LifeBeyondtheEarth杭州文学翻译-译国译民翻译.pptx

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1、Life Beyond the Earth About the author Joel Achenbach is an American staff writer for The Washington Post and the author of six books, including The Grand Idea, Captured by Aliens, and three compilations of his syndicated newspaper column Why Things Are. He wrote a monthly science column for Nationa

2、l Geographic magazine and has been a commentator on National Public Radios Morning Edition. His writing has been featured in the 2007 Word-A-Day calendar. He graduated from Princeton University in 1982 with an A.B. degree in politics. Achenbach lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and three daug

3、hters. He has a regular blog on the website as well, attracting a small audience of devoted fans as well as a larger group of casual readers. A large degree of the conversations on Achenblog tend to arc back to previous posts, creating a large litany of phrases and comments that are somewhat opaque

4、to the average reader. Meanings of the Title Life beyond Earth contains two meanings: A. there might be live organisms in the universe. B. there might be intelligence or alien civilizations out in the universe, e.g. UFO. Structure of the Text Part I (Paras1-2) the emergence of life Part II Para 3 (t

5、ransition) what else is alive out there? Part III (Paras4-10) search of life Part IV ( Paras11-23) search for intelligence Part V ( Paras 24-42) Mars and the debate Part VI( Paras43-45) Allens argument Part VII (Paras 46-51) conclusion Detailed Study of the Text Para 1. 1. What does the author mean

6、by “life” in the first paragraph? 2. Does the word “life” mean the same thing throughout the article? 3. In what way is “life” qualitatively different from rock? Para. 2 1. Life has a way of being obvious, and yet, its notoriously difficult to define in absolute terms. Paraphrase: It is not difficul

7、t to determine whether a thing has a life or not, but when it comes to giving “life” a clear, complete, satisfactory definition, people find it extremely difficult. 2. In at least one instance, life has become profoundly self-aware. What sort of life can become self-aware? Para. 3 1. What else is al

8、ive out there? Out there: in space beyond the earth. Paraphrase: Is there anything similar to human life in other parts of the universe? Para. 4 1. There may be no scientific mystery so tantalizing at the brink of the new millennium and yet so resistant to an answer. At the turn of the new millenniu

9、m, one may not find anything which is scientifically unknown to human beings so intriguing and yet so difficult to answer as the issue of extraterrestrial life. 2. Extraterrestrial life represents an enormous gap in our knowledge of nature. Whether there is life beyond Earth means that, in nature, t

10、here are a great number of things we dont know. 3. With instrumentsa single inhabited world. With the help of advanced technology such as a Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have discovered a very large amount of cosmic material and yet they have not discovered any life on any other planet. Para. 5

11、 1. The late astronomerin our galaxy alone. What is meant by “technological civilizations?” The author may mean civilizations with high technology. And he tries to differentiate such development from intellectual and cultural development. 2. who thinks we may well be alone in this galaxy if not in t

12、he universe. Paraphrase:who thinks that most probably we are the only life form in this galaxy, even though we may not be able to say we are the only one in the universe. Para. 6 1. All the estimates are highly speculative. Paraphrase:who thinks that most probably we are the only life form in this g

13、alaxy, even though we may not be able to say we are the only one in the universe. 2. The fact is there is no conclusive enidence of any life beyond earth. Paraphrase: The fact is there is no decisive (or final) evidence proving that there is life beyond Earth. 3. Absence of evidence is not evidence

14、of absence. Paraphrase: The fact that we do not have evidence showing there is life beyond Earth does not mean that we can come to the conclusion that there is actually no life beyond Earth 4. But still we dont have any solid knowledge about a single alien microbe, much less a passing alien starship

15、. Paraphrase: So far we dont know firmly that there exists a single microscopic organism in another world, to say nothing of a starship coming from another world in the universe passing the Earth. Para. 7 1. Our ideas about extraterrestrial life are what Sagan called “plausibility arguments”, usuall

16、y shot through with unknowns, hunches, ideologies, and random ought-to-be. 1)What is meant by “plausible arguments”? It means reasons offered which appeared to be convincing but which may not be true. 2)random ought-to-be Possible things which are chosen without specific aim 2. Even if we convince o

17、urselves that there must be life out there, we confront a second problem, which is that we dont know anything about that life. Note the choice of words: “convince ourselves” “must be”, all indicating subjective wishing without clear, definite evidence. 3. We dont know how truly alien it is. Paraphra

18、se: We dont know whether it is entirely different or not. Para. 8 1. What role does this paragraph play? It serves as another transition, moving from speculation to naming the field of research. 2. What is meant by “the enveloping nebula of uncertainties”? The enveloping nebula of uncertainties introduces two ideas: the first is the cloud of gas and dust obscures things; the second is, as a result, it is unclear what has been wrapped up in the cloud of gas and dust, what is inside the enveloping nebula.