新概念第四册翻译笔记Lesson39

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　　【课文】

　　First listen and then answer the following question.

　　听录音，然后回答以下问题。

　　What does the 'uniquely rational way' for us to communicate with other intelligent beings in space depend on?

　　We must conclude from the work of those who have studied the origin of life, that given a planet only approximately like our own, life is almost certain to start. Of all the planets in our solar system, we ware now pretty certain the Earth is the only one on which life can survive. Mars is too dry and poor in oxygen, Venus far too hot, and so is Mercury, and the outer planets have temperatures near absolute zero and hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. But other suns, start as the astronomers call them, are bound to have planets like our own, and as is the number of stars in the universe is so vast, this possibility becomes virtual certainty. There are one hundred thousand million starts in our own Milky Way alone, and then there are three thousand million other Milky Ways, or galaxies, in the universe. So the number of the stars that we know exist is now estimated at about 300 million million million.

　　Although perhaps only 1 per cent of the life that has started somewhere will develop into highly complex and intelligent patterns, so vast is the number of planets, that intelligent life is bound to be a natural part of the universe.

　　If then we are so certain that other intelligent life exists in the universe, why have we had no visitors from outer space yet? First of all, they may have come to this planet of ours thousands or millions of years ago, and found our then prevailing primitive state completely uninteresting to their own advanced knowledge. Professor Ronald Bracewell, a leading American radio astronomer, argued in Nature that such a superior civilization, on a visit to our own solar system, may have left an automatic messenger behind to await the possible awakening of an advanced civilization. Such a messenger, receiving our radio and television signals, might well re-transmit them back to its home-planet, although what impression any other civilization would thus get from us is best left unsaid.

　　But here we come up against the most difficult of all obstacles to contact with people on other planets -- the astronomical distances which separate us. As a reasonable guess, they might, on an average, be 100 light years away. (A light year is the distance which light travels at 186,000 miles per second in one year, namely 6 million million miles.) Radio waves also travel at the speed of light, and assuming such an automatic messenger picked up our first broadcasts of the 1920's, the message to its home planet is barely halfway there. Similarly, our own present primitive chemical rockets, though good enough to orbit men, have no chance of transporting us to the nearest other star, four light years away, let alone distances of tens or hundreds of light years.

　　Fortunately, there is a 'uniquely rational way' for us to communicate with other intelligent beings, as Walter Sullivan has put it in his excellent book, We Are not Alone. This depends on the precise radio frequency of the 21-cm wavelength, or 1420 megacycles per second. It is the natural frequency of emission of the hydrogen atoms in space and was discovered by us in 1951; it must be known to any kind of radio astronomer in the universe.

　　Once the existence of this wave-length had been discovered, it was not long before its use as the uniquely recognizable broadcasting frequency for interstellar communication was suggested. Without something of this kind, searching for intelligences on other planets would be like trying to meet a friend in London without a pre-arranged rendezvous and absurdly wandering the streets in the hope of a chance encounter.

　　ANTHONY MICHAELIS Are There Strangers in Space? from The Weekend Telegraph

　　【New words and expressions 生词和短语】

　　Mercury n. 水星

　　hydrogen n. 氢气

　　prevailing adj. 普遍的

　　radio astronomer 射电天方学家

　　uniquely adv. 地

　　rational adj. 合理的

　　radio frequency 无线电频率

　　cm n. 厘米

　　megacycle n. 兆周

　　emission n. 散发

　　intersteller adj.星际的

　　rendezvous n. 约会地点

　　【课文注释】

　　1.that given a planet only approximately like our own, life is almost certain to start 这是一个宾语从句，作动词conclude的宾语，其中given a planet...our own,过去分词短语作条件状语，given与if的意思相近，这个过去分词短语可译成“如果一个行星与我们所在的行星大致相同的话”。

　　2.life is almost certain to start 那几乎肯定会产生生命。

　　3.be bound to 必然, 必定

　　例句：You are bound to feel tired after a long walk.

　　长时间步行后你必然会感到疲劳。

　　He's bound to notice your mistake.

　　他必定会觉察到你的错误。

　　4.prevailing adj. 盛行很广的, 普遍的

　　例句：Your price is out of line with the prevailing international market.

　　你方价格与现行世界市场行情不一致。

　　He wore his hair in the prevailing fashion.

　　他的头发梳的是当时盛行的发型。

　　5.is best left unsaid 不去说(它)

　　6.come up against 遇到，突然(或意外)，碰到(困难、反对等)

　　例句：He often came up against the problem of money.

　　他那时常常碰到钱的问题。

　　We expect to come up against a lot of opposition to the scheme.

　　我们预计这个计划要遭到很多人反对。

　　7.reasonable adj.

　　①合理的,

　　例句：The management took all reasonable safety precautions.

　　管理部门采取了一切合理的安全措施。

　　All you need is reasonable doubt.

　　你所需要的是合理怀疑。

　　②通情达理的,

　　例句：You are fortunate to have such a reasonable father.

　　你有这样一位通情达理的父亲，真是幸运。

　　③公平适度的

　　例句：At first sight their demands seemed reasonable.

　　乍看之下,他们的要求似乎公平合理。

　　8.emission n.

　　①散发

　　例句：In addition, wetland soils are known for methane emission, a greenhouse gas.

　　此外,湿地散发沼气这种温室气体,是人所共知的。

　　②发行

　　例句：The limitless emission of foreign currencies has an serious influence on the

　　country's economy.

　　外汇的无限制发行严重影响了该国的经济。

　　③排放

　　例句：Emission of smoke from chimneys is an offense.

　　在这里排放烟雾是违法的事情。

　　9.absurdly wandering the streets in the hope of a chance encounter 荒唐得在街上

　　游逛，以期碰巧遇上一样。

　　10.absurdly

　　例句：For there was never proud man thought so absurdly well of himself, as the lover

　　doth of the person loved; and therefore it was well said, That it is impossible to

　　love, and to be wise.

　　因为甚至最骄傲的人，也甘愿在情人面前自轻自贱。所以古人说得好：“就是神在

　　爱情中也难保持聪明。”

　　11.wander v. 漫步，闲逛，徘徊

　　例句：I like to wander in the park after dinner.

　　我喜欢晚饭后在公园里闲逛。

　　The boy was wandering around.

　　男孩在那周围徘徊。

　　He likes to wander over the countryside.

　　他喜欢在乡间漫步。

　　The river wanders through some beautiful country.

　　这条河蜿蜒曲折地流经一些风景秀丽的乡村。

　　12.encounter

　　①n.意外的相见, 邂逅, 遭遇

　　例句：If both participate, it may be an actual encounter of bodiless consciousness.

　　如果是双向的，这会是一个真实的与灵魂的相见。

　　②v. 遇到，偶然碰到，遭遇

　　例句：Otherwise, we will encounter grave difficulties.

　　否则便将遇到极大的困难。

　　I encountered an old friend at Rome.

　　我在罗马邂逅了一个老朋友。

　　Don't be afraid to encounter risks.

　　不要害怕遭遇危险。

　　【参考译文】

　　根据研究生命起源的人们所作的工作，我们必然会得出这样的结论：如果设想有一颗行星和我们地球的情况基本相似，那几乎肯定会产生生命。我们目前可以肯定的是，在我们太阳系的所有行星中，地球是生命能存在的行星。火星太干燥又缺氧，金星太热，水星也一样。除此之外，太阳系的其他行星的温度都接近绝对零度，并围绕着以氢气为主的大气层。但是，其他的太阳，既天文学家所说的恒星，肯定会有像我们地球一样的行星。因为宇宙中恒星的数目极其庞大，所以存在着产生生命星球的这种可能性是肯定无疑的。仅我们的银河系就有1000亿颗星，况且在宇宙中还有30亿个天河，即银河系。因此，我们所知道的现有恒星数目估计约有30亿X1000亿颗。

　　虽然在已经产生生命的某个地方，可能只有1%会发展成高度复杂有智力的生命形态，但是行星的数目是那么庞大，有智力的生命必然是宇宙的自然组成部分。

　　既然我们如此坚信宇宙中存在着其他有智力的生命，那么我们为什么还未见到外层空间来访的客人呢?首先，他们可能在几千年前或几百年前已来过我们地球，并且发现我们地球那时普遍存在着的原始状态同他们的先进的知识相比是索然无味的。美国一位重要的射电天文学家罗纳德.布雷斯韦尔教授在《自然》杂志上提出了这样的观点：假如有如此高级文明生命访问了我们的太阳系，很可能会在离开太阳系时留下自动化信号装置，等待先进文明的觉醒。这种自动化信息装置，在接收到我们的无线电和电视信号后，完全有可能把这些信号发回到原来的行星。至于其他文明行星对我们地球会有什么印象，还是不说为好。

　　然而，在和外星人联系中我们遇到的困难是分隔我们的天文距离。据合理推算，外星人离我们平均距离也有100光年之远(1光年是光以每秒186，000英里的速度在一年内走的距离即6万亿英里)。无线电波也是以光速传播的。假定外星人的这种自动化信息装置接收了我们二十世纪二十年代的第一次广播信号，那么这个信号在发回到原来的行星途中刚刚走了一半路程。同样，我们目前使用的原始化学火箭，虽然把人送入轨道，但尚不能把我们送到离我们最近、相距4光年的其他星球上去，更不用说几十光年或几百光年远的地方了。

　　幸运的是，有一种我们可以和其他智力生命通迅联系的“合理的方法”，正如活尔特.沙利方在其杰作《我们并不孤独》中阐述的。这种通迅联系要靠21厘米波段，即每秒1420兆周的精确无线电频率。这个频率是空间氢原子释放的自然频率，是在1951年被人类发现的。这个频率是宇宙中任何射电天文学家都应该熟悉的。

　　一旦这种波长的实际存在被发现，提出把它作为星际间可辨认的广播频率就为期不远了。没有这手段，要想寻觅其他星球上的智力生命，就如同去伦敦见一位朋友，事先未约定地点，而荒唐地在街上游逛，以期待碰巧遇上一样。

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