单选题 NASA launched the first space mission to Pluto yesterday as a powerful rocket hurled the New Horizons spacecraft on a nine-year, three-billion-mile journey to the edge of the solar system
As it soared toward a 2007 meeting with Jupiter, whose powerful gravitational field will shoot it on its way to Pluto. mission managers said radio communications confirmed that the 1,054-pound craft was in good health.
The $700 million mission began when a Lockheed Martin Atlas 5 rocket rose from a launching pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 2 p.m., almost an hour later than planned because of low clouds that obscured a clear view of the flight path by tracking cameras.
Less than an hour later, all three stages of the booster rocket worked as planned, and the spacecraft separated from them and sprinted away toward deep space. The robot ship sped away at about 36,000 miles per hour, the fastest flight of any spacecraft sent from Earth. allowing it to pass the Moon in about nine hours.
"This is a historic day," said Alan Stem of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo, the mission's principal scientist and team leader. Speaking at a news conference at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Dr. Stern said the timing assured that the New Horizons would arrive for its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015—the 50th anniversary of the first flyby of Mars by the Mariner 4. the mission that began the exploration of the planets.
The New Horizons is powered by a small plutonium-fired electric generator. Its instruments include three cameras, for visible-light, infrared and ultraviolet images, and three spectrometers to study the composition and temperatures of Pluto's thin atmosphere and surface features. It also carries a University of Colorado dust counter, the first experiment to fly on a planetary mission that is entirely designed and operated by students. This is the only experiment that will not hibernate during the mission.
Yesterday's liftoff also paid regard to Pluto's discoverer, the astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh. who in 1930 became the only American to find a planet in the solar system.(He died at 90. in 1997.) His widow, Patricia Tombaugh. 93. and other family members were present at the cape, and some of his remains were among the commemorative items aboard the spacecraft. "Some of Clyde's ashes are on their way to Pluto today," Dr. Stem said.
The New Horizons is to reach Jupiter's gravitational field in 13 months. The trip to Pluto will take eight more years, most of which the craft will spend in electronic "hibernation" to save power and wear on the equipment needed for its seven experiments.
In addition to the two-hour delay, the launching was postponed twice in two days—on Tuesday by strong winds at the cape and on Wednesday by a storm that caused a power; failure at the spacecraft's control center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel. Md. Mission planners had until Feb. 14 to launch the mission this year, but only until the end of this month to use the gravity boost from Jupiter, which will shorten the trip to Pluto by five years.

单选题 In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by______.

单选题 The New Horizons will first approach Jupiter on its way to Pluto because______.

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】事实细节题。新视野太空船之所以要先到达木星然后再到冥王星，其原因要从文中提到“木星”的地方寻找，第一段就提到“As it soared toward a 2007 meeting with Jupiter, whose powerful gravitational field will shoot it on its way to Pluto…”(它升空去和木星2007年约会，木星重力场会将其发射到去往冥王星的路上……)，从这里可以看出，之所以先到木星是为了利用其重力场转到去往冥王星的轨道上，因此选项A“木星是去往冥王星的必经之站”；B“木星可以帮助它进入到冥王星的轨道”；C“木星有重力场”；D“这是最快的路径”中，最符合的是B。选项C有一定的迷惑性，但要注意其原因不是木星拥有重力场，而是其重力场可以帮助太空船进入轨道。

单选题 Which one of the following statements is TRUE about the spacecraft?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】推理判断题。全文都是有关该太空船的，因此应逐个排除选项。A“它开创了探索星球的活动”，根据第五段“Dr. Stern said the timing assured that the New Horizons would arrive for its closest approach to Pluto on July 142015—the 50th anniversary of the first flyby of Mars by the Mariner 4, the mission that began the exploration of the planets.”可以看出，是“水手四号”开创了探索星球的活动，而非“新视野”； B“克莱德夫人为纪念克莱德先生登上了太空船”，第七段中说明克莱德夫人只是到发射点去了，船上的是克莱德先生的遗物；C“它将于八年后抵达冥王星”，由第八段可以看出，太空船将于13个月后抵达木星重力场，之后再过8年多才能抵达冥王星，加起来应该是9年后抵达冥王星；D“它打破了太空船的速度纪录”，根据第四段"The robot ship sped away at about 36000 miles per hour, the fastest flight of any spacecraft sent from Earth, allowing it to pass the Moon in about nine hours.”它是从地球发射的太空船里飞行最快的，因此是打破了以前的纪录，D为正确答案。