2014年職稱英語(理工類)教材概括大意文章及譯文3

　　Icy Microbes

　　1　In ice that has sealed a salty Antarctic lake for more than 2,800 years, scientists have found frozen bacteria and algae that returned to life after thawing. The research may help in the search for life on Mars, which is thought to have subsurface lakes of ice.

　　2　A research team led by Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago drilled through more than 39 feet of ice to collect samples of bacteria and algae. When Doran’s team brought them back and warmed them up a bit, they sprang back to life.

　　3　Doran said the microbes have been age-dated at 2,800 years old, but even older microbes may live deeper in the ice sheet sealing the lake, and in the briny water below the ice.1 That deeper ice and the water itself will be cautiously sampled in a later expedition that will test techniques that may one day be used on Mars.

　　4　Called Lake Vida, the 4.5-square-kilometer body is one of a series of lakes located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, some 2 ,200 kilometers due south2 of New Zealand. This lake has been known since the 1950s, but people ignored it because they thought it was just a big block of ice. While at the site for other research in the 1990s, Doran and his colleagues sent3 radar signals into the clear ice covering the lake and were surprised to find that 62 feet below there was a pool of liquid water that was about seven times more salty than seawater.

　　5　That prompted the researchers to return in 1996 with equipment to drill a hole down to within a few feet of the water layer. At the bottom of this hole, researchers harvested specimens of algae and bacteria.

　　6　The researchers will return in 2004 equipped with instruments that are sterilized. They will then drill through the full 62 feet of ice and sample some of the briny water from the lake for analysis. The water specimen will be cultured to see if it contains life. Specimens from the water are expected to be even older than the life forms extracted from the ice covering.

　　注釋：

　　1.... live deeper in the ice sheet sealing the lake, and in the briny water below the ice：in the ice sheet sealing the lake和in the briny water below the ice是介詞短語，用作狀語，修飾live。

　　2.due south：正南

　　3.While at the site for other research in the 1990s, Doran and his colleagues sent ... ：While at the site for other research in the 1990s是省略句，寫全了就是：While Doran and his colleagues were at the site for other research in the 1990s ...

　　練習(xí)：

　　1.Paragraph 2 ________

　　2.Paragraph 3 ________

　　3.Paragraph 4________

　　4.Paragraph 6________

　　A　Significance of Testing Techniques for Sampling Microbes in the Deep Ice Sheet

　　B　Special Features of Lake Vida

　　C　Later Expedition on Mars

　　D　2004 Revisit Planned for Collecting Lake Water Specimens

　　E　Antarctic Frozen Life Sampled and Revived

　　F　Accidental Disovery of Ice-sealed Lake Water in Antarctica

　　5.Scientists ignored Lake Vida because they thought that a lake of ice ________.

　　6.Scientists expect that the life, if found in deeper water below the ice sheet, ________.

　　7.What the scientists will do in 20Q4 ________.

　　8.The salt concentration in the liquid water of Lake Vida ________

　　A　is found to be a great deal higher than that of seawater

　　B　was of little scientific value

　　C　may be older than that collected below 39 feet of ice

　　D　might have come from Mars

　　E　is to collect some briny lake water for analysisy

　　F　may return to life sooner than microbes frozen in the surface ice

　　答案與題解：

　　1.E　本段談及Doran考察隊(duì)在南極冰塊上鉆洞深達(dá)39英尺，獲得微生物和水藻的樣本。解凍后這些微生物和水藻又復(fù)活了。選項(xiàng)E概括了本段的大意。

　　2.A　本段的大意是試驗(yàn)冰層深處提取生命樣本的技術(shù)可能有一天會(huì)用于火星生命的探索。

　　3.F　本段要表達(dá)的意思是：冰下湖是科學(xué)家在做other research時(shí)偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)的。

　　4.D　本段說的是科學(xué)家2004年還要對(duì)布下湖再次進(jìn)行考察。

　　5.B　選B的依據(jù)是第四段第二句。little scientific value是根據(jù)科學(xué)家當(dāng)時(shí)認(rèn)定Lake Vida只是a big block of ice而推論出來的。

　　6.C　選C的依據(jù)見第三段第一句。

　　7.E　選E的依據(jù)見第六段第二句。

　　8.A　第四段最后一句是選A的依據(jù)。

　　譯文：冰凍微生物

　　在一個(gè)南極咸水湖封凍了 2800多年的冰塊中，科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)，冰凍的微生物和水藻在解凍后又復(fù)活了。該研究成果可能會(huì)有助于尋找火星上的生命，人們認(rèn)為火星的地表下面有冰湖。

　　由芝加哥的伊利諾伊大學(xué)的 Peter Doran率領(lǐng)的考察隊(duì)在南極冰塊上鉆洞深達(dá)39英尺，采集了微生物和水藻的樣本。 Doran的考察隊(duì)將其帶回并給其溫暖環(huán)境，這些樣本竟又復(fù)活了。

　　Doran說，這些微生物有 2800年的高齡，但是或許還有更老的微生物生存在封湖冰塊的更深層和冰塊下面的咸水中。在以后的深險(xiǎn)中，還會(huì)謹(jǐn)慎地對(duì)更深的冰層和水提取樣本，對(duì)將來或許會(huì)用于火星的技術(shù)進(jìn)行檢測(cè)。

　　這個(gè)湖名叫 Vida湖，面積為 4.5平方公里，是南極洲上位于 McMurd干谷的湖群中的一個(gè)，位于新西蘭正南約2200千米處。該湖在 20世紀(jì) 50年代已為人知，但過去人們認(rèn)為這只不過是一個(gè)巨大的冰塊，所以不曾引起足夠的重視。但是在 20世紀(jì) 90年代，在進(jìn)行其他考察的地方， Doran和同事們往覆蓋湖面的清澈的冰層中發(fā)出雷達(dá)信號(hào)，驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)在62英尺深處居然有一個(gè)水潭，這里的水其咸度大約是海水的 7倍。

　　于是，1996年，考察人員帶著設(shè)備再次來到南極。鉆出一個(gè)深及水層數(shù)英尺的洞。在洞底，考察人員采集到了水藻和微生物的樣本。

　　2004年，考察人員將攜帶經(jīng)過殺菌的儀器再次回到南極。他們將在 62英尺的冰層上鉆洞，對(duì)從湖中提取咸水的樣本進(jìn)行分析。水的樣本將會(huì)受到培育，看其是否含有生命。據(jù)預(yù)測(cè)，水中提取樣本的歷史甚至?xí)缺鶎又刑崛〉纳问降臍v史還要長(zhǎng)。