I give two examples as to why intelligent life may not actually exist, though I admit that for me, or even for a physicist who devoted his or her entire life to researching and studying the universe, it's shocking to claim that pletely no life exists elsewhere.
Keeping that in mind, I'd just like to consider conditions elsewhere in the known universe. You really only need to look at our own solar system or the Earth at certain periods in its own history to appreciate that most places are much worse and much less suitable for life than our mild, watery globe.
So far, space scientists have discovered about seventy planets outside the solar. But it appears that if you wish to have a planet suitable for life, you just have to be very lucky, and the more advanced the life is, the luckier you'll have to be. I'm by no means a space observer, but I can recognize some particularly fortunate breaks we've had on the Earth. For example:
We are, to a degree, at the right distance from the perfect type of star, the one that is big enough to radiate a huge amount of energy, but not so big as to bum itself out quickly. Had our sun been ten times as huge, it would have burnt out pletely after only ten million years, instead of ten billion and surely we would not exist. Too near, everything on the Earth would have boiled and withered away; any further, everything would have frozen over.
The universe is a surprising place, and our existence within it is a wonder. If a long and unimaginably plex sequence of events dating back 4.6 billion years or so hadn't happened in a particular manner at a particular time --if, to take just one example, the dinosaurs hadn't been wiped out by a meteor(流星)--we might still be a few centimeters long, with whisker(胡须) and a tail, and you'll be reading this in a cave somewhere.
【小题1】What's the best title for this passage?A．No Life Exists out of the EarthB．Seventy Planets DiscoveredC．A Place Full of WondersD．Perfect Conditions for Life【小题2】What makes the Earth more suitable for life than other planets in the solar system?A．The Earth is the only planet that can receive energy from the sun.B．The sun is at the right distance from us and in proper size.C．The distance between the planets was neither too long nor too near.D．The dinosaurs were no longer a threat to the Earth.【小题3】What does the underlined phrase withered away in the 4th paragraph mean?A．Exploded.B．Expanded.C．Floated away.D．Dried and died.【小题4】Where does the text probably e from?A．A history book.B．A magazine.C．A science fiction.D．A famous novel.A
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(答案→)A
解析：
试题解析：本文叙述了作者的观点：除了地球之外再也没有星球上有生命存在，对此展开叙述，说明理由。
【小题1】A主旨大意题。根据第一段最后一句话是点题句：it's shocking to claim that pletely no life exists elsewhere.声称完全没有生命存在于其它令人震惊，下文就此展开叙述，所以A正确。
【小题2】B细节理解题。根据第四段第一句话We are, to a degree, at the right distance from the perfect type of star, the one that is big enough to radiate a huge amount of energy, but not so big as to bum itself out quickly在某种程度上我们距离这颗恒星在一个适当的距离，这个距离对于释放出巨大的能量是足够大的，但又不大到燃烧我们自己。所以B正确。
【小题3】D词义猜测题。根据这个词的前后内容：Too near, everything on the Earth would have boiled and withered away; any further, everything would have frozen over.太近，地球上的所有都会被煮沸，再远一点，一切又会被结冰，所以本词与煮沸并列和相近，所以D正确。
【小题4】B推理判断题。A. A history book历史书.B. A magazine.杂志 C. A science fiction.科幻小说 D. A famous novel.著名的小说。通读全文可以知道不属于历史，不是科幻，更不是小说，是一项科研成果：除了地球之外，再也没有生命存在，一个刊登在杂志上，所以Ｂ正确。