阅读试题

If our solar system has a Hell. it's Venus. The air is choked with foul and corrosive sulfur. heaved from ancient volcanoes and feeding acid clouds above. Although the second planet is a step farther from the sunthan Mercury, a runaway greenhouse effect makes it hotter indeed. It's the hottest of the nine plants, a toasty 900 degrees Fahrenheit of baking rocky flats from equator to poles. All this under a crushing atmospheric pressure 90 times that of where you're sitting now. From the earthly perspective, a dead end. It must be lifeless.

"Venus has nothing," is the blunt word from planetologist Kevin Zahnle of NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. "We've written it off. "

Yet a small group of advanced life-forms on Earth begs to differ. and theorizes that bizarre microbial ecosystems might have once populated Venus and. in fact. may be there still. Members of this loose band of researchers suggest that their colleagues have water too much on the brain, and are, in a sense, H2O chauvinists（盲目的爱国者）．

"Astrobiologists are neglecting Venus due more io narrow thinking than actual knowledge of the environment,or environments. where life can thrive." says Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a geobiologist at the University of Texas at El Paso who recently co-authored a Venus-boosting paper in Astrobiology wich colleague Louis Irwin.

The bias against life on Venus is partly rooted in our own biology. Human experience instructs that liquidwater, preferably lot of it. is essential for life. In search for extraterrestrial life, we obsess over small rivers in Mars' surface apparently carved by ancient gushes of water. and delight in hints of permafrost (永久冻结带) just underneath its surface. (By comparison. Venus isn't even that interesting to look at:A boring cue ball (台球的白色母球) for backyard astronomers, its clouds reflects 75% of visible light.) Attention and then funding follow the water: Three more landers will depart for Mars this spring. and serious plans for sample-return missions hover in the midterm future.

"If you have limited resources, you base exploration on what you know." says Arizona State University planetary geologist Ronal Greeley. It's like losing your keys on the way home al night: The first place you look is under the streetlights not because they're more likely to be there. but because if they are. you’llspot them. For astrobiologists. the streetlights are the spectral (光谱的) lines for water. and they've spotted that potential on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa. even Neptune's moon Triton. Not on the baking rocky flats of Venus.

参考译文

如果我们的太阳系里真有地狱的话，那一定是金星。那里的空气充满着肮脏的带有腐蚀性的硫磺气味，硫磺从古老的火山上发出，并在上空形成了酸云。[1]/[4]虽然金星（离太阳第二近的行星）不如水星那么靠近太阳，但是温室效应的肆虐使它更热。它是九大行星中最热的一个，高速华氏900度的高温烘烤面包那样烘烤着从赤道到两极的岩石表面。而这里的大气压力是你现在坐着的地方的90倍。从地球的角度来看，这里确实是一个绝境。这里一定没有生命。

加州硅谷美国太空总署Ames研究中心的行星学家Kevin Zahnle直言！“金星上什么都没有，我们已经把它剔除到有生命的星球范围之外了。”

然而，一个研究地球高级生命形式的小团体表示“恕不同意”，并从理论上说金星上可能一度曾经存在过奇特的微生物生态系统，事实上，这个系统可能仍然存在着。[3]这个组织不太紧密的研究团体的成员指出，那些行星学家一定是脑袋进了太多的水了，某种意义上，他们太盲目认为水是生命存在的基本条件。

[5]一位来自 E1 Paso得克萨斯大学的地球生物学家Dirk Schulze-Makuch和他同事Louis Irwin合作写了一篇关于推动金星探索的论文，发表在刊物《天体生物学》里。他说：“天体生物学家忽略金星的原因，与其说是因为缺乏适合生命成长的环境方面的知识，不如说是因为思维狭隘。”

[2]对于金星上没有生命的看法，一部分源于我们自己的生物学知识。人类的经验指出，液态水是生命的基本，而且水越多越好。在寻找外星生命时，我们着迷于火星上的河流遗迹，那明显是由古老的水流留下的；我们对于在火星表面以下找到永久冻结带的线索而感到高兴。（相比之下，金星连看起来都没那么有趣：对天文爱好者来说，它就像是一个台球台上的母球一样单调沉闷，它的大气云层反射了75%的可见光。）找到水的遗迹后，接着就是对火星的关注及资助研究资金的提供：这个春季再有3辆火星车将离开地球，飞向火星；把火星上的样品带回地球的计划也很快要开始。

亚利桑那州立大学行星地质学家Ronal Greeley说：“如果你的资源有限，你只能在你现有知识的基础上做出探索。”这好比你在夜里回家的路上丢失了钥匙：你先找的地方是有街灯的地方，不是因为钥匙更可能在那里，而是因为如果要是真在那里，你就能看到。对于天体生物学家来说，水的光谱线的作用就如街灯，显示了火星、木卫二，甚里海卫一上有生命的可能。但是在金星高温的岩石表面却没有找到水的光谱。

测试题

1. Venus is the hottest of all the nine planets in the solar system because_____________.

A) it is not so close to the sun as Mercury
B) many volcanoes spread the whole planet
C) it is covered by a thick layer of cloud

D) greenhouse effect is uncontrollable on it

2. Some planetologists believed there had never been lives on Venus because____________.

A) they couldn't find any trace of water on it
B) they found Venus is too hot for any Jives
C) Venus is covered by dirty and poisonous cloud

D) Venus is the second nearest planet to the sun

3. It can be inferred from the passage that the small group of advanced lifeforms on Earth believed that_____________.

A) life could exist in hot environment
B) life could exist without water
C) there are still lives on Venus

D) There used to be lives on Mars

4. What do we learn from the passage about Venus and Mars?

A) The atmospheric pressure of Venus is stronger than that of Mars.
B) Venus attracts more attention and funding than Mars.
C) Venus is closer to the sun than Mars.

D) Venus looks more beautiful than Mars.

5. The purpose of the co-authored paper by Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Louis Irwin was to_______.

A) introduce their findings about Venus
B) promote the exploration of Venus
C) convince others that there used to be lives on Venus
D) criticize omer scientists that they are narrow-minded

选项翻译与答案详解

1.金星是太阳系九大行星里面最热的，因为__________________。

A)它不像水星一样离太阳这么近
B)整个行星上有太多的火山了
C)它被一层很厚的云层所笼罩
D)金星上的温室效应无法得到控制

[D]从首段第3、4句可以推断，金星比其他行星都热，是因为温室效应肆虐，因此本题选D。A关于金星离太阳的距离，B关于金星上的火山，C关于覆盖金星的云层，都在这一段中提到，虽然按照常理，这些因素都可能使某个地方的温度上升，但它们均无原文依据，故可排除。

2.一些行星学家认为，金星上不曾存在过生命，因为_____________。

A)他们没有发现金星上有水的遗迹
B)他们认为金星温度太高，不可能存在任何生命
C)金星被肮脏有毒的云层所笼罩
D)金星是离太阳第二近的行星

[A]文中多处从正面和反面表明，一些科学家相信Venus上没有生命是因为那里没有水。正面的依据如第5段开头两句及末段；反面的依据如第3段中的那个研究地球高级生命形式的小团体对认为Venus上没有生命的看法的驳斥；由此可见，本题答案应为A。

3.从文章中可以推断，一个研究地球高级生命形式的小团体认为______________。

A)生命是可以在很热的环境里存在的
B）没有水也可以存在生命
C)金星上现在还有生命
D）火星上曾经存在过生命

[B]第3段末句表明，这一个小团体的研究人员认为那些宣称Venus上没有生命的科学家是H20 chauvinists 即他们太盲目认为水是生命存在的基本条件。）也就是说，这个团体相信生命的存在不一定需要水，因此B为本题答案。A无原文依据，C、D将文中并不肯定的猜测（文中有might，may）转变为肯定的事实，显然不符。

4.从文章中我们知道了关于金星和火星的什么信息？

A)金星的气压比火星高。
B)金星研究得到的关注和资金比火星要多。
C)金星比火星更靠近太阳。
D)金星比火星看上去更漂亮。

[C]从首段第3句可以知道水星是离太阳最近的行星，而金星只比它离太阳远一点，也就是说金星比其他七个行星离太阳都要近，当然也就比火星离太阳近了，因此C为本题答案。

5.由Dirk Schulze-Makuch和Louis Irwin共同撰写的论文是为了要________________。

A)介绍他们关于金星的研究发现

B)提倡探索金星
C)让别人相信金星上曾经存在过生命
D)批判其他的科学家，认为他们坐井观天
[B]第4段中的a Venus-boosting paper说明这篇文章的目的是推动(boost)金星研究或探索，而不是A所说的introduce（介绍），因此B为本题答案。