2017考研英语拓展阅读：人类灭绝后的地球会什么样

　　考研英语阅读能力提升需要不断地积累练习，通过多阅读来积累词汇，提升阅读速度，强化把握主旨能力。2017考研复习之初，时间相对充裕，新东方在线建议大家每天多做一些阅读，可娱乐也可增长见闻，还能提升能力。下面一篇文章是关于人类灭绝后的地球会什么样。

2017考研英语拓展阅读：人类灭绝后的地球会什么样

　　According to a recent video, it won’t take long for Earth to ’reset’ itself - but the process would be terrifying.

　　最近公布的一个视频显示，地球不久之后将进行“自我调整”，但是调整的过程很吓人。

　　Within a few hours most of the lights would turn off and within months, nuclear disasters would strike across the planet.

　　仅仅数小时内，所有的灯都会熄灭。几个月后，核灾难会席卷全球。

　　After thousands of years the only evidence of our existence would be in the form of stone structures like the pyramids in Egypt, the Great Wall of China or Mount Rushmore.

　　仅仅数小时内，所有的灯都会熄灭。几个月后，核灾难会席卷全球。数千年后，唯一能证明人类曾经生存过的证据就是类似埃及的金字塔，中国的长城或者美国拉什莫尔山等石头建筑。

　　The video was put together using footage created by National Geographic.

　　该视频是由《国家地理》杂志拍摄的镜头剪辑而成。

　　The video animations came from Life After People, a television series on which scientists, structural engineers, and other experts speculate about what might become of Earth should humanity instantly disappear.

　　视频中的动画来自于“人类消失后的世界”这部电视剧。这部电视剧主要讲了科学家，结构工程家和其他领域的专家预测在人类彻底消失后，地球会变成什么样子。

　　Earlier this year, Columbia University astrophysicists Michael Hahn and Daniel Wolf Savin explained how life on Earth will slowly begin to decline in an essay entitled ‘How to Survive Doomsday’ published in Nautilus.

　　今年早些时候，哥伦比亚大学的天体物理学家Michael Hahn和Daniel Wolf Savin在一篇名为“如何在世界末日中幸存下来”的文章中揭示了地球上的生物是如何慢慢消亡的，该文章已经发表在《鹦鹉螺》杂志上。

　　If Earth avoids a life-ending event – like self-inflicted nuclear apocalypse or an extinction-sized asteroid – the scientists say humans have less than 500 million years left on the planet.

　　科学家称，如果没有诸如核灾难或毁灭性行星撞击等灭绝性事件发生，人类的生存时间已经不到5亿年了。

　　This comes well before the planet is predicted to be ‘melt’ 6 billion years from now, when the sun swells to become a red giant.

　　有预测称60亿年后地球将融化，届时太阳会变成一个红巨星，而人类的灭绝会发生于此前。

　　The predictions seem grim, but the researchers say there are a few ways humans can potentially save the fate of our planet. One such idea is to physically move the orbit of Earth.

　　这些预测看起来很恐怖，但是调查员称人类事实上有办法拯救自己的星球。其中包括物理方法如改变地球的运行轨道。

　　‘If we fired a 100 km [62 mile] wide asteroid on an elliptical orbit that passed close to the Earth every 5,000 years, we could slowly gravitationally nudge the planet’s orbit farther away from the sun, provided that we don’t accidentally hit the Earth,’ the authors write.

　　作者写到，如果毁掉椭圆轨道上的一个直径为100千米(62英里)且每隔5000年就会靠近地球的行星，那人们就可以慢慢的借助引力作用推开地球轨道，使其远离太阳。当然前提是我们没有不小心伤害到地球。

A few hours later, most of the lights around the world will shut off because most of the power stations will not be able to run. Fossil fuels power plants would run out of fuel and solar panels would eventually get covered in dust. The only power plants still running would be hydroelectric stations.

　　几个小时后，世界上大多数的灯都会熄灭。因为大部分的发电站都会出故障。化石燃料发电厂的燃料会消耗殆尽，太阳能电池板会被灰尘淹没。唯一能正常运转的发电站就是水电站了。

A month later, the cooling water in nuclear power stations would have evaporated. This would lead to a series of disasters across the world, stronger than Fukushima and Chernobyl. ’But overall the planet would recover from the radioactive contamination rather fast and easily,’ the video says.

　　一个月后，核电站的冷却水会完全蒸发。这会在全球引发一系列的灾难，甚至比福岛和切尔诺贝利核电事故还要严重。但是视频中提到“全球会迅速而且轻而易举的从核污染中恢复过来。”

Over time, vegetation growing in cities will attract herbivorous animals. And because there will be prey, predators will follow.

　　慢慢的，生长在城市中的植物会吸引大批食草动物。由于有了被捕食者，捕食者也尾随而来。

The air in cities will become cleaner and visibility will improve. Three hundred years later, metal buildings, bridges, and towers will start to break apart because of corrosion.

　　城市中空气会变得更加清新，可见度也更高。三百年后，金属建筑，桥以及塔会由于腐蚀而坍塌。

Wind turbines would keep working until the lubricant to keep the blades spinning runs out.

　　风力发电机在维持刀刃运转的润滑油用尽前会一直正常工作。

Life on our planet would be incredibly different if humans were to suddenly be wiped out. According to a new video, within a few hours most of the lights would turn off and within months, nuclear disasters would happen around the world.

　　如果人类突然消失的话，地球上的生物会发生翻天覆地的变化。根据视频显示，数小时内大部分灯会熄灭，核灾难在数月内会席卷全球。

　　One year after the disappearance of humans, satellites around Earth would start to fall from their orbit, creating strange ’stars’ in the sky.

　　人类消失一年后，地球表面的卫星将会脱离轨道，天空会出现许多奇怪的“星星”。

　　Twenty five years later, three quarters of cities will be covered with vegetation, with some cities being buried in sand - like Dubai and Las Vegas.

　　25年后，全球四分之三的城市将长满之物。而像迪拜和拉斯维加斯一类的大城市会被掩埋于沙地中。

　　Without humans, whales will thrive and breed to the maximum capacity the ocean allows.

　　人类消失后，大洋中的鲸鱼会肆意繁殖，一直达到海洋的最大容量。

来源：Daily Mail

【英语阅读资料】这里有↑↑↑