题目内容
BEING an astronaut sounds cool, doesn’t it? In space, they get to do some pretty amazing things, like floating in zero gravity (重力).
However, there are also plenty of things that astronauts can’t do because of their weightless environment, and that’s very sad. What’s worse, they can’t even let their sadness show – because it’s impossible to cry in zero gravity.
Of course, astronauts can still produce tears. But crying is much more difficult in space, reported The Atlantic in January. Without gravity, tears don’t flow downward out of the eyes like they do here on Earth. This means that when you cry in space, your tears have nowhere to go – they just stick to your eyes.
In May 2011, astronaut Andrew Feustel experienced this during one of his spacewalks. “Tears,” he said, “don’t fall off of your eye... They just kind of stay there.”
Besides making your vision unclear, this can also cause physical pain. Back on Earth, tears are supposed to bring comfort to the eyes. But that’s not the case in space. The space environment dries out astronauts’ eyes, and when tears suddenly wet the eyes, it can cause pain rather than comfort. “My right eye is painful like crazy.” Feustel told his teammate during the walk.
Since gravity doesn’t work in space, astronauts need some extra help to get rid of the tears. Feustel chose to rub his eyes against his helmet to wipe the tears away. Another choice is to just wait – “When the tears get big enough they simply break free of the eye and float around,” astronaut Ron Parise told The Atlantic.
There are lots of small things – things like crying – that we are so used to on Earth. We usually take them for granted, until they become a problem in a totally different environment, like space. There, astronauts can’t talk to each other directly. They also can’t eat or drink in normal ways. They can’t even burp (打嗝), because there is no gravity to hold the food down in their stomach. If they do burp, they just end up throwing up (呕吐) everything in their stomach, according to the UK National Space Center.
Thus, perhaps it’s only space explorers who can honestly say: “Gravity, you’re the best.”
50. What can we conclude from paragraphs 2 and 3?
A. Astronauts are unable to feel sad in space.
B. Astronauts produce fewer tears in space.
C. Tears produced in space flow down more slowly.
D. Tears produced in space don’t flow downward.
51. What effect do tears have on astronauts?
A. They cause physical pain.
B. They bring comfort to them.
C. They make their vision clearer.
D. They float around and cause trouble.
52. What can the astronaut do to get rid of the tears?
A. Rub his eyes against his helmet to let the tears float forward.
B. Rub his eyes by hand to let the tears float around.
C. Get the tears big enough to fall off of his eyes.
D. Get the tears big enough to break away from his eyes.
53. What’s the second-to-last paragraph mainly about?
A. Suggestions on how astronauts can stay comfortable in space.
B. Other basic things that are difficult to do in space.
C. Why burping is impossible in space.
D. Things that humans can’t do without gravity.
54. When of the following can be the best title for the text?
A. In the sky, you can’t burp
B. Better life with gravity
C. In the sky, you can’t cry
D. No Gravity, no tears
DADBC
__. My mother was illiterate. My mother was a household servant. Through her work, she observed that successful people spent a lot more time reading than they did watching television. She announced that my brother and I could only watch two to three pre-selected TV programs during the week. With our free time, we had to read two books each from the Detroit Public Library and write book reports. She would mark them up with check marks. Years later we realized her marks were a ruse. My mother had only received a third-grade education. Although we had no money, between the covers of those books, I could go anywhere, do anything and be anybody.
When I entered high school, I was an A-student, but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went form being an A- student to a B- student to a C-student, but I didn’t care.
One night my mother came home and I complained about not having enough shirts. She said, “Okay, I’ll give you all the money I make this week cleaning floors and bathrooms, and you can buy the family food and pay the bills. With everything left over, you can have all the shirts you want.”
I was very pleased with that arrangement but once I got through allocating(分配) money, there was nothing left. I realized my mother was a financial genius to be able to keep a roof over our heads and any kind of food on the table, much less buy clothes.
I also realized that immediate satisfaction wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Success required intellectual(理智的) preparation. I went back to my studies and became an A-student again. I dreamed of becoming a doctor when I was just a kid. And now I have achieved my dream.
Over the years my mother’s changeless faith in God has inspired me, particularly when I found myself faced with my own medical illness. A few years ago I discovered I had a very serious cancer; I was told it might have spread to my spine(脊柱). My mother believed in God very much. She never worried. She said that God would never throw me away forever; there was no way that this was going to be a major problem. The abnormality in spine turned out to be not bad; I was able to have surgery and am cured.
My story is really my mother’s story －a woman little formal education or worldly goods who used her position as a parent to change the lives of her children.
1. The underlined word “ruse” in the first paragraph probably means .
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A．discovery |
B．success |
C．trick |
D．pleasure |
2.When the author asked his mother to buy him shirts, she .
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A．advised him to earn money by himself |
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B．asked him to try to manage their money |
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C．persuaded him not to buy them patiently |
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D．agreed to buy them for him immediately |
3. What do we learn about the author?
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A．He now works as a doctor. |
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B．He disliked watching TV as a kid. |
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C．He received little formal education. |
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D．He often did housework when young. |
4.The underlined word “this” in the last but one paragraph refers to .
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A．God’s throwing me away |
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B．my own medical illness |
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C．the operation on my spine |
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D．my mother’s changeless faith in God |
5.In writing the passage, the author mainly shows us .
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A．the happy relationships in his family |
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B．the benefits of reading for young children |
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C．the importance of formal education for adults |
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D．his mother’s great influence on his development |