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Good evening, in 1959, on the day that I was born, a headline in Life magazine proclaimed Target Venus, There May Be Life There.
晚上好，在1959年我出生的那一天，《生命》雜志的一個標(biāo)題宣布，金星上可能會有生命。
It told of how scientists rode a balloon to an altitude of 80,000 feet to make telescope observations of Venus's atmosphere
該文講述了科學(xué)家如何乘氣球到達(dá)八萬英尺高的地方用望遠(yuǎn)鏡觀測金星的大氣，
and how their discovery of water raised hopes that there could be living things there.
以及他們發(fā)現(xiàn)水的這件事如何點燃金星上可能存在生命的希望。
As a kid, I thrilled to tales of adventure and Isaac as most juvenile science fiction novel, Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus.
小時候，我看少兒科幻小說《幸運之星和金星海洋》時非常激動。
For many of my peers, though, Venus quickly lost its romance.
但對于我的很多同伴而言，金星很快就失去了其浪漫色彩。
The very first thing that scientists discovered with a mission to another planet was that Venus was not at all the earthly paradise that fiction had portrayed.
科學(xué)家?guī)е蝿?wù)去另一個星球時所發(fā)現(xiàn)的第一件事就是，金星絕不是小說里描繪的那種世間天堂。
It is nearly identical to our own planet and bulk properties such as mass, density, and size.
金星和我們的地球有很多相似的特征，例如質(zhì)量、密度和體積都差不多。
But its surface has been cooked and dried by an ocean of carbon dioxide, trapped in the burning death grip of a runaway greenhouse effect.
但其表面被二氧化碳海洋烤干了，溫室效應(yīng)的酷熱籠罩著金星。
Venus has long been held up as a cautionary tale for everything that could go wrong on a planet like earth.
金星一直都在警告我們，像地球這樣的星球如果出了問題，就會像金星那樣。
As a possible home for alien life, it has been voted the planet least likely to succeed.
作為外星生命可能生活的家園，金星被認(rèn)為是最不可能有生命的星球。
But I have refused to give up on Venus.
但是我拒絕放棄金星上存在生命的希望。
And over the years, my stubborn loyalty has been justified.
在過去的多年里，我固執(zhí)的堅持得到了證明。
The rocky views glimpsed by the Nearer Nine and other Russian landers suggested a tortured volcanic history that was confirmed in the early 1990s by the American Magellan orbiter,
接近九號探測器以及其他俄羅斯著陸艙看到的巖石景象表明，美國麥哲倫軌道飛行器在90年代所確認(rèn)的火山歷史確實存在，
which used radar to peer through the planet's thick clouds and map out a rich, varied and dynamic surface.
該飛行器使用雷達(dá)來穿透金星厚厚的云層，繪出該星球豐富多樣的動態(tài)表面。
The surface formed mostly in the last billion years, which makes it fresher and more recently active than any rocky planet other than earth.
金星表面主要是在過去十億年形成，導(dǎo)致其表面比除了地球之外的其他巖石星球都更新、更活躍。
Russian and American spacecraft also found hints that its ancient climate might have been wetter, cooler, and possibly even friendly to life.
俄羅斯和美國宇宙飛船還發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些跡象：金星的古代氣候可能更濕潤、更冷，可能甚至對生命更適宜。
Measurements of density and composition imply that Venus originally formed out of basically the same stuff as earth that presumably included much more water than the tiny trace we find blowing in the thick air today.
密度和構(gòu)成的測量表明，剛開始時形成金星的物質(zhì)和地球是相同的，比那些我們現(xiàn)在發(fā)現(xiàn)厚大氣層下飄動的小痕跡包含更多的水。
Thus, our picture of Venus at around that time life was getting started on earth is one of warm oceans, probably rich with organic molecules splashing around rocky shores and volcanic vents.
因此，金星在地球生命起源時應(yīng)該是一個溫暖的海洋，巖石邊緣和火山口附近可能噴出大量有機(jī)分子。
The sun was considerably less bright back then.
當(dāng)時的太陽遠(yuǎn)沒有現(xiàn)在這么亮。
So, Venus was arguably a cozy, a habitat for life than earth.
所以，金星當(dāng)時是一個比地球更舒適的生命棲息地。
19.What do we learn from the Life magazine article?
19.我們從《生命》雜志的文章中知道什么？
20.What are scientists' findings about Venus?
20.科學(xué)家圍繞金星的發(fā)現(xiàn)是什么？
21.What information did Russian and American space probes provide about Venus?
21.俄羅斯和美國的空間探測提供了關(guān)于金星的什么信息？
