2007年新東方大學英語六級講義（閱讀部分）

　　Passage Three

　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:

　　When imaginative men turn their eyes towards space and wonder whether life exist in any part of it, they may cheer themselves by remembering that life need not resemble closely the life that exists on Earth. Mars looks like the only planet where life like ours could exist, and even this is doubtful. But there may be other kinds of life based on other kinds of chemistry, and they may multiply on Venus or Jupiter. At least we cannot prove at present that they do not.

　　Even more interesting is the possibility that life on their planets may be in a more advanced stage of evolution. Present-day man is in a peculiar and probably temporary stage. His individual units retain a strong sense of personality. They are, in fact, still capable under favorable circumstances of leading individual lives. But man's societies are already sufficiently developed to have enormously more power and effectiveness than the individuals have.

　　It is not likely that this transitional situation will continue very long on the evolutionary time scale. Fifty thousand years from now man's societies may have become so close-knit that the individuals retain no sense of separate personality. Then little distinction will remain between the organic parts of the multiple organism and the inorganic parts (machines) that have been constructed by it. A million years further on man and his machines may have merged as closely as the muscles of the human body and the nerve cells that set them in motion.

　　The explorers of space should be prepared for some such situation. If they arrive on a foreign planet that has reached an advanced stage (and this is by no means impossible), they may find it being inhabited by a single large organism composed of many closely cooperating units.

　　The units may be “secondary” — machines created millions of years ago by a previous form of life and given the will and ability to survive and reproduce. They may be built entirely of metals and other durable materials. If this is the case, they may be much more tolerant of their environment, multiplying under conditions that would destroy immediately any organism made of carbon compounds and dependent on the familiar carbon cycle.

　　Such creatures might be relics(遺物) of a past age, many millions of years ago, when their planet was favorable to the origin of life, or they might be immigrants from a favored planet.

　　31. What does the word “cheer” (Line 2, Para. 1) imply?

　　A) Imaginative men are sure of success in finding life on other planets.

　　B) Imaginative men are delighted to find life on other planets.

　　C) Imaginative men are happy to find a different kind of life existing on other planets.

　　D) Imaginative men can be pleased with the idea that there might exist different forms of life on other planets.

　　32. Humans on Earth today are characterized by .

　　A) their existence as free and separate beings

　　B) their capability of living under favorable conditions

　　C) their great power and effectiveness

　　D) their strong desire for living in a close-knit society

　　33. According to this passage, some people believe that eventually .

　　A) human societies will be much more cooperative

　　B) man will live in a highly organized world

　　C) machines will replace man

　　D) living beings will disappear from Earth

　　34. Even most imaginative people have to admit that .

　　A) human societies are as advanced as those on some other planets

　　B) planets other than Earth are not suitable for life like ours to stay

　　C) it is difficult to distinguish between organic parts and inorganic parts of the human body

　　D) organism are more creative than machines

　　35. It seems that the writer .

　　A) is interested in the imaginary life forms

　　B) is eager to find a different form of life

　　C) is certain of the existence of a new life form

　　D) is critical of the imaginative people

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