考研

　　2022考研英语复习要抓紧，尤其是英语阅读占得分值会比较多。考研英语阅读能力想提升，还需要考生不断地日积月累阅读文章才能进步！文都网校考研小编为大家分享2022考研英语经济学人：地球之外是否存在生命？希望能帮助到大家~【文末领资料】　

　　2022考研英语经济学人：地球之外是否存在生命？

　　The search for ET may soon yield an answer

　　外星生命的探索或将很快得到答案

　　Most scientific research has practical ends. But some still pursues goals better described by the field’s original name: “natural philosophy”. One of its mostphilosophical questions is, “Is there life elsewhere in the universe?”

　　大多数科学研究都出于实用目的。但有些科学研究仍适合用科研领域最初的名称——“自然哲学”来描述。其中最具哲学性的一个问题是，“地球之外是否存在生命?”

　　It is philosophical for two reasons. One is its grand sweep. If there is life elsewhere, particularly of the intelligent sort, that raises the question of whether humans might ever encounter it, or its products.

　　之所以说它是个哲学问题，原因主要有两点。其一，该问题涉及广度之大。如果说宇宙中其他地方存在生命(尤其是智慧生命)，这将引出另一个问题：人类是否会与之(或与它们所制造的东西)相遇。

　　If there is not—if all the uncountable stars in creation waste their light on sterile, lifeless worlds—then life on Earth must be the result of a stroke of the most astronomically improbable good luck.

　　如果说地球之外不存在生命(即宇宙中不计其数的恒星将它们的光热挥洒在了毫无生机、死气沉沉的世界)，那么地球上生命的诞生一定是宇宙史上的一个奇迹。

　　As Arthur C. Clarke, a science-fiction author, is reputed to have said: “Two possibilities exist. Either we are alone in the cosmos or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

　　正如科幻小说家亚瑟·克拉克所说：“有两种可能，人类要么孤独地生存在宇宙中，要么不是。而这两种可能都细思极恐。”

　　The other reason the question is philosophical is that there has, historically, been too little evidence to settle it. Arguments about life in the cosmos must extrapolate from a single example that is itself poorly understood.

　　该问题具有哲学性的另一个原因在于，从历史角度来看，能用来解决这一问题的证据太少了。有关宇宙中存在生命的论点仅仅是从一个我们本身知之甚少的例子推断而来的。

　　Biologists still lack a bulletproof theory of how earthly life began. Other planets are far away and hard to study. That leaves room for all sorts of theories. Perhaps life is rare.

　　对于地球生命的起源，生物学家目前仍未得出一个确凿的理论。其他星球离我们太远，我们很难对其进行探索。这就为各种理论的发展留下了空间。

　　Perhaps it is common, but intelligence is not. Or perhaps even intelligent life is common, but the technology that lifts it up ends by destroying it (a popular line of thinking after the development of nuclear weapons).

　　也许生命是极其罕见的。或者生命很普遍，而智慧生命却很少见。亦或智慧生命也很普遍，只不过推动生命发展的技术最终会给生命带来毁灭(这是在核武器得到发展后流行的一种想法)。

　　This paucity of data will soon change. A variety of telescopes and spacecraft are, or soon will be, looking for signs of life in places ranging from the moons and planets of the solar system to other stars in Earth’s corner of the Milky Way.

　　数据匮乏的情况将很快得到改善。从太阳系中的各种卫星和行星到银河系中靠近地球的其他恒星，各种各样的望远镜和航天器正在或即将开始四处探寻生命的迹象。

　　In particular, this search will employ powerful telescopes to try to find chemical signatures of life in the atmospheres of planets orbiting stars other than the sun.

　　尤其是，我们正在使用更为强大的望远镜，试图在围绕非太阳恒星运行的行星的大气中寻找生命的化学特征。

　　An alien astronomer looking at Earth, for instance, would be struck by the persistence of both oxygen and something that it reacts with in the atmosphere, and might conclude—correctly—that living organisms were responsible for keeping them there.

　　这就好比外星天文学家在观察地球时，会被大气中持续存在的氧气及与之发生反应的物质所震惊，并(准确地)推断出一个结论，地球上存在生命。

　　An unambiguous detection of alien life would count as one of the momentous discoveries in the history of science. Exactly what would happen next would depend on what was found.

　　找到能证明外星生命的确切证据将成为科学史上的一个重大发现。接下来会发生什么将取决于所发现的情况。

　　News of a “biosignature” on a planet dozens of light-years away would shake the world. It would be strong evidence that life is indeed common in the cosmos. That conclusion could upend humanity’s understanding of its place in the universe.

　　几十光年之外的行星上存在“生命特征”的消息将会轰动世界。这将成为证明宇宙中普遍存在生命的有力证据。这一结论也将颠覆人类对于自身在宇宙中所处地位的认识。

　　重难点词汇：

　　philosophical [ˌfɪləˈsɑːfɪkl] adj. 哲学的

　　sterile [ˈsterəl] adj. 不育的;无菌的;贫瘠的

　　extrapolate [ɪkˈstræpəleɪt] v. 外推;推断

　　paucity [ˈpɔːsəti] n. 缺乏;少数;少量

　　unambiguous [ˌʌnæmˈbɪɡjuəs] adj. 不含糊的;明确的

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