By Neil Bowdler, BBC News

媒體英語(yǔ)會(huì)帶大家一起學(xué)習(xí)BBC撰稿人在報(bào)道世界大事時(shí)常用到的單詞和短語(yǔ)。

背景：科學(xué)家們打算首次嘗試深鉆地殼直至其下部的地幔。這些科學(xué)家們將從太平洋底部開始鉆探，以測(cè)試這次行動(dòng)的可行性。他們稱深鉆至地幔的嘗試或?qū)⒃?018年開始。

They've selected prospective sites under the Pacific Ocean where the crust is at is thinnest - just six kilometres.

Dr Damon Teagle of the UK's National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, is leading the quest. He likens the bid to the retrieval of Moon rocks by the Apollo programme and says samples from the mantle will tell us how our planet was formed and how it's changing.

Dr Teagle says: "Just as the Moon rocks told us about the composition of the Moon and how that relates to the early formation of the Earth itself, so will these samples as well."

Next month, the team will begin abid to drill nearly two kilometres down through the ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica. They say an attempt to reach the mantle could begin as early as 2018, funds and technology permitting.

Neil Bowdler, BBC News