NB: This is not a word for word transcript Группа Learning English: http://vkontakte.ru/club17650165 Продолжение транскрипта: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/6minute/100930_6min_aliens.pdf
Rob: Hello! I’m Rob and this is 6 Minute English. I’m joined today by Alice. Hello Alice. Alice: Hi Rob. Rob: Today, we’re talking about alien life form – and who on planet earth would aliens speak to if they one day made contact? Alice: Alien life form. This is something that is written about in science fiction books but nobody has actually discovered anything extra-terrestrial yet. Rob: Extra-terrestrial – that’s something that’s not from our planet. Now, Alice, I’ve got a question for you. Alice: OK. Rob: What was the year that man first walked on the moon? Alice: Mmm, I’m not sure, can I have a think? Rob: Of course, you can give me the answer at the end of the programme. But back to the subject of contact from aliens. If someone from another planet did land on Earth what do you think they might say? Alice: Would they say “take me to your leader”? Rob: That’s a nice thought. But who would our leader be? Who would be the first person they should speak with? Alice: That’s difficult. Maybe the President of the United States of America? The leaders of China or Russia? What about me? Rob: Well the answer, according to one expert, is a Space Ambassador. Alice: A Space Ambassador? What would they do? Rob: Well, they would be the first point of contact for aliens trying to communicate with us. Alice: So they would be the first person to talk to – a point of contact - and would they meet and greet these aliens when they land in their UFOs – their Unidentified Flying Objects? Rob: Not exactly. A space scientist called Professor John Zernecki, who has suggested the idea of a Space Ambassador, can explain. He thinks it is unlikely to be a face to face meeting. Extract 1: The likelihood is not that aliens will suddenly appear in Guildford orManchester or somewhere like that. The contact, if it does happen, is most likely to be through radio signals. Because, you know, in the last decade we have discovered something like 500 planets orbiting other stars, like our sun, so it’s no longer fanciful to think about the possibility of life on distant planets. Alice: Ah, so Professor Zernecki doesn’t think aliens will land in a town or a city. Our contact will be through radio signals. Rob: Yes, radio signals. We will pick up some kind of sound. He believes it might really happen one day and the idea is no longer fanciful. Alice: Fanciful – that is something that is unreal or imagined – but he says this is no longer fanciful. Rob: Yes, that’s because in the last decade five hundred new planets orbiting other stars have been discovered so it’s no longer fanciful to think that there may be life on distant planets. Alice: I see, so he wants us to be prepared for a possible contact from aliens? Rob: Yes Alice: And who might this Space Ambassador be? Rob: Well next week a meeting at The Royal Society in London will be discussing the appointment of someone, and a likely candidate is an astrophysicist called Mazlan Othman. She already heads the Office of Outer Space Affairs for the United Nations. Alice: So the UN has an Office of Outer Space Affairs. It deals with issues that are literally ‘out of this world’. Rob: That’s right. Professor Zernecki can explain a bit more about the things it looks after. Extract 2: There are laws and regulations that have been signed up by many countries about what we can and can’t do on the moon; who owns the moon – and also concerning the nonproliferation of weapons in outer space. Alice: So the Office of Outer Space Affairs oversees laws and regulations about which activities can take place on the moon, who owns it and also the nonproliferation of weapons in outer space.