by the incident at the boarder last week.
algae (n)- a plant, live in water or in a wet place.
microscopic animals -many tiny, many small creatures.
glaciers- large area of ice river, or giant piece of ice river, move very lowly to the ocean. 冰川，冰河。
chunk- pull a piece of bread from a loaf of bread, that small piece is called "chunk".


Chat Room:
ice-
break the ice-破冰，打破沉默，缓和紧张气分。一群互不认识的人在一起，玩”破冰“游戏，彼此自我介绍，打破沉默。icebreaker-破冰船，打破沉默的人或机器。
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on thin ice-在薄冰上走或溜冰。意即”要小心，不安全，走在薄冰上随时有破冰的可能而落人冰冻的水中而丧命的危险。
put something on ice -把东西放在冰上，持久保鲜。也指“事情暂后，延迟处理”，“暂时搁置”
put a project on ice -暂时搁置一项计划。

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