The marvelous telephone and television network that has now enmeshed the whole world, making all men neighbours, cannot be extended into space. It will never be possible to converse with anyone on another planet. Even with today's radio equipment, the messages will take minutes—sometimes hours—on their journey, because radio and light waves travel at the same limited speed of 186, 000 miles a second.

　　Twenty years from now you will be able to listen to a friend on Mars, but the words you hear will have left his mouth at least three minutes earlier, and your reply will take a corresponding time to reach him. In such circumstances, an exchange of verbal messages is possible—but not a conversation.

　　To a culture which has come to take instantaneous communication for granted, as part of the very structure of civilized life, this “time barrier” may have a profound psychological impact. It will be a perpetual reminder of universal laws and limitations against which not all our technology can ever prevail. For it seems as certain as anything can be that no signal—still less any material object—can ever travel faster than light.

　　The velocity of light is the ultimate speed limit, being part of the very structure of space and time. Within the narrow confines of the solar system, it will not handicap us too severely. At the worst, these will amount to twenty hours—the time it takes a radio signal to span the orbit of Pluto, the outer-most planet.

　　It is when we move out beyond the confines of the solar system that we come face to face with an altogether new order of cosmic reality. Even today, many otherwise educated men—like those savages who can count to three but lump together all numbers beyond four—cannot grasp the profound distinction between solar and stellar space. The first is the space enclosing our neighbouring worlds, the planets; the second is that which embraces those distant suns, the stars, and it is literally millions of times greater. There is no such abrupt change of scale in the terrestrial affairs.

　　Many conservative scientists, appalled by these cosmic gulfs, have denied that they can ever be crossed. Some people never learn; those who sixty years ago scoffed at the possibility of flight, and ten years ago laughed at the idea of travel to the planets, are now quite sure that the stars will always be beyond our reach. And again they are wrong, for they have failed to grasp the great lesson of our age—that if something is possible in theory, and no fundamental scientific laws oppose its realization, then sooner or later it will be achieved.

　　One day we shall discover a really efficient means of propelling our space vehicles. Every technical device is always developed to its limit and the ultimate speed for spaceships is the velocity of light. They will never reach that goal, but they will get very near it. And then the nearest star will be less than five years voyaging from the earth.[514 words]

　　11.For light to travel across the solar system, it will take_______.

　　[A] a year [B] nearly a day [C] two months [D] thirty minutes

　　12.The fact that it will never be possible to converse with someone on another planet shows that________

　　[A] radio messages do not travel fast enough

　　[B] no object can ever travel faster than light

　　[C] western culture has a special idea of communication

　　[D] certain universal laws cannot be prevailed against

　　13.Confronted with the new order of cosmic reality, many educated men________.

　　[A] become ignorant savage again [B] find the “time barrier” unbearable

　　[C] will not combine solar and stellar space[D] cannot adapt to the abrupt change of scale

　　14.Conservative scientists who deny that cosmic gulfs can ever be crossed will________

　　[A] laugh at the very idea of flight [B] learn a lesson as they did ten years ago

　　[C] find space travel beyond their reach[D] oppose the fundamental scientific laws

　　15.The author of the passage intends to show__________.

　　[A] the limitations of our technology [B] the vastness of the cosmic reality

　　[C] the prospect of planetary travel [D] the psychological impact of time and space

試題精解

　　11.光穿過太陽系需要多長時間?

　　[A] 一年。 [B] 將近一天。 [C] 兩個月。 [D] 30分鐘。

　　[精解] 答案B本題考查考生的數字推理能力。原文中沒有直接的回答，但是第一段末句指出：“無線電和光的傳播速度相同。”第四段最后一句又指出，無線電傳到太陽系中最遠的冥王星，要20小時。所以[B]項正確。

　　12.人無法和另外一個星球的人進行對話這一事實表明_____。

　　[A] 無線電的傳播速度不夠快 [B] 沒有物體能比光的速度快

　　[C] 西方文化有特別的交流觀念[D] 某些普遍規律不能被戰勝

　　[精解] 答案A本題考查事實細節。第一段后兩句指出，“永遠不可能和另一個星球人進行對話。即使有今天的無線電設備，信息傳播也需要好幾分鐘，甚至好幾個小時，因為無線電和光波都是以有限速度傳播。”第二段中舉了一個和火星人交流的例子，得出的結論是：“交換語言信息是可能的，但是不可能對話。”[A]項指的是傳播速度的限制，為正確項。[B]是第三段末句的改寫，是事實，但它與無法實現星際對話沒有必然的聯系。[C]項在第三段提到，但“認為即刻交流是理所當然的文化”是人思維局限的表現，而“人無法和另外一個星球的人進行對話”是自然規律事實，后者不能表明前者。該段也提到，“時間的局限性”(即無法和外星人進行對話)提醒我們不是所有的技術都能戰勝普遍規律和限制，因此這里說明的是“技術的局限性”，而不是[D]項中的“規律的不可戰勝性”。

　　13.面對宇宙現實的新秩序，許多受過教育的人士________。

　　[A] 又變成無知的野人 [B] 發現“時間局限性”不可容忍

　　[C] 將不會把太陽系和恒星系結合起來[D] 不能適應這種突然的大規模的變化

　　[精解] 答案D本題考查事實細節。文章第五段第二句提到，“許多在別的方面受過教育的人，像只能數到三的野人，無法明白太陽系和恒星系的巨大不同。……(后者比前者)確實大幾百萬倍，地球上的事物在規模上沒有這樣巨大的變化。”可見，他們無法適應如此巨大的規模變化，選擇[D]。[A]項拘泥于字面含義，沒有理解文中舉出“野人”只是為了說明那些受過教育的人在變化面前的無知，而不是真的變成了野人。[B]項文中未提，[C]項中“結合”應換成“區分”，才符合文意。

　　14.否認人們可能跨越巨大宇宙鴻溝的那些保守科學家將會_______。

　　[A] 嘲笑飛行的想法 [B] 像10年前一樣吸取教訓

　　[C] 發現太空旅行非他們所能及[D] 反對基本的科學規律

　　[精解] 答案C本題考查事實細節。倒數第二段談到這些保守科學家時，作者指出：“一些人從來不吸取教訓;他們60年前懷疑飛行的可能性，10年前恥笑飛往其他行星的想法，現在又滿有把握地說恒星是我們永遠不能及的。”據此，最為相近的答案應該是[C]。

　　15.從課文中，我們可以推出作者的意圖是要說明_______。

　　[A] 我們技術的局限性 [B] 宇宙現實的廣闊性

　　[C] 星際旅行的前景 [D] 時間和空間對心理上的影響

　　[精解] 答案C本題考查寫作目的。綜觀全文，作者從無線電和光速談起，批評了很多持保守態度的人，進而論證人類終將跨越宇宙鴻溝。文章最后描述未來星際旅行標志了人類跨越宇宙鴻溝的實現。可見，[C]是作者要說明的問題。