本期原文選自The Economist 2016-8-27的Leaders板塊Brave new worlds，釋義來(lái)自牛津高階七版矢腻、劍橋高階學(xué)習(xí)詞典英漢雙解第3版门驾、有道詞典等網(wǎng)絡(luò)資源。如果您也在學(xué)習(xí)The Economist多柑，歡迎訂閱我的文集The Economist奶是，一起學(xué)習(xí)交流。

Brave new worlds

New discoveries, intelligent devices and irrepressible【1】dreamers are once again making space exciting

【1】狂熱的顷蟆，抑制不住的诫隅，難以馴服的

It may turn out to be a bare and barren rock【2】. The fact that liquid water could be flowing across the surface of the planet just discovered orbiting Proxima Centauri【3】, the nearest star to the sun, does not mean that any actually is【4】—nor for that matter【5】that it has an atmosphere. The fact that water and air, if present, could make this new world habitable does not mean that it is, in fact, a home to alien life.

【2】此處采用了修辭手法“頭韻”（Alliteration，也稱作head rhyme或者initial rhyme）帐偎，是英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)音的一種常見(jiàn)修辭手法逐纬。首輔音一致的兩個(gè)或兩個(gè)以上的單詞同時(shí)出現(xiàn)在短語(yǔ)、句子或相鄰句子的情況都可成為Alliteration削樊。經(jīng)常閱讀經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人的文章豁生，會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)尤其標(biāo)題經(jīng)常采用Alliteration的修辭手法。

【3】比鄰星又稱毗鄰星漫贞，是半人馬座α三合星的第三顆星甸箱，離太陽(yáng)最近的一顆恒星（4.22光年）。Proxima本身也可以指比鄰星迅脐，centaur是古希臘神話中的半人半馬怪物芍殖，Centaurus是半人馬座，擁有兩顆一等大星（first magnitude stars）谴蔑，半人馬座A星（Alpha Centauri）和半人馬座B星（Beta Centauri）以及半人馬座歐米伽球狀星團(tuán)（the globular cluster Omega Centauri）豌骏。

【4】此處省略了一些詞語(yǔ)，結(jié)合前面的分句可知隐锭，完整的表述應(yīng)該是any liquid water actually is flowing across the surface of the planet……

【5】就此而言窃躲，在這方面

But it might be.

What is exciting about this new world is not what is known—which, so far, is almost nothing (see page 67). It is what is unknown and the possibilities it may contain. It is the chance that【6】there is life beneath that turbulent red sun, and that humans might be able to recognise it from 40 trillion kilometres away. In the immense distances of space that is close enough to mean that, some day, perhaps, someone might send probes to visit it and in so doing glimpse【7】a totally different form of life. In the thrill of【8】such possibilities sits all that is most promising about the exploration of space.

【6】可能

【7】輕輕一瞥

【8】興奮，激動(dòng)

All our yesterdays

Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the first satellite, Sputnik. The intervening decades have brought wonders. Men have looked back on【9】the beauty of the Earth from the bright-lit Moon—and returned safely home. The satellites of America's Global Positioning System (GPS) have created a world in which no one need ever be lost again—changing the human experience of place rather as the wristwatch changed the experience of time. Robots have trundled【10】across the plains of Mars and swooped【11】through the rings of Saturn. The Hubble space telescope has revealed that wherever you look, if you look hard enough you will find galaxies scattered like grains of sand across the deep【12】.

【9】回望

【10】慢慢滾動(dòng)

【11】俯沖

【12】海洋

Even so, space has of late【13】become a bit dull. No man has ventured beyond low Earth orbit in more than four decades (no woman has done so ever). Astronauts and cosmonauts commute to an International Space Station that has little purpose beyond providing a destination for their capsules, whose design would have been familiar in the 1960s. All the solar system's planets have been visited by probes. The hard graft【14】of teasing out【15】their secrets now offers less immediate spectacle.

【13】近來(lái)

【14】辛苦工作

【15】探究

The use of space is integral to all sorts of things, including the working of armies, air forces and navies, but its role in GPS—or, for that matter, Google Maps—barely merits a mention【16】. Some companies make money from putting satellites into orbit, and not just the kind that do things for governments. But there is an undeniable bathos【17】to the fact that the biggest business in arealm once synonymous with human transcendence is providing viewers on Earthwith umpty-seven channels of satellite TV.

【16】barely merits a mention幾乎不值得一提

【17】荒謬之變

Now that is changing. The technological progress that has put supercomputers into the pockets of half the world has made it possible do a lot more in orbit with much smaller spacecraft. A generation of entrepreneurs forged in Silicon Valley— and backed by some of its venture capitalists【18】—are launching highly capable newdevices ranging in size from shoe boxes to fridges and flying them inconstellations of dozens or hundreds (see Technology Quarterly). Such machinesare vastly more capable, kilo for kilo, than their predecessors and cheaper, toboot. They are making space interesting again.

【18】風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本家

The first new businesses are based on something easily returned from space to Earth: data. Although companies such as DigitalGlobe, in Denver, have been selling satellite images for decades, most of their customers have been spooks【19】and soldiers. Today's entrepreneurs at companies like Planet, Black- Sky and Spire are hoping to sell not just snapshots of places that brass hats【20】want to peer at【21】. They are offering comprehensive and constantly updated global data sets. Ever better machine- learning programs can mine these for information on crops, shipping, traffic, wildlife or the environment that will be used by everyone from eco-warriors to hedge funds. Add the potential of small, smart satellites in their hundreds or even thousands to connect the billions of people too poor and remote to have yet been reached by the phone revolution, or the trillions of devices in the "internet of things【22】", and this new space age will bring more than ever to the world below.

【19】特工

【20】要人

【21】仔細(xì)看

【22】物聯(lián)網(wǎng)钦睡，就是物物相連的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)蒂窒，被視為互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的應(yīng)用擴(kuò)展,其目的是實(shí)現(xiàn)物與物、物與人，所有的物品與網(wǎng)絡(luò)的連接洒琢。

And that is just the start. Elon Musk, the founder of both Tesla, a car company, and SpaceX, a rocket company, wants to found a colony on Mars and will soon be building spacecraft that can go there. Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, is following a steady and somewhat secretive path that may one day see the skies filled with automated factories and asteroid【23】mines. Yuri Milner, an investor who got intoFacebook early, is spending $100m on the most serious attempt yet to detect civilisations around other stars. He is also funding a programme aimed atstudying planets like the one around Proxima Centauri with probes travelling ata fifth the speed of light—spacecraft so tiny as to make today's shoe-box satellites look like battleships.

【23】小行星

New life, and new civilisations Even if they fail, these attempts to reinvigorate space will be instructive and thrilling. Just as on Earth, states will always have a role as, among other things, protectors of their national satellite infrastructure and as the enforcers of the laws they have put in place to govern the commercial exploitation of space. But in the years ahead, as the cost of hardware plummets【24】and as systems on Earth learn to make better use of data, the growing number of star-struck【25】entrepreneurs promise to relieve governmentsof the burden of space-age dreams with a torrent of innovation.

【24】速降

【25】追星的

There is no objective need for people to colonise space or for them to look at planets in other solar systems in order to answer questions about life's place in the universe. People can survive without such journeys or knowledge. Some, though, see the possibilities, stand in awe【26】, and start making plans. They may notsucceed. The planets may turn out to be barren rocks. Infinite space, in the end, might be just a nutshell's worth of emptiness.

【26】敬畏

But, then again, it might not.

【知識(shí)點(diǎn)匯總】

1. 修辭手法：Alliteration 頭韻秧秉，a bare and barren rock。

2. 關(guān)于太空的詞語(yǔ)：Proxima Centauri比鄰星纬凤，Mars火星福贞，Saturn土星，constellation星座停士，planet行星挖帘，asteroid小行星，galaxy星系恋技，solar system太陽(yáng)系拇舀，orbit軌道，probe探測(cè)器蜻底，astronaut/cosmonaut宇航員骄崩。

3. 重復(fù)成分可以省略，使句子簡(jiǎn)潔薄辅。

4. 表示適用于另一種情形的遞進(jìn)關(guān)系要拂，可以采用for that matter。

5. 表達(dá)可能性時(shí)站楚，除了possibility, probability脱惰，還可以用chance。

6. 文中有兩個(gè)表示“看”的詞：peer和glimpse窿春，前者是凝視拉一、窺視，后者只是輕輕一瞥旧乞。

7. thrill表示驚險(xiǎn)蔚润、興奮，thriller是驚險(xiǎn)小說(shuō)尺栖。

8. “海洋”的英文嫡纠，除了ocean, sea，還可以是the deep延赌。

9. “最近”的英文货徙，除了recently，還可以是of late皮胡。

10. 辛苦的工作，除了hard work赏迟，還可以是graft屡贺。

11. “回憶”的英文，除了recall，還可以是look back on甩栈。

12. “俯沖泻仙、向下猛沖”，英文只需一個(gè)單詞swoop量没。

13. 帶輪子的東西緩慢移動(dòng)玉转，英文是trundle。

14. 探究秘密 tease out a secret殴蹄。

15. 幾乎不值得一提 barely merit a mention究抓。

16. 荒謬的突然轉(zhuǎn)變 bathos。

17. 風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本 venture capital袭灯，風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本家 venture capitalist刺下。

18. ?spook 除了“鬼”，還有間謀稽荧、特工的意思橘茉。

19. 物聯(lián)網(wǎng) internet of things。

20. 暴跌姨丈、速降 plummet（名詞是鉛錘的意思）畅卓。

21. 追星的 star-struck。

22. 對(duì)…敬畏 stand/be in awe of sb/sth蟋恬。

23. 狂熱的夢(mèng)想家 irrepressible dreamer翁潘。

24. brass 除了黃銅，還可以是要人筋现。

注：本文僅供學(xué)習(xí)交流之用唐础，不代表作者觀點(diǎn)。