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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.
【F5】
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答案起码，由世上最聪明绝顶的人分担地球的种种危机，好过他们设法逃避危机。
解析 ①本句是由it作形式主语的复合句。真正的主语是that引导的主语从句，还原成一般的句式即that the best and brightest share Earth’s risks is better than have a way to run away from them，将最聪明的人的两种做法进行对比，肯定前者share Earth’s risks是可取的。②句末的them指代前文的Earth’s risks，即“地球的危机”。
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