科技英语阅读考试答案

1.How common are other civilizations in the universe? This question has fascinated humanity

for centuries, and although we still have no definitive answer, a number of recent developments have brought it once again to the fore. Chief among these is the confirmation, after a long time wait and several false starts, that planet exist outside our solar system.

外星文明在宇宙中是普遍存在的吗？这个问题已经困扰了人类几个世纪。虽然我们到现在也不能给出一个确定的回答，但是最近的一些科技进展再一次把这个问题推到了风口浪尖。其中最重要的，就是经过了漫长的等待和无数错误的尝试，我们终于确认了地外行星的存在。

2.By the time the debris settled and the collective misery was tallied, the devastation had in

some respects exceeded even that of El Nino of 1982-1983, which killed 2,000 worldwide and caused about 13 billion dollars in damage.

一切尘埃落定之后，人们开始统计此次厄尔尼诺现象造成的损失。这次毁灭性的灾难造成的损失在某些方面更甚于1982到1983年间的厄尔尼诺现象，那次在世界范围内有2000余人遇难，导致的经济损失高达130亿美元。

3.The sun had set 12 minutes earlier, and twilight was waning on the northern coast of Papua

New Guinea. It was July 17, 1998, and another tranquil Friday evening was drawing to a close for the men, women and children of Sissano, Arop, Warapu and other small villages on the peaceful sand spit between Sissano Lagoon and the Bismarck Sea.

太阳在12分钟前就已经落山了，铺洒在巴布亚新几内亚北岸的暮色渐渐的减弱。那是1998年7月17日，对生活在Sissano、Arop、Warapu和其他位于俾斯麦海和Sissano泻湖之间安静的沙滩上的村庄的村民来说，只不过是又一个宁静周五傍晚即将来临。

4.To the extent that planets are necessary for origin and evolution of life, these

excitingdiscoveries certainly argue well for the widely held view that life pervades the universe.

如果说行星是生命诞生和进化的必要条件，那么这些令人振奋的发现为生命在宇宙中是普遍存在的论调提供了有力的佐证。

5.There is no specific technology, no silver bullet to extend the oil supplies. But there are sure

an awful lot of copper bullets lying around.

没有什么特别的科技，也没有什么灵丹妙药可以增加石油供给。但是，肯定有许多其他的办法等待着我们利用。

6.Many people have argued that once primitive life has evolved, natural selection will

inevitably cause it to advance toward intelligence and technology. But is this necessarily so?

That might be something wrong with this argument was famously articulated by nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950. If extraterrestrials are commonplace, he asked, where are they? Should their presence not be obvious? This question has become known as Fermi Paradox.

许多人认为一旦原始生命产生了，自然选择必定使他进化为智慧生命和科技文明。但是事实真的如此吗？这个问题已经被核物理学家恩里克·费米在1950年十分清晰的阐述了。他问道，如果地外文明是十分普遍的，那么，他们在哪儿呢？难道他们的存在没有办法观测吗？这就是著名的费米佯谬。

7.Even though the link between birds and dinosaurs is family established, the definition of

birds has become a difficult problem. The fact is that it is hard to draw a line between birds and dinosaurs that is anything other than arbitrary.

尽管鸟类与恐龙的联系已经牢牢地建立起来了，但鸟类的定义仍然是一个难题。事实上，