2023考研英語閱讀應對小行星撞擊
Dealing with asteroid strikes
應對小行星撞擊
A close shave
近地掠過
After a hit and a near miss minds are focusing onthe risks from space rocks
在一次撞擊和一次近距離擦肩而過后，人們開始關注來自外太空巖石的威脅
One close shave with an asteroid is cause for excitement.
一次小行星近地掠過是一種刺激，
Two on the same day is scary.
同一天發(fā)生兩次就是驚險了。
On February 15th planet Earth experienced exactly that, as a hunk of itinerant space rockpassed by extremely close.
在2月15日，行星地球正經(jīng)歷了這樣的驚險：一塊流動的大塊頭太空巖石在咫尺的距離掠過地球，
While another exploded spectacularly in the skies above Russia.
而另一塊則十分壯觀得在俄國上空爆炸。
The first asteroid, called 2023 DA14,had been known to astronomers for around a year.
第一顆小行星名為2023 DA14，天文學家在大約一年前發(fā)現(xiàn)。
They had calculated that there was no risk of collision. But the 30-metre, 190,000-tonnerock came close: 27,700Km above the surface, inside the orbit of some satellites.
他們計算出小行星的軌道，并無撞擊危險。但這枚直徑30米、重達190000噸的石塊離得是那么近：距地表27,700千米，處于一些衛(wèi)星軌道內(nèi)。
It was the nearest ever recorded for an asteroid that size.
對這種大小的小行星，這是有記錄以來距離最近的一次。
The second came quite literally out of a clear blue sky, appearing without warning and thendisintergrating about 30 seconds later over Chelyabinsk.
第二顆在一片晴空萬里中毫無警告得出現(xiàn)了，約30秒后在車里雅賓斯克市上空解體了。
According to NASA, the 10,000-tonne meteor released about 500 kilotonnes of energy when itbroke apart, equivalent to the yield of a largish nuclear bomb.
來自NASA的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，這顆10000噸重的隕石在肢解時釋放了大約500噸質(zhì)量的能量，相當于一顆大型核彈的爆炸當量。
Only the height of the detonation-dozens of kilometers upkept the fatality count at zero,although more than 1,000 people were injured as windows were blown out of buildings.
好在爆炸發(fā)生在數(shù)十公里的高空，未有人員死亡。雖然有超過1000人受傷，但只是被震碎的建筑物玻璃傷到。
This double whammy has focused minds on the threat from asteroids, something thatastronomers have long known is real but which tends to be treated with giggles whenever it isbrought outside the lab.
這次雙重晦氣已引起人們對小行星威脅的關注。長久以來天文學家們就清楚這種實實在在的威脅，但一旦在實驗室外提起就會引來哄堂大笑。
Some politicians have nevertheless taken action.
不過還是有些政客們采取了行動。
In 1998 America s Congress ordered NASA to begin cataloguing the very largest, planet killerasteroids-defined as those more than a kilometer across.
美國國會在1998年下令NASA將那些大型的行星殺手級別的小行星編入目錄，直徑超過1公里的都歸入其中。
The agency reckons it has accounted for more than 90% of them.
NASA認為超過90%的這類小行星都已記錄在案。
But as the impact from such a beast would be catastrophic, the few undiscovered rocksstill represent a threat.
但是由于這種怪獸可能帶來災難性的撞擊，少部分未被發(fā)現(xiàn)的此類巖石仍然是個威脅。
Deep impact
深度撞擊
These days, a mix of national organizations and universities run an alphabet soup ofdetectors.
目前，一群來自不同國家組織和大學的研究人員開始了初步的探測。
But the field is still a bit of backwater, and budgets are tight.
但是該領域仍是一潭死水，預算很緊張。
John Tonry, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii, is building an asteroid-huntingtelescope called ATLAS with $5m from NASA.
John Tonry, 一位來自夏威夷大學的天文學家，正在建造一個名為ATLAS的小行星搜索望遠鏡，NASA提供了500萬美元的經(jīng)費。
Dr Tonry cannot afford to hire a proper telescope engineer, and is having to design thedevice himself.
博士Tonry負擔不起一個正式的望遠鏡工程師，必須親自設計這臺望遠鏡。
ATLAS is intended to spot mid-sized city killers like 2023 DA14.
ATLAS望遠鏡的目的是為了辨認出類似2023 DA14這樣中等大小的城市殺手。
Astronomers reckon the risk from these is at least as great as that from the biggest onesbecause there are many more of them.
天文學家估測這類小行星的威脅絕不在那些更大的小行星的威脅之下，因為數(shù)量實在太多。
Exactly how many more, though, is hard to say because, being small, they are hard to see.
不過至于準確數(shù)量卻很難說，因為他們實在太小難以被發(fā)現(xiàn)。
ATLAS should be able to spot a rock on a collision course a few days before it hits, givingtime to organize a hasty evacuation.
ATLAS應該可以提前數(shù)天發(fā)現(xiàn)一塊沿著撞擊軌道運行的巖石，爭取足夠的時間組織快速疏散。
Of course, rather than evacuating the impact zone, it would be better if there were someway to deal with a threatening asteroid more directly, by nudging it into a different orbit.
當然，比起疏散撞擊區(qū)域，找到一個更直接應對小行星威脅的方法會更好，比如把小行星推入不同軌道。
Asteroid deflection suffers from a even greater giggle factor than asteroid detection, butseveral ideas have been proposed. One popular method is to use nuclear weapons.
讓小行星偏向的想法比小行星探測更會招致哄笑，但已經(jīng)有人提出了一些主意。
Detonating a nuke near an asteroid s surface could boil away some of the rock and-byNewton s third law of motion-impart a shove in the other direction.
一個通俗的方法是使用核武器。在小行星表面附近引爆一枚核彈可以蒸發(fā)掉一些巖石質(zhì)量。根據(jù)牛頓第三運動定律，還會在其他方向產(chǎn)生作用力。
Done early enough, this would shift the object s orbit sufficiently to stop it hitting Earth.
如果爆炸時間足夠提前，這足已改變小行星的軌道，防止與地球的撞擊。(當然這毫無意義，只是純粹在賣弄學問罷了。
Alternatively, simply ramming the offending rock might provide enough force to provoke asuitable reaction and change in orbit.
作為另一種選擇，針對來犯巖石的很普通的撞擊，也許能產(chǎn)生足夠的作用力引發(fā)反作用力，進而改變軌道。
The European Space Agency plans to launch, in 2023, a spacecraft called Don Quijote thatwill test the feasibility of doing this.
歐洲航天機構計劃在2023年發(fā)射名為堂吉訶德的太空船，以測試這種方法的可行性。
Other ideas are more elegant: painting the rock white, for instance, will alter the way itinteracts with sunlight, nudging it into a new orbit.
其他的主意要優(yōu)雅得多：比如把巖石表面涂成白色，這樣將改變太陽光對其的作用力，也就改變了運行軌道。
Or rocket motors might be strapped to it, to propel it in a desirable direction. Or a largespacecraft could orbit around it, where its gravity would alter the asteroid s orbit aroundthe sun.
或者在巖石上捆綁一個火箭發(fā)動機，將其推向一個想要的方向。再或者發(fā)射一個大型太空船繞其運行，太空船的引力將會改變小行星繞太陽運轉的軌道。
The trouble is that many of these ideas rely on having plenty of warning. Even small asteroidsare big, as 2023 DA14 shows.
問題在于，這里面的很多主意都依賴于充足的預警時間，即使是處理如2023 DA14般的小塊頭小行星。
That means shifting them at short notice is going to be difficult.
這就意味著，在很短的預知時間下，將很難改變他們的軌道。
When American s National Research Council studied the problem in 2010, it came to theconclusion that even nuclear weapons would require warnings times measured in years ordecades.
當美國國家研究委員會在2010年研究這個問題時，得出一個結論：即使是使用核武器也需要數(shù)年甚至數(shù)十年的預警時間。
Evacuation, it said, was the only feasible option for dealing with little warning. Others aremore optimistic.
委員會同時提到，在面對那些很難被辨認出而不期而至的小行星時，疏散是唯一可行的辦法。
The day before the explosion over Russia researchers at the University of California, SantaBarbara, proposed putting into orbit a solar-powered laser that could use its beam tovaporize the surface of an incoming asteroid and thus knock it off course, even at a few days notice.
其他人要樂觀一些。就在俄國上空的爆炸發(fā)生前一天，來自圣巴巴拉加利福尼亞大學的研究人員提出一個把太陽能激光器發(fā)射到小行星軌道的方案，使用激光蒸發(fā)掉小行星表面的物質(zhì)。這樣即使只有數(shù)天的預警時間，也能使其偏離軌道。
Bet your life?
用你的生命做賭注?
Hard-nosed economists might wonder whether spending money on asteroid research-eitherfor detection or deflection-is really worth it.
精明實務的經(jīng)濟學家也許會懷疑在小行星研究上投資是否物有所值，不管是小行星探測或是軌道偏移。
After all, for all their drama asteroid strikes are rare, and there are plenty of other threats toworry about.
畢竟，小行星撞擊是個非常戲劇性且罕見的，而我們還有眾多其他的威脅需要擔憂。
But the relative lack of information makes the true risk difficult to calculate.
但是由于信息的相對匱乏，真正的風險難以評估。
An asteroid strike is an event with a low probability, but a high death toll when it doeshappen.
小行星撞擊是低概率事件，但是一旦發(fā)生，就意味著大量的死亡。
That, as Dr Tonry points out, does funny things to risk calculations.
博士Tonry指出，這讓計算風險變得有些奇異。
Our best guess is that you can expect maybe 100 people a year to die from asteroid strikes,he says.
他說，我們最好的估算是，每年大約會有100人死于小行星撞擊，
Of course, what that really means is that you might see 100,000 death every thousand years,or 100m every million.
當然，實際上這意味著每隔數(shù)千年發(fā)生一次10萬人的死亡，或者每百萬年發(fā)生一次1億人的死亡。
After dodging two potential catastrophes in one day, the world may decide it is better to besafe than sorry.
在一天之內(nèi)躲過了兩次可能的災難之后，我們的世界也許會決定，安全總比遺憾好。
詞語解釋
1.focus on 致力于;使聚焦于
That s all you want to focus on.
你只需將你的注意力集中于此。
The project also will focus on key secretedpathogenic proteins.
該項目也將集中于主要分泌性致病蛋白質(zhì)。
2.according to 根據(jù)，按照
They both played the game according to the rules...
他們倆都依章行事。
They must take their own decision according to their own legal advice.
他們必須根據(jù)各自律師的意見自行決定。
3.tend to 趨向;偏重
Smaller laptops also tend to have longer battery life.
小巧的電腦也趨向更長的電池持續(xù)時間。
I tend to prefer light colors.
我往往更喜歡淡顏色。
4.account for 導致，引起
How do you account for the company s alarmingly high staff turnover?
你怎么解釋這家公司高得令人憂慮的人員流動率?
He said only 200 of the train s 600 passengers had been accounted for.
他說火車上的600名乘客中僅有200名乘客的信息得已查明。
Dealing with asteroid strikes
應對小行星撞擊
A close shave
近地掠過
After a hit and a near miss minds are focusing onthe risks from space rocks
在一次撞擊和一次近距離擦肩而過后，人們開始關注來自外太空巖石的威脅
One close shave with an asteroid is cause for excitement.
一次小行星近地掠過是一種刺激，
Two on the same day is scary.
同一天發(fā)生兩次就是驚險了。
On February 15th planet Earth experienced exactly that, as a hunk of itinerant space rockpassed by extremely close.
在2月15日，行星地球正經(jīng)歷了這樣的驚險：一塊流動的大塊頭太空巖石在咫尺的距離掠過地球，
While another exploded spectacularly in the skies above Russia.
而另一塊則十分壯觀得在俄國上空爆炸。
The first asteroid, called 2023 DA14,had been known to astronomers for around a year.
第一顆小行星名為2023 DA14，天文學家在大約一年前發(fā)現(xiàn)。
They had calculated that there was no risk of collision. But the 30-metre, 190,000-tonnerock came close: 27,700Km above the surface, inside the orbit of some satellites.
他們計算出小行星的軌道，并無撞擊危險。但這枚直徑30米、重達190000噸的石塊離得是那么近：距地表27,700千米，處于一些衛(wèi)星軌道內(nèi)。
It was the nearest ever recorded for an asteroid that size.
對這種大小的小行星，這是有記錄以來距離最近的一次。
The second came quite literally out of a clear blue sky, appearing without warning and thendisintergrating about 30 seconds later over Chelyabinsk.
第二顆在一片晴空萬里中毫無警告得出現(xiàn)了，約30秒后在車里雅賓斯克市上空解體了。
According to NASA, the 10,000-tonne meteor released about 500 kilotonnes of energy when itbroke apart, equivalent to the yield of a largish nuclear bomb.
來自NASA的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，這顆10000噸重的隕石在肢解時釋放了大約500噸質(zhì)量的能量，相當于一顆大型核彈的爆炸當量。
Only the height of the detonation-dozens of kilometers upkept the fatality count at zero,although more than 1,000 people were injured as windows were blown out of buildings.
好在爆炸發(fā)生在數(shù)十公里的高空，未有人員死亡。雖然有超過1000人受傷，但只是被震碎的建筑物玻璃傷到。
This double whammy has focused minds on the threat from asteroids, something thatastronomers have long known is real but which tends to be treated with giggles whenever it isbrought outside the lab.
這次雙重晦氣已引起人們對小行星威脅的關注。長久以來天文學家們就清楚這種實實在在的威脅，但一旦在實驗室外提起就會引來哄堂大笑。
Some politicians have nevertheless taken action.
不過還是有些政客們采取了行動。
In 1998 America s Congress ordered NASA to begin cataloguing the very largest, planet killerasteroids-defined as those more than a kilometer across.
美國國會在1998年下令NASA將那些大型的行星殺手級別的小行星編入目錄，直徑超過1公里的都歸入其中。
The agency reckons it has accounted for more than 90% of them.
NASA認為超過90%的這類小行星都已記錄在案。
But as the impact from such a beast would be catastrophic, the few undiscovered rocksstill represent a threat.
但是由于這種怪獸可能帶來災難性的撞擊，少部分未被發(fā)現(xiàn)的此類巖石仍然是個威脅。
Deep impact
深度撞擊
These days, a mix of national organizations and universities run an alphabet soup ofdetectors.
目前，一群來自不同國家組織和大學的研究人員開始了初步的探測。
But the field is still a bit of backwater, and budgets are tight.
但是該領域仍是一潭死水，預算很緊張。
John Tonry, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii, is building an asteroid-huntingtelescope called ATLAS with $5m from NASA.
John Tonry, 一位來自夏威夷大學的天文學家，正在建造一個名為ATLAS的小行星搜索望遠鏡，NASA提供了500萬美元的經(jīng)費。
Dr Tonry cannot afford to hire a proper telescope engineer, and is having to design thedevice himself.
博士Tonry負擔不起一個正式的望遠鏡工程師，必須親自設計這臺望遠鏡。
ATLAS is intended to spot mid-sized city killers like 2023 DA14.
ATLAS望遠鏡的目的是為了辨認出類似2023 DA14這樣中等大小的城市殺手。
Astronomers reckon the risk from these is at least as great as that from the biggest onesbecause there are many more of them.
天文學家估測這類小行星的威脅絕不在那些更大的小行星的威脅之下，因為數(shù)量實在太多。
Exactly how many more, though, is hard to say because, being small, they are hard to see.
不過至于準確數(shù)量卻很難說，因為他們實在太小難以被發(fā)現(xiàn)。
ATLAS should be able to spot a rock on a collision course a few days before it hits, givingtime to organize a hasty evacuation.
ATLAS應該可以提前數(shù)天發(fā)現(xiàn)一塊沿著撞擊軌道運行的巖石，爭取足夠的時間組織快速疏散。
Of course, rather than evacuating the impact zone, it would be better if there were someway to deal with a threatening asteroid more directly, by nudging it into a different orbit.
當然，比起疏散撞擊區(qū)域，找到一個更直接應對小行星威脅的方法會更好，比如把小行星推入不同軌道。
Asteroid deflection suffers from a even greater giggle factor than asteroid detection, butseveral ideas have been proposed. One popular method is to use nuclear weapons.
讓小行星偏向的想法比小行星探測更會招致哄笑，但已經(jīng)有人提出了一些主意。
Detonating a nuke near an asteroid s surface could boil away some of the rock and-byNewton s third law of motion-impart a shove in the other direction.
一個通俗的方法是使用核武器。在小行星表面附近引爆一枚核彈可以蒸發(fā)掉一些巖石質(zhì)量。根據(jù)牛頓第三運動定律，還會在其他方向產(chǎn)生作用力。
Done early enough, this would shift the object s orbit sufficiently to stop it hitting Earth.
如果爆炸時間足夠提前，這足已改變小行星的軌道，防止與地球的撞擊。(當然這毫無意義，只是純粹在賣弄學問罷了。
Alternatively, simply ramming the offending rock might provide enough force to provoke asuitable reaction and change in orbit.
作為另一種選擇，針對來犯巖石的很普通的撞擊，也許能產(chǎn)生足夠的作用力引發(fā)反作用力，進而改變軌道。
The European Space Agency plans to launch, in 2023, a spacecraft called Don Quijote thatwill test the feasibility of doing this.
歐洲航天機構計劃在2023年發(fā)射名為堂吉訶德的太空船，以測試這種方法的可行性。
Other ideas are more elegant: painting the rock white, for instance, will alter the way itinteracts with sunlight, nudging it into a new orbit.
其他的主意要優(yōu)雅得多：比如把巖石表面涂成白色，這樣將改變太陽光對其的作用力，也就改變了運行軌道。
Or rocket motors might be strapped to it, to propel it in a desirable direction. Or a largespacecraft could orbit around it, where its gravity would alter the asteroid s orbit aroundthe sun.
或者在巖石上捆綁一個火箭發(fā)動機，將其推向一個想要的方向。再或者發(fā)射一個大型太空船繞其運行，太空船的引力將會改變小行星繞太陽運轉的軌道。
The trouble is that many of these ideas rely on having plenty of warning. Even small asteroidsare big, as 2023 DA14 shows.
問題在于，這里面的很多主意都依賴于充足的預警時間，即使是處理如2023 DA14般的小塊頭小行星。
That means shifting them at short notice is going to be difficult.
這就意味著，在很短的預知時間下，將很難改變他們的軌道。
When American s National Research Council studied the problem in 2010, it came to theconclusion that even nuclear weapons would require warnings times measured in years ordecades.
當美國國家研究委員會在2010年研究這個問題時，得出一個結論：即使是使用核武器也需要數(shù)年甚至數(shù)十年的預警時間。
Evacuation, it said, was the only feasible option for dealing with little warning. Others aremore optimistic.
委員會同時提到，在面對那些很難被辨認出而不期而至的小行星時，疏散是唯一可行的辦法。
The day before the explosion over Russia researchers at the University of California, SantaBarbara, proposed putting into orbit a solar-powered laser that could use its beam tovaporize the surface of an incoming asteroid and thus knock it off course, even at a few days notice.
其他人要樂觀一些。就在俄國上空的爆炸發(fā)生前一天，來自圣巴巴拉加利福尼亞大學的研究人員提出一個把太陽能激光器發(fā)射到小行星軌道的方案，使用激光蒸發(fā)掉小行星表面的物質(zhì)。這樣即使只有數(shù)天的預警時間，也能使其偏離軌道。
Bet your life?
用你的生命做賭注?
Hard-nosed economists might wonder whether spending money on asteroid research-eitherfor detection or deflection-is really worth it.
精明實務的經(jīng)濟學家也許會懷疑在小行星研究上投資是否物有所值，不管是小行星探測或是軌道偏移。
After all, for all their drama asteroid strikes are rare, and there are plenty of other threats toworry about.
畢竟，小行星撞擊是個非常戲劇性且罕見的，而我們還有眾多其他的威脅需要擔憂。
But the relative lack of information makes the true risk difficult to calculate.
但是由于信息的相對匱乏，真正的風險難以評估。
An asteroid strike is an event with a low probability, but a high death toll when it doeshappen.
小行星撞擊是低概率事件，但是一旦發(fā)生，就意味著大量的死亡。
That, as Dr Tonry points out, does funny things to risk calculations.
博士Tonry指出，這讓計算風險變得有些奇異。
Our best guess is that you can expect maybe 100 people a year to die from asteroid strikes,he says.
他說，我們最好的估算是，每年大約會有100人死于小行星撞擊，
Of course, what that really means is that you might see 100,000 death every thousand years,or 100m every million.
當然，實際上這意味著每隔數(shù)千年發(fā)生一次10萬人的死亡，或者每百萬年發(fā)生一次1億人的死亡。
After dodging two potential catastrophes in one day, the world may decide it is better to besafe than sorry.
在一天之內(nèi)躲過了兩次可能的災難之后，我們的世界也許會決定，安全總比遺憾好。
詞語解釋
1.focus on 致力于;使聚焦于
That s all you want to focus on.
你只需將你的注意力集中于此。
The project also will focus on key secretedpathogenic proteins.
該項目也將集中于主要分泌性致病蛋白質(zhì)。
2.according to 根據(jù)，按照
They both played the game according to the rules...
他們倆都依章行事。
They must take their own decision according to their own legal advice.
他們必須根據(jù)各自律師的意見自行決定。
3.tend to 趨向;偏重
Smaller laptops also tend to have longer battery life.
小巧的電腦也趨向更長的電池持續(xù)時間。
I tend to prefer light colors.
我往往更喜歡淡顏色。
4.account for 導致，引起
How do you account for the company s alarmingly high staff turnover?
你怎么解釋這家公司高得令人憂慮的人員流動率?
He said only 200 of the train s 600 passengers had been accounted for.
他說火車上的600名乘客中僅有200名乘客的信息得已查明。
