英语专业泛读4Unit2Text-ALettertoBeagle(withnotes).docx

A Letter to BeagleDear Beagle,Greetings from Earth! Im writing this to you on behalf of all the thousands - maybe even millions by now - of people around the world who are following your mission closely, and nervously awaiting your arrival at Mars. We all just want to wish you good luck and to let you know that were thinking of you as you prepare to fly free for the first time. Theres another reason for writing though. Youre a long way from home now. In fact, youre over 70 million miles away from Earth now, so far away that if you asked MARS EXPRESS to pan pan / pn; pn/ v (-nn-) (cinema or broadcasting 影或播) (a) Tn, Tn.pr move (a camera) to the right or left to follow a moving object or to show a wide view （为拍摄动景或全景）向右或向左移动（摄影机）. (b) I, Ipr (of a camera, etc) move in this way （指摄影机等）移动拍摄: The shot panned slowly across the room. 镜头慢慢移动拍摄房间全景.around and look over its shoulder its cameras would see that Earths just a blue star off to one side of the Sun. But please dont ask it to do that, dont do anything which might cause any problems. Not when so much is at stakeat stake to be won or lost; being risked, depending on the outcome of an event 在胜败关头; 冒风险: This decision puts our lives at stake. 这麽一决定, 我们的生命就吉凶难卜了. * Our childrens education is at stake. 我们孩子的教育好坏无法预料. Thats the real reason why Im writing to you - to let you know just how important what youre about to do is. To understand just how important your mission is, you first have to understand something about us, your creators. For we humans, back here on Earth, most days are roughly the same. We get up, go to work, have lunch, come home again, and go to bed. When we turn off the light at the end of the day, the world is no different to the way it was when we woke up. But some days are different and rare: days when something happened which meant nothing would ever be the same again. There must have been a single, magical moment on one day, thousands of years ago, when the secret of making fire was discovered. When that first flickering flickerI (of a light or flame) burn or shine unsteadily （指灯光或火焰）闪烁, 摇曳: All the lights flickered for a moment. 所有的灯都闪了一会儿.tongue of flame licked up from inside a pile of twigstwig twign. small thin branch that grows out of a larger branch on a shrub or tree 细枝; 嫩枝, Im sure they sensed somehow, somewhere deep inside, that nothing would ever be the same againMany thousands of years later, when Galileo turned his crude crudenot well finished; not completely worked out; rough 粗陋的; 未完成的; 粗糙的: a crude sketch, method, approximation 粗略的草图 方法 估计telescope on the night sky for the first time in 1610. The cataracts cataract ktrktlarge steep waterfall （大而陡的）瀑布. (medical 医) (a) disease in which the lens of the eye becomes cloudy, causing partial or total blindness 白内障.of ignorance were suddenly removed from our eyes; we could see clearly for the first time. We were not the centre of everything after all.When Einstein looked at that deceptively-short equation E=mc2E=mc2 英文读法E equals M C squred.Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.(能量=质量*光速的平方) the Universe smiled proudly, thinking that maybe, just maybe, the human race was smart enough to survive its coming of nuclear age after all.Three and a half centuries after Galileo saw the first spots on the face of the Sun, Man created the first artificial Sun, releasing the awesome power of the atom by exploding the first atomic bomb, and as the first mushroom blossomed blossom: (of a tree or shrub) produce blossom （指树木）开花: The cherry trees blossomed early this year. 樱桃树今年开花早.upwards, the Universe sighed, and shivered shiver v. tremble, esp from cold or fear 颤抖: She shivered at the thought of going into the dark house alone. 她想到要独自走进那所黑洞洞的房子里去就不寒而粟. * shivering all over with cold 冷得浑身发抖.with dreaddread：great fear; terror 恐惧; 畏惧.When Neil Armstrong placed his boot on the dusty surface of the Moon, he didnt merely take one small, meek meek / mik; mik/ adj (-er, -est) humble and obedient; submissive 温顺的; 驯服的: Shes as meek as a lamb. 她像羔羊般温顺.step, he kicked open the doors of the Universe and led us boldly through them. On that day our millenniamillennium / mlenm; mlnm/ n (pl -nia / -n;-n/ or s) C period of 1000 years 一千年-long exile exile / eksal; zal/ n U being sent away from ones native country or home, esp for political reasons or as a punishment; forced absence 流放; 放逐; 充军:be/live in exile 於流放中过流放生活 on Earth was finally over. The stars, our true home, called callto ask sb to come by shouting or speaking loudly 召唤；呼唤to us at last.All these are days on which the Universe changed. And the next might be mere weeks away. But thats up to you. Youre part of a small fleet of spacecraft closing-in onclose in (on sb/sth) (a) come nearer and attack from several directions 从四面八方逼近并攻击: The enemy is closing in (on us). 敌人从四面八方（向我们）逼近. (b) surround or envelop sb/sth 围绕或笼罩某人某事物: Darkness was gradually closing in. 暮色渐渐降临.sports故意冲撞 Mars. You are all explorers, ambassadors from three different countries, travelling to Mars in peace, to look for life, not to extinguish extinguish ikstiwi (fig fml 比喻, 文) end the existence of (hope, love, passion, etc) 使（希望 爱情 激情等）不复存在it. And the first to land will be you.Right now youre riding piggyback piggyback adv. & adj.On the shoulders or back背负,肩扛: ride piggyback; a piggyback ride. My father carried me up the hill, piggyback.to the Red Planet on the side of the European Space Agencys MARS EXPRESS, but soon youll be flying free for the first - and last - time, a spacecraft in your own right finally. So, enjoy this quiet period, because youre due to plummet plummet v I, Ipr, Ip fall steeply or rapidly 大坡度或快速落下: House prices have plummeted in this area. 此地房价大跌.through Mars thin atmosphere and land on its dusty surface in the early hours of Earths Christmas Day, ten whole days before the first of the two US Mars Exploration Rovers roverOne that roves; a wanderer.which are racing up behind you. A lot of people back here have very high hopes for you! Your 20th century predecessorspredecessor/pridses(r); US pred-; prdss/ n person who held an office or position before sb else 前任, Viking Vikingeither of two American space probes sent to Mars in 1975, each of which consisted of a lander that conducted experiments on the surface and an orbiter（年美国向火星表面发送的）海盗号探测器and PathfinderPathfindera US government space programme in which NASA sent a spacecraft without people inside to Mars in 1997 in order to find out more information about the planet 探路者, were bigger and more expensive than you too, but dont you let that worry or intimidate intimidate /intimideit/frighten sb (in order to make him do sth) 恐吓, 威胁you. You may only be small, barely larger than a bicycle wheel, but compared to them youre an elegant marriage of origami origami /rigmi/ the Japanese art of folding paper to make attractive objectsand engineering, far more like a pocket-watch than a robot, youre going to earn more pages in the astronomy history books than Viking and Pathfinder put together. Because youre going to eclipse eclipse v Tn 1 (of the moon, the sun, a planet, etc) cause an eclipse of (sth); cut off the light from （指月 日 行星等）形成（某种）蚀; 使.的光消失: The sun is partly eclipsed (by the moon). 太阳（被月球）遮住一部分（日偏蚀）. 2 (fig 比喻) make (sb/sth) appear dull by comparison; outshine 使（某人某事物）相形见绌; 使黯然失色: He is eclipsed by his wife, who is much cleverer and more amusing than he is. 他妻子比他聪明而有风趣, 显得他黯然失色.their achievements. If you find signs of life beneath the ruddy reddish 发红的; 淡红色的: a ruddy glow in the sky 天空的红光surface of Isidis PlanitiaIsidis Planitia is a plain located inside a giant impact basin on Mars, centered at 1254N 8700E12.9N 87.0E. It is the third biggest impact structure on the planet after the Hellas and Argyre basins it is about 1500 km in diameter. Due to dust coverage, it typically appears bright in telescopic views, and was mapped as a classical albedo feature, Isidis Regio, visible by telescope in the pre-spacecraft era.The Beagle 2 lander was about to land in the eastern part of Isidis Planitia in December 2003 when contact with the craft was lost. Just to the west of Isidis is Syrtis Major, a low-relief shield volcano that is also a prominent dark albedo feature of Mars, which formed after the basin.Around the Isidis basin magnesium carbonate was found by MRO. This mineral indicates that water was present and that it was not acid. Life may have formed in this area. The name Isidis Planitia follows the earlier name Isidis Regio (Isis Region). Isis is the Egyptian goddess of heaven and fertility., it will be a day to stand alongside those enjoyed by Galileo, Einstein and Armstrong. If your instruments detect a single living bacterium, or even a trace of the remains of extinctextinct (esp of a type of animal, etc) no longer in existence （尤指某种动物等）不再存在的; 绝种的; 灭绝的: an extinct species 已灭绝的物种, ancient Martian life, it will send a shock wave through both the scientific community and our races consciousness and self-perception that will spread outwards like a tsunami, pulverising pulverize, pulverise / plvraz; plvraz/ v Tn (infml or joc 口或谑) destroy or defeat (sb/sth) completely 彻底粉碎或摧毁（某人某事物）: He pulverized the opposition with the force of his oratory. 他能言善辩把对方驳得体无完肤.every theory in its path. Not only that, but you could fire the starting gun for a new Space Race, with a manned mission to Mars as the finishing line. If you find life on the Red Planet, no scientist worthy of his or her white coat will be content with quietly studying your photos or readings on a monitor. Theyll want more detailed data, and of the type and volume that could only be gathered by their own hands.When they eventually get there theyll almost surely make a pilgrimage pilgrimage pilrimida journey to a place which is considered special, and which you visit to show your respect:For many football fans, the national ground is a place of pilgrimage.to your landing site, maybe therell be a museum built around you, and children born on Mars will come and see you on school trips as part of a history lesson.But thats for the future. Why are you there now? Why is finding life on Mars so damned important to us?Because without the discovery of life elsewhere we humans are left with the frightening and depressing possibility that we are flukesfluke / fluk; fluk/ n (usu sing 通常作单数) (infml 口) thing that is accidentally successful; lucky stroke in a game 侥幸的成功; （在比赛中）侥幸击中: Passing the exam was a real fluke he didnt work for it at all. 他考试及格实在是侥幸, 因为他根本没下过功夫. * That shot was a sheer fluke. 那完全是靠侥幸击中的. , that Mankind is just a ridiculous galactic galactic / glktk; lktk/ adj of a galaxy or the Galaxy 星系的; 银河系的.accident. The birth of life on Earth might simply have been induced by a fork of lightning stabbing down from a boiling, stormy sky into a comet-clouded puddlepuddle / pdl; pdl/ n C small pool of water, esp of rain-water on the road 水坑; （尤指道路上的）雨水坑. We could be the result of a cosmic cosmic/kzmk; kzmk/ adj usu attrib 通常作定语 of the whole universe or cosmos 宇宙的: Physics is governed by cosmic laws. 物理学受宇宙法则的制约.chemical spill. If thats the case, then similar spills may have occurred on other worlds too. Perhaps the recipe for life is commonly-available across the curved, star-dusted arms of the Milky WayMilky Way银河Milky Way galaxy 银河系, and whenever we look up at a starry sky were gazing out at a sea of suns which have shone down on civilisations as advanced as our own - perhaps far more advanced. But we just dont know. And we wont know unless and until we find life somewhere Else. Until then our minds wont be able to rest. Thats why we sent you so far from home. We now know that the Sun is just one of two hundred billion suns in the Milky Way, and that for every one of those stars theres another galaxy out in space. We now know that there are as many galaxies in the Universe as there are snowflakes in a blizzardblizzard / blzd; blzd/ n severe snowstorm 暴风雪, each of them possibly home to tens of thousands of civilisations. Assuming that in all the immensity of space, there is only one galaxy with a life-bearing world floating in its star-frothfroth fr, frmass of small bubbles, esp on the surface of a liquid; foam 泡（尤指液体表面上的）; 泡沫, and that that world is Earth, is arrogant arrogant rntshowing too much pride in oneself and too little consideration for others 傲慢的; 自大的beyond belief! Yet we still have no proof to the contrary. Refusing to be downhearted by their failure to detect radio signals from alien civilisations, SETI SETI =Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence 寻找外太空星球智慧生命计划scientists back here on Earth constantly remind each other that Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence, and thats certainly true. It is also true, however, that until we hear even a single, plaintive plaintive / plentv; plentv/ adj sounding sad; sorrowful（听起来）哀伤的; 悲哀的: a plaintive cry, melody, voice, etc beep coming from Out There then we are Alone. But that might all be about to change. We may be just months, possibly only weeks away from one of those days when the Universe changes, forever. But thats up to you. Have you ever wondered where your name came from? Well, you were actually named after a sailing ship called Beagle, which carried a very famous scientist on a voyage of discovery just as exciting as yours. Charles Darwin travelled fewer miles than you, its true, but his discoveries transformed our understanding of life, as we hope yours will soon, too. So, little Beagle, as you speed towards Mars, know that we are watching, and waiting, counting off the hours to your arrival you carry our hopes and dreams. W