36
0Neil deGrasse Tyson: Give Us the Aliens
Ever since childhood I’ve wanted to be abducted by aliens. Now, as a professional astrophysicist armed with the knowledge of the size, age and composition of the cosmos, I know that nothing prevents any of us from imagining a universe teeming with life.
So the release of U.S. government files on aliens and U.F.O.s is a good thing. Personally, I’d be delighted if the files were accompanied by an actual alien. Is that too much to ask for?
Without good evidence of what actual aliens look like, we’re stuck imagining them. And imagine them we do. IMDb lists hundreds upon hundreds of films, TV shows, video games and documentaries about aliens. Disappointingly, in nearly all these portrayals, these aliens look a lot like us. Remember that most life on Earth looks nothing like us or any vertebrate animal. So we should expect aliens to look at least as different from humans as humans and other life-forms on Earth look different from each other.
If we look more deeply into our own alien stories, there’s a persistent plotline that aliens are evil and want to kill us all. I suspect those fears are based not on what we believe about aliens but on what we know about humans. Within what we call civilization, humans oppress — or kill — one another over which creator of the universe they worship, or what side of an arbitrary line on Earth’s land masses they’re born, or how absorptive their skin is to sunlight, or what set of sounds comes out of their mouths.
Upon bearing witness to our irrational ways, any visiting alien that might have accompanied the release of the alien files surely long ago escaped back home to report, “There’s no sign of intelligent life on Earth!”
生词好句
give us something 赶紧把……交出来
Give us the truth! 快告诉我们真相！
Give us the vote! 快把属于我们的选举权还来！
arm with 装备了，配备了
The bank robber was armed with a knife.那个银行抢匪持有一把刀。
Arm yourself with all the facts you need to argue your case.你要准备好证明你观点需要的所有论据。
teem with 充满了
The region is teeming with wildlife. 某个地区野生动物遍布。
The waiting room is teeming with patients.医院候诊室里挤满了病人。
be stuck doing something 不得不做某事，不情愿但没办法
She was stuck covering an extra shift because someone at work had an emergency.同事有急事，她不得不临时顶班。
vertebrate 英 [ˈvɜːtɪbrət] 美 [ˈvɜːrtɪbrət] n. 脊椎动物
persistent 英 [pəˈsɪstənt] 美 [pərˈsɪstənt] adj. 持续的，反复出现的（continuing for a long period of time, or repeated frequently, especially in a way that is annoying and cannot be stopped）
persistent symptoms 持续的症状
persistent rain 雨一直下
plotline 英 [ˈplɒtlaɪn] 美 [ˈplɑːtlaɪn] n. 情节主线
over 英 [ˈəʊvə(r)] 美 [ˈoʊvər] prep. 出于……原因
fight over money 为钱争吵
cry over lost love 为失去的恋情哭泣
arbitrary 英 [ˈɑːbɪtrəri] 美 [ˈɑːrbɪtreri] adj. 任意的
bear witness to 见证
These old walls bear witness to centuries of history. 这些古老的墙壁见证了数百年的历史。
irrational ways 毫无理性可言的做法
