英语听力：自然百科 已知的宇宙：外星生命 Alien_Contact-4

 Water allows the sand grains to flow to gather and intermingle and form more complex structures. In the same way, water acts like a cocktail¹ mixer, allowing the atoms and molecules² to come together, and also may form the building blocks of life.

 

All that water was perfect for breeding life. Lots of it. It's estimated that since the emergence³ of earth’s first life form, 100 billion species have existed on the planet. Millions are alive right now. And that fact alone tells scientists a lot as they combed the cosmos⁴ for alien life.

 

"If we look for life in the universe, we have to understand they were coming in different shapes and sizes, and the same thing occurs here on earth. Take this handful of dirt. It's not just dirt. There is a lot going on here. There is an earth worm, going a little more, and there are these tiny little mites⁵, zooming⁶ further, and there are these litter creatures called protozoa, and smaller still, there's bacteria, billions of them. So you see, there really are a lot of living things in a handful of dirt and we should probably remember that if we ever go digging around on Alien worlds."

 

Life isn't always something you can see with a naked eye. In these piles of dirt lie the secrets to our origins and scientists are keeping that in prospective⁷ when they search for life in the cosmos. 

 

"You have to be looking for that bacterium⁸  first, because that's gonna be far more common. If we don't find that, the chance of finding these hollow, again, gray ET guys is gonna be highly diminished."

 

So are there other earths out there, capable of supporting ET or even bacteria? We are closer than ever to finding the answers, because scientists pick up the scent⁹ in this cosmic cut. 

 

In the hunt for alien life, scientists are focusing their efforts on finding small rocky planets like earth, but searching for another earth is like trying to find a needle in a million haystacks.

 

1 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

2 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

3 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

4 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

5 mites   

n.（尤指令人怜悯的）小孩( mite的名词复数 )；一点点；一文钱；螨

参考例句：

• The only discovered animals are water bears, mites, microscopic rotifers. 能够发现的动物只有海蜘蛛、螨和微小的轮虫。 来自辞典例句
• Mites are frequently found on eggs. 螨会经常出现在蛋上。 来自辞典例句

6 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

7 prospective   

adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的

参考例句：

• The story should act as a warning to other prospective buyers.这篇报道应该对其他潜在的购买者起到警示作用。
• They have all these great activities for prospective freshmen.这会举办各种各样的活动来招待未来的新人。

8 bacterium   

n.(pl.)bacteria 细菌

参考例句：

• The bacterium possibly goes in the human body by the mouth.细菌可能通过口进入人体。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

9 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。