作者：柯韬  武汉新航道英联邦考试院雅思写作讲师

在2017年的雅思考试写作中，出乎意料地再次考察了外星探索这个话题，并且加入了对于政府投资的考察，题目如下：

Some people want the government to spend more money looking for life on other planets, while others think it is a waste of public money and there are many problems on the earth. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.（2017.2.25）

此类话题在过去几年中也曾考过，如:

Some scientists believe intelligent life forms may exist in other planets and some want to send messages to the space to contact with these life forms. But other scientists believe it is a bad idea and it could be dangerous. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. (2016.10.13)

同学们在审题的时候要注意这两个题的差异，主要的区别在于反方的观点。2016年10月13日的这个题目强调的是外星探索存在的危险，而在2017年2月25日的题目的讨论重点则是地球本身现在还有很多现实问题需要花钱去解决，比如贫困，教育，医疗。

结合这个，我们首先需要了解政府投资的主要用途及资金来源：

• 国防(defense)：保护一个国家免受攻击或者其他威胁(protect a country against attack or other threats)；

• 保证法律和公共秩序的实施(enforcement of law and public order)以及政府的运作(operation of government)；

• 社会保障(social security)和医疗保健(health care systems)；

• 福利(welfare)：为那些不能够自给自足的人(people who are unable to support themselves alone)提供经济援助(financial assistance )，包括退休和残疾人的福利(retirement and disability benefits)，失业工人的福利(unemployment benefits)等；

• 公共运输(public transportation)和公共服务(public services)。

政府的资金主要来自于税收(taxes)，贷款(government borrowing)或者国际援助(international monetary assistance)等。

了解完政府投资的用途，我们再来看看支持太空探索的观点：

• 地球上的资源是有限的，迟早会被消耗完(finite and exhaustible)，因此需要开拓太空上的能源 (exploit energy and material resources of space for human benefit);促进经济增长(promote economic growth)，使商业更加繁荣 (an increase in business activity)；

• 人口增长导致地球承载压力加大(cause the usable space to shrink)，因此太空探索有利于为人类找到一个新的居住地(find a sanctuary)；

• 有利于环境考察(environmental monitoring)，有利于收集人类生存环境(living environment)的数据，比如天气预报(weather forecasting)，环境保护和可持续发展(sustainable development)等相关数据。

同样反对太空探索的人也提出了他们的观点：

• 太空探索需要长期的努力和大量资金(long-term commitments and funding)，大部分国家支付不起 (unaffordable to most countries)，这些资金应该用于解决些更实际的问题，比如饥荒 (famine)等；

• 很多项目收效甚微(make little progress)，甚至被证明是徒劳无益的(taxing and unrewarding )。

范文参考：

Recently, many countries, including China, have been investing heavily in probing the outer space, with the purpose of pushing the frontiers of sciences and technology, exploiting energy and material resources and most importantly searching for an earth-like planet. However, because of the enormous exploration expenditures incurred, the value of space projects has been disputed. From my perspective, space exploration is necessary.

Many scientists are curious about whether there are different beings surviving on other planets. Through exploring the universe, our human beings could probably find out another suitable shelter where the abundant natural resources can be harvested and exploited. As a result, the energy crisis of our earth could be eased to a large extent. As many experts have speculated, our world is rapidly running out of resources. Further, by communicating with other intelligent life forms, their sophisticated technology may well help us human beings solve our existing thorny problems, such as some incurable diseases like cancer. 

On the other hand, those with realistic mind do not support the idea of wasting money on finding life forms on other planets. They are generally doubtful about the existence of other beings in the outer space, so they believe it is just a huge waste of public funds, especially when there still are so many urgent problems on this planet crying for solution. The money squandered on the exploration of aliens, they argue, should be allocated to help children who are unable to pay for their college education and those who are ill but cannot enjoy decent medical services.

Personally, I do think that the government budget should be balanced between the today issues and the future ones. Undoubtedly, such pressing problems as housing, education, and medical care ought to be taken care of by the government, but it is also the responsibility of the authorities to prepare for the future of the Earth.

外太空探索话题重点语言表达：

1. E.T.(Extra-terrestrial) 外星的，外星人

2. Alien 外星人

3. planet 星球

4. living species 生命物种

5. finite and exhaustible resources 有限的可耗尽的资源

6. exploit energy and material resources 开采能源资源

7. population explosion 人口爆炸

8. shelter 避难所

9. exchange ideas with alien culture 与外星文明交流

10. get inspirations from 从…得到灵感

11. push the frontiers of science and technology 发展科技

12. lay a solid foundation打下坚实基础

13. thorny issues 难题

14. harvesting and exploiting natural resource 开采自然资源

15. benign & hostile 友好的&敌对的

16. greedy 贪婪的

17. exploitative 掠夺的

18. violent 暴力的

19.existence 存在

20. be slaughtered and enslaved 被屠杀和奴役

21. be colonized 被殖民

22. Earthlings 地球人

23. long-term commitments and funding 长期努力和资金支持

24. unaffordable付不起的

25. lack of relevant technology 缺乏相关技术

26. short of fund 缺乏资金

27. priority 当务之急

28. well-prepared 准备充分的

29. potential risks 潜在风险

30. disturb other life forms’ lives 打扰外星生命的生活

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