номер 4, страница 102 - гдз по английскому языку 11 класс (spotlight) учебник Афанасьева, Дули

Exercise 4. Page 102.

Hello? Is anyone out there?

Have you ever read a story about someone who says they have been abducted by aliens?

Or perhaps they claim to have seen a UFO?

Most people don't take these tales seriously, but let's face it: most of us have at some point found ourselves gazing up into the starry night sky, wondering if we are alone in the universe or not.

But for some people, wondering is just not enough.

They point out that there are more stars in the cosmos than grains of sand on all the beaches of the world.

They are convinced that E.T. and his friends are indeed out there, and if so, they are determined to establish contact.

In the 1960s, astronomers of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program began their high-tech hunt for extraterrestrial life that continues to this day.

The scientists listen to radio waves by sweeping the skies with huge radio telescopes, such as Arecibo in Puerto Rico.

They also comb the skies looking for flashes of laser light that alien civilizations might be beaming across space.

The searches are based on the hypothesis that aliens may be intentionally sending communication signals out across the universe, or that signals from their worlds could be escaping into space, just as our own radio, television, and military broadcast signals escape into the cosmos.

Unfortunately, the scientists may have to face the fact that the possibility of finding what they are looking for is very small.

For a start, even if these alien civilizations do exist, they might not be technologically advanced enough to communicate over long distances.

The fact that we have found nothing after decades of looking is pretty discouraging.

If they don't have radio, SETI won't find them.

Also, with a hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone and a billion possible radio channels to choose from, it might take a very long time for us to tune in to E.T.

So why don't we send our own messages instead?

Well, simply because it's just not that interesting for us.

Even if the nearest civilization was as close as 500 light-years away, we would have to sit around for 1,000 years waiting for a reply.

All the same, in 1974 we did broadcast a radio message containing basic information about the human race.

It was directed at a group of stars in our galaxy 25,000 light-years away. If there is intelligent life there, we will hear from them around the year 52,000.

So how do you fancy joining in the search for intelligent alien life yourself?

Well, the SETI@home project allows you to do exactly that.

After downloading a clever screensaver, your computer will analyze unknown or unusual signals from radio telescopes whenever you are not using it.

Millions of people in over 200 countries have already taken part.

So where do we go from here?

Well, despite the fact that we have not yet found a shred of convincing evidence that alien life exists, one thing is for sure: the search will go on.

But perhaps we're forgetting one important thing.

We want to talk to the aliens, all right, but do the aliens want to talk to us?

Only time—perhaps thousands of years—will tell.