NASA’s Mars detector (探测器), Opportunity, succ...

NASA’s Mars detector (探测器), Opportunity, succeeded in finding signs that water once existed on the planet. Opportunity landed on Mars in January. Scientists now believe that the planet could once have supported life.

This discovery was chosen by Science, one of the world’s leading magazines, as the most important scientific achievement of 2004 last Friday.

“This little, wheeled, one-armed box went around another planet and has done something no human has ever managed,” according to Science. “It has discovered another place in the universe where life could once have existed.”

“Although we still can’t say that life could have existed in this environment, it is now certain that there was water on Mars,” said Steve Squyres, one of the scientists working on the Mars mission. The evidence comes from pictures and chemical readings taken by Opportunity. It includes marks on rocks like those caused by flowing water on Earth and salty chemicals like those found in dried-out sea-beds. Scientists said the new evidence proved beyond doubt that water has existed on Mars. But it is still unknown whether the water on Mars was like an ocean or justice.

While Opportunity has not found any signs of life, the presence of water means life is possible. “In everything we know about life on Earth, there is no example without liquid water,” Squyres said. “So water is important for the search for life on Mars.”

Researchers agree that a future mission (任务) should bring back physical samples (样品). But some scientists worry about the risk that this could introduce dangerous foreign creatures to Earth. “The problem here is how to get the samples back,” Squyres replied. “I think it is our responsibility to limit any risk.”

1.________ prove that water existed on Mars.

2.Which of the following is TURE according to the text?

3.How did scientists draw the conclusion that there was water on Mars?

4.It can be inferred that, if the creatures from Mars came to Earth, ________.

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

NASA’s Mars detector (探测器), Opportunity, succeeded in finding signs that water once existed on the planet. Opportunity landed on Mars in January. Scientists now believe that the planet could once have supported life.

This discovery was chosen by Science, one of the world’s leading magazines, as the most important scientific achievement of 2004 last Friday.

“This little, wheeled, one-armed box went around another planet and has done something no human has ever managed,” according to Science. “It has discovered another place in the universe where life could once have existed.”

“Although we still can’t say that life could have existed in this environment, it is now certain that there was water on Mars,” said Steve Squyres, one of the scientists working on the Mars mission. The evidence comes from pictures and chemical readings taken by Opportunity. It includes marks on rocks like those caused by flowing water on Earth and salty chemicals like those found in dried-out sea-beds. Scientists said the new evidence proved beyond doubt that water has existed on Mars. But it is still unknown whether the water on Mars was like an ocean or just ice.

While Opportunity has not found any signs of life, the presence of water means life is possible. “In everything we know about life on Earth, there is no example without liquid water,” Squyres said. “So water is important for the search for life on Mars.”

Researchers agree that a future mission (任务) should bring back physical samples (样品). But some scientists worry about the risk that this could introduce dangerous foreign creatures to Earth. “The problem here is how to get the samples back,” Squyres replied. “I think it is our responsibility to limit any risk.”

1.________ prove that water existed on Mars.

2.Which of the following is TURE according to the text?

3.How did scientists draw the conclusion that there was water on Mars?

4.It can be inferred that, if the creatures from Mars came to Earth, ________.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

NASA’s twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been exploring the Red Planet since 2004. But a little more than a year ago, NASA lost contact with Spirit. The space agency has tried several ways to make contact with the rover, but Spirit has not sent back any signals.

Spirit landed on Mars on January 4, 2004. Three weeks later, Opportunity arrived. Soon after, the rovers went to the opposite side of Mars. Spirit’s original mission was only designed to last for three months, but Spirit has worked for more than five years doing additional missions. Both rovers have made important discoveries about ancient Mars. They have taken thousands of images and found evidence in the rocks of a water, warmer past in Mars’ history.

Spirit is solar-powered. It got stuck in a sand trap in April 2009, trapped deep into the soil and with its wheels turning around and around but not able to move forwards or backwards. Spirit had to agree that there is nothing that can be done to change the situation—it’s never going to move again. However, even if it is a not moving station, it can still study the planet’s atmosphere and deep interior.

NASA has been concentrating on trying to position its solar panels to get as much energy from the sun as possible, or to get the rover leaning in a manner that will allow the most amount of sunlight falling on its solar panels, in order to keep it alive during the coming winter months. Engineers have planned to rock the vehicle back and forth to acquire a more favorable position. However, no matter how many efforts have been made, Spirit still could not get out of the soft soil and could not lean itself toward the sun as the Martian winter approached. Without enough energy reaching its solar panels and with so little energy in its batteries, it went into hibernation, just like a polar bear, and has not communicated with Earth since March 22, 2010.

Whatever the future holds for Spirit, its mission has been an outstanding success. When it landed on the Red Planet in January 2004, no one was really sure how long it would continue working in the cold and dusty environment. As a matter of fact, three months was its original goal.

After so many fruitless efforts, NASA scientists are losing hope of ever reconnecting with Spirit, but they will give it one more try. Ground controllers are contacting Spirit over a range of frequencies and at different times during the day in case its internal clock stopped working and it lost track of time. They also are commanding the rover to turn on its backup radio transmitter in case the main one is dead.

If this final effort to connect isn’t successful, NASA will shift the focus to its twin robot, Opportunity, which is in a different part of Mars. Opportunity is still on the move and continues to travel freely to this day. It has traveled 16.6 miles so far, and is currently rolling towards another crater it has yet to explore.

NASA has spent more than $900 million on the project but shows no sign of giving up on these determined and hard-working robots. The rovers are, though, experiencing gradual wear and tear, the expected damage to something caused by using it repeatedly over a period of time. Even before Spirit got trapped, one of its wheels had failed. And NASA says it’s just a matter of time before both robots break down completely.

1.According to the passage, what can we know about Spirit?

A. It had explored Mars several times.

B. Its original mission was to work for five years.

C. It landed on Mars three weeks later than Opportunity.

D. It discovered that Mars was once a warm and wetter place.

2.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT what NASA did?

A. Try to lean Spirit to make it get as much sunlight as possible.

B. Rock Spirit back and forth to make it acquire a more favorable position.

C. Make efforts to help Spirit get out of the soft soil where it is stuck.

D. Contact and order Spirit to turn on its backup radio transmitter.

3.The reason why Spirit failed to communicate with the Earth is that ________.

A. it didn’t have enough energy             B. it had finished its task

C. something was wrong with its wheels      D. it met an unidentified creature

4.By saying “NASA will shift the focus” in Paragraph 7, the author means that ______.

A. NASA will move the center of Spirit out of the sand

B. NASA will depend on Opportunity to do the exploration

C. NASA will do nothing but wait for some opportunity

D. NASA will make opportunity help Spirit

5.The last paragraph mainly informs us that _______.

A. NASA has planned to spend more money on Spirit

B. Spirit will be brought back to Earth

C. Spirit will stop operating totally in the future

D. Spirit will cause damage to Mars

6. What’s the text mainly about?

A. NASA makes the last effort to contact Spirit.

B. Spirit has made many important discoveries on Mars.

C. How Spirit got stuck and couldn’t move on Mars.

D. Why NASA tried many ways to contact Spirit.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

In today’s congratulatory phone call to the team behind NASA's Mars Curiosity rover（火星车）, President Barack Obama made sure that if the mission discovers Martians, he'll be one of the first to know.

"If in fact you do make contact with Martians, please let me know right away," Obama said during the call, "I've got a lot of things on my plate, but I expect that that will go to the top of the list. Even if they're just microbes(微生物), it will be pretty exciting."

Obama also said he was impressed by the attention that's been paid to flight director Bobak Ferdowsi, the "Mohawk Guy" whose star-spangled haircut and warmhearted behavior during Curiosity's Aug. 5 landing won him Internet fame.

"I, in the past, thought about getting a Mohawk myself," Obama joked. "But my team keeps on discouraging me. And now that he's received marriage proposals and thousands of new Twitter followers, I think I'm going to go back to my team and see if it makes sense."

The congratulatory phone call is a tradition for the White House. But it was clear that Obama particularly enjoyed congratulating the scientists and engineers behind the amazingly successful landing of NASA's newest Mars exploration.

He also said the achievement reflected the American spirit, and he gave his personal promise to protect these critical investments in science and technology.

"This is the kind of thing that inspires kids across the country," he said. "They’re telling their moms and dads they want to be part of a Mars mission, maybe even the first person to walk on Mars. And that kind of inspiration is the byproduct of work of the sort that you guys have done."

The Curiosity rover's $2.5 billion mission focuses on studying billions of years' worth of geology on Mars and determining whether the planet was ever potentially suitable for people to live in. The mission is not specifically designed to explore life, even on the range of microbes, but it could point the way for future life-exploration experiments.

1.Obama phoned the team behind NASA's Mars Curiosity rover in order to _______.

A．congratulate them on finding Martians　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

B．praise the flight director

C．congratulate on the rover’s landing　　　　　　　　　

D．encourage them to contact with Martians

2.What is the main idea of Paragraph 2 ?

A．Obama is very busy now.

B．Obama longs for the finding of life on Mars.

C．Obama is interested in biology.

D．Obama wants to contact Martians.

3.Which of the following about the Curiosity rover is TRUE ?

A．It costs billions of dollars.

B．It mainly aims to find life on Mars.

C．It carries the first person to Mars.

D．It proves Mars fit to live on.

4.What can we learn from the passage ?

A．Bobak Ferdowsi got a Mohawk haircut to win great Internet fame.

B．Obama called on the government and companies to invest in science.

C．America’s president seldom congratulates on scientific achievements.

D．Children showed special interest in the landing of Curiosity.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The United States space agency, NASA. says its Mars exploration vehicle recently recorded a high level of methane (甲烷) gas on the planet. The discovery is exciting because the presence of methane gas could support the case for life on Mars.

NASA's Curiosity vehicle recently recoded the largest level of methane ever measured during its seven-year Mars mission.

Methane has no color or smell. A special instrument on Curiosity's Man Science Laboratory recorded the increased gas level. The device measures levels of chemical elements and gases in the Marian atmosphere. In addition to methane, the instrument can record levels of water and carbon dioxide.

Nearly all the methane gas found in Earth's atmosphere is produced by living thing. It usually comes from animal and plant life. But it can also be formed by geological(地质的) processes, such as interactions. between rocks and water.

It was not the first time Curiosity had found methane gas in the Martian atmosphere. About a year ago, NASA announced that Curiosity had discovered sharp seasonal increases in the gas. This time, NASA said the measured methane gas level was clearly larger than any others observed in the past. "It's exciting because microbial (微生物的) life is an important source of methane on Earth," NASA said in a statement announcing the discovery.

However, Curiosity's team carried out a follow-up methane experiment that showed a sharp drop in levels of the gas. That number was "close to the background levels Curiosity sees all the time." NASA said. The rise and fall of the methane gas levels left NASA scientists with more questions than answers.

"The methane mystery continues," said Ashwin Vasavada. Curiosity's project scientist, "We're more motivated than ever to keep measuring and put our brains together to figure out how methane behaves in the Marian atmosphere."

1.What do we know about methane go?

A.It is a must to living things. B.It can be found everywhere.

C.It smells like carbon dioxide. D.It's mainly from biological activity.

2.What do the explorations on Mans tell us?

A.Humans have known much about Mars.

B.There will be more methane gas on Mars.

C.There is no progress in the 7 year's research.

D.The level of methane gas on Mars is not stable.

3.What does the discovery mean in NASA's view?

A.There may exist life on Mars.

B.Methane gas on Mars has a sudden increase.

C.The mystery about Mars will be solved soon.

D.They're known how methane as is formed on Mans.

4.How do the NASA's scientists feel about their future exploration?

A.Aimless. B.Confident.

C.Stressed. D.Serious.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

There are certain areas on Mars where we don’t dare tread. NASA forbids spacecraft from visiting spots that possibly host liquid water, and so where life might be able to thrive, for fear of contaminating (感染) Mars with Earth microbes. But an analysis of the salty liquids on Mars suggests we needn’t worry, because life as we know it should be unable to exist anywhere on the planet’s surface.

Edgard Rivera-Valentin at the Lunar and Planetary Institutein Texas and his colleagues used readings of the temperature and relative humidity across Mars to map the presence of salty water. Any water on the surface is likely to be salty, simply because the surface is. This boosts the chances of water being liquid because salt lowers its freezing point.

It is like when you throw salt on an icy sidewalk, says Danielle Nuding at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “It’s the same chemistry happening.”

Unfortunately, the saltier the water, the less likely anything can survive in it. The team found that even though there could be briny (盐分多的) water on the surface of Mars up to 18 per cent of the year, depending on the season, no microbe we have ever seen on Earth would be able to reproduce there.

Life as we know it is not going to find these brines and survive because it’s either going to be way too cold or way too salty,” says Rivera-Valentin, who presented the results at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.

That doesn’t mean we can’t contaminate Mars: brines with different types of salts mixed together might be friendlier to life and temperatures just below the surface are much less extreme. Nevertheless, as long as we don’t dig down, it might be highly unlikely or even impossible for rovers (飞行器) such as Curiosity to contaminate Mars.

“The level of sterilization (杀菌) that we’ve done with Curiosity should be good enough to ignore the ban on visiting what we’ve been calling special regions until now, says Jennifer Hanley at Lowell Observatory in Arizona. I think that we’re OK to go. Visiting these regions would be particularly helpful because, while they are in theory the most vulnerable areas on Mars, they are also the most interesting.

For example, arguments have been raging for over a decade about whether dark streaks on Martian slopes called recurring slope lineae are flowing water or just dust. A quick visit by Curiosity, which is near an area where the flows often form, could solve it once and for all.

Even if areas with water are inhospitable to Earth life, they could still be home to native Martian life forms.

“If you had life that originated on Mars when it was more habitable, it could be that as Mars changed, life could have gradually adapted to the new, more extreme conditions,” says Rivera-Valentin.

1.NASA forbids spacecraft from visiting the special regions on Mars because　　　　　　　　 .

A.life is unable to thrive there, thus there’s no point of visiting them

B.Martian life probably exists there and might threaten human beings

C.they worry Earth microbes might survive there, thus contaminating Mars

D.human beings know nothing about these areas and they are dangerous to us

2.Which of the following statements is true?

A.Mars surface being salty provides evidence that Mars hosts liquid water.

B.Earth life is unlikely to contaminate Mars because the surface of the planet is either too cold or too salty.

C.The fear of contaminating Mars is unnecessary because human beings won’t contaminate Mars under any circumstances.

D.Jennifer Hanley thinks human beings should explore the special regions on Mars in order to confirm the existence of Martian life.

3.What is the point of visiting the special regions on Mars?

A.Martian life might be found.

B.Liquid water might be found.

C.Many puzzles about Mars could soon be solved.

D.No humans have ever visited those regions before.

4.In the passage, you can find the answers to all the questions except　　　　　　　　 .

A.whether the surface of Mars is salty or not

B.whether any native Martian life forms exist

C.whether Earth life is able to survive on Mars or not

D.whether the rover Curiosity will contaminate Mars

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

LONDON --- A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake(假冒的) bomb detectors(探测器) to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn't cared about potentially deadly consequences.

It is believed that James McCormick got about $77.8 million from the sales of his detectors - which were based on a kind of golf ball finder - to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia.

McCormick, 57, was convicted(判罪) of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.

"Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people," Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. "you have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt."

The detectors, sold for up to $42,000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they "lacked any grounding in science" and were of no use.

McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.

"I never had any bad results from customers," he said.

1.Why was McCormick sentenced to prison?

A. He sold bombs.               B. He caused death of people.

C. He made detectors.            D. He cheated in business

2.According to the judge, what McCormick had done _______.

A. increased the cost of safeguarding

B. lowered people's guard against danger

C. changed people's idea of social security

D. caused innocent people to commit crimes

3.Which of the following is true of the detectors?

A. They have not been sold to Africa.

B. They have caused many serious problems.

C. They can find dangerous objects in water.

D. They don't function on the basis of science.

4.It can be inferred from the passage that McCormick _______.

A. sold the equipment at a low price

B. was well-known in most countries

C. did not think he had committed the crime

D. had not got such huge profit as mentioned in the text

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

LONDON - A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake(假冒的) bomb detectors(探测器) to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn't cared about potentially deadly consequences.

It is believed that James McCormick got about $77.8 million from the sales of his detectors - which were based on a kind of golf ball finder - to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia.

McCormick, 57, was convicted(判罪) of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.

"Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people," Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. "you have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt."

The detectors, sold for up to $42,000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they "lacked any grounding in science" and were of no use.

McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.

"I never had any had results from customers," he said.

1.Why was McCormick sentenced to prison?

A．He sold bombs.                         B．He caused death of people.

C．He made detectors.                      D．He cheated in business.

2. According to the judge, what McCormick had done _______.

A．increased the cost of safeguarding

B．lowered people's guard against danger

C．changed people's idea of social security

D．caused innocent people to commit crimes

3.Which of the following is true of the detectors?

A．They have not been sold to Africa.

B．They have caused many serious problems.

C．They can find dangerous objects in water.

D．They don't function on the basis of science.

4.It can be inferred from the passage that McCormick _______.

A．sold the equipment at a low price

B．was well-known in most countries

C．did not think he had committed the crime

D．had not got such huge profit as mentioned in the text

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

LONDON — A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake bomb detectors (探测器) to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn’t cared about potentially deadly consequences.

It is believed that James McCormick got about $ 77.8 million from the sales of his detectors — which were based on a kind of golf ball finder — to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. McCormick, 57, was convicted of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.

“Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people,” Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. “You have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt.”

The detectors, sold for up to $ 42, 000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they “lacked any grounding in science” and were of no use.

McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.

“I never had any bad results from customers,” he said.

1.Why was McCormick sentenced to prison?

A.He sold bombs.

B.He caused death of people.

C.He made detectors.

D.He cheated in business.

2.According to the judge, what McCormick had done　　 .

A.increased the cost of safeguarding

B.lowered people’s guard against danger

C.changed people’s idea of social security

D.caused innocent people to commit crimes

3.Which of the following is true of the detectors?

A.They have not been sold to Africa

B.They have caused many serious problems.

C.They can find dangerous objects in water.

D.They don’t function on the basis of science.

4.It can be inferred from the passage that McCormick　　　　　 .

A.sold the equipment at a low price

B.was well-known in most countries

C.did not think he had committed the crime

D.had not got such huge profit as mentioned in the text

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

NASA scientists have found evidence of flowing water on Mars. This opens up the possibility of___ and wonders we can’t begin to imagine. The____undoubtedly is an astonishing achievement.

We may be excited by the thought of living things on another ______, but we seem to have lost _______in our own. In the past four decades, the world has____50% of its vertebrate( 脊 椎 )wildlife. But across the latter half of this period, there has been a steep___ in media coverage (报道)of the subject.

Think of what would change if we valued_____ on the earth as much as we value the possibility water　 on Mars._____ 3% of the water on this planet is fresh and of that, two-thirds is frozen. Yet we lay waste to　 the ___part. Sixty percent of the water used in farming is____by careless irrigation. Rivers, lakes and aquifers ( 地 下 蓄 水 层 )are sucked dry, while what remains is often so bad that it____the lives of those who drink it. As for salty water, which so______us　 when apparently detected on Mars, however,　 on Earth,　 we express our___ by destroying it. A new report suggests fish numbers have　 halved since　 1970. Coral　 reefs are under such___ that most could be gone by 2050.

A couple of weeks ago, I launched a column focusing on extreme consumption, and___ suggestions. They have flooded in. Here are just a few of the _____:wigs(假发)for babies, to allow “baby girls with little or no ___at all the opportunity to have a beautifully realistic hair style”; The iPotty, which _____little　 children to keep playing while toilet training; a smartphone for dogs to take pictures of themselves....

As clever new ways of wasting stuff are continually___ , we become more and more used to the___ consumption of the world’s precious resources. Isn’t it time for us to have second thoughts about our lifestyle?

1.A.peace B.trust C.life D.danger

2.A.appearance B.discovery C.performance D.operation

3.A.planet B.stage C.level D.island

4.A.courage B.hope C.pride D.interest

5.A.spread B.lost C.ignored D.found

6.A.climb B.turn C.increase D.decline

7.A.water B.plants C.animals D.air

8.A.Often B.Only C.Even D.Last

9.A.private B.public C.unclear D.accessible

10.A.checked B.chosen C.wasted D.polluted

11.A.saves B.threatens C.enriches D.changes

12.A.interests B.satisfies C.frightens D.terrifies

13.A.complaint B.doubt C.appreciation D.surprise

14.A.pressure B.control C.guidance D.attention

15.A.made B.considered C.invited D.followed

16.A.benefits B.reasons C.features D.products

17.A.time B.hair C.help D.knowledge

18.A.allows B.promises C.persuades D.advises

19.A.criticized B.reported C.replaced D.created

20.A.expensive B.limited C.pointless D.stable

高三英语完形填空中等难度题查看答案及解析