Question

A Plan For Exploring Mars

NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long－armed lander on Mars' icy north pole to search for clues (線索) for water and possible signs of life.

The MYM386 million Phoenix Mars is planned to touch down in the Martian arctic in 2008.The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples (標(biāo)本，樣品) to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice－rich soil near the arctic surface.

Scientists hope the Phoenix mission will find clues to the geologic history of water on the Red Planet and determine whether microbes(微生物)existed in the ice.

Phoenix will be the first mission of the Mars Scout program, a renewed, low－cost effort to study the Red Planet. “The Phoenix mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth，” Peter Smith said.

True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous(先前的) missions. The lander for Phoenix was built to fly as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor program. But the program broke down after the well－known disappearance of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999.The Polar Lander lost contact during a landing attempt near the planet's south pole after its rocket engine shut off prematurely,_causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction.

The Phoenix probe had been in storage at a Lockheed Martin clean room in Denver before it was reused for its present mission. It will carry science instruments that were designed for the Mars Surveyor program including an improved panoramic camera and a trench－digging robotic arm. Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later.

1．The passage mainly tells readers that ________.

 A．clues of water will be found in Phoenix

 B．Phoenix will be sent to find clues of water on Mars

 C．August 2007 will see Phoenix lift off

 D．the Mars Scout program will be carried out

2．The underlined word “prematurely” (Paragraph 5) means “________”．

A．on time            B．behind the time

C．out of work          D．a(chǎn)head of time

3．According to the passage, we know Phoenix will land on Mars ________.

A．in May 2008        B．in August 2007   

C．in August 2008      D．in September 2008

4．According to the passage, the name “Phoenix” is after the meaning of ________.

 A．rebirth  B．death  C．energy  D．hope

5．After Phoenix lands on Mars, we can infer it will firstly ________.

A．find soil samples and send them to the earth

B．look for the icy land to dig for the soil samples

C．take photos and send them to the earth

D．find the remains of the Mars Polar Lander

Answer 1

1.解析：選B。主旨大意題。文章的第一段就是該文章的主題句，由此可知文章要講述的是鳳凰號將被送往火星去尋找是否有水源和生命跡象。

2．解析：選D。詞義猜測題。由后面的句子可知Phoenix是在空中離地面130英尺處墜向地面，因此可以推測rocket engine提前結(jié)束工作。A項干擾性最大，按照常識我們知道，飛船的各個程序必須是準(zhǔn)確的，因此我們就認(rèn)為是on time，但是從“causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction”我們知道，飛船提前降落了，因此火箭脫落提前了。

3．解析：選A。細(xì)節(jié)計算題。由文章最后一段最后一句“Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later”可以計算出。

4．解析：選 A。推理判斷題。由第五段的“True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous(先前的) missions”可知選A。C, D有一定的干擾性，文章并沒有提到能量或希望，而從“rose from the ashes”我們可以得出再生的意思。

5．解析：選B。推理判斷題。由文章的第二段“The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples (標(biāo)本，樣品) to analyze”可知，Phoenix的目的就是要通過挖掘冰地，取出樣本進(jìn)行研究。因此，它首先要尋找冰地。A, C有一定干擾性，文章中沒有明確提到這兩項內(nèi)容。