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沈阳农业大学2006级英语期末试卷
Part Ⅱ Reading Comprehension (Skimming and Scanning) (10 points)
Directions: In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly.
For Questions 1-7, mark
Y (for YES) if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for NO) if the statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for NOT GIVEN) if the information is not given in the passage.
For Questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
Life Elsewhere?
As we all know, the Earth has everything that is needed for life to develop, which is why we are here. But four billion years ago, when the Earth was formed, what were the chances that life would emerge? Pretty small, according to biologists—about the same chance that you would have of winning the national lottery five weeks in a row. So we are quite lucky to be here.
What about the chances of life forming elsewhere—in our own galaxy, for instance? The Milky Way contains around 400 billion stars, some (maybe most) of these half planets orbiting them, and the chances are that many millions—or even billions—of these planets could support life. So it does seem possible that there are some other lottery winners living in the same neighborhood.
And if you think that there are countless other galaxies out there—many of them far bigger than the Milky Way—then it seems obvious that there must be other forms of life somewhere in the universe.
But is it intelligent life, the kind of life that could build spaceships and pay us a visit?
Here on Earth there have been billions of species, but only one of them has turned out to be intelligent enough to develop technology and fly into space. And even we are not particularly intelligent: the human race will probably blow itself up long before it learns how to visit other parts of the galaxy.
But let’s suppose that there are advanced civilizations here in our own galaxy, who have developed fa
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