After an extra day in space,the crew of Discovery returned to Earth,landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California early on Tuesday morning.The shuttle and its crew spent two weeks in space,most of it aboard the International Space Station.It was the first flight of NASA's space?shuttle fleet since February 2003,when the shuttle Columbia came apart while re?entering Earth's atmosphere.?

NASA officials delayed Discovery's return for one day because of cloudy weather in Florida,where the shuttle was supposed to lanD. On Tuesday morning,mission controllers ?directed? Discovery to a landing site in California,where the skies were clear.The crew members will have to wait until Wednesday to see their families when they all meet together in Houston at the Johnson Space Center.?

Discovery had a very busy mission in space,compared to past missions.The space shuttle docked with the International Space Station most of the journey,delivering badly needed ?supplies? and repairing damaged parts.The crew spent a lot of time testing new repair techniques on their own shuttle,conducting three different spacewalks(where astronauts exit the space shuttle to do work outside).On the third spacewalk,astronaut Steve Robinson went underneath the shuttle to remove material sticking out from between the spacecraft's ?protective? tiles.?

There were concerns in the last remaining days of Discovery's mission that a torn heat blanket—another shield against overheating in the space shuttle—may pose a problem to crew members. NASA officials and technicians worked on ways that the crew could fix the problem, but later decided it was not a risk.?

With the shuttle and its crew safely back on firm ground, NASA is hailing this mission, labeled STS?114,as a huge success. “I hope this shows people that we're coming back,” NASA spaceflight chief Bill Readdy said after Discovery's successful landing. “We've got some more work to do. We know what we need to do and we'll do it.?

Which of the following isn't included in the jobs of the shuttle Discovery?

A. Delivering supplies to the International Space Station.?

B. Conducting different spacewalks.?

C. Testing new repair techniques.?

D. Finding the cause why the shuttle Columbia came apart.?

But for the cloudy weather, the shuttle Discovery would have landed_______.

A. in Florida a day earlier     B. in Florida a day later?

C. in California a day earlier D. in California a day later?

Which is the most probable period of time that Discovery was aboard the International Space Station?

A. Six days.    B. Two weeks.?

C. Nine days.  D. Two weeks and an extra day.?

What's the best title for the passage?

A. Another Huge Success of Discovery

B. Welcome Back, Discovery?

C. Discovery and International Space Station

D. Discovery Survives a Risk

An annoying problem for humans, who like to boast (夸耀) about all the distant planets and moons we have explored, is that we've never taken a good look right under our noses.The inside of the earth is relatively close but how can we get there?

The deepest oil well enters a mere six miles into the crust (地壳)  (the center of the earth is about 4,000 miles deeper).Russian scientists dug the deepest hole in Siberia," but bottomed out at about 7.5 miles below the surface.The Mohole project, a U.S.plan in the 1950s, called for drilling a hole 25 miles down to the boundary be??tween the hard rocks of the crust and the soft mantle (地幔).Sadly the project involved govern??ment supporting.

It gets harder and harder to drill deep into the earth because rocks get softer and softer. Hard but easily broken at the surface, rocks become plastic at depth, and the pressure caused by the weight of the overlaying crust — about 52,800 pounds per square inch at a depth of ten miles, makes further drilling impossible.

What little we know about the inside of the earth (like the fact that there' s a crust, a mantle, and a core) comes from indirect evidence, such as the analysis of earthquakes.

So maybe it' s time for a thorough new method to explore the earth's inside.Scientist David Stevenson says we should forget about drilling holes.Instead, we should open a crack (裂缝). 

Stevenson suggests digging a crack about a half mile long, a yard wide, and a half mile deep (not with a shovel) but with an explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb.Next, he'd pour a few hundred thousand tons of molten (融化的) iron into the crack, along with a robot.The iron, thicker than the surrounding crust, would move downward at about 16 feet per second, carrying the robot with it and opening the crack deeper and deeper.The iron mass would drop for about a week and 2,000 miles to the outer edge of the earth core, the robot sending out data to the sur??face.

Stevenson compares his idea to space explo??ration."We're going somewhere we haven't been before," he says."In all possibility, there will be surprises."

This idea can probably be put in.the drawer marked with Isn't Going To Happen.The robot would have to survive temperatures that would melt pretty much anything.But Stevenson's idea may inspire a new look at an old problem.Great things can come from what seems like impossible ideas.

Going inside the earth is ________ than going into space.

A.more interesting B.more possible    C.easier            D.more challenging

How deep have we gone into the earth until now?

A.6 miles.         B.4,000 miles. C.7.5 miles.        D.25 miles.

Which of the following is TRUE about David Stevenson's idea?

A.It is an inspiring but not practical idea now.

B.It is a practical proposal that has come into use now.

C.It is a good proposal that will soon be put into practice.

D.It is a false theory that cannot be carried out at all.

What might be the most suitable title for the text?

A.An Annoying Problem for Humans

B.To the Center of the Earth

C.The Mohole Project

D.David Stevenson' s Proposal

 0  18319  18327  18333  18337  18343  18345  18349  18355  18357  18363  18369  18373  18375  18379  18385  18387  18393  18397  18399  18403  18405  18409  18411  18413  18414  18415  18417  18418  18419  18421  18423  18427  18429  18433  18435  18439  18445  18447  18453  18457  18459  18463  18469  18475  18477  18483  18487  18489  18495  18499  18505  18513  151629 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网