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  3. Mars has been much possessed by death. In the late 19th century Percival Lowell, an American astronomer, persuaded much of the p

Mars has been much possessed by death. In the late 19th century Percival Lowell, an American astronomer, persuaded much of the p

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问题    Mars has been much possessed by death. In the late 19th century Percival Lowell, an American astronomer, persuaded much of the public that the red planet was dying of desertification. H.6. Wells, in "The War of the Worlds", imagined Martian invaders bringing death to Earth. 【F1】Science was not much cheerier than science fiction: space probes revealed that having once been warmer and wetter, Mars is now cold, cratered and all-but-airless.
   Perhaps that is why the dream of taking new life to Mars is such a stirring one. Elon Musk, an entrepreneur, has built a rocket company, SpaceX, from scratch in order to make this dream come true.
   How odd, then, that Mr. Musk’s motivation is born in part of a fear as misplaced as it is striking. He portrays a Mars colony as a hedge against Earth-bound extinction. 【F2】Science-fiction fans have long been familiar with this sort of worry about existential risks—in the 1950s a science fiction writer and inventor told them that confined to Earth "humanity had too many eggs in one rather fragile basket." Others agree. Stephen Hawking, a noted physicist, is one of them. 【F3】If humans stick to a single planet, he warns, they will be sitting ducks for a super virus, a destructive artificial intelligence or a nuclear war that could finish off the whole lot of them at any time.
   It is true that, in the long run, Earth will become uninhabitable. But that long run is about a billion years. Yes, a natural or maliciously designed pandemic might kill billions. So might a nuclear war, at a pinch climate change might cause similar destruction. But extinction is more than just unprecedented mass mortality, it requires getting rid of everyone. Neither diseases nor wars do that.
   【F4】An asteroid as big as the one that dispatched the dinosaurs might take out the whole species, but humans have had the foresight to catalogue the asteroids up to the task and none is coming close in the foreseeable future. So the chance of earthly extinction from any known cause in the next few centuries is remarkably low. As for the unknown, why would they wipe humans from the face of one planet while leaving those on the rock next door in peace?
   If worrying about forthcoming extinction is unrealistic, trying to hide from it is ignoble. 【F5】At_the margins, it is better that the best and brightest share Earth’s risks than have a way to run away from them. Dream of Mars, by all means, but do so in a spirit of hope for new life, not fear of death.
【F4】
选项
答案一颗小行星(大小与灭绝过恐龙的小行星相当)或许就足以毁灭所有物种，但是人类已有先见之明，把小行星记录在册，而且在可预见的未来并没有这类行星靠近地球。
解析 ①本句是由but连接的并列复合句，分句1陈述小行星对地球有巨大的潜在性威胁，as big as the one是比较结构作后置定语，修饰asteroid，意思是“像……一样大”的小行星。that引导的定语从句具体说明行星的情况。②注意正确理解the whole species中whole的含义，这里不是常见义“整个的”，而是指“全部的”，暗含包括人类在内的所有物种。③分句2的谓语是have the foresight to do sth．结构，意思是“有远见做某事”，catalogue sth．up指“将某物分类”。这句话是指“把小行星分类记录是有先见之明的做法”。
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