Question

       阅读短文,并简要回答文后的问题。注意：答题时不得超过规定的字数。

When scientists look up into the night sky, they see stars, planets and the moon.  There is also dark matter the material between the stars and planets. Scientists believe dark matter makes up much of the matter in our universe.  However they have not been able to explain where it is.  Although scientists have discovered signs of its gravity, no one has been able to see dark matter until now.    

Recently scientists discovered observable dead stars -- or dark matter -- at the edge of our own Milky Way galaxy. The experts announced their discovery in Science Magazine.  They said they found thirty-eight objects called “white dwarfs.”  Each white dwarf is a burned up, dying star like the sun. However, each one has shrunk to about the size of Earth.  These newly discovered white dwarfs are said to be about four-hundred-fifty light years from Earth.  A light year is the distance that light travels in one year. 

Ben Oppenheimer led the research team that discovered the white dwarfs.  He works at the University of California at Berkeley.  He says the team studied pictures of the white dwarfs taken during the past thirty years.  The movement of the objects suggests that they are in the so-called “halo” of the universe. This is a very large circle of stars and gas that surrounds our Milky Way galaxy. 

This is important because the halo is much larger than the Milky Way galaxy itself.  The researchers suggest that there are many white dwarf stars throughout this halo.  This discovery would explain much of the mass that cannot be found in our galaxy.   

Mister Oppenheimer says most of the white dwarfs may be about ten-thousand-million years old. Scientists believe the universe was born about thirteen-thousand-million years ago after a huge explosion of matter called the Big Bang.  

Scientists estimate that most of the dark matter in our universe is made up of unusual particles(粒子). Scientists have not been able to identify these particles. Some scientists say the discovery opens the way for more study of the unexplained matter.

 

73. Find in the passage a word closest in meaning to the underlined word “halo”.

74. According to the scientists’ research, how far are the “white dwarfs”probably from us? （回答词数不超过8个）

75. What research will scientists most probably do about the dark matter?（回答词数不超过10个）

 

Answer 1

73. circle

74. It’s about 450 light years from us.

75. They will identify the unusual particles in the dark matter