Exploration 探索太空

A little over 50 years after the first aeroplane flew， Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. The “space race” of the 1960s and 1970s saw huge advances in technology that enabled people to go to space for the first time and then land on the moon. No one has been back to the moon since 1972. However， America has announced （宣告，公諸于眾） plans to return， as well as a manned mission to Mars. The European Space Agency is heavily involved in the building and maintaining of the new International Space Station， due for completion in 2010. Could you imagine where we’ll be in another 50 years?

第一架飛機(jī)升空50多年后，尤里·加加林成為進(jìn)入太空第一人。20世紀(jì)60、70年代的美蘇“太空競(jìng)賽”見(jiàn)證了科技的巨大進(jìn)步：人類(lèi)首次步入太空，隨后登陸月球。但1972年之后，再無(wú)人登上月球。不過(guò)美國(guó)已經(jīng)公布了重返月球乃至登陸火星的計(jì)劃。歐洲太空署正在殫精竭慮建造和維護(hù)將于2010年完工的國(guó)際太空站。你能想象再過(guò)50年，人類(lèi)將會(huì)到達(dá)哪里？

Stars 群星璀璨

Earth orbits （尤指地球圍繞太陽(yáng)或月亮、宇宙飛船圍繞地球運(yùn)行的軌道） around the sun， just one star out of the many billions that exist in our galaxy（星系）， the Milky Way. There could be between 100 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way and the universe could contain as many as 140 billion galaxies. It is not too difficult to imagine that on some other stars than our planet there live high-intellectual（智力超群的） beings like mankind. They could be even wiser than us and have visited our planet by some unidentified flying objects (UFO). What would you do if you’d encounter an E.T.?

圍繞太陽(yáng)運(yùn)行的地球不過(guò)是我們這個(gè)星系——銀河系里數(shù)以百萬(wàn)計(jì)的星星中的一顆。銀河系有1000億到4000億顆星星，而整個(gè)宇宙可以容下多達(dá)1400億個(gè)星系。不難想象，除地球以外在其它的星球上也有像人類(lèi)一樣的高智商生物存在。他們甚至可能比人類(lèi)更聰明，并且曾經(jīng)乘坐某種不明飛行物（UFO）造訪過(guò)地球。萬(wàn)一你遇到了外星人，你會(huì)怎么辦？

Our Planet 我們的星球

Earth’s position in space affects many things from the length of our day to seasonal changes. Our relationship with the sun is very important， especially as most organisms（生物，有機(jī)體） on Earth require light and warmth to exist. As the Earth orbits the sun， it sits tilted（傾斜） on its axis（軸線）， so for half the year the northern hemisphere（半球） is closer to the sun and we experience summer. During this time the southern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun and experiences winter. We have two high tides every day because the gravitational pull of the moon is different at the Earth’s centre than on its surface. If we were positioned anywhere else in space Earth would be a very different place!

地球在太空的位置影響到我們生活的許多方面——包括每天的長(zhǎng)短和季節(jié)的變換。地球與太陽(yáng)的關(guān)系尤為重要，因?yàn)榈厍蛏显S多生物都需要光和熱才能生存。地球在環(huán)繞太陽(yáng)運(yùn)行的軌道上自身是傾斜的，因此有半年時(shí)間北半球距太陽(yáng)較近，會(huì)經(jīng)歷炎夏；此時(shí)南半球遠(yuǎn)離太陽(yáng)，會(huì)經(jīng)歷嚴(yán)冬。地球上每天有兩次漲潮，這是因?yàn)樵虑驅(qū)Φ匦暮偷乇淼囊Σ煌隆Ｈ绻厍蛱幱谟钪婵臻g的其他位置，情況就會(huì)大不一樣。

Science Fiction 科幻小說(shuō)

Science fiction began with books like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. They took current scientific ideas and asked ”what if?“ Jules Verne is notable （值得注意的） for writing in the 19th century on subjects like air and underwater travel before planes or submarines （潛水艇） were even invented! A lot of modern science fiction is based on digital information， space travel and artificial intelligence （人工智能）. With the creation of film and television the science fiction genre （類(lèi)型） has produced some of the biggest successes; classical examples include Star Wars， The Matrix， and The X Files. Have you ever seen these films/TV programs? Or some other classic Sci-Fis? What do you think about them?

瑪麗·雪萊的《弗蘭肯斯坦》和H. G. 威爾斯的《世界大戰(zhàn)》這些書(shū)開(kāi)了科幻小說(shuō)的先河。他們把握住當(dāng)時(shí)的一些科幻主張并且想象“要是……那將怎樣？”值得一提的是，朱爾斯·韋恩在十九世紀(jì)飛機(jī)和潛水艇尚未發(fā)明之前就想到了在空中和水下航行。如今很多科幻小說(shuō)則建立在對(duì)數(shù)碼信息、太空旅行和人工智能的想象之上。隨著電影和電視的發(fā)明出現(xiàn)了許多大獲成功的科幻作品，堪稱經(jīng)典的包括《星球大戰(zhàn)》、《駭客帝國(guó)》和《X檔案》等。你看過(guò)這些電視電影作品嗎？看過(guò)其它經(jīng)典的科幻作品嗎？感覺(jué)怎么樣？