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  • Sophie: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Sophie.

    哈囉,歡迎收聽6分鐘學英語,我是蘇菲

  • Neil: And I'm Neil. Sophie, did you see the beautiful sky last night?

    我是尼爾。蘇菲,你昨晚有看到美麗的星空嗎?

  • Sophie: No, I went to bed early. Why?

    沒,我很早就睡了。怎麼了?

  • Neil: I was wondering if there was life out there.

    我在想外星生物是否真的存在

  • Sophie: You mean life on other planets? That's just science fiction, Neil.

    你是說在其他星球上嗎? 那根本是科幻啦

  • Neil: It isn't! People are fascinated by life on other planets for a good reason.

    才怪!我們對外星生物如此著迷不是沒有原因的

  • Sophie: You believe in little green men?

    你相信小綠人喔?

  • Neil: Not necessarily... but possibly.

    也不是...但很可能存在啊

  • Sophie: Well, Mars is our closest neighbour in the solar system

    太陽系中就屬火星最靠近我們了

  • and the subject of today's show.

    也就是今天的主題

  • And that brings me on to our usual quiz question. How long is a day on Mars?

    接著來到每日一問: 火星上的一天到底多久呢?

  • Is it about... a) 5 hours? b) 25 hours?

    是 a) 5小時, b)25小時

  • Or c) 45 hours?

    還是 c) 45小時?

  • Neil: And I think it must be c) 45 hours. Things are weird on other planets.

    我猜 c) 45小時,別的星球一定跟我們不一樣

  • And Mars is further from the sun than us... Mars may be our closest neighbour, but it's

    火星距太陽比我們還遠...就算火星是我們最近的鄰居

  • hardly in our backyard, is it?

    也並非近到如自家後院

  • Sophie: It is in astronomical terms, Neil

    尼爾,要用天文學角度來看

  • it's visible to the naked eye

    火星可用肉眼看見

  • meaning without using instruments

    也就是不需要藉助天文儀器

  • and it's reachable by spacecraft.

    而且太空船也到得了

  • Well, we'll find out later on in the show whether you got the answer right or not.

    我們待會再來看你有沒有答對

  • Now can you tell me Neil why people like you get excited about the possibility of life on Mars?

    現在倒是要請你說說 為何許多人跟你一樣 提到火星上可能有生物 就特別興奮呢?

  • Neil: Well, Mars is similar to the Earth in some important ways

    這個嘛...火星很多方面像地球

  • which means if life developed on our planet, why not Mars?

    這代表如果地球有物種演化,火星上一定也有

  • Sophie: That's true. Its temperature is in the right zone

    沒錯,火星氣溫剛剛好

  • not too hot and not too cold.

    不會太熱 也不會太冷

  • But actually we could find Mars pretty cold

    不過火星對我們而言可能有點冷

  • an average temperature would be around minus 63 degrees Celsius compared to Earth's 14 degrees Celsius.

    平均溫度約攝氏負63度,地球才不過14度而已

  • It's also very aridor dry.

    太乾旱,也就是太乾燥

  • Neil: And it needs to be wet for life to develop, doesn't it?

    生物需要雨水滋潤才能成長,不是嗎?

  • Sophie: That's right. Many scientists think that liquid water is essential for life!

    沒錯,科學家相信有液態水就有生命!

  • But there may have been water on the surface of Mars in the past.

    但很可能古老的火星地表上有水

  • And recent research suggests that there may be water underground.

    新的研究也指出火星地下有水

  • Let's hear some more about this from Professor John Zarnecki,

    讓我們來聽聽約翰·札內基教授怎麼說

  • who teaches Space Science at The Open University.

    札內基教授在空大教太空科學

  • John Zarnecki: We are now seeing that in fact Mars probably does have waternot liquid water

    現在我們知道在火星上的確有水–但不是液態水

  • that there is ice just below the surface

    是地表下的冰

  • and there's even just recently tantalizing evidence that perhaps water does flow periodically...

    誘人的新證據也指出,那裡的水可能週期性地流動

  • Now, and also coupled with the fact that here on Earth we're finding that life in very primitive form

    再加上我們已發現地球上最原始的生物

  • exists in the most extreme environments, these are the so called 'extremophiles'

    存在最極端的環境,它們也被稱作嗜極端菌

  • that exist at the bottom of the oceans...

    存活在海洋最底層

  • So life is much, much tougher.

    那裡存活不易

  • Neil: What does tantalizing mean, Sophie?

    蘇菲,tantalizing是什麼意思啊?

  • Sophie: It means something you want that's almost, but not quite, within reach.

    意思是你最想要的東西還沒完全到手,就差那麼一點

  • So, scientists would love to think water flows on Mars

    所以說,科學家相信火星上有水的足跡

  • but the evidence isn't strong enough for this to be certain.

    但證據卻還不夠充足

  • The other interesting point the professor makes

    另一個教授提出的有趣的點是

  • is that life may exist in the very harsh Martian environment

    在非常嚴峻的火星環境裡,仍有生物存在

  • because primitive life exists in extreme places on Earth.

    因為最原始的生物就生存在地球最極端之處

  • Neil: Extremophiles are organismsor small creatures

    嗜極端菌是一群生物,或微生物

  • that live in very extreme environments

    生長在極端環境

  • and can survive conditions that would kill most other organisms.

    能夠應付別的生物無法存活的極端氣候

  • But on Mars they would be living underground

    不過在火星上,牠們活動範圍是地底下

  • because the radiationor light and heat

    因為太陽輻射– 光或熱

  • from the Sun would kill any organisms living on the surface of the planet.

    會將地表活動的生物殺死

  • So why doesn't the Sun's radiation kill us then, Sophie?

    那為何太陽輻射沒把我們殺死?

  • Sophie: The Earth has a strong magnetic field created by its hot molten core or centre ...

    地球有強大的磁場,由地心熔鐵產生

  • and this protects us from the Sun's harmful solar winds.

    保護我們免於太陽的粒子風暴

  • Neil: And what about Mars - why doesn't it have a magnetic field?

    那火星為甚麼就沒有磁場?

  • Sophie: It used to ... 4 billion years ago.

    曾有過啊...40億年前

  • It's possible that a massive collision with an asteroid

    很可能一個大規模的小行星碰撞

  • might have heated up Mars's core, disrupting the magnetic fields.

    讓火星的核心變熱而破壞了磁場

  • Neil: And if you disrupt a process you stop it from continuing normally.

    破壞過程也就是你讓程序無法正常進行

  • Now, to return to the subject of collisions, Sophie, I have something very interesting to tell you.

    再回來談小行星碰撞,蘇菲,我告訴你一件有趣的事

  • Sophie: Yes?

    咦?

  • Neil: A meteoriteor a piece of rock from outer spacemight've crashed into the Earth millions of years ago.

    很有可能幾百萬年前,隕石–來自外太空的石頭,撞擊了地球

  • That meteorite might have contained Martian life forms.

    那顆隕石就可能潛藏火星生物

  • So we might be descended from Martians!

    因此我們可能是火星人後代耶!

  • Sophie: That's actually an interesting idea, Neil.

    那個想法真是有趣啊,尼爾

  • But let's listen to Professor John Zarnecki talking about interplanetary life.

    但讓我們來聽聽約翰·札內基教授對星球生物的看法

  • John Zarnecki: If we do find traces of life on Mars we don't know, do we

    即使我們找到火星生物的足跡,我們也無法確認

  • whether it evolved independently or was it perhaps seeded from Earth.

    那是自行演化,或是從地球過去的

  • It is possible that life forms from Earth travelled to Mars and perhaps existed there

    很可能是地球物種到了火星上活了下來

  • or the other way round.

    或相反的情況

  • Neil: So life on Mars may have evolvedor developedon its own.

    所以說火星物種可能是自行演化或發展的囉

  • Or it might have arrived from Earth in a lump of rock... Or the other way round!

    或是從地球的一塊大石頭飛過去...或剛好相反!

  • So Martians might be humans or we might be Martians!

    所以火星人可能是地球人, 或我們是火星人!

  • One big interplanetary happy family, Sophie!

    一個快樂的大星際家族!

  • Sophie: Well Neil, let's hope you stay happy after you hear the answer to today's quiz question.

    希望你聽到今日一問的正解時也會如此開心啊,尼爾

  • I asked: How long is a day on Mars? Is it ... a) 5 hours? b) 25 hours? Or c) 45 hours?

    我問火星上的一天多長,是a) 5小時 b) 25小時 還是 c) 45小時呢?

  • Neil: And I said c) 45 hoursthey must have a long day over there.

    我說 c) 45小時,那裡的一天一定很長

  • Sophie: And you were ... wrong!

    啊哈你錯了!

  • The correct answer is b) because a day on Mars is slightly longer than here on Earth

    正解是 b) 因為火星上的一天只比地球的長一點點

  • it's 25 hours.

    25小時

  • Anyway, can we at least hear the words we learned today?

    好啦,我們可以來看今天學的生字了嗎?

  • Neil: They are:

  • the naked eye

    肉眼

  • arid

    乾旱

  • tantalizing

    誘人的

  • extremophiles

    嗜極端菌

  • organisms

    生物

  • radiation

    輻射

  • core

    核心

  • disrupt

    破壞

  • meteorite

    隕石

  • evolved

    演化的

  • Sophie: Well, that's the end of today's 6 Minute English.

    那就是今日的6分鐘學英語

  • Join us again soon!

    下次再會!

  • Both: Bye.

    再見

Sophie: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Sophie.

哈囉,歡迎收聽6分鐘學英語,我是蘇菲

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