Question

【题目】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】作者童年时期从学校里听说了一颗名叫“冥王星”的行星。它是一个孩童所能想象到的最远、最冷、最黑暗的东西。后来这颗行星遭遇降级。但对作者来说，冥王星带来的科学兴趣并没有减弱。冥王星的意义远不只在于它不是一颗行星。它在提醒着我们，我们的世界之外还存在许多世界。除非我们到那里亲眼得见，否则我们根本不知道大自然能把一个主题幻化出多少种精彩绝伦的变奏曲。

【1】A 细节题。根据第三段，冥王星之所以为人所知，是由于2006年它从“大行星”被降级为“矮行星”。

【2】C 主旨题。根据文章的整体内容并结合文中反复出现的中心词"Pluto"可推知，本文主要介绍了冥王星被发现的过程以及对人类的意义，故"冥王星的传奇故事"适合作文章的标题。

【3】D 细节题。从第四段得知，Clyde Tombaugh用于搜索恒星的望远镜非常简单，是用汽车部件、农场的旧设备和自己磨成的透镜制成的。