張　強

Exploration 探索太空

A little over 50 years after the first aeroplane flew, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. The “space race” of the 1960s and 1970s saw huge advances in technology that enabled people to go to space for the first time and then land on the moon. No one has been back to the moon since 1972. However, America has announced （宣告，公諸于眾） plans to return, as well as a manned mission to Mars. The European Space Agency is heavily involved in the building and maintaining of the new International Space Station, due for completion in 2010. Could you imagine where well be in another 50 years?

第一架飛機升空50多年后，尤里·加加林成為進入太空第一人。20世紀60、70年代的美蘇“太空競賽”見證了科技的巨大進步：人類首次步入太

空，隨后登陸月球。但1972年之后，

再無人登上月球。不過美國已經(jīng)

公布了重返月球乃至登陸火星的

計劃。歐洲太空署正在殫精竭慮

建造和維護將于2010年完工的國

際太空站。你能想象再過50年，人類

將會到達哪里？

Stars 群星璀璨

Earth orbits （尤指地球圍繞太陽或月亮、宇宙飛船圍繞地球運行的軌道） around the sun, just one star out of the many billions that exist in our galaxy（星系）, the Milky Way. There could be between 100 and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way and the universe could contain as many as 140 billion galaxies. It is not too difficult to imagine that on some other stars than our planet there live high-intellectual（智力超群的） beings like mankind. They could be even wiser than us and have visited our planet by some unidentified flying objects (UFO). What would you do if youd encounter an E.T.?

圍繞太陽運行的地球不過是我們這個星系--銀河系--里數(shù)以百萬計的星星中的一顆。銀河系有一億到四億顆星星，而整個宇宙可以容下多達1400億個星系。不難想象，除地球以外在其它的星球上也有像人類一樣的高智商生物存在。他們甚至可能比人類更聰明，并且曾經(jīng)乘坐某種不明飛行物（UFO）造訪過地球。萬一你遇到了外星人，你會怎么辦？

Our Planet 我們的星球

Earths position in space affects many things from the length of our day to seasonal changes. Our relationship with the sun is very important, especially as most organisms（生物，有機體） on Earth require light and warmth to exist. As the Earth orbits the sun it sits tilted（傾斜） on its axis（軸線）, so for half the year the northern hemisphere（半球） is closer to the sun and we experience summer. During this time the southern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun and experiences winter. We have two high tides every day because the gravitational pull of the moon is different at the Earths centre than on its surface. If we were positioned anywhere else in space Earth would be a very different place!

地球在太空的位置影響到我們生活的許多方面--包括每天的長短和季節(jié)的變換。地球與太陽的關(guān)系尤為重要，因為地球上許多生物都需要光和熱才能生存。地球在環(huán)繞太陽運行的軌道上自身是傾斜的，因此有半年時間北半球距太陽較近，會經(jīng)歷炎夏；此時南半球遠離太陽，會經(jīng)歷嚴冬。地球上每天有兩次漲潮，這是因為月球?qū)Φ匦暮偷乇淼囊Σ煌?。如果地球處于宇宙空間的其他位置，情況就會大不一樣。

Science Fiction 科幻小說

Science fiction began with books like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. They took current scientific ideas and asked ”what if?“ Jules Verne is notable （值得注意的） for writing in the 19th century on subjects like air and underwater travel before planes or submarines （潛水艇） were even invented! A lot of modern science fiction is based on digital information, space travel and artifical intelligence （人工智能）. With the creation of film and television the science fiction genre （類型） has produced some of the biggest successes; classical examples include Star Wars, The Matrix, and The X Files. Have you ever seen these films/TV programs? Or some other classic Sci-Fis? What do you think about them?

瑪麗·雪萊的《弗蘭肯斯坦》和H. G. 威爾斯的《世界大戰(zhàn)》這些書開辟了科幻小說的先河。他們把握住當(dāng)時的一些科幻主張并且想象"要是……那將怎樣？"值得一提的是，朱爾斯·韋恩在十九世紀飛機和潛水艇尚未發(fā)明之前就想到了在空中和水下航行。如今很多科幻小說則建立在對數(shù)碼信息、太空旅行和人工智能的想象之上。隨著電影和電視的發(fā)明出現(xiàn)了許多大獲成功的科幻作品，堪稱經(jīng)典的包括《星球大戰(zhàn)》、《駭客帝國》和《X檔案》等。你看過這些電視電影作品嗎？看過其它經(jīng)典的科幻作品嗎？感覺怎么樣？