Ielts Reading for Students2013.9.1

雅思阅读上课资料

IELTS READING MATERIAL

FOR STUDENTS

雅思阅读上课资料

Lecture One:试题:

Directions: You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 28-40, which are based on Reading Passage 3 on the

following pages.

Life beyond Earth

A We all have our suppositions, our scenarios. The late astronomer Carl Sagan estimated that there are a million

technological civilizations in our galaxy alone. His more conservative callable Frank Drake offers the number

10,000.John Oro, a pioneering comet researcher, calculates that the Milky Way is sprinkled with a hundred

civilizations. And finally there are skeptics like Ben Zuckerman, an astronomer at UCLA, who thinks we may

as well be alone in this galaxy if not in the universe.

B All the estimates are highly speculative. The fact is that there is no conclusive evidence of any life beyond Earth.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, as various pundits have wisely noted. But still we don t have

any solid knowledge about a single alien microbe, a solitary spore, much less the hubcap from a passing alien

starship.

C Our ideas about extraterrestrial life are what Sagan called “plausibility arguments,” usually shot through with

unknowns, hunches, ideologies, and random ought-to-bes. Even if we convince ourselves that there must be life

out there, we confront a second problem, which is that we don t know anything about that life. We don t know

how truly alien it is. We don t know if it is built on a foundation of carbon atoms. We don t know if it requires a

liquid-water medium, if it swims or flies or burrows.

D Despite .the enveloping nebula of uncertainties, extraterrestrial life has become an increasingly exciting area of

scientific inquiry. The field is called exobiology or astrobiology or bioastronomy--- every few years it seems as

though the name has been changed to protect the ignorant.

E Whatever it s called, this is a science infused with optimism. We now know that the universe may be as warm

with planets. Since 1995 astronomers have detected at least 22 planets orbiting other stars. NASA hopes to build

a telescope called the Terrestrial Planet Finder to search for Earth-like planets, examining them for the

atmospheric signatures of a living world. In the past decade organisms have been found thriving on our own

planet in bizarre, hostile environments. If microbes can live in the pores of rock deep beneath the earth or at the

rim of a scalding Yellowstone spring, then they might find a place like Mars not so shabby.

F Mars is in the midst of a full-scale invasion from Earth, from polar landers to global stevedores to rovers looking

for fossils .A canister of Mars rocks will be rocketed back to Earth in the year 2008, parachuting into the Utah

desert for scrutiny by scientists in a carefully sealed lab. In the coming years probes will also go around and, at

some point, into Jupiter s moon Europe. That icy world shows numerous signs of having a subsurface

ocean-and could conceivably harbor a dark cold biosphere.

G The quest for an alien microbe is supplemented by a continuing effort to find something large, intelligent, and

communicative. SETI-the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence-has not yielded a confirmed signal from an

alien civilization in 40 years of experiments, but the signal-processing technology grows more sophisticated

each year. The optimists figure it s only a matter of time before we tune in the right channel.

H No one knows when---or if---one of these investigations might make a break through. There s a fair bit of

boosterism surrounding the entire field, but I'd bet the break through is many year, if not decades, away. The

simple truth: extraterrestrial life, by definition, is not conveniently located.

I But there are other truths that sustain the search for alien organisms. One is that, roughly speaking, the universe

looks habitable. Another is that life radiates information about itself--- that, if nothing else, it usually leaves a

residue or an imprint. If the universe contains an abundance of life, that life is not likely to remain forever in the

realm of the unknown.

J Contact with an alien civilization would be an epochal and culturally challenging event, but exobiologist would

settle gladly for the discovery of a tiny fossil, a mere remnant of extraterrestrial biochemistry. One example.

One data point to add to the one we have---Earth life. That s what we need to begin the long process of putting

human existence in its true cosmic context.

Questions 28－33 ( 12.5 Points ; 2.5 Points each)

Directions: Complete the summary paragraph A to E below. Choose NO MORE THAN THERE WORDS from

paragraphs A to E for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 28---33 on your answer sheet.

Many astronomers gave estimate on the number of 28.___________ existing in the universe. Some of them

might be likely to give a more conservative figure. But there are also others being skeptical about their existence.

However, all of the arguments are not proved yet. Even if we believe that there might be extraterrestrial life, we are

still unable to decide whether it is formed based on 29. ___________ or whether it demands a 30._________medium

or not. However, this theme is known as 31.__________ and has more fascinating and intriguing for scientists.

Despite its name, the scientific fields are optimistic about the exploration: NASA plans to build telescope in order to

examine 32._________of Earth-like planets. Since the find of 33.___________ on our planet, it is possible that they

can also be present on Mars.

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