单选题 Before 1945, hardly anyone outside of New Mexico had ever heard of Alamogordo. In 1960 its population numbered 21,723. Ever since 1898, when the town had been built by the Southern Pacific Railroad, Alamogordo had been a lonely town. The land around it was largely desert, and largely empty.
Because it was isolated and because the weather was almost always clear and beautiful; a spot of desert near Alamogordo was chosen as the test site for the first atomic bomb ever exploded. The secret name of the test was Zero.
At dawn on July 16, 1945, the atomic bomb was set off. Observers agreed that they had witnessed something unlike anything ever seen by men before: a huge colorful fireball, more brilliant than the sun, flashing as it rose for miles into the air. Never before had men released so much power at one time, nor had any nation ever possessed a weapon as terrible and destructive as the atomic bomb.
For several weeks, the test was kept secret. When an atomic bomb was dropped from an American plane on Hiroshima, Japan, newspapers and radio stations all over America told of the test of the bomb in New Mexico. Almost everybody was amazed to learn where the bomb had been made and tested; the deserts of the Southwest had hidden the secret well.
When news of the atomic bomb and its destructiveness was announced, people all over the world wondered what other new weapons were being prepared in New Mexico desert. Some people doubted that the secret making atomic bombs could be kept from other countries. Some even doubted the wisdom of using so powerful a weapon. But no one doubted that a new kind of war—and a new kind of world—had begun at Alamogordo, one summer morning in 1946.
单选题 What is the main topic of this passage?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 文章主要记述了阿拉莫戈多的秘密,即它是一个研究原子弹的秘密基地。故A正确。
单选题 Which of the following is the main reason for choosing Alamogordo as the test site?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 由第二段第一句的“Because it was isolated...”及后面第四段最后一句的“...the deserts of the Southwest had hidden the secret well”可知C为最佳选项,A项只占一部分原因。
单选题 When was the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 由文章第四段的内容可知,新墨西哥的原子弹爆发几周后,一直处于保密状态,直到美国在日本广岛投下原子弹,新墨西哥的原子弹才被曝光。由此可推断出本题答案应为D。
单选题 After the first atomic bomb explosion, everybody agreed that ______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 根据最后一句“But no one doubted that a new kind of war—and a new kind of world—had begun at Alamogordo, one summer morning in 1946.”可知应选B。
单选题 The tone of this passage is one of ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 由第三段最后一句“Never before had men released so much power at one time, nor had any nation ever possessed a weapon as terrible and destructive as the atomic bomb.”可推出作者的口气。四个选项中D项较为恰当。