[英语学习]lesson 6 Life Beyond Earth

1、life beyond earth joel achenbach joel achenbach joel achenbach is an american staff writer for the washington post and the author of six books, including the grand idea, captured by aliens, and three compilations of his syndicated newspaper column why things are (now defunct). he wrote a monthly sci

2、ence column for national geographic magazine and has been a commentator on national public radios morning edition. his writing has been featured in the 2007 word- a-day calendar. he graduated from princeton university in 1982 with an a.b. degree in politics. he often makes a point of noting that dur

3、ing his freshman year, he lived next door to david duchovny. achenbach lives in washington, d.c., with his wife and three daughters. for more information about joel achenbach and his writings, please refer to http:/ purpose of the article to show the readers that fantasy after all is fantasy and our

4、 first order of business is to improve ourselves and our world. his concern is with the problems of this world. organization paras. 1-2 : the emergence of life para. 3: what else is alive out there? para.4-10: search for life para.11-23: search for intelligence para.24-42：mars. para.43-45: dysons ar

5、gument para.46-52: conclusion paragraph 1 the author begins the article in the way of announcing a very important event: “something astonishing has happened in the universe”, which would immediately arouse the readers attention and curiosity. life life, refers to plants and animals the difference be

6、tween life and other forms of matter is that the former is living thing while the latter is inorganic. life has a way of being obvious,.absolute terms. it is not difficult to determine whether a thing has a life or not, but when it comes to giving a clear, complete, satisfactory definition to “life”

7、, people find it extremely difficult. in at least one instance, life has become profoundly self- aware. one instance: human beings only human life can be conscious of its own identity. at least: so far we only know of one instance-human life that can think, but maybe there are more instances elsewhe

8、re in the universe. para.3 transition: leading to life beyond earth. that kind of life: life similar to human life there may be to an answer. tantalizing: arousing desire or expectation for something unattainable or mockingly out of reach, intriguing but elusive at the turn of the new millennium, on

9、e may not find anything which is scientifically unknown to human beings so intriguing and yet so difficult to answer as the issue of extraterrestrial life. scenario n. (电影、戏剧等的)剧情说明; 脚本 (行动的)方案, 纲要; (对可能出现的情 况的)描述, 推测 absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. the fact that we do not have evide

10、nce showing there is life beyond earth does not mean we can come to the conclusion that there is actually no life beyond earth. chiasmus. our ideasought-to-bes. plausible:好象有道理的, 似乎可能的, 似乎真实的, 似乎可信的 嘴巧的, 善于花言巧语的 plausibility arguments: reasons which appear to be convincing but which may not be true

11、random out-to-bes : possible things which are chosen without specific aim plausible the plausible rogue took george down over that bargain. 那个花言巧语的流氓在那笔交易中欺骗了乔治。 such talk, however plausible, is actually specious and groundless. 这些话，讲起来好像有道理，实际上是毫无根据、似是而 非的空谈。 this might be a plausible hypothesis we

12、re it not for two factors. 假如不存在下面两个因素，这可能是一种合理的假设。 he cast about in his mind for some plausible excuse for not turning up at the meeting. 他心里在盘算，想找一个什么说得过去的理由来解释他为 什么没有到会。 hunch 预感, 直觉 i have a hunch that something is going to happen. 不知道为什么，我总感到要出什么事 似的。 such an uncertainty may prevent you from ac

13、ting on your hunch. 这个不明确因素可能阻挠你凭直觉行 动。 使隆起 he sat with his shoulders hunched up. 他耸起双肩坐着。 the enveloping nebula of uncertainties the cloud of gas and dust obscures things; as a result, it is unclear what has been wrapped up in the cloud of gas and dust, what is inside the enveloping nebula. infuse

14、vt. 灌输, 加入(一种特性) vt. in other words, if microbes can survive in places in this world without air or sunlight or in places extremely hot, then they might exist in other planets with similar conditions, such mars. full-scale invasion humor investigation is compared to invasion with one scientific inst

15、rument after another landing on mars, it is like the landing of an invasion army. harbor 隐匿；窝藏；包庇 harboring criminals is an offense in law. 窝藏罪犯是犯法的。 心怀，怀有 to harbor evil thoughts 心怀恶意 we shouldnt harbor any unrealistic notions about the talks on the so-called disarmament. 我们不应对所谓的裁军谈判抱有任何不切实际的想法。 h

16、e harbors a wish to be a world championship. (喻) 他内心怀有当一名世界冠军的愿望。 something large, intelligent, and communicative alien intelligence as a sign of civilization yield 生出, 出产; 产生 that apple tree yields plenty of apples. 那棵苹果树结出很多 苹果。 yield capacity 生产 能力 让给; 让渡; 放弃(权 利, 地位等) 承认; 同意 被迫放弃 交出; 投降 not yiel

17、d a step 一步也不让 they yielded the fortress to the enemy. 他们把要塞放弃给了 敌人。 no one knows when-or if- one of. when: indicates time, showing that it might come or if: shows the doubt what are the reasons that sustain the search for alien organism？ the universe looks to be a place suitable for the existence o

18、f life if that is the case, life will give out signs of its existence and these can be detected residue: the matter that remains imprint: a lasting effect echo epochal and culturally challenging epochal: historical, an entirely new period in human history, first time to communicate with a civilizati

19、on from another planet in the universe culturally challenging: the alien civilization might be totally different and much more superior to our civilization settle for to accept or allow something, especially something not entirely desirable 满足于 hell settle for any kind of work. exobiologists would s

20、ettle for the discovery because that would suggest that life could exist somewhere else in the universe extraterrestrial life according to the believers: not microbial ,not slimy, but intelligent, technological, lurking in our midst capable of eluding detection and confirmation ets are not a bogus p

21、henomenon: people who believe in the existence of space aliens would not accept the argument that ets are imitations of human beings for the purpose of deceiving bogus: deceit, fraud, 伪造的 bogus certificate 伪造的证件 bogus government 伪政府 slimy 粘性的, 泥浆状的; 泥泞的 口谄媚的; 可鄙的; 讨厌的 a slimy road 泥泞的路 a slimy manne

22、r 奉承的态度 true believers and skeptics rarely go over to the other side. neither those who genuinely believe that space aliens are lurking in our midst not those who firmly reject such an idea are likely to change their views and join the other side. lack scientific stature stature: high level of respe

23、ct gained by impressive development or achievement 才干, 高境界, 高水平 身高, 身材 lack scientific stature: people have never really seen the object, the physical shape of aliens; have never reached scientific credibility. if they insist on being so jumpy natural history museum. in that way, they lack scientifi

24、c recognition and their presence has never been verified. so they belong to science fiction or fantasy and cannot be regarded as an object of scientific research. abduct the robber abduct the heiress and hold her to ransom. 强盗劫持了女继承人并向她索取赎金。 the kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大

25、门口被绑架走了。 the aliens arewith human beings. starting from modern scientific knowledge people try to use their imagination to create aliens, but people also borrow from ancient stories to imagine that aliens would like to come to this world and meddle with human beings. in other words aliens are the pr

26、oducts of not only modern science and technology but also ancient culture and folk stories. extrapolation: arriving at the conclusion by hypothesizing from known facts or observations外推法,推断 ancient urge mess with concede vt. （勉强）承认 让与， 容许； 放弃 俚【体】失（局） he finally conceded defeat. 他最终承认了失败。 after the

27、first world war germany conceded its neighbors much valuable land. 第一次世界大战后， 德国让与其邻国许多宝贵的领土。 they have conceded us the right to cross their land. 他们已容许我们经过他们的土地。 concede to (sb.) 对（某人）让步 what is the fermi paradox? since space aliens would presumably have the ability to come, why havent they? four po

28、ssibilities: 1. the zoo hypothesis 2. they come and go away, leaving behind artifacts. 3. interstellar travel proves too expensive and time-consuming. 4. we are the most technologically advanced species, at least in this galaxy. humans could theoretically colonize the galaxy in a million years or so

29、, and if from our points of view, with the development of science and technology, it is possible for us to conquer the galaxy. but it has not been realized. so it is only possible in theory. humans in the past had been interested in colonizing this world. when they have a chance , they would coloniz

30、e the galaxy. the author here is satirizing human greed and desire for power. older civilization: used to make fun of human pomposity. why did lowell think that the martians would certainly have to be superior to people on earth? a. their globe-spanning engineering projects appeared technologically

31、superior; b. if they could live harmoniously over the whole of the planet, it would show they had a more advanced character it is a criticism of the wars and conflicts among people on earth. the martians, alas, were doomed, except as cultural artifacts. alas,: used to show the tone of regret in a mo

32、cking way cultural artifacts: used to connect the previous paragraph to show that the martians weapons, their canals do not exist at all, they are only something created by humans mind. mars .reminiscent of the moon reminiscent: . a forceful colorist whose idiom was reminiscent of cezanne 一个追求塞尚风格的优

33、秀配色师 this hotel is reminiscent of the one we stayed in last year. 这家旅馆使我联想起我们去年住过的那一家。 a house designed in an architectural style reminiscent of the one prevalent in the american colonies just before and during the revolution. 殖民时代建筑一种房屋，设计类似于北美革命时期流行于 北美殖民地的建筑风格 though the mission.a two-decade funk

34、. fantastic triumph vs. two-decade funk the landing of the viking landers showed that scientist could build instruments, make surveys and send back information on mars. all these are great achievements. the survey showed that there was no life on mars, which wiped out peoples previous expectation an

35、d illusion. it was a strong blow that for twenty years exobiology could not recover from. para. 28: what brought about the change of mood? a. biologists discovered organisms living in difficult environments similar to conditions on other planets. this again interest in looking for life in the rest o

36、f the solar system. b. when life began on earth, mars was much more habitable than it is today so perhaps life might have been brought to earth aboard a meteorite form mars. might civilizations come from mars to earth? everyone realized the historical gloryof being wrong. everyone knew that if what

37、appeared to be microfossils were confirmed to be such, then the discovery would be of historic significance, but if they proved to be something else, the adverse effect that followed would be equally dramatic. purport i find it difficult to understand the purport of his speech. 我发现要了解他的演讲主旨是很困难的。 th

38、e purport of this line is to advise you that we have completed the building of our new factory. 兹通知本公司新建工厂业已落成。 in contrast, a shadow director does not claim or purport to act as a director. indeed, he claims not to be a director. 相比之下，影子董事不但不表明自己是董事，他甚至否认自己是董事。 based upon this name, their contempor

39、aries, purported experts in the field of matrimonial etiquette, wrote that it would only be fitting that the wedding ring be worn on this finger. 在此名称的基础上，他们的同时代人，那些号称婚姻礼仪方面的专家们写 道：结婚戒指只适合戴在这只手指上。 reciprocal reciprocal trade; reciprocal respect; reciprocal privileges at other clubs 互惠贸易；互相尊重；在其它俱乐部的

40、相互 的特权 reciprocal agreements to abolish customs duties; a reciprocal invitation to lunch. 关于取消关税互惠的协定；互邀共进午餐 risk is the reciprocal of safety 相反的 tarnish 玷污, 败坏 his bad behavior has tarnished the good name of the school. 他行为不轨, 败坏了学校的声誉。 n. 污点, 瑕疵, 无光泽 moisture leads to the tarnish of the silverware

41、. 湿气使得银器毫无光泽。 dissent when i asked for agreement there was no dissent. 我要求表决通过时，没有人表示异议。 i think nobody will dissent from the governments policy. 我认为没人会对政府的政策持异议的。 congenial i met few people congenial to me in that city. 我在那个城市没有遇到几个意气相投的。 the companionship of individuals in a congenial atmosphere a

42、nd on equal terms 单独的个人在志趣相投的氛围下和平等的基础上进行的交际 the congenial singers laid back demeanor is at odds with his current wired state. 他惬意地靠在沙发靠背上的姿势与他目前这种兴奋的状态不 怎么一致。 ive never met anyone. . the second time around. no one i have met believes that if evolution on earth were to take place a second time, a hu

43、man being who is genetically similar to us would be the result of such evolution. in other words, another evolution would produce something different from the current human beings. bioastronomy also has its more down- to-earth side. bioastronomy is meant to deal with life in space but here these scientists are dis