英语听力文摘 English Digest 174、费尔米悖论

　　We’ve recently been talking about the Fermi Paradox¹, attributed to Nobel-winning physicist² Enrico Fermi.
According to reasonable estimates of how many stars have planets, how many planets may be suitable for the evolution of organisms, and so on, our Milky³ Way Galaxy⁴ should be brimming over with life–even intelligent life.
So why is there no plausible⁵, scientific evidence of alien civilizations? Or, as Fermi said, “Where is everybody?” Various scientists have proposed different solutions to Fermi’s Paradox. One possibility, for example, is that life is indeed common, but only humans have developed high-level intelligence.
Maybe that’s it. But then, the whole trend of science for four hundred years has been the discovery that earth isn’t the center of the universe, that the sun is just one of many stars. In other words, we aren’t unique. Is it really likely that what happens on one planet is entirely⁶ different from what happens on literally⁷ billions of others?
Okay–maybe there’s just no way to get from one planet to another. Aliens may be out there, but the distances between stars are too great to ever meet one.
Maybe that’s it. But then, they should still be putting out signals. This radio broadcast, for example, is zooming⁸ away from earth at light speed right now, and will eventually cross the paths of far-away planets. So why don’t we hear anything when we listen to deep space?
The list of possible solutions to Fermi’s Paradox goes on, as do the counter-questions. We’d like to hear your ideas. If you have a solution to the paradox, write us at amos @ Indiana.edu.

1 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

2 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

3 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

4 galaxy   

n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物)

参考例句：

• The earth is one of the planets in the Galaxy.地球是银河系中的星球之一。
• The company has a galaxy of talent.该公司拥有一批优秀的人才。

5 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

6 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 zooming   

adj.快速上升的v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去分词 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨

参考例句：

• Zooming and panning are navigational tools for exploring 2D and 3D information. 缩放和平移是浏览二维和三维信息的导航工具。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Panning and zooming, especially when paired together, create navigation difficulties for users. 对于用户来说，平移和缩放一起使用时，产生了更多的导航困难。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓