Ⅰ.阅读
“IF ALIENS are so likely, why have we never seen any?”That is the Fermi Paradox(悖论)—named after Enrico Fermi, a physicist who posed it in 1950.
Fermi’s argument ran as follows.The laws of nature supported the appearance of intelligent life on Earth.Those laws are the same throughout the universe.The universe contains zillions of stars and planets.So, even if life is unlikely to arise on any particular astronomical body, the sheer abundance of creation suggests the night sky should be full of alien civilizations.Fermi wondered why aliens had never visited the earth.Today, the paradox is more usually cast in light of the inability of radio-telescope searches to detect the equivalent(相等的)of the radio waves that leak from Earth into the universe, and have done for the past century.
Thinking up answers to this apparent contradiction has become something of a scientific parlour(客厅)game.Perhaps life is really very unlikely.Perhaps the priests are right: human beings were put on Earth by some creator God for his own unknown purposes, and the rest of the universe is merely background scenery.Perhaps there are plenty of aliens, but they have decided that discretion is a safer bet than gathering together.Or perhaps galactic(银河的)society avoids communicating with Earth specifically.One frightening idea is that technological civilizations destroy themselves before they can make their presence known.They might blow themselves up after inventing nuclear weapons (an invention that, on Earth, Fermi had been part of),or cook themselves to death by over-burning fossil fuels.
In a paper published last month on arXiv, an online repository(文献库),a group of three astronomers at Pennsylvania State University have analyzed the history of alien hunting and come to a different conclusion.In effect,they reject one of the paradox’s main pillars.Astronomers have seen no sign of aliens, argue Jason Wright and his colleagues, because they have not been looking hard enough.
1.What is the Fermi Paradox?
A.The law of universe supported the appearance of aliens but we never see any.
B.A theory about whether aliens exist on the earth and why we can’t see them.
C.Fermi thought that aliens never existed because it was completely a paradox.
D.Fermi concluded that aliens did exist but they could not be seen by humans.
2.What can we conclude from the second paragraph?
A.The universe doesn’t provide the abundance of creation of life.
B.Fermi thought aliens never visited the earth in the history of human.
C.The inability of radio-telescope may result in the failure of finding aliens.
D.The civilizations on the earth have been detected by aliens in the universe.
3.What does the word underlined in the third paragraph mean?
A.Getting together. B.Fighting each other.
C.Hating each other. D.Living separately.
4.How do Jason Wright and his colleagues find the Fermi Paradox?
A.They firmly believe that it is out of date.
B.They actually doubt the base of the paradox.
C.They want to prove that it is completely right.
D.They conclude that aliens actually never exist.
语篇解读:这是一篇夹叙夹议的文章。文章主要讲了许多科学家怀疑费米悖论的内容。
答案及剖析:
1.A 细节理解题。根据第一段“IF ALIENS are so likely, why have we never seen any?”That is the Fermi Paradox(悖论)—named after Enrico Fermi, a physicist who posed it in 1950.(“如果外星人有可能存在,为什么我们从来没有见过任何外星人?”这就是费米悖论——以1950年提出它的物理学家恩里科费米命名。)由此可知宇宙法则支持了外星人的出现,但我们从来没有看到过,故选A。
2.C 推理判断题。根据第二段Today, the paradox is more usually cast in light of the inability of radio-telescope searches to detect the equivalent(相等的) of the radio waves that leak from Earth into the universe, and have done for the past century.(今天,这个悖论通常是由于射电望远镜无法探测到过去一个世纪以来,从地球传到宇宙的无线电波),由此可知射电望远镜的失灵,可能导致寻找外星人的失败,故选C。
3.D 词义猜测题。根据第三段Perhaps there are plenty of aliens, but they have decided that discretion is a safer bet than gathering together(也许有很多外星人,但他们认为分开住比聚在一起更安全),可知划线部分是“分开住”的含义,故选D。
4.B 细节理解题。根据最后一段In effect, they reject one of the paradox’s main pillars.Astronomers have seen no sign of aliens, argue Jason Wright and his colleagues, because they have not been looking hard enough.(实际上,他们拒绝接受悖论的主要理论支柱之一。Jason Wright和他的同事们认为,天文学家们之所以没有找到外星人,是因为他们没有尽力去找),故选B。
