2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：小行星采矿 淘铂去

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》.杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　Mining asteroids

　　小行星采矿

　　Going platinum

　　小行星采矿—淘铂去

　　Mining metals from asteroids seems a bonkers idea.But could it work?

　　小行星采矿这想法听似疯狂，但行得通吗?

　　CAN reality trump art? That was the question hovering over the launch on April 24th, at theMuseum of Flight in Seattle, of a plan by a firm called Planetary Resources to mine metalsfrom asteroids and bring them back to Earth.

　　4月24日，行星资源公司在西雅图的航天博物馆启动了一项计划—在小行星上采矿并将矿物带回地球。对这项计划，人们一直都在疑惑：现实能否战胜艺术?

　　It sounds like the plot of a film by James Cameron—and, appropriately, Mr Cameron isindeed one of the company's backers.

　　这听着就像詹姆斯卡梅隆的电影中的情节—恰好，詹姆斯卡梅隆实际上就是这家公司的赞助人之一。

　　The team behind the firm, however, claim they are not joking.

　　但是公司背后的团队宣称小行星采矿这事可不是在开玩笑。

　　The company's founders are Peter Diamandis, instigator of the X Prize, awarded in 2004 toPaul Allen and Burt Rutan for the first private space flight, and Eric Anderson, another ofwhose companies, Space Adventures, has already shot seven tourists into orbit.

　　行星资源公司的创始人是X奖发起者Peter Diamandis和拥有太空探险公司的Eric Anderson。

　　Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, respectively the chief executive and the chairman of Google,are also involved.

　　GOOGLE的总经理Larry Page和董事长 Eric Schmidt也参与其中，

　　So, too, is Charles Symonyi, the engineer who oversaw the creation of Microsoft's Officesoftware.

　　曾负责监督开发微软办公软件的工程师Charles Symonyi同样是其中一分子。

　　With a cast-list like that, it is at least polite to take them seriously.

　　阵容如此强大，出于礼貌至少也该重视这个想法。

　　As pies in the sky go, some asteroids do look pretty tasty.

　　这想法虽不切实际，但有些小行星看来确实很诱人。

　　A lot are unconsolidated piles of rubble left over from the beginning of the solar system.

　　它们许多是由太阳系诞生时遗留下来的碎石堆成的，结构松散;

　　Many, though, are pieces of small planets that bashed into each other over the past fewbillion years.

　　但仍有很多是过去几十亿年里小行星相互碰撞产生的碎片。

　　These, in particular, will be high on Planetary Resources' shopping list because theplanet-forming processes of mineral-melting and subsequent stratification into core, mantleand crust will have sorted their contents in ways that can concentrate valuable materialsinto exploitable ores.

　　特别是后者将被行星资源公司优先列在其采矿清单上。因为在行星诞生时，矿物熔化之后会层化为地核、地幔、地壳;这个过程将使其中物质分门别类，令有价值的矿物浓缩成可供开采的矿石。

　　On Earth, for example, platinum and its allied elements, though rare at the surface, arereckoned more common in the planet's metal-rich core.

　　例如在地球上，铂和铂系元素在地表上虽然罕见，但人们认为在富含金属的地核里却是较为常见的。

　　The same was probably true of the planets shattered to make asteroids.

　　对于那些相互碰撞后其碎片形成小行星的行星而言，情况可能同样如此。

　　Indeed, the discovery of a layer of iridium-rich rock was the first sign geologists found of theasteroid impact that is believed to have killed the dinosaurs.

　　实际上，地质学家们提出小行星曾撞击地球的第一个证据就是发现了富含铱的岩层。人们认为恐龙就是因小行星撞击地球而灭绝的。

　　Most asteroids dwell between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

　　大部分的小行星都位于火星和木星的轨道之间。

　　But enough of them, known as near-Earth asteroids, or NEAs, come within interplanetaryspitting distance of humanity for it to be worth investigating them as sources of minerals—if,of course, that can be done economically.

　　但近地小行星也不少，它们距离地球很近，值得勘探。当然，费用要划得来才行。

　　First catch your hare

　　勿谋之过早

　　The first thing is to locate a likely prospect.

　　首先，要找到一个可能有矿藏的小行星。

　　At the moment, about 9,000 NEAs are known, most of them courtesy of ground-basedprogrammes looking for bodies that might one day hit Earth.

　　目前已探明的近地小行星约有9000颗，其中大部分是地面计划在寻找可能撞击地球的天体时探测到的。

　　That catalogue is a good start, but Planetary Resources plans to go further.

　　从这个范围开始寻找是很好，但行星资源公司却有更远大的计划。

　　In 2014 it intends to launch, at a cost of a few million dollars, a set of small space telescopeswhose purpose will be to seek out asteroids which are easy to get to and whose orbits returnthem to the vicinity of Earth often enough for the accumulated spoils of a mining operation tobe downloaded at frequent intervals.

　　该公司打算在2014年耗资数百万美元发射一组小型太空望远镜，用于寻找容易到达的、能经常回到地球附近的小行星，以便常将所采矿物送回地球。

　　That bit should not be too difficult. But the next phase will be tougher.

　　这一步应该不会太难，但下一步就难度更大了。

　　In just over a decade, when a set of suitable targets has been identified, the firm plans tosend a second wave of spacecraft out to take a closer look at what has been found.

　　当该公司发现了一组适合采矿的小行星时，便计划要在短短十年多一点的时间内发送第二批宇宙飞船仔细研究一下这些小行星。

　　This is a significantly bigger challenge than getting a few telescopes into orbit.

　　这个挑战可比向太空中发射几个望远镜要艰巨得多。

　　It is still, though, conceivable using existing technology.

　　不过，利用现有的技术仍是可以实现的。

　　It is after this that the handwaving really starts.

　　在这之后，纸上谈兵才真正开始。

　　Broadly, there are two ways to get the goodies back to Earth.

　　要将所采矿物运回地球大致有两种方法。

　　The first is to attempt to mine a large NEA in its existing orbit, dropping off a payload everytime it passes by.

　　其一是在不改变其轨道的情况下于一颗较大的小行星上采矿，在这颗小行星每次接近地球时卸下所采矿物。

　　That is the reason for the search for asteroids with appropriate orbits.

　　这就是为何要寻找轨道合适的小行星的原因。

　　This approach will, however, require intelligent robots which can work by themselves foryears, digging and processing the desirable material.

　　不过，此法需要能独立工作数年的智能机器人来开采并加工有价值的矿物。

　　The other way of doing things is for the company to retrieve smaller asteroids, put them intoorbit around Earth or the moon, and then dissect them at its leisure.

　　其二是行星资源公司改变较小的小行星的运行轨道，将其安置在环绕地球或月球的轨道上，再在有空时仔细研究之。

　　But that limits the value of the haul and risks a catastrophic impact if something goeswrong while the asteroid is being manoeuvred.

　　但那将减少每次采矿的量，且要承担移动小行星时出现问题而带来灾难性后果的风险。

　　Either way, the expense involved promises to be out of this world.

　　不论哪种方法，所需费用都一定是天价。

　　A recent feasibility study for the Keck Institute for Space Studies reckoned that the retrievalof a single 500-tonne asteroid to the moon would cost more than $2.5 billion.

　　最近，克柯太空研究所进行的一项可行性分析认为，将一颗重量为500公吨的小行星移到月球附近所耗资金将超过二十五亿美元。

　　Earlier research suggested that, to have any chance of success, an asteroid-mining venturewould need to be capitalised to the tune of $100 billion.

　　较早前的研究指出，必须投资一千亿美元才有可能实现小行星采矿。

　　Moreover, a host of new technologies will be required, including more-powerful solar panels,electric-ion engines, extraterrestrial mining equipment and robotic refineries.

　　而且，还需要大量新技术，包括功率更大的太阳能电池板、电子离子引擎、太空采矿设备和自动冶炼厂。

　　All of which can, no doubt, be done if enough money and ingenuity are applied to theproject.

　　当然，若为这个项目投入足够的资金和人才，以上种种都能实现。

　　But the real doubt over this sort of enterprise is not the supply, but the demand. Platinum,iridium and the rest are expensive precisely because they are rare.

　　但对于这种工程浩大的项目，人们真正质疑的并非是否有人能提供这种服务，而是有没有这种需求。正因为稀有，铂、铱等矿物才价格不菲。

　　Make them common, by digging them out of the heart of a shattered planet, and they willbecome cheap.

　　若这些矿物能在一个由碎片构成的行星的地核中被开采到，它们就成了普通金属，价格也会变得便宜。

　　The most important members of the team, then, may not be the entrepreneurs and venturecapitalists who put up the drive and the money, nor the engineers who build the hardwarethat makes it all possible, but the economists who try to work out the effect on the price ofplatinum when a mountain of the stuff arrives from outer space.

　　所以，这个团队里最重要的成员可能不是推动这项事业并参与投资的企业家和风险投资人，也不是设计实现这一目的的硬件工程师;而是当大量的铂从天外而来时，那些试图算出其对铂价冲击的经济学家。

　　词语解释

　　1.bring back to 带回来

　　What will you bring back to hand over?

　　你将带着什么如何去交账?

　　Some customers say they pick up food to bringback to their workplace, not to eat in the car,though they have no objections to doing so, ifthey're busy.

　　一些顾客说他们会购买食物并把它们带到工厂里，而不是在汽车里享用，当如果很忙的时候，他们也不反对这么做。

　　2.at least 至少,最低限度

　　Read at least 30 books.

　　至少读30本书。

　　At least august was quiet.

　　至少八月是安静的。

　　3.bash into 撞

　　But, in just a few weeks, it will bash into the debt ceiling.

　　但仅几周之后，美国将一头撞上债务上限的天花板。

　　Sadly at magnus's feet. Crack, crack, bash, and he stuffs it into the chum bag.

　　于是马格努斯的脚就悲剧了，嘣，嘣，敲击，然后把螃蟹放进诱饵包里。

　　4.shatter to 粉碎

　　Any angels that will not leave, I intend to freeze, shatter, and release to the aurora.

　　任何不离开的天使，我意愿将它们全部定住、粉碎并释放到地心极光中去。

　　This would instantly shatter all chinese efforts to display itself to the carefully watchingcountries in the region as a peaceful giant that is a real alternative to protection by theunited states.

　　因为这将立刻粉碎中国一直以来展示自己是和平大国的一切努力，对于这一地区所有小心关注着中国的国家来说，美国的保护便是另一个选项。

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