Question

【題目】One of my first memories as a child in the 1950s was a discussion I had with my brother in our tiny bedroom in the family house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

We had heard in school about a planet called Pluto. It was the farthest, coldest, and darkest thing a child could imagine. We guessed how long it would take to die if we stood on the surface of such a frozen place wearing only the clothes we had on. We tried to figure out how much colder Pluto was than Antarctica, or than the coldest day we had ever experienced in Pennsylvania.

Pluto, which famously was downgraded from a “major planet” to a “dwarf planet”(矮星) in 2006, captured our imagination because it was a mystery that could complete our picture of what it was like at the most remote corners of our solar system

Pluto’s underdog discovery story is part of what makes it so attractive. Clyde Tombaugh was a Kansas farm boy who built telescopes out of spare auto parts, old farm equipment and self-ground lenses. As an assistant at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombaugh’s task was to search millions of stars for a moving point of light, a planet that the observatory’s founder thought existed beyond the orbit of Neptune. On February 18, 1930, Tombaugh found it. Pluto was the first planet discovered by an American, and represented a moment of light in the midst of the Great Depression’s dark encroachment(入侵).

Pluto is much more than something that is not a planet. It’s a reminder that there are many worlds out there beyond our own and that the sky isn’t the limit at all. We don’t know what kinds of fantastic variations on a theme nature is capable of making until we get there to look.

【1】Why did Pluto become famous in 2006 according to the passage?

A. Because it lost its major planet status

B. Because it disappeared in the sky

C. Because it was discovered by an American

D. Because it was proved to be the coldest planet in the universe

【2】What can be a suitable title for the text?

A. An American Scientist: Clyde Tombaugh

B. Pluto was First Discovered by a Boy

C. Pluto’s Strange Romance

D. The Days I Spent with My Brother in Pennsylvania

【3】What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?

A. Clyde Tombaugh discovered the darkness in the Great Depression

B. Pluto was the only planet that was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh

C. Clyde Tombaugh’s job was to build telescopes for Lowell Observatory

D. Clyde Tombaugh’s telescopes used for searching stars were very simple

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】A

【2】C

【3】D

【解析】作者童年時期從學(xué)校里聽說了一顆名叫“冥王星”的行星。它是一個孩童所能想象到的最遠(yuǎn)、最冷、最黑暗的東西。后來這顆行星遭遇降級。但對作者來說，冥王星帶來的科學(xué)興趣并沒有減弱。冥王星的意義遠(yuǎn)不只在于它不是一顆行星。它在提醒著我們，我們的世界之外還存在許多世界。除非我們到那里親眼得見，否則我們根本不知道大自然能把一個主題幻化出多少種精彩絕倫的變奏曲。

【1】A 細(xì)節(jié)題。根據(jù)第三段，冥王星之所以為人所知，是由于2006年它從“大行星”被降級為“矮行星”。

【2】C 主旨題。根據(jù)文章的整體內(nèi)容并結(jié)合文中反復(fù)出現(xiàn)的中心詞"Pluto"可推知，本文主要介紹了冥王星被發(fā)現(xiàn)的過程以及對人類的意義，故"冥王星的傳奇故事"適合作文章的標(biāo)題。

【3】D 細(xì)節(jié)題。從第四段得知，Clyde Tombaugh用于搜索恒星的望遠(yuǎn)鏡非常簡單，是用汽車部件、農(nóng)場的舊設(shè)備和自己磨成的透鏡制成的。