1 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
A. bend B. fascinated C.implication D. invites E. resembles F. habitable G. outpacing H. determine I. exploration J. alternative K. colonized |
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen:
We’re at a tipping point in human history, between gaining the stars and losing the planet we call home. At the same time as we’re discovering this treasure of potentially 1 worlds, our own planet is sinking. 2014 was the hottest year on record. Glaciers and sea ice are now disappearing in a matter of decades. These planetary-scale environmental changes are rapidly 2 our ability to alter their course.
I’m not a climate scientist, I’m an astronomer. You could say that I look for 3 alien real estate. Now, as somebody who is deeply 4 in the search for life in the universe, I can tell you that the more you look for planets like Earth, the more you appreciate our own planet itself. Each one of these new worlds 5 a comparison between the newly discovered planet and the planets we know best: those of our own Solar System.
Consider our neighbor, Mars. Though the Martian view 6 the deserts of our own home world, Mars is a pretty terrible place to live considering the extent to which we have not 7 the deserts of our own planet. Even in the driest, highest places on Earth, the air is sweet and thick with oxygen exhaled (呼气) from thousands of miles away by our rainforests.
I worry that Mars and other planets carries with it a long, dark shadow: the 8 by some that Mars will be there to save us from the destruction of the only truly livable planet we know of, the Earth. As much as I love interplanetary 9 , I deeply disagree with this idea. There are many excellent reasons to go to Mars, but for anyone to tell you that Mars will be there to back up humanity is like the captain of the Titanic telling you that the real party is happening later on the lifeboats.
If we truly believe in our ability to 10 the hostile environments of Mars for human habitation, then we should be able to surmount the far easier task of preserving the habitability of the Earth.
