公众人物毕业演讲 第170期:比尔·奈马萨诸塞大学2014(17)

 　　And are we alone?.

　　二是我们是否唯一。

　　Those 2 deep questions drive us all through our whole lives.

　　这两个深刻问题伴随着我们的整个生命。

　　And to answer those 2 questions.

　　要回答这两个问题。

　　we have to continue to explore outer space.

　　我们就需要持续对外太空的探索。

　　When I was in school, I had a remarkable¹ professor Carl Sagan.

　　我上学时 有一位很不寻常的教授叫卡尔?萨根。

　　He spoke² often about, I did, yeah, I did.

　　他经常说… 真的 我上过他的课。

　　Just look everybody. I was just some guy in the black little room. I was not....

　　我当时只是教室后排一个不起眼的学生。

　　Anyway, Carl Sagan spoke often about the possibility of life on other worlds.

　　无论如何 卡尔?萨根经常讲其它世界存在生命的可能性。

　　Well my friends, class of 2014, it's possible that in the next few years.

　　2014届毕业的朋友们 或许过不了几年。

　　the extraordinary will happen.

　　非凡的事就会发生。

　　It's possible in the next few years, we may discover evidence of life.

　　或许过不了几年 我们就能发现。

　　some sort of fossil Martian microbe.

　　某种化石火星微生物的证据。

　　a "Marscrobe" perhaps on that other world.

　　这就是另一个世界的生命。

　　It would utterly³ change this one.

　　这会颠覆我们的世界。

　　It would change the way each and every one of us thinks of.

　　这会改变我们每个人对自己。

　　his or her place in the cosmos⁴, our place in space.

　　在宇宙中 在太空中处于什么地位的考虑。

　　We are very hopeful, the Planetary Society, that we're going to send a mission.

　　我们行星协会非常希望能够发送探测器。

　　to the moon of Jupiter, Europa.

　　到木卫二去。

　　Which has geysers spewing seawater into outer space.

　　木卫二上有间歇泉 将海水喷射到太空。

　　What if we found some sort of Europeanion plankton⁵?.

　　或许我们能够在木卫二上找到浮游生物。

　　It would change everything

　　这会改变一切。

　　It would change the way each and every one of us thinks about our place in space.

　　这会改变我们每个人对自己在太空中的定位。

　　Now when you put a message in a bottle and toss that bottle into the ocean.

　　当你将消息装进瓶子 然后把瓶子扔进海里时。

　　You might have some vague hope that it will be returned to you some day.

　　希望虽然渺茫 但你会希望有人某天会给你回信。

　　From someone in some exotic place.

　　回信可能来自很遥远的异国。

　　Like Bak Alhenie, or Yangshan, or Buzzards Bay.

　　像巴克阿尔赫尼 洋山 或是巴泽兹湾。

1 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

4 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

5 plankton   

n.浮游生物

参考例句：

• Plankton is at the bottom of the marine food chain.浮游生物处于海洋食物链的最底层。
• The plankton in the sea feeds many kinds of animals. 海的浮游生物成为很多种动物的食物。