考研英語閱讀原文
Up until a few decades ago, our visions of the future were largely?though by no means uniformly?glowingly positive. Science and technology would cure all the ills of humanity, leading to lives of fulfillment and opportunity for all.
Now utopia has grown unfashionable, as we have gained a deeper appreciation of the range of threats facing us, from asteroid strike to epidemic flu and to climate change. You might even be tempted to assume that humanity has little future to look forward to.
But such gloominess is misplaced. The fossil record shows that many species have endured for millions of years ? so why shouldn't we? Take a broader look at our species' place in the universe, and it becomes clear that we have an excellent chance of surviving for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years. Look up Homo sapiens in the "Red List" of threatened species of the International Union for the Conversation of Nature (IUCN) ,and you will read: "Listed as Least Concern as the species is very widely distributed, adaptable, currently increasing, and there are no major threats resulting in an overall population decline."
So what does our deep future hold? A growing number of researchers and organizations are now thinking seriously about that question. For example, the Long Now Foundation has its flagship project a medical clock that is designed to still be marking time thousands of years hence.
Perhaps willfully, it may be easier to think about such lengthy timescales than about the more immediate future. The potential evolution of today's technology, and its social consequences, is dazzlingly complicated, and it's perhaps best left to science fiction writers and futurologists to explore the many possibilities we can envisage. That's one reason why we have launched Arc, a new publication dedicated to the near future.
But take a longer view and there is a surprising amount that we can say with considerable assurance. As so often, the past holds the key to the future: we have now identified enough of the long-term patterns shaping the history of the planet, and our species, to make evidence-based forecasts about the situations in which our descendants will find themselves.
This long perspective makes the pessimistic view of our prospects seem more likely to be a passing fad. To be sure, the future is not all rosy. But we are now knowledgeable enough to reduce many of the risks that threatened the existence of earlier humans, and to improve the lot of those to come.
考研英語閱讀翻譯
幾十年前，我們對於未來的看法盡管並不壹致，但總的來說頗為樂觀。我們相信科學和技術將會治愈人類的壹切疾病，使所有人都過上充滿機會和成就感的生活。
如今，隨著我們對自己所面臨的壹系列威脅有了更深刻的認識，比如從小行星撞擊，到流感，再到氣候變化，烏托邦式已經不合時宜。妳甚至可能會禁不住要想：人類幾乎前途渺茫。
然而，這種擔憂不合時宜。化石記錄表明，許多物種已經存活了數百萬年之久，那麽人類為何就不可以呢?從壹個更宏觀的視角來看壹看人類在宇宙中的地位，就會清楚明白，即使人類生存不了幾十萬年，至少再存活幾萬年的機會還是很大。在國際自然保護聯盟的瀕危物種 "紅色名錄"上查閱"智人"這壹條目，妳會讀到："由於該物種分布非常廣泛，適應性強，目前數量持續上升，且不存在導致其整體數量下降的重大威脅，故被列為最無危物種"。
那麽，我們的遙遠未來會是什麽景象呢?越來越多的研究者和組織機構正在認真思考這個問題。比如，今日不朽基金會的旗艦項目是壹臺機械時鐘，該時鐘的設計目標是能夠在幾千幾萬年後保持計時功能。
這樣做或許有些壹意孤行，但推想久遠的未來要比思考即將發生的未來更為容易。當今技術的可能發展及它的社會影響結果非常復雜，或許最好的辦法是讓科幻小說家和未來學家去探索我們能想象到的種種可能。這正是我們發行《弧》的原因之壹，該新刊物旨在探索不遠的未來。
但是，如果采用壹個更為長遠的視角，我們便能對驚人數量的事情做出很有把握的預測。通常，過去掌握著通向未來的鑰匙：目前，我們已經充分了解有關地球歷史和人類歷史的長期發展模式，這使我們能對子孫後代的生存環境做出有根據的預測。
這種長遠的視角使我們對未來的悲觀態度更像是壹股短暫的風潮。誠然，未來絕非壹片光明。不過，我們已經有足夠的知識去降低許多曾經威脅前人生存的危險，以及去改善後人的命運。
考研英語閱讀詞語解析
dedicated['dedi.keitid]adj. 專註的，獻身的，專用的
overall[?uv?'r?:l]adj. 全部的，全體的，壹切在內的
strike[straik]n. 罷工，打擊，毆打 v. 打，撞，罷工，劃
adaptable[?'d?pt?bl]adj. 能適應的，適應性強的，可改編的
planet['pl?nit]n. 行星
immediate[i'mi:dj?t]adj. 立即的，即刻的，直接的，最接近的
pessimistic[.pesi'mistik]adj. 悲觀的，悲觀主義的
population[.p?pju'lei?n]n. 人口 ，(全體)居民，人數
opportunity[.?p?'tju:niti]n. 機會，時機
evolution[.i:v?'lu:?n]n. 進化，發展，演變
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