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1、英文科普阅读材料双语宇宙四篇目录一、究竟有多少个宇宙 1二、科学家在自然界中发现宇宙的第一个分子 9三、如果我们的宇宙与另一个相撞怎么办？ 20四、宇宙的尽头有什么？ 28一、究竟有多少个宇宙有时候当我在孤单的长途飞行中，Sometimes when Im on a long plane flight,我望向那些山脉与沙漠I gaze out at all those mountains and deserts尝试去理解地球的广袤and try to get my head around how vast our Earth is.然后我想起来有一样东西我们天天看见，And the n I r
2、emember that theres an object we see every day它的体积相当于130万个地球的大小。that would literally fit one million Earths inside it.太阳，看起来无限大,The sun seems impossibly big,但从宇宙的角度上讲，它只是茫茫星海中的一个尘埃，but in the great scheme of things, its a pinprick,只是银河系里四百亿颗恒星当中的一颗，one of about 400 billion stars in the Milky Way gal
3、axy,银河系是你可以在晴朗的夜晚看到which you can see on a clear night的一片横跨天空的银色带子。as a pale, white mist stretched across the sky.但这还远远不止于此And it gets worse.我们通过望远镜，可以探知到大概有100亿个星系There are maybe 100 billion galaxies detectable by our telescopes,所以如果每一颗恒星等于一颗细沙的大小，so if each star was the size of a single grain of sa
4、nd,仅仅是银河系就有足够的恒星来装满just the Milky Way has enough stars to fill一个体积是30英尺乘以30英尺，3英尺深的沙滩a 30 foot by 30 foot stretch of beach three feet deep with sand.而整个地球根本没有足够大的沙滩，And the entire Earth doesn t have enough beaches 来代表整个宇宙中的恒星。to represent the stars in the overall universe.如此巨大沙滩持续几亿英里之长Such a beach
5、would continue for literally hundreds of millions of miles.史蒂芬霍金啊，宇宙真的难以想象的大啊。Holy Stephen Hawking, that is a lot of stars.但是他和其他物理学家如今相信一个真理，But he and other physicists now believe in那就是宇宙是无限大的a reality that is unimaginably bigger still.我的意思是，一，在我们望远镜探测范围内的这一百亿个星系I mean, first of all, the 100 billi
6、on galaxies within range of our telescopes大概只是整个宇宙的极微小的部分，are probably a minuscule fraction of the total.空间是不断加速膨胀着的Space itself is expanding这如此多数量的星系at an accelerating pace. The vast majority of the galaxies正在以飞快的速度远离我们而去are separating from us so fast快到它们发出的光线从未能够到达我们的眼里that light from them may nev
7、er reach us.虽然如此，物理定律还是使地球Still, our physical reality here on Earth和这些遥远的不可见的星系紧密地联系在一起is intimately connected to those distant, invisible galaxies.我们可以想象它们，作为宇宙的一部分We can think of them as part of our universe.它们组成了一个巨大的结构，They make up a single, giant edifice,遵守着相同的物理定律，并且由同样类型的原子、电子、obeying the sam
8、e physical laws and all made from the sametypes of atoms, electrons,质子、夸克、中微子组成，也组成了你和我protons, quarks, neutrinos that make up you and me.但是，最新的物理理论However, recent theories in physics,包括其中的弦理论，including one called string theory,告诉我们或许有无数个其它的宇宙存在，are now telling us there could be countless other univ
9、erses,它们由不同类型的粒子构成,built on different types of particles,有着不同的性质，遵守着不同的物理法则with different properties, obeying different laws.这样的宇宙大部分无法支持生命体的存在，Most of these universes could never support life,并且可能再纳秒之内诞生然后又消逝，and might flash in and out of existence in a nanosecond,但仍然，我们和它们在一起but nonetheless, combi
10、ned组成了一个广阔的多元宇宙，蕴藏着许多可能存在的宇宙they make up a vast multiverse of possible universes.在高至十一种维度里，它们制造着我们再疯狂的想象也不可及in up to 11 dimensions, featuring wonders beyond our wildest imagination.的神奇。同时，最受支持的弦理论版本And the leading version of string theory预测一个多元宇宙有多达10八500个宇宙组成predicts a multiverse made of up to 10 t
11、o the 500 universes.那可是一个1后面跟着500个零啊！Thats a one followed by 500 zeroes,一个如此大的数字，在我们可观测的宇宙中，a number so vast that if every atom in our observable universe相当于每个原子里都有一个不同的宇宙，had its own universe并且所有这些宇宙中的每一个原子都还有and all of the atoms in all of those universes自己的宇宙，each had their own universe,你如此重复绕两遍，a
12、nd you repeated that for two more cycles,你还是位于一个非常小的部分，在这整体上即是youd still be at a tiny fraction of the total 一一兆，兆，兆，兆，兆，兆，兆，兆，兆，兆，兆，兆，兆, 兆，兆里namely, one trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillionth.可即使是这样一个数字
13、还是如此微小But even that number is minuscule compared to与另外一个数字相比一无限相比another number: infinity.有些物理学家认为，时空连续体（时间+空间的四维空间）Some physicists think the space-time continuum就是无限，它包含了一个无限的is literally infinite, and that it contains an infinite number所谓的有着各种性质的口袋宇宙of so-called pocket universes with varying prope
14、rties.你的脑袋被绕晕了吗？Hows your brain doing?不过量子力学还要来加一重笔，But quantum theory adds a whole new wrinkle.我的意思是，这个理论已经无可非议地被证实是正确的了，I mean, the theorys bee n prove n true bey ond all doubt,但如何去理解这个理论却没这么简单but interpreting it is baffling.并且有些物理学家认为如果你想真正理解它，And some physicists think you can only un-baffle it你只
15、能想象每一分钟都有if you imagine that huge numbers of parallel universes大量的平行宇宙诞生，are being spawned every moment,并且这些宇宙许多都与我们所在的这个世界十分相似，and many of these universes would actually be very like theworld were in,也许会包括着你的各种复制版本would include multiple copies of you.在其中的一个宇宙，你会荣誉地毕业并且与你梦想的人结婚，In one such universe, youd graduate with honors and marrythe person of your dreams.而在其它宇宙中，或许就没有如此幸运了In another, not so much.当然也有部分科学家会认为这是一派胡言There are still some scientists who would say, hogwash.他们认为
