6Life beyond Earth.docx

1、6Life beyond EarthLesson Six Life beyond EarthObjectives:To enable the students1) To enlarge their knowledge about the universe, and the galaxy as well as the vocabulary related to astronomy.2) To note the writing skills of paragraph transition, touches of humor, and heavy reliance of subjunctive mo

2、od、modal verbs、vocabulary expressing less assertive affirmations.3) To get more involved in the protection of the earth and if possible foster their love in astronomyTime Allotment:The teaching plan will be carried out within 10 periods.Background InformationAbout the AuthorJoel Achenbach: Washingto

3、n Post staff reporter. National Public Radio (NPR) commentator and author of Captured by Aliens; former writer for Miami Herald; writer of three columns a week for Washingtonpost. Com. He wrote a syndicated column for 7 years called Why Things Are.Organization of the Text:1) Paras12 the emergence of

4、 life 2 Para3 (transition) what else is alive out there?1. Paras410 search for life 4) Paras1123 search for intelligence 5) Paras2442 Mars 6) Paras4345 Allens argument1) Paras4652 conclusionDetailed Study of the TextPart I Paras13 introduce the question: Is there life out there/beyond earth? Para 1

5、1. S1 the author is announcing an important event. Such an announcement would immediately arouse readers curiosity. What is this astonishing thing? The following sentence gives the answer.2. Qualitatively different from-: different from them as a result of evolution. In what way is “life” different

6、from rocks, gas, -? Life is a living thing while rock is inorganic matter.3. What is life? (Paras1-2)Does the word “life” mean the same thing throughout the article? No. 1) Life on Earth 2) life beyond Earth (alien life), alien life or extraterrestrial lifePara2 1. S1 It is not difficult for you to

7、detect/find life, but when you try to define it, it is difficult to give a definition, a whole complete explanation. To give a complete/clear definition is difficult.It is not difficult to determine whether a thing has a life or not, but when it comes to give “life” a clear and exact definition, peo

8、ple find it extremely difficult.2. Notoriously: (a negative word) unfavorably well-known. It is too difficult to define it, so this negative word is used. E.g. notoriously naughty 出了名的淘气 不能用famous3. Life adapts: Life changes itself to be fit for the specific situation (According to Darlvins Evolutio

9、n Theory, only the fittest can survive.)4. Ls What sort of life can become self-aware? Only human life can be conscious of its own identity. That is because only human being can think. So here life means human life.Why does the author say “in at least one instance”? So far we only know of the one pa

10、rticular case of human life. But, maybe there is life elsewhere in the universe. So “at least” is used here.Para3. Transition Para, leading to life beyond earth. What else is alive out there? Is there sth. similar to human life in other parts of the universe? Out there means in space beyond the eart

11、h.Part II paras47 There are many suppositions that there must be life out there.Para4 1. S1: At the turn of the new millennium (that is, between the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century), one may not find anything which is scientifically unknown to human beings so intriguing

12、 and yet so difficult to answer as the issue of extraterrestrial life.Tantalize: To excite (another) by exposing something desirable while keeping it out of reach.2. S2 Extraterrestrial life means that, in nature, there are a great number of things that we dont know.Gap: sth. We dont know. 3. S3 Wit

13、h the help of advanced technology such as Hubble Space Telescope scientists have discovered a very large amount of cosmic material and yet they have not discovered any life on any other planet.Bewildering: confused hopelessly by sth. Complicated. Here it implies that many of the things in the univer

14、se have turf which obscures your view. You cant see even with Hubble Space Telescope. / Turf surrounds these things; you cant find/see what they are. So you feel bewildered.Only a single inhabited world: only this world (our world) is inhabited by human beings and other living things.Para5 1. Suppos

15、ition: assumption; sth. regarded as true without actual knowledge.Scenario: An outline or a model of an expected or a supposed sequence of events:2. S2 The late astronomer Carl Sagan estimated that- -in our galaxy alone: Carl Sagan, the astronomer, who is now dead, predicted that there are a million

16、 societies with advanced technology in our galaxy, without taking into account other galaxy.Carl Sagan(193419960): Director of the Laboratory for Planetary(行星的) Studies at Cornell University. Pulitzer Prize Winner 1978. He has contributed to most of the unmanned missions(aerospace operation太空行动) tha

17、t explored the solar system.3. Frank Drake(1930-): Chairman. Board of Physics and Astronomy, National Research Council, 19891992.4. Ls -who thinks we may well be alone in this galaxy if not in the universe: who thinks that most probably we are the only life form in this galaxy, even though we may no

18、t be able to say we are the only one in the universe. Even if we are not the single one in the universe, we may well be alone in this galaxy.Ben Zuckerman: professor at University of California, Los Angeles; author of The Origin and Evolution of the Universe; Extraterrestrials, Where Are they?Skepti

19、c: One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions. Para6 1. Speculative: based on reasoning or speculation (a guess without foundation). Theoretical, not practical 猜测性的，推测的2. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: absenc

20、e of evidence does not mean we dont have proof. The fact that we don not have evidence showing there is life beyond Earth does not mean that we can come to the conclusion that there is actually no life beyond Earth.（ pay attention to the way the idea is organized. Chiasmus: inversion of the second o

21、f two parallel phrases, clauses, etc. ）3. But still we do not have any solid knowledge about a single alien microbe, much less a passing alien starship: “But” links this sentence with the previous one. The meaning is: in spite of the fact that we cannot prove there is no life beyond Earth, we still

22、do not have evidence to prove there is. So far we do not know firmly that there exists a single microbe in another world, to say nothing of a starship coming from another world in the universe passing the Earth. Alien: belonging to another worldMicrobe: A minute life form, especially a bacterium tha

23、t causes disease.(not in technical use.)Para7 1.plausibility n. plausible adj. that seems/appears reasonable/convincing, but not truePlausibility argument: argument /reason that appears/seems convincing, but not actually true.Hunch: idea based on intuition or instinct, not on evidence. 基于直觉的想法Random

24、 ought-to-bes: possible things which are chosen without specific aim2. We dont know- we do not know- : We do not know if this life depends on water in liquid form for existence or if it lives in the water like fish or in the air like birds or under the earth like gophers囊地鼠.The last two sentences ar

25、e questions raised on the basis of what we know about life on earth. In other words, the question is whether it has the same elements or develops in the same way as life on earth.Medium: surroundings in which sth. Exists or moves. Sth. as a kind of matter to serve as in-between. Para8 transitional p

26、ara, moving from speculation to naming the field of researchWhat is the contrast involved as introduced by “despite”? What is meant by “the enveloping nebula of uncertainty”? The contrast is: though there is a lot of uncertainties, scientists will not give up their efforts at scientific inquiry. The

27、 enveloping nebula of uncertainty introduces two ideas: the first is the cloud of gas and dust obscure things; the second, as a result, it is unclear what has been wrapped up in the cloud of gas and dust, what is inside the enveloping nebula. Nebula: A diffuse mass of interstellar dust or gas or bot

28、h, visible as luminous patches or areas of darkness depending on the way the mass absorbs or reflects incident radiation. Exobiology n. The branch of biology that deals with the search for extraterrestrial life and the effects of extraterrestrial surroundings on living organisms. Para9 1. NASA : Nat

29、ional Aeronautics and Space Administration(美国宇航局), set up in 1958. It was formed because the former Soviet Union launched two Sputniks in 1957, thus generating outcry in the United States about lagging behind in space competition with the Soviet Union. One of the achievements of NASA was the Apollo

30、11 (太阳神十一号, 实现人类首次登陆月球, 由美国宇航员驾驶的宇宙飞船)mission in 1969, putting humans on the lunar surface. In the 1980s,NASA launched the Space Shuttle (往返于地球和太空站之间运载人和物资的)航天飞机)program that continues today to help build the International Space Station.Examining them for atmospheric signatures of a living world: ex

31、amining these planets to see/study if the surrounding atmosphere can be identified as fitting for life / suitable for living things.2. In the past decades organisms have been found thriving on our planet in bizarre, hostile environment: What has this discovery to do with the search for extraterrestr

32、ial life? If organisms could thrive in conditions in this world similar to hostile conditions in other planets, then the possibility of the existence of alien life increases. Bizarre, hostile environment: environment that is entirely not suitable for living things/existing life. E.g. Mars is not suitable for life. 3. Ls. Then they would not find Mars a place so unsuitable for existence; in other words, if microbes can survive in places in this world without air or sunlight or in places extremely hot, then they might exist in ot