Level 1 Reading 4A

Ch.7

第7章

Reading 4A LIFE BEYOND EARTH? Is there intelligent life on other planets besides Earth? For years, scientists weren't sure. Today, this is changing. Seth Shostak and Alexandra Barnett are astronomers. They believe intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. They also think we will soon contact these beings. Why do these astronomers think intelligent life exists on other planets? The first reason is time. Scientists believe the universe is about 12 billion years old. According to Shostak and Barnett, this is too long a period for only one planet in the whole universe to develop intelligent life. The second reason is size—the universe is huge. Tools such as the Hubble Telescope have shown that "there are at least 100 billion ... galaxies," says Shostak. And our galaxy—the Milky Way—has at least 100 billion stars. Some planets that circle these stars might be similar to Earth.

阅读4A 地球以外的生命？ 除了地球，其他行星上还有智慧生命吗？ 多年来，科学家们一直不确定。 今天，这种情况正在改变。 赛斯·肖斯塔克和亚历山德拉·巴内特是天文学家。 他们相信智慧生命存在于宇宙的其他地方。 他们还认为我们很快就会联系到这些生物。 为什么这些天文学家认为其他行星上存在智慧生命？ 第一个原因是时间。 科学家们认为宇宙大约有120亿年的历史。 肖斯塔克和巴内特认为，对于整个宇宙中只有一颗行星能够发展出智慧生命来说，这段时间太长了。 第二个原因是宇宙的大小——宇宙是巨大的。 肖斯塔克说，哈勃望远镜等工具表明“至少有1000亿个星系”。 我们的银河系至少有1000亿颗恒星。 围绕这些恒星运行的一些行星可能与地球相似。

Looking for Intelligent Life Until recently, it was difficult to search for signs of intelligent life in the universe. But now, powerful telescopes allow scientists to identify many more small planets— the size of Mars or Earth—in other solar systems. If these planets are similar to Earth and are close enough to a star, they might have intelligent life. Making Contact Have beings from outer space already visited Earth? Probably not, says Shostak. The distance between planets is too great. Despite this, intelligent beings might eventually contact us using other methods, such as radio signals or flashes of light. In fact, they could be trying to communicate with us now, but we may not have the right tools to receive their messages. This is changing, however, says Shostak. He predicts that we will make contact with other life forms in our universe within the next 20 years.

寻找智能生活 直到最近，在宇宙中寻找智慧生命的迹象还很困难。 但现在，强大的望远镜使科学家能够识别更多的小行星-- 火星或地球的大小——在其他太阳系中。 如果这些行星与地球相似，并且离恒星足够近，它们可能有智慧生命。 联系 来自外太空的生物已经访问过地球了吗？ 肖斯塔克说，可能不会。 行星之间的距离太远了。 尽管如此，智能生物最终可能会使用其他方法与我们联系，例如无线电信号或闪光。 事实上，他们现在可能正试图与我们沟通，但我们可能没有合适的工具来接收他们的信息。 然而，肖斯塔克说，这种情况正在发生变化。 他预测，在未来20年内，我们将与宇宙中的其他生命形式接触。

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