In The Heart Of The Sea： Preface _ Part2

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Then came the prodigious task of transforming a dead whale into oil: ripping off its blubber, chopping it up, and boiling it into the high-grade oil that lit the streets and lubricated the machines of the Industrial Age. That all of this was conducted on the limitless Pacific Ocean meant that the whalemen of the early nineteenth century were not merely seagoing hunters and factory workers but also explorers, pushing out farther and farther into a scarcely charted wilderness larger than all the earth’s landmasses combined.

Prodigious adj. 異常的
rip off ph. 剝去
blubber n. 鯨油 v. 大聲哭
chop verb. 砍
chop up ph. 砍了
high-grade n. 優質
lit v. 點燃
lubricated v. 潤滑
industrial adj. 工業的
conduct v. 組織 / 引領
limitless adj.無限制的
sea-going n. 遠洋的
scarcely adv. 幾乎沒有
chart n. 航海 ( 線 ) 圖
wilderness n. 荒野
landmasses n. 陸地