高三英語主題閱讀材料3---地球與宇宙

1、高三英語主題閱讀材料3地球與宇宙 / 6高三英語主題閱讀材料3 地球與宇宙 / 6主題： the earth and the universe編寫：莘莊中學(xué)AIn it s 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 s

2、ay the planet already bas begun the log process of devolving into a burned-out cinder, eventually to be swallowed by the sun.By their reckoning, Earth s “ day in the sun ” has reached 4:30 a.m., corresponding to its 4.5billion-year age. By 5 a.m., the 1 billion-year reign of animals land plants will

3、 come to an end. At 8 a.m. the oceans will vaporize. 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.“ Thedisappearance of

4、 our plane is still 7.5 billion years away, but people really should consider the fate of our world and have a realistic understanding of where we are going.id UW”astrophysicist Donald Brownlee. “ Welive in a fabulous place at a fabulous time. It ashealthy thing for people to realize what a treasure

5、 this is in space and time , and fully appreciate and protect their environment as much as possible.”The prospects of humans surviving by moving to some other habitable planet or moon aren good, Brownlee and Ward contend, because event if such a place were found, getting there would be a huge obstac

6、le. Various probes sent into space could survive Earthand just a f ews demise,grams of material could arguably carry a DNA sample from every human, they say, but it slikely the human species itself will survive. Long before the planet s final end, life will becomquite challenging, and finally imposs

7、ible, for humans.As the sun gets 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 t

8、he chemical bonds between molecules 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 sun s glow woluiklde btheat of Earth s moon.That end is still some 7.5 billion years distant, but

9、 by then Earth will have faced a variety of “ ends ” along the way, the authors say. The dinosaur perished long aog. 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.“ it s a healthy thing go think of the place o

10、f Earth among the other planets, and its place in the sun. The sun gave life and ultimately it will bring death.”Word Bankevolve v. 進(jìn)展 , 進(jìn)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.* evo

11、lution n. 進(jìn)化 , 發(fā)展 , 演變 theory of evolution 進(jìn)化論reckon v. 計(jì)算 , 認(rèn)為 , 估計(jì)e.g. We didnt reckon for such bad weather.Did you reckon in the cost of the taxi?contend v.競爭，爭斗，爭辯，堅(jiān)決主張e.g. A hundred schools of thought contend.Three armed groups were contending for power.perish v.毀滅，消失，腐爛e.g. We must plan our ci

12、vilization or we must perish.Even the best quality rubber will perish with age.ultimately adv.最后，最終e.g. All wealth comes ultimately from human laboraccording 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 yearsIt can be

13、 inferred from this passage that.A. life is nothingB. the world is preciousC. man can never conquer natureD. the future of human species is gloomyThe authors if the new book believe that the human species will.disappear long before the disappearance of the EarthSurvive in the universe even if the Ea

14、rth disappearsFind a place to live after the disappearance of the EarthBe sent into space by various spacecraftsAll of the following things would come to an end before the final end of the earth, exceptA. Mars B. animals C. plants D. oceans5.The authors of the new book intend to tell readers primari

15、ly that.the Earth is nothing but one planet in the solar systemnothing can survive for everwe should cherish our life and environment of Earththe 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. predicted G. analysiswatch

16、ing 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 combingthrough scans of 150,000 stars, and evidence of

17、 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, Gor K - will have planets similar to Earth.Traub says, “ Abouto

18、ne-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, andwhether they would be within the habitable zone. Traubs analysis hints that there may be even more 4Earths orbiting them

19、than previously thought - and that this principle wouldextend to stars not yet scanned by Kepler. MSome commenters felt that Traubs habitable zones were too 5, it included planetsshrouded in icy clouds of carbon dioxide.The $600 million Kepler spacecraft, which was 6 in March 2009, is staringcontinu

20、ously 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 telltaledips in brightness which may indicate a planet is 8 its path.Sophisticated sifting software is used to send the data to earth-bound scie

21、ntists, who scour the results. As Kepler continues to scan, data - and analyses such as Traubs paper - will continue to become more 9.Word bankorbiting observatory n.天文臺，氣象臺，了望臺projection n.投影，投射，規(guī)劃，發(fā)射terrestrial adj.陸地的，陸生的，地球的shroud v.用某物覆蓋或遮蔽某物telltale 跡象scour v.擦洗，搜尋KEY: GFECB AHIDA. probablyB.

22、goesC. SupposeD. everywhereE. givenF. whichG. civilizationsH. asI. estimatesJ. possibilityCThe Fermi ParadoxBack in 1950, the Nobel prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi was having lunch with friends.Conversation turned to the 1 of extraterrestrial life.According to the popular story, Fermi fell sile

23、nt for a moment and then asked the simple but profound question:Where Is Everybody? That question is now known as the Fermi Paradox.A version 2 like this. There are a few hundredbillion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Suppose even half those stars have planets.Then suppose only one or two of, say, te

24、n planets per star is conducive to the formation of life, _3 is the case with our own solar system. Suppose life takes a billion years to get started,as happened on earth. _4 the evolution of higher life forms takes another couple billionyears, as it did here.None of that would matter. The Milky Way

25、 galaxy is around ten billion years old. Even with very conservative 5, it should still be swarming with life -even intelligent life. The lateCarl Sagan calculated that there should be something like a million advanced_6 out thereright now.So where are they? Tabloid stories aside, there s no scienti

26、fic evidence from any corner tosuggest we aren t alone in the Milky Way. But why not? The evidence should be_7.That s Fermiparadox. It has nothing to do with whether you believe in flying saucers or not.It s a simple estimation: _8 what we know about our star, our planet, and how life evolvedhere, w

27、e can extrapolate to what _9 happens elsewhere. And yet: there s no sign of aliencivilizations.Something must have gone wrong in our thinking. But what? More next time.Word bankParadox n.悖論，似非而是的論點(diǎn)，自相矛盾的話extraterrestrial adj. 地球（或其大氣圈）外的，行星際的swarming adj.成群移動(dòng)的，擠滿的extrapolate v.推測,推知key: JBHCI GDEADL

28、aunching 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 in 2004, many scientists were disappointed. Now the agency has finally offered some small

29、 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. Such a device would look back at the early universe to the time when large-scale structures

30、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 atmosphere. Moreover by pointing the telescope away from the din of shorter-wavelength radio waves

31、 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 map the magnetic fields of stars and exoplanets (planets that circle stars outside the solar

32、 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 surrounding an Earth-like exoplanet would prove a promising sign for finding extraterrestri

33、al 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 10ng and contain 16 antennae. Each arm would be made of a plastic film that could be rolled out onto the surfac

34、e 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 wind a stream of charged particles ejected from the sun - interacts with the tenuous lunar atmosphere close to the moons surface. Such bo

35、mbardment 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 Soviet Luna missions in the late 1960s and 1970s. Some 35 years on, reflectors placed

36、 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 equator. The proposals, led by Stephen Merkowitz, also of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Cent

37、re, 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 shuttle Endeavour this week. Nevertheless, when NASA argues that putting people into

38、space inspires young people to study science, it is precisely these endeavours that it wishes to encourage.By “ Launching people into space may make headlines but it does little useful science paragraph 1), the author means.Launching people into space is very important.Newspaper only cares about whe

39、ther humans can travel into space.Humans trvel to outside space is against scientific rules.Lauching peple into space is not of great scientific value.The most distinctive feature of a lunar-based radio telescope mentioned in the second paragraph高三英語主題閱讀材料3 地球與宇宙 / 6is that .it is able to capture lo

40、ng wavelengthsit possesses better functions than the telescopes on earthit can escape from the magnetic field of the Earthit can detect all galaxies in the universeHow does the author feel about the four new moon plans?A. Objective B. Affirmative C. Carefree D. PanickedWhich of the following is NOT a feature of the last two projects discussed in the fourth paragraph?The two projects are o