本文选自中考英语阅读理解真题，含重点词汇讲解，中文翻译。

Is there intelligent life on other planets? For years, scientists said “no.” or “we don’t know.” But today this is changing. Seth Shostak and Alexandra Barnett are astronomers. They believe intelligent life exists somewhere in the universe. They also think we will soon contact these beings.

其他星球上有智慧生命吗？多年来，科学家们说“没有”或“我们不知道”，但今天这种情况正在改变。塞思·肖斯塔克和亚历山德拉·巴内特是天文学家。他们相信智慧生命存在于宇宙的某个地方。他们也认为我们很快就会接触到这些生物。

[重点词汇]：intelligent :有智力的; astronomer: 天文学家; exist:存在；universe ：宇宙；contact ：接触，触及；联系；beings：人；生物；

Why do Shostak and Barnett think intelligent life exists on other planets? The first reason is time. Scientists believe the universe is about 12 billion years old. “This is long enough for other planets to have intelligent life,” say Shostak and Barnett.

为什么Shostak和Barnett认为智慧生命存在于其他行星上？第一个原因是时间。科学家认为宇宙大约有120亿年的历史。”这足够其他行星拥有智慧生命了，”肖斯塔克和巴内特说。

The second reason is size—the universe is huge. “Tools like the Hubble Telescope have shown that there are at least 100 billion galaxies,” says Shostak. “And our galaxy, the Milky Way, has at least 100 billion stars. Some planets going around these stars might be similar to Earth.”

第二个原因是宇宙太大了。”哈勃望远镜之类的工具肖斯塔克说：“我们已经证明至少有1000亿个星系。”我们的银河系至少有1000亿颗恒星。围绕这些恒星运行的一些行星可能与地球相似。”

[重点词汇]：huge：巨大的；Telescope：望远镜；at least：至少；Galaxy:银河系；be similar to：和…相似；

In the past, it was hard to look for signs of intelligent life in the universe. But now, powerful telescopes allow scientists to discover smaller planets—the size of Mars or Earth—in other solar systems. These planets might have intelligent life.

在过去，很难在宇宙中寻找智慧生命的迹象。但是现在，强大的望远镜允许科学家在其他太阳系中发现火星或地球大小的小行星。这些行星可能有智慧生命。

[重点词汇]：In the past：在过去；look for：寻找；sign：标志，迹象，指示牌；powerful：强有力的；allow：允许；discover：发现；solar systems：太阳系；

Have beings from space already visited Earth? “Probably not,” says Shostak. “It’s a long way away. However, intelligent beings may contact us in other way, such as radio signals.

有来自太空的生物已经造访过地球吗？”“可能不会，”肖斯塔克说，离这儿很远。然而，有智慧的生物可能以其他方式与我们联系，例如无线电信号。

In fact, they may be trying to communicate with us now, but we don’t have the right tools to receive their messages. However, this is changing. By 2025, we could make contact with other life forms in our universe and we might help each other.”

事实上，他们现在可能正试图与我们沟通，但我们没有合适的工具来接收他们的信息。然而，这种情况正在改变。到2025年，我们可以与宇宙中的其他生命形式取得联系，我们可以互相帮助。”

[重点词汇]：signals：信号；In fact：事实上；communicate with：和…交流；form：形式；