Yet a small group of advanced life-forms on Earth begs to differ. and theorizes that bizarremicrobial ecosystems might have once populated Venus and. in fact. may be there still.Members of this loose band of researchers suggest that their colleagues have water too muchon the brain, and are, in a sense, H2O chauvinists(盲目的愛國者).

　　"Astrobiologists are neglecting Venus due more io narrow thinking than actual knowledge of theenvironment,or environments. where life can thrive." says Dirk Schulze-Makuch, a geobiologistat the University of Texas at El Paso who recently co-authored a Venus-boosting paper inAstrobiology wich colleague Louis Irwin.

　　The bias against life on Venus is partly rooted in our own biology. Human experience instructsthat liquidwater, preferably lot of it. is essential for life. In search for extraterrestrial life, weobsess over small rivers in Mars' surface apparently carved by ancient gushes of water. anddelight in hints of permafrost (永久凍結(jié)帶) just underneath its surface. (By comparison. Venusisn't even that interesting to look at:A boring cue ball (臺球的白色母球) for backyardastronomers, its clouds reflects 75% of visible light.) Attention and then funding follow thewater: Three more landers will depart for Mars this spring. and serious plans for sample-returnmissions hover in the midterm future.

　　"If you have limited resources, you base exploration on what you know." says Arizona StateUniversity planetary geologist Ronal Greeley. It's like losing your keys on the way home alnight: The first place you look is under the streetlights not because they're more likely to bethere. but because if they are. you’llspot them. For astrobiologists. the streetlights are thespectral (光譜的) lines for water. and they've spotted that potential on Mars, Jupiter's moonEuropa. even Neptune's moon Triton. Not on the baking rocky flats of Venus.

　　如果我們的太陽系里真有地獄的話，那一定是金星。那里的空氣充滿著骯臟的帶有腐蝕性的硫磺氣味，硫磺從古老的火山上發(fā)出，并在上空形成了酸云。[1]/[4]雖然金星(離太陽第二近的行星)不如水星那么靠近太陽，但是溫室效應(yīng)的肆虐使它更熱。它是九大行星中最熱的一個，高速華氏900度的高溫烘烤面包那樣烘烤著從赤道到兩極的巖石表面。而這里的大氣壓力是你現(xiàn)在坐著的地方的90倍。從地球的角度來看，這里確實(shí)是一個絕境。這里一定沒有生命。

　　加州硅谷美國太空總署Ames研究中心的行星學(xué)家Kevin Zahnle直言!“金星上什么都沒有，我們已經(jīng)把它剔除到有生命的星球范圍之外了。”

　　然而，一個研究地球高級生命形式的小團(tuán)體表示“恕不同意”，并從理論上說金星上可能一度曾經(jīng)存在過奇特的微生物生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，事實(shí)上，這個系統(tǒng)可能仍然存在著。[3]這個組織不太緊密的研究團(tuán)體的成員指出，那些行星學(xué)家一定是腦袋進(jìn)了太多的水了，某種意義上，他們太盲目認(rèn)為水是生命存在的基本條件。

　　[5]一位來自 E1 Paso得克薩斯大學(xué)的地球生物學(xué)家Dirk Schulze-Makuch和他同事Louis Irwin合作寫了一篇關(guān)于推動金星探索的論文，發(fā)表在刊物《天體生物學(xué)》里。他說：“天體生物學(xué)家忽略金星的原因，與其說是因?yàn)槿狈m合生命成長的環(huán)境方面的知識，不如說是因?yàn)樗季S狹隘。”

　　[2]對于金星上沒有生命的看法，一部分源于我們自己的生物學(xué)知識。人類的經(jīng)驗(yàn)指出，液態(tài)水是生命的基本，而且水越多越好。在尋找外星生命時(shí)，我們著迷于火星上的河流遺跡，那明顯是由古老的水流留下的;我們對于在火星表面以下找到永久凍結(jié)帶的線索而感到高興。(相比之下，金星連看起來都沒那么有趣：對天文愛好者來說，它就像是一個臺球臺上的母球一樣單調(diào)沉悶，它的大氣云層反射了75%的可見光。)找到水的遺跡后，接著就是對火星的關(guān)注及資助研究資金的提供：這個春季再有3輛火星車將離開地球，飛向火星;把火星上的樣品帶回地球的計(jì)劃也很快要開始。

　　亞利桑那州立大學(xué)行星地質(zhì)學(xué)家Ronal Greeley說：“如果你的資源有限，你只能在你現(xiàn)有知識的基礎(chǔ)上做出探索。”這好比你在夜里回家的路上丟失了鑰匙：你先找的地方是有街燈的地方，不是因?yàn)殍€匙更可能在那里，而是因?yàn)槿绻钦嬖谀抢铮憔湍芸吹健τ谔祗w生物學(xué)家來說，水的光譜線的作用就如街燈，顯示了火星、木衛(wèi)二，甚里海衛(wèi)一上有生命的可能。但是在金星高溫的巖石表面卻沒有找到水的光譜。

　　1. Venus is the hottest of all the nine planets inthe solar system because_____________.

　　A) it is not so close to the sun as Mercury

　　B) many volcanoes spread the whole planet

　　C) it is covered by a thick layer of cloud

　　D) greenhouse effect is uncontrollable on it

　　2. Some planetologists believed there had never been lives on Venusbecause____________.

　　A) they couldn't find any trace of water on it

　　B) they found Venus is too hot for any Jives

　　C) Venus is covered by dirty and poisonous cloud

　　D) Venus is the second nearest planet to the sun

　　3. It can be inferred from the passage that the small group of advanced lifeforms onEarth believed that_____________.

　　A) life could exist in hot environment

　　B) life could exist without water

　　C) there are still lives on Venus

　　D) There used to be lives on Mars

　　4. What do we learn from the passage about Venus and Mars?

　　A) The atmospheric pressure of Venus is stronger than that of Mars.

　　B) Venus attracts more attention and funding than Mars.

　　C) Venus is closer to the sun than Mars.

　　D) Venus looks more beautiful than Mars.

　　5. The purpose of the co-authored paper by Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Louis Irwin wasto_______.

　　A) introduce their findings about Venus

　　B) promote the exploration of Venus

　　C) convince others that there used to be lives on Venus

　　D) criticize omer scientists that they are narrow-minded