听力文本

It's like a giant tape measure, dividing an entire mountain into a series of 23,000 year divisions.
整座山峰宛若巨大的卷尺，每个岩层刻度代表了2.3万年的时光。
Rampino then fitted the layer of rock containing the evidence of the extinction into this pattern of cycles.
接着Rampino将保有大灭绝证据的岩层放到这类周期岩层中进行研究。
It covered less than half a cycle, 8,000-10,000 years, far faster than anyone had thought possible.
发现它的厚度连周期岩层的一半都不到，只有8000-10000年，比人们估计的快了许多。
What this tells me is that the mass extinction took place in an astonishingly short period of time,
这说明大灭绝只是发生在很短的一段时期内，
less than 10,000 years and possibly instantaneously.
还不到1万年，几乎就是一瞬间。

This means that that mass extinction was catastrophic.
也就是说这场大灭绝绝对是灾难性的。
To have destroyed so much of life so quickly, the killer must have been extraordinarily violent.
能如此迅速地杀死这么多生物，这个杀手必然十分厉害。
Rampino could think of only one thing it could be.
Rampino认为事实只可能是一种情况。
A mass extinction that happens at less than 10,000 years is very abrupt.
持续时间不到1万年的大灭绝事件是非常突然的。
It fits the picture of a large impact at the end of the Permian.
这说明二叠纪末期发生了一次陨石大冲撞。
Rampino was now convinced a huge meteor had slammed into the earth 250 million years ago.
Rampino认为，2亿5千万年前，一块巨大的陨石撞上了地球。
Shockwaves would have raced around the globe instantly killing everything within hundreds of miles.
冲击波席卷全球，瞬间杀死了数千英里范围内的所有生物。

视频及简介

如今，我们的世界生机盎然，随处可见活着的生灵。那么请想象一下所有这些生命有95%在一瞬间遭到了毁灭。这不是虚构的故事，它确实发生过。就在3亿年前的二迭纪，地球上还是一片丰饶繁荣的景象，然而2亿5千万年前的一场神秘事件导致了95%的物种灭绝，称为二迭纪生物大灭绝。这个凶残的杀手究竟是谁？是剧烈的地质运动、气候灾变，还是来自外太空的天体碰撞？为此，科学家们展开了一系列调查，试图解开“地球劫难日”惨剧背后的真相。