英语听力文摘 English Digest 351、外星人来电

E. T. Phoned. Now What?
外星人来电

Suppose one day scientists pick up a transmission they think is generated by aliens. Now what? Do we build a landing strip and break out the welcome wagon¹?

Well here’s the thing about picking up alien broadcasts. The receivers scientists are currently using to listen to space noise are designed to find constant signals, or signals that are pulsing at regular intervals. But any message carried by these signals would probably be lost because the receivers can’t pick up the modulation, or rapid variations, in the base signal. The SETI institute, which searches for extra terrestrial life, has compared picking up a signal’s modulation to picking up the sound of a flute² when it’s masked by the noise of a waterfall.

Luckily, scientists would still have enough data to pinpoint³ where in the sky the transmission is coming from. And any slow changes in the broadcast frequency would reveal information about the rotation⁴ and movement of the aliens’ planets.

Okay, but how will we know if they are friendly? Well, If we ever do detect a transmission, this would be huge news.  The government would definitely allocate funds to building larger instruments capable of picking up signal modulations. However, even once scientists are able to measure the modulation, it isn’t certain that we’ll be able to understand the message. I guess everyone’s hoping that if the aliens are anything like us, they’ll send simple pictures and easy-to-decode messages.

假如有一天，科学家收到到外星人发来的信号该怎么办呢？我们有建造飞碟起落跑道来欢迎它们吗？

关于接收到外来广播的事情是这样的。科学家接者收目前会听航天噪音，然后找出不变信号或者找出那些常规跳动的信号。但是任何携带信息的信号都可能丢失，因为接收者在信号基地不能收集到变调或快速变化的信号。对外星智能的探索研究院，专门寻找外星生物。它他们对接受到信号的变调和被瀑布声掩盖的笛声做了比较。

幸运的是，科学家们有足够的数据来确定信号广播的位置。广播频率的细微变化都会揭露外星人星球的旋转和运动情况。

我们怎样才知道那些是友好的信号呢？如果我们发现了外来广播，那就是很大新闻了。政府一定会拨款建造更大的仪器，能够接受信号变调。不管怎样，即使科学家能够测量变调，也不能确定我们能明白这些信息。我想每个人都希望外星人与我们多少有点相似之处，会发简单的图画和容易解码的信息。

 

Notes:

SETI  :   abbr. search for extraterrestrial intelligence 对外星智能的探索
 

1 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

2 flute   

n.长笛；v.吹笛

参考例句：

• He took out his flute, and blew at it.他拿出笛子吹了起来。
• There is an extensive repertoire of music written for the flute.有很多供长笛演奏的曲目。

3 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。

4 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。