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.
【小题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.

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.

Technology today has stolen away our voices and robbed our children of memories. I’ve been keeping count of how often people sing around the house these days. The fact is, they don’t.
My earliest memories are of my mother crooning lullabies(催眠曲) in a gentle low voice as she rocked each infant in turn. She said she “didn’t have a singing voice,” but her low, wavering alto will always mean comfort to me. Every time I have sat through the night with a feverish body or held a pre – schooler through a nightmare, the melodies returned, words appearing and disappearing like fragments of a dream but held together by the hum (低声吟唱)of love.
Today, young mothers are routinely presented with lullaby tapes at the baby shower. When baby cries, the idea goes, they will be able to switch on the high-tech audio system and the little one will drift off with the voices of strangers in his ears, perfectly on pitch. If I had my way, new parents would learn the songs themselves, throw out their stereos, and give their child the gift of their own sleepy voices through the midnight hours.
These days, when we go on a trip, my daughters take along tiny personal stereos and headphones. They are lost in their private worlds, and I can’t help wishing that at least here, in the car my girls would be forced to listen to their mother’s voice raised in lost – the – words again, sure I’m out－of－tune songs that they might then pass down to another generation. Those sophisticated earphones have robbed them of something I think every kid should carry from childhood car trips into adulthood.
I drove away from that party humming, and all the way home the good old songs kept tumbling out. Dammit (该死), I thought, why did I ever stop singing in the car and start turning on the radio instead? Why don’t I sign anymore while I’m doing the dishes? I’m going to yank those stereo wires right out of the wall when I get home. We’re going to sing grace before meals, sing coals around the piano, sing in the shower instead of switching on that waterproof radio that stol away our voices and our souls.
63．The author hates today’s technology because________
A．driving a car requires high concentration
B．children are learning pop songs from tapes
C．children have lost touch with good old songs
D．high – tech systems do not record the voices of aged people
64．The underlined sentence “the little one will drift off” in Paragraph 3 means that “________ ”.
A．the play of the high – tech system is of little use
B．the high – tech system will play on and on
C．the low voice will delight the baby
D．the baby will slowly go to sleep
65．To the author, the voices of strangers ________       .
A．are not familiar to the baby
B．lack the motherly love the baby needs
C．work better to stop the baby’s cry
D．surely sound more pleasant
66．What the author wishes to make her girls do is to________          .
A．help memorize the words while she is singing
B．take off their well – designed earphones
C．listen and learn the old songs from her
D．remember their childhood car trips

Tracking Stations

One night in February 1962, John H. Glenn, Jr., flew over Australia. The man in the Mercury（水星）capsule（宇宙飞行容器）was alone, but friendly voices reached him by radio. Over the dark land 100 miles below, he saw sparkling lights.  It marked the city of Perth, where people had turned on their lights as a greeting to him.

"In Friendship 7," Glenn radioed, "the lights show up very well. Thank everybody for turning them on." His capsule needed on to the east.

During his three orbits of the earth, Glenn could always reach one of the eighteen tracking stations. Some of them were on ships at sea. Others were in the United States.

Many of the stations had been built with the help of other countries. These countries allowed Americans to bring in radio equipment and set it up. Without the help of such lands as Nigeria, Zanzibar, and Mexico, there would have been breaks in the worldwide radio network. John Glenn, Jr., was the first American to orbit the earth. For his flight, the tracking network（跟踪网络）covered 60,000 land or statute miles（法定英里）. Five hundred men worked in the stations along the route. Since his flight, the network has grown. Today, it covers more than 100, 000 statute or land miles and has about one hundred stations. One-third of these stations are outside the United States.

66．This passage is mainly about________.

A．talking to ships at sea around the world

B．breaks in the worldwide network

C．the first American to orbit the earth

D．a satellite which fell into the ocean

67．From the passage we can see that________.

A．Friendship 7 stopped in Perth, Australia

B．all tracking stations are inside the United States

C．radio equipment is important in space flight

D．many people could see Glenn in his capsule when he made the flight

68．During his flight Glenn could always________.

A．see lights turned on the ground      B．reach ships at sea

C．reach one of the tracking stations    D．arrive at Mercury in his Friendship 7

69．Why did people in Perth turn on the lights?

A．They wanted to guide him to land.

B．It was too dark for them to see in the room.

C．They wanted to see the Friendship 7．

D．They wanted to greet Glenn.

70．Which of the following is NOT true?

A．Countries must work together to track satellites.

B．There are now about 30 tracking stations outside the United States.

C．The tracking network covers many more statute miles now than before.

D．Nobody has orbited the earth except Glenn.