Directions: In this section there is a passage in
English. Translate the five sentences under-lined into Chinese and write your
translation on ANSWER SHEET 2. 56. When you are in
the business of sending spacecraft to other planets, it is probably wise to do
everything you can m keep your space-probes sterile (无菌的). NASA, America’s
space agency, certainly does so. After all, you would not want hugs from one
planet to contaminate another where they might possibly thrive.
But according to Curt Mileikowsky, of the Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm, this may already have happened naturally billions of years ago when
the solar sys- tem was young. For Dr Mileikowsky has taken a century-old idea
called panspermia (有生源说), and shown that it is plausible. 57.
Panspermia is the theory that life does not start independently on each
planet that has it (assuming that other planets do). Rather, it hops from place
to place, "infecting" new worlds as it goes. Supported by experts in
biology, geology and celestial mechanics, Dr Mileikowsky argued to the American
Astronomical Society meeting in Atlanta that this is not as outlandish as it
sounds. 58. Bungling (笨手笨脚) space organizations apart, the
only mode of travel open to microbes seems to be meteorites (流星). Most of these
are small bits of junk from the asteroid (小行星) belt that have gone off
course. But some are rocks that have been flung into space from the surfaces
of planets as a result of those planets having been struck by even larger bits
of rock--decent-sized asteroids or comets. 59. If there is
life on such a planet, microscopic forms of it will probably live deep in- side
rocks, as they do on earth. The acceleration of lift-off would not kill
something that size. 60. If a rock is large enough, the
heat generated as it is thrown clear will be negligible except at its
surface--where, ii anything, melting may even produce an airtight skin to
protect any microbes deeper down from the unpleasant vacuum of space.