Question

【題目】 They asked Katherine Johnson for the moon, and she gave it to them. With little more than a pencil, a slide rule and one of the finest mathematical minds in the country, Mrs. Johnson, who died at 101 on Monday, calculated the precise track that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and, after Neil Armstrong’s history—making moonwalk, let it return to Earth.

Yet throughout Mrs. Johnson’s 33 years in NASA and for decades afterwards, almost no one knew her name.

Mrs. Johnson was one of several hundred strictly educated, supremely capable yet largely unrecognized women who, well before the modern feminist movement, worked as NASA mathematicians. But it was not only her sex that kept her long unsung. For some years at midcentury, the black women were subjected to a double segregation (隔離)：They were kept separate from the much large group of white women who in turn were segregated from the agency’s male mathematicians and engineers.

Mrs. Johnson broke barriers at NASA. In old age, Mrs. Johnson became the most celebrated of black women who served as mathematicians for the space agency. Their story was told in the 2016 Hollywood film Hidden Figures, which was nominated for three Oscars, including best picture.

In 2017, NASA dedicated a building in her honor. That year, The Washington Post described her as “the most high- profile of the computers”—“computers” being the term originally used to describe Mrs. Johnson and her colleagues, much as “typewriters” were used in the 19th century to represent professional typists.

She “helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space,” NASA’s administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said in a statement on Monday, “even as she made huge steps that also opened doors for women and people of color in the universal human quest to explore space.”

As Mrs. Johnson herself was fond of saying, her term at Langley—from 1953 until her retirement in 1986—was “a time when computers wore skirts.”

【1】What is the function of the first paragraph?

A.To present the Apollo moon mission.B.To stress Mrs. Johnson’s contributions

C.To honour Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk.D.To mourn a great woman—Mrs. Johnson.

【2】Which of the following was the toughest thing Mrs. Johnson had to overcome?

A.The difference between male and females in this field.

B.People’s not recognizing her talent.

C.Inequality in gender and race.

D.The hardships before the modern feminist movement.

【3】Why were Mrs. Johnson and her colleagues described as “computers”?

A.Because they used computers to keep their work secret.

B.Because they were the agency’s human calculators.

C.Because computer systems engaged them deeply.

D.Because they calculate precisely using computers.

【4】What can we learn from Mrs. Johnson’s experience?

A.Don’t judge a person by his appearance.

B.The world awaits our discovery.

C.Use knowledge to wipe out ignorance.

D.Never be limited by the labels attached by others.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】C

【3】B

【4】D

【解析】

這是一篇記敘文。文章提到一位名為Katherine Johnson的NASA工作人員，正是在她的嚴謹計算下，人類首次登月才得以實現(xiàn)，而現(xiàn)實中她卻曾因為自己的女性和黑人身份受盡不公平對待，一直到去世都默默無聞。

【1】

推理判斷題。根據第一段中“With little more than a pencil, a slide rule and one of the finest mathematical minds in the country, Mrs. Johnson…calculated the precise track that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and, after Neil Armstrong’s history—making moonwalk, let it return to Earth.”可知，正是在Katherine Johnson的努力之下，阿波羅11號登月、返回才成為了現(xiàn)實，第一段就是在強調她做出的巨大貢獻。故選B項。

【2】

推理判斷題。根據第三段中“But it was not only her sex that kept her long unsung. For some years at midcentury, the black women were subjected to a double segregation (隔離)”可知，Katherine Johnson因其性別而被埋沒，而她的黑人膚色也讓她被人群疏遠，這些就是她面臨的最大困難，C選項“性別和種族上的不平等”符合文意。故選C項。

【3】

推理判斷題。根據第五段中““computers” being the term originally used to describe Mrs. Johnson and her colleagues, much as “typewriters” were used in the 19th century to represent professional typists.”可知，就像曾經人們用“打字機”來稱呼那些專業(yè)的打字員一樣，Katherine Johnson和同事們被稱為“計算機”也是因為他們的工作就和計算機一樣是負責進行計算的。故選B項。

【4】

推理判斷題。根據倒數(shù)第二段引述Jim Bridenstine的話“even as she made huge steps that also opened doors for women and people of color in the universal human quest to explore space.”可知，盡管被貼有“女性”、“黑人”這樣的標簽，Katherine Johnson仍然在自己的崗位上做出了巨大的貢獻，告訴我們的就是人不要被一些所謂的標簽限制，要憑借自己的實力發(fā)光發(fā)熱。故選D項。