I give two examples as to why intelligent life may not actually exist, though I admit that for me, or even for a physicist who devoted his or her entire life to researching and studying the universe, it's shocking to claim that completely no life exists elsewhere.
Keeping that in mind, I'd just like to consider conditions elsewhere in the known universe. You really only need to look at our own solar system or the Earth at certain periods in its own history to appreciate that most places are much worse and much less suitable for life than our mild, watery globe.
So far, space scientists have discovered about seventy planets outside the solar. But it appears that if you wish to have a planet suitable for life, you just have to be very lucky, and the more advanced the life is, the luckier you'll have to be. I'm by no means a space observer, but I can recognize some particularly fortunate breaks we've had on the Earth. For example:
We are, to a degree, at the right distance from the perfect type of star, the one that is big enough to radiate a huge amount of energy, but not so big as to bum itself out quickly. Had our sun been ten times as huge, it would have burnt out completely after only ten million years, instead of ten billion and surely we would not exist. Too near, everything on the Earth would have boiled and withered away; any further, everything would have frozen over.
The universe is a surprising place, and our existence within it is a wonder. If a long and unimaginably complex sequence of events dating back 4.6 billion years or so hadn't happened in a particular manner at a particular time --if, to take just one example, the dinosaurs hadn't been wiped out by a meteor(流星)--we might still be a few centimeters long, with whisker(胡須) and a tail, and you'll be reading this in a cave somewhere.
小題1:What's the best title for this passage?
A．No Life Exists out of the Earth
B．Seventy Planets Discovered
C．A Place Full of Wonders
D．Perfect Conditions for Life
小題2:What makes the Earth more suitable for life than other planets in the solar system?
A．The Earth is the only planet that can receive energy from the sun.
B．The sun is at the right distance from us and in proper size.
C．The distance between the planets was neither too long nor too near.
D．The dinosaurs were no longer a threat to the Earth.
小題3:What does the underlined phrase "withered away" in the 4th paragraph mean?
A．Exploded.B．Expanded.C．Floated away.D．Dried and died.
小題4:Where does the text probably come from?
A．A history book.B．A magazine.C．A science fiction.D．A famous novel.

小題1:A
小題2:B
小題3:D
小題4:B

試題解析：本文敘述了作者的觀點：除了地球之外再也沒有星球上有生命存在，對此展開敘述，說明理由。
小題1:A主旨大意題。根據(jù)第一段最后一句話是點題句：it's shocking to claim that completely no life exists elsewhere.聲稱完全沒有生命存在于其它令人震驚，下文就此展開敘述，所以A正確。
小題2:B細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第四段第一句話We are, to a degree, at the right distance from the perfect type of star, the one that is big enough to radiate a huge amount of energy, but not so big as to bum itself out quickly在某種程度上我們距離這顆恒星在一個適當?shù)木嚯x，這個距離對于釋放出巨大的能量是足夠大的，但又不大到燃燒我們自己。所以B正確。
小題3:D詞義猜測題。根據(jù)這個詞的前后內(nèi)容：Too near, everything on the Earth would have boiled and withered away; any further, everything would have frozen over.太近，地球上的所有都會被煮沸，再遠一點，一切又會被結冰，所以本詞與煮沸并列和相近，所以D正確。
小題4:B推理判斷題。A. A history book歷史書.B. A magazine.雜志   C. A science fiction.科幻小說  D. A famous novel.著名的小說。通讀全文可以知道不屬于歷史，不是科幻，更不是小說，是一項科研成果：除了地球之外，再也沒有生命存在，一個刊登在雜志上，所以Ｂ正確。
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