英语听力：自然百科 探索世界奥秘之Life On Mars(火星生命)Unit15

Of course, any terraforming is still a long way off. The next few expeditions to Mars will definitely be made by machines.

NASA, are sending 2 rovers, capable of travelling over 100 meters a day in search of signs of water while the Europeans are sending the Beagle II probe. Odyssey¹ will continue to orbit Mars to find out the extent of the ice. Is it just in the southern hemisphere, or all over the planet?

Now we are starting to explore what's going on in the north and we're seeing a very similar signal there but it's very likely we are gonna find at least as much ice in the north as we saw in the south and perhaps even more.

They also want to find out how deep the water goes, and whether there really are underground lakes present, as people now suspect. The mounting evidence for water on Mars means it's looking more and more habitable. We may be approaching an answer to the great question of whether there's other life out there in the universe.

My guess is that if you have the right ingredients, life is inevitable². But it is just a guess. We have just one example here on Earth. We don't know for sure if that's the case. And that's why I wanna go to Mars to test that guess, to turn it from a guess to a scientific fact.

My feeling is that it's likely that there is life elsewhere in the Universe, there are just so many other stars, so many other planets, it's hard for me to imagine that this is the only life forms we have is what we have here on Earth.

A hundred years ago, some astronomers³ believed that there were civilizations on Mars with cities and canals. They were wrong about the cities but the water is there. So maybe the life is too after all. But ultimately we may have to go there to answer the question "Are we alone in the universe?"

1 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

2 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

3 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》