高三英语主题阅读材料3地球与宇宙

1、主题：the earth and the universe编写：莘庄中学 AIn its 4.5 billion years, Earth has evolved from its hot, violent birth to the celebrated watery blue planet that stands out in pictured from space .But in a new book, two noted University of Washington astrobiologists say the planet already bas begun the log pr

2、ocess of devolving into a burned-out cinder, eventually to be swallowed by the sun.By their reckoning, Earths “day in the sun” has reached 4:30 a.m., corresponding to its 4.5 billion-year age. By 5 a.m., the 1 billion-year reign of animals land plants will come to an end. At 8 a.m. the oceans will v

3、aporize. At noon-after 12 billion year-the ever-expanding sun, transformed into a red gain, will engulf the planet, melting away any evidence it ever existed and sending molecules and atoms that once were Earth floating off into space.“The disappearance of our plane is still 7.5 billion years away,

4、but people really should consider the fate of our world and have a realistic understanding of where we are going.” Said UW astrophysicist Donald Brownlee. “We live in a fabulous place at a fabulous time. Its a healthy thing for people to realize what a treasure this is in space and time , and fully

5、appreciate and protect their environment as much as possible.”The prospects of humans surviving by moving to some other habitable planet or moon arent good, Brownlee and Ward contend, because event if such a place were found, getting there would be a huge obstacle. Various probes sent into space cou

6、ld survive Earths demise, and just a few grams of material could arguably carry a DNA sample from every human, they say, but its not likely the human species itself will survive. Long before the planets final end, life will become quite challenging, and finally impossible, for humans.As the sun gets

7、 hotter and grows in size, it will envelop Mercury and Venus. It is possible it will stop just short of Earth, the authors say, but the conditions still would make this a most inhospitable planet. More likely, though, the sun will consume earth as well, severing all the chemical bonds between molecu

8、les and sending its individual atoms out into space, perhaps eventually to form new planes. That would leave Mars as the nearest planet to the sun, and on Mars the fading suns glow would be like that of Earths moon.That end is still some 7.5 billion years distant, but by then Earth will have faced a

9、 variety of “ends” along the way, the authors say. The dinosaur perished long ago. Still to come are the last elephant, the last tree, the last flower, the last glacier, the last snowflake, the last ocean, the last life.“its a healthy thing go think of the place of Earth among the other planets, and

10、 its place in the sun. The sun gave life and ultimately it will bring death.”Word Bank1. evolve v.进展,进化,形成 e.g. He has evolved a new theory after many years of research.Many Victorians were shocked by the notion that Man had evolved from lower forms of life.* evolution n. 进化,发展,演变 theory of evolutio

11、n 进化论2. reckon v.计算,认为,估计 e.g. We didnt reckon for such bad weather.Did you reckon in the cost of the taxi?3. contend v.竞争,争斗,争辩,坚决主张e.g. A hundred schools of thought contend.Three armed groups were contending for power.4. perish v.毁灭,消失,腐烂 e.g. We must plan our civilization or we must perish.Even t

12、he best quality rubber will perish with age.5. ultimately adv.最后,最终e.g. All wealth comes ultimately from human labor1. according to the new book, the life expectancy of the Earth is _. A. 1 billion years B. 4.5 billion years C. 7.5 billion years D. 12 billion years2. It can be inferred from this pas

13、sage that_. A. life is nothing B. the world is precious C. man can never conquer nature D. the future of human species is gloomy3. The authors if the new book believe that the human species will_. A. disappear long before the disappearance of the Earth B. Survive in the universe even if the Earth di

14、sappears C. Find a place to live after the disappearance of the Earth D. Be sent into space by various spacecrafts4. All of the following things would come to an end before the final end of the earth, except_. A. Mars B. animals C. plants D. oceans5.The authors of the new book intend to tell readers

15、 primarily that_. A. the Earth is nothing but one planet in the solar system B. nothing can survive for ever C. we should cherish our life and environment of Earth D. the sun gave life and ultimately it will bring death.key: D,B,A,A,CBA. launched B. generous C. potential D. accurate E. detected F. p

16、redicted G. analysis H. watching I. crossing J. demonstratedThe Kepler orbiting observatory was launched with a simple mission - to find other Earths. NASA describes it as a search for habitable planets. And _1_of its first 136 days of data has already begun - with scientists combing through scans o

17、f 150,000 stars, and evidence of 1,235 potential planets. Such information is fascinating in itself - but it also allows scientists to work out projections using statistical analysis. One analysis has _2_that one-third of sun-like stars - stars with the classification F, G or K - will have planets s

18、imilar to Earth. Traub says, “About one-third of FGK stars are predicted to have at least one terrestrial, habitable-zone planet.” Traub used statistical analysis to predict planets that had not been _3_by Kepler, and whether they would be within the habitable zone. Traubs analysis hints that there

19、may be even more _4_Earths orbiting them than previously thought - and that this principle would extend to stars not yet scanned by Kepler. M Some commenters felt that Traubs habitable zones were too_5_, it included planets shrouded in icy clouds of carbon dioxide. The $600 million Kepler spacecraft

20、, which was_6_ in March 2009, is staring continuously at a patch of sky containing about 150,000 stars in the Cygnus constellation. The high-tech equipment analyses each stars light every 30 minutes, _7_for telltale dips in brightness which may indicate a planet is _8_its path. Sophisticated sifting

21、 software is used to send the data to earth-bound scientists, who scour the results. As Kepler continues to scan, data - and analyses such as Traubs paper - will continue to become more_9_. Word bank1. orbiting observatory n.天文台,气象台,了望台2. projection n.投影,投射,规划,发射3. terrestrial adj.陆地的,陆生的,地球的4. shro

22、ud v.用某物覆盖或遮蔽某物5. telltale迹象6. scour v.擦洗,搜寻KEY: GFECB AHIDA. probablyB. goesC. SupposeD. everywhereE. givenF. whichG. civilizationsH. asI. estimatesJ. possibilityCThe FermiParadoxBack in 1950, the Nobel prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi was having lunch with friends. Conversation turned to the_1

23、_ofextraterrestriallife. According to the popular story, Fermi fell silent for a moment and then asked the simple butprofoundquestion: “Where Is Everybody?” That question is now known as the FermiParadox. A version_2_ like this. There are a few hundred billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Suppose

24、even half those stars have planets.Then suppose only one or two of, say, ten planets per star is conducive to the formation of life, _3_is the case with our ownsolarsystem. Suppose life takes a billion years to get started, as happened on earth. _4_the evolution of higher life forms takes another co

25、uple billion years, as it did here.None of that would matter. The Milky Way galaxy is around ten billion years old. Even with very conservative_5_, it should still be swarming with lifeeven intelligent life. The late Carl Sagan calculated that there should be something like a million advanced_6_ out

26、 there right now.So where are they? Tabloid stories aside, theres no scientific evidence from any corner to suggest we arent alone in the Milky Way. But why not? The evidence should be_7_.Thats Fermisparadox. It has nothing to do with whether you believe in flying saucers or not. Its a simple estima

27、tion: _8_what we know about our star, our planet, and how life evolved here, we can extrapolate to what _9_happens elsewhere. And yet: theres no sign of alien civilizations.Something must have gone wrong in our thinking. But what? More next time.Word bank1. Paradox n.悖论,似非而是的论点,自相矛盾的话2. extraterrest

28、rialadj.地球(或其大气圈)外的,行星际的3. swarming adj. 成群移动的, 挤满的4. extrapolate v.推测,推知key: JBHCI GDEADLaunching people into space may make headlines but it does little useful science. So when George Bush redirected Americas space agency, NASA, away from scientific research and towards a manned return to the moon

29、 in 2004, many scientists were disappointed. Now the agency has finally offered some small morsels of comfort in the form of four projects that could accompany efforts for a lunar return.The most exciting of these is the plan for a radio telescope that could be placed on the far side of the moon. Su

30、ch a device would look back at the early universe to the time when large-scale structures such as galaxies and stars formed. A lunar-based radio telescope would be able to detect long wavelengths that cannot be sensed on Earth because they are absorbed by the outermost layers of the planets atmosphe

31、re. Moreover by pointing the telescope away from the din of shorter-wavelength radio waves that are used for communication on Earth, astrophysicists would be able to see the early universe in unprecedented detail.Finding alien life might also be possible with such a telescope. It would be able to ma

32、p the magnetic fields of stars and exoplanets (planets that circle stars outside the solar system). It is the magnetic field of the Earth that protects its inhabitants from being bombarded by high-energy particles from space that would otherwise leave the planet sterile. Detecting a magnetic field s

33、urrounding an Earth-like exoplanet would prove a promising sign for finding extraterrestrial life. The proposal, led by Joseph Lazio, of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, is to create an array of three arms arranged in a Y-shape, each of which would be 500 metres long and contain 16 a

34、ntennae. Each arm would be made of a plastic film that could be rolled out onto the surface of the moon, either by robots or by astronauts.A second project, headed by Michael Collier, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, would examine how the solar winda stream of charged particles ejected from

35、the suninteracts with the tenuous lunar atmosphere close to the moons surface. Such bombardment produces low-energy X-rays that would be detected on the surface of the moon. The third and fourth projects are similar both to each other and to earlier ventures dropped on the moon by the Apollo and the

36、 Soviet Luna missions in the late 1960s and 1970s. Some 35 years on, reflectors placed on the lunar surface are still used by scientists interested in geophysics and geodesy (for example, how the moons gravitational field shifts over time). Most of the reflectors are clustered close to the lunar equ

37、ator. The proposals, led by Stephen Merkowitz, also of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Centre, and Douglas Currie, of the University of Maryland, are to sprinkle some more sophisticated versions over more of the moons surface.Such efforts may attract little attention compared with the launch of the space

38、 shuttle Endeavour this week. Nevertheless, when NASA argues that putting people into space inspires young people to study science, it is precisely these endeavours that it wishes to encourage.1. By “Launching people into space may make headlines but it does little useful science” (Line 1, paragraph

39、 1), the author means _.A. Launching people into space is very important.B. Newspaper only cares about whether humans can travel into space.C. Humans travel to outside space is against scientific rules.D. Lauching peple into space is not of great scientific value.2. The most distinctive feature of a

40、 lunar-based radio telescope mentioned in the second paragraph is that _.A. it is able to capture long wavelengthsB. it possesses better functions than the telescopes on earthC. it can escape from the magnetic field of the EarthD. it can detect all galaxies in the universe3. How does the author feel about the four new moon plans?A. Objective B. Affirmative C. Carefree D. Panicked4. Which of the following is NOT a feature of the last two projects discussed in the fourt