Question

【題目】 Many of us think, wrongly, that the moon doesn’t change. For example, the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ruoxu once wrote that “Generations have come and passed away; From year to year the moons look alike, old and new.”

However, a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience shows that the moon is in fact slowly shrinking over time. For the study, a group of US scientists examined and analyzed thousands of photographs taken by the NASA orbiter Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. They found that there were lots of faults (斷層) on the surface of the moon. These faults were formed by recent movement on the moon.

According to NASA, the moon is made up of pieces of rocks with a hot core. The moon continued to expand as it was born. But in this process, it released energy and cooled down. Then it began to shrink, in a way comparable to the shrinking of a grape into a raisin (葡萄干) . Over the past several hundred million years, it has become 46 meters “skinnier”. But due to its hard and rocky crust (外殼), the moon’s surface continues to push up. “Some of these quakes can be fairly strong around five on the Richter scale,” said Thomas Watters, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in the US.

But does that mean the moon is a dangerous place that human shouldn’t try to explore and live on in the future? Maybe not, reported the Telegraph, “This isn’t anything to worry about. The moon may be shrinking, but not by much. It’s not going anywhere,” Watters comforted us.

The new discovery proves that the idea that the moon is a dead, boring place is wrong. “We have been to the moon and we’ve done some great science, but there is still a lot we don’t know. The moon is shrinking — we didn’t really realize that until recently. It’s a much more active and interesting place than we thought and we should explore that,” NASA scientist Nathan Williams said.

【1】Why does the writer quote the poem?

A.To praise the beauty of the moon.

B.To show people’s long-standing idea of the moon size.

C.To arouse people’s interest in the topic.

D.To get readers familiar with the poem.

【2】Which point of view about the moon may the writer agree to?

A.It is becoming slightly smaller.B.It stays the same as before.

C.It is getting older and older.D.It may disappear one day.

【3】What can we learn about the moon from the third paragraph?

A.It has become 46 meters fatter due to expanding.

B.It has changed from a grape into a raisin in recent years.

C.It quakes even at seven on the Richter scale.

D.It has a hot core and releases energy when expanding.

【4】Who thinks that we needn’t worry about the moon?

A.Zhang Ruoxu.B.Thomas Watters.

C.Nathan Williams.D.The journalist.

【5】What does Nathan Williams think of the moon?

A.It is a dead and boring place.B.It has lots of faults on the surface.

C.It is worth exploring moreD.It isn’t a place where we can live.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】A

【3】D

【4】B

【5】C

【解析】

這是一篇說明文。月球并非如唐代詩人張若虛在詩中描繪的那樣是亙古不變的。一項(xiàng)最新的科學(xué)研究表明，月球正在隨著時間慢慢地縮小。此外，這項(xiàng)研究還表明月球還有許多我們不了解的東西，它是一個比我們認(rèn)為的更活躍、更有意思的地方，我們應(yīng)該探索它。

【1】推理判斷題。作者在第一段內(nèi)引用了張若虛的詩句“Generations have come and passed away; From year to year the moons look alike, old and new.（人生代代無窮已，江月年年只相似）”。根據(jù)語篇結(jié)構(gòu)，段落內(nèi)的舉例一定是服務(wù)于段落中心意思的。根據(jù)第一段首句“Many of us think, wrongly, that the moon doesn’t change.（我們很多人都認(rèn)為，月亮是不變的）”可知，這個詩句就是用來證明人們對于月亮的大小的長久以來的觀點(diǎn)。故選B。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第二段第一句“However, a new study... shows that the moon is in fact slowly shrinking over time（然而，一項(xiàng)新的發(fā)表在《自然地球科學(xué)》上的研究表明，月球?qū)嶋H上正在隨著時間慢慢地縮�。┮约暗诙�段內(nèi)對于月亮上斷層的解釋可知，作者引用這些研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，證明月亮正在慢慢變小，說明作者也是這樣認(rèn)為的。故選A。

【3】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第三段前三句中的“According to NASA, the moon is made up of pieces of rocks with a hot core. The moon continued to expand as it was born. But in this process，it released energy（美國宇航局認(rèn)為，月亮由帶有一個熱核的巖石塊組成，當(dāng)它形成時月球在持續(xù)膨脹，在這個過程中它會釋放能量。）”可知，月球有一個熱核并且膨脹時釋放能量。故選D。

【4】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第四段中Thomas Watters 說的話“This isn’t anything to worry about. The moon may be shrinking, but not by much. It’s not going anywhere（沒有什么擔(dān)心的。月亮在縮小，但是不多。不會縮小到哪里去的。）”可知，Thomas Waters認(rèn)為我們不必?fù)?dān)心月球。故選B。

【5】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)最后一段中Nathan Williams說的話“It’s a much more active and interesting place than we thought and we should explore that（它是一個比我們想象的更加活躍和有趣的地方，我們應(yīng)該探索它）”可知，Nathan Williams認(rèn)為月球是有價值的，值得探索。故選C。