Question

NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long-armed Lander on Mars’ icy North Pole to search for clues for water and possible signs of life.

The $386 million Phoenix Mars is planned to touch down in the Martian arctic in 2008. The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice-rich soil near the arctic surface.

Scientists hope the Phoenix mission will find clues to the geologic history of water on the Red Planet and determine whether microbes existed in the ice.

Phoenix will be the first mission of the Mars Scout program, a renewed, low-cost effort to study the Red Planet. “The Phoenix mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth,” Peter Smith said.

True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous missions. The lander for Phoenix was built to fly as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor program. But the program broke down after the well-known disappearance of the Mars Polar Lander in 1999. The Polar Lander lost contact during a landing attempt near the planet’s south pole after its rocket engine shut off prematurely, causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction.

The Phoenix probe had been in storage at a Lockheed Martin clean room in Denver before it was reused for its present mission. It will carry science instruments that were designed for the Mars Surveyor program including an improved panoramic camera and a trench-digging robotic arm. Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later.

 

46. The passage mainly tells readers that _________.

A. clues of water will be found in Phoenix 

B. Phoenix will be sent to find clues of water on Mars

C. August 2007 will see Phoenix lift off   

D. the Mars Scout program will be carried out

47. The underlined word “prematurely” （paragraph 5） means _________.

A. on time     B. behind the time      C. out of work       D. ahead of time

48. According to the passage, we know Phoenix will land on Mars _________.

A. in May 2008                       B. in August 2007

C. in August 2008                    D. in September 2008

49. According to the passage, the name “Phoenix” is after the meaning of _________.

A. rebirth          B. death          C. energy         D. hope

50. After Phoenix lands on Mars, we can infer it will firstly _________.

A. find soil samples and send them to the earth  B. look for the icy land to dig for the soil samples

C. take photos and send them to the earth          D. find the remains of the Mars Polar Lander

Answer 1

本文主要是讲美国国家航空和航天管理局计划2008年将Phoenix送到火星探索水源的线索和存在生命的可能性。

46. B 主旨大意题。由第一段可知。

47. D 猜测词义题。由该词所处语境和常识可知，是火箭引擎“提前”关闭，才会失去联系。

48. A 细节理解题。由最后一段的最后一句可推算出。

49. A 推理判断题。由第五段第一句推知。

50. B 推理判断题。由第二段第二句可知。