【备战2024年高考】（全国通用版）英语新热点时文阅读08 太空探索-试卷

高考英语新热点时文阅读-太空探索

01

（2022·江西省乐平中学高二开学考试）How is eating in space different from eating on Earth?

If you send astronauts into space, you have to send along with food as well. But what do astronauts eat, and how do they eat it? Scientists take several factors into consideration as they plan meals for space.

The most important factor is its nutrition. ___1___ Providing junk food to eat, such as potato chips, sodas, and pizza, would make the astronauts unhealthy.

 ___2___ If the food that has been provided isn’t tasteful, the astronauts may avoid eating it. If you’ve ever tied to focus on something important while your stomach doesn’t feel well, you’ll know why the scientists in charge of a space task want their astronauts to eat regularly.

The lack of gravity in a spacecraft also determines what foods can or cannot be eaten in space. Meals must be packaged carefully so they will be safe in the cabin (舱). Water or tiny bits of food could get inside a machine or electronic device and damage it. ___3___ A loose knife inside the cabin would be dangerous.

 ___4___ The weight of every object included in a spacecraft must be counted up in order to ensure that there is enough fuel and power to carry the craft safely into space and back home again. ___5___ Most foods are stored in plastic bags, and often, the foods are dehydrated (脱水的). When an astronaut is ready to eat, hot water is added to the meal to warm it up.

Despite all these requirements, much of the food eaten in space is actually similar to what you might eat on any given day.

A．Taste is also important.

B．Nutrition is important to consider.

C．Finally, weight is an important concern.

D．Food packaging is made to be as light as possible.

E．Believe it or not, they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

F．Keeping astronauts healthy is a top task for any space travel.

G．For the same reason, sharp knives and folks are never used on board.

02

（2022·浙江·高二开学考试）Fifty years ago, astronauts traveled to space in rockets designed, built, and maintained by NASA and paid for by government funding. Today, the astronauts are often billionaires enjoying a journey into low orbit on a rocket they paid for from their billion-dollar bank accounts.

The change feels like a giant leap, but it makes sense, says Laura Seward Forczyk, founder of Astralytical a space consulting company. “More and more of modern civilization relies on space,” she says.

Huge numbers of satellites orbit the planet connecting us to everything from cell phones to GPS to Netflix and there is big money in maintaining those systems. “This doesn’t get a lot of headlines typically, but there are profit reasons why private companies want to go into space,” says Forczyk.

And 85 private companies learn more about putting rockets and satellites into space, they’re able to help the likes of NASA on their missions. That’s important because NASA itself has become financially constrained from its 1966 peak, where spending on the space race took up 4.4 percent of the federal budget, that spending is now less than 0.5 percent of the country’s total budget.

“NASA using commercial companies to build a lot of the hardware to do a lot of those services of taking scientific payloads to the surface of the moon,” says Forczyk. The hope is that people will follow — possibly by 2025, but more realistically, says Forczyk, by 2030. If you’re wondering why we’re going back to the moon since mankind has already walked its surface, the answer is that we explored only part of it.

“We know a lot more, but we also know so very little,” says Forczyk. “So we want to go back with people to learn more, but more importantly, we want to go back to live and work there.”

Some even see the moon as an eventual staging area for human exploration of deep space. Mars is seen as the next stepping-off point toward the final frontier — though whether we’ll get there in our lifetimes is another question.

6．What change has taken place in space travel nowadays?

A．The moon is the final frontier,

B．Those who pay for the rocket can enjoy the journey.

C．The federal government gives NASA more financial support.

D．Rockets are designed, built, and maintained by private companies.

7．Which of the following statements is true?

A．Mankind can live on Mars by 2030. B．We have explored most part of the moon.

C．Space travel relies on modern civilization. D．NASA cooperates with private companies on the missions.

8．Which of the following is the best title for the text?

A．Who can go to space? B．What’s next in space travel?

C．What’s NASA’s future mission? D．Why do private companies want to go into space?

03

（2022·陕西西安·高三开学考试）Sending human travelers to Mars would require scientists and engineers to overcome a range of technological and safety obstacles. One of them is the severe risk caused by particle radiation (粒子辐射) from the sun, distant stars and galaxies (星系).

Answering two key questions would go a long way toward overcoming that obstacle: Would particle radiation cause too severe a threat to human life throughout a round trip to the red planet? And, could the very timing of a mission to Mars help protect astronauts and the spacecraft from the radiation?

In a new article published in the journal Space Weather, an international team of space scientists, including researchers from UCLA, answers those two questions with a “no” and a “yes”. That is, humans should be able to safely travel and from Mars if the spacecraft has sufficient protection and the round trip is shorter than approximately four years. And the timing of a human mission to Mars would indeed make a difference: The scientists determined that the best time for a flight to leave Earth would be when solar activity is at its peak, known as the solar maximum.

The scientists’ calculations demonstrate that it would be possible to protect a Mars-bound spacecraft from energetic particles from the sun because, during solar maximum, the most dangerous and energetic particles from distant galaxies are decreased by the strengthened solar activity.

A trip of that length would be imaginable. The average flight to Mars takes about nine months, so depending on the timing of launch and available fuel, it is reasonable that a human mission could reach the planet and return to Earth in less than two years, according to Yuri Shprits, a UCLA research geophysicist and co-author of the paper.

“This study shows that while space radiation imposes (强加) strict limitations on how heavy the spacecraft can be and the time of launch, and it presents technological difficulties for human missions to Mars, such a mission is practical,” said Shprits.

9．What may prevent human travelers being sent to Mars?

A．The long distance. B．The lack of knowledge.

C．The extreme temperature. D．Technical and security challenges.

10．Which is one condition for safely traveling to and from Mars?

A．Enough protection B．Sufficient time.

C．Shortened distance. D．Experienced guidance.

11．Why is solar maximum the best time to travel to Mars?

A．Particle radiation is weakened. B．Solar radiation is strengthened.

C．Humans make full preparations. D．The sun can offer the most energy.

12．In which section of a newspaper can we find the text?

A．Literature. B．Science. C．Entertainment. D．Figure.

04

（2022·四川凉山·三模）China deployed（部署） a satellite on Oct 24 to carry out technological tests for space debris（残骸） management, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. The spacecraft aims to demonstrate technologies to alleviate space debris.

Since the dawn of the space age in the 1950s, humans have launched thousands of rockets and sent even more satellites into orbit. Many are still there, and we are now facing an ever-increasing risk of space junk.

More than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris, or “space junk”, are tracked in space, according to NASA．Much more debris is too small to be tracked but large enough to threaten human spaceflight and robotic missions. Since a piece of debris can move faster than a speeding bullet, collisions with these tiny pieces often leave pits in many satellites, telescopes and other objects orbiting our planet.

In 2006, for example, a tiny piece of space junk collided with the International Space Station, taking a chip out of the heavily reinforced window, according to National Geographic.

Space junk is a huge threat to space missions that involve human life. “This is particularly important since careful consideration needs to be made about the orbital path of space junk before spacewalk exercises are conducted,” Joon Wayn Cheong, a satellite systems expert, told Science X, a science website.

Luckily, scientists are fully aware of the issue, and they are approaching it in different ways.

One involves using a giant net. In 2018, the UK’s Surrey Space Center used a net to catch space junk in an experiment. It was the first successful demonstration of space cleanup technology, CNN reported. It involved targeting debris and catching it with a net and a harpoon（鱼叉）.

Another solution is to use robotic arms. Clear Space 1, the European Space Agency’s mission to remove space junk from orbit, is expected to launch in 2025, which will adopt robotic arms to capture the debris, BBC Science Focus Magazine reported. The mission plans to locate, capture and throw debris into the atmosphere, where it will burn up in the intense pressure and friction（摩擦） of re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

13．What does the underlined word “alleviate” in paragraph1 mean?

A．Track. B．Increase. C．Reduce. D．Destroy.

14．What can be inferred about space junk according to the passage?

A．A great many satellites orbiting the Earth don’t work efficiently.

B．About 27,000 satellites are working on the orbit of the Earth.

C．Many satellites have been damaged by speeding bullets.

D．Spacewalk exercises can be a huge threat to space junk.

15．Which of the following shows the structure of the passage? （P= paragraph）

A． B． C． D．

16．What would be the best title for the text?

A．Achievement in aerospace B．Risks of space junk

C．Solutions to solving debris D．Space debris cleanup

05

（2022·湖南师大附中高三开学考试）阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Over the past few years, the interest in exploring Mars has grown, with some important ___17___ (discovery) about it. They raise further questions about the past atmosphere of Mars and scientists ultimately want to know whether or not it was ___18___ (suit) for life.

Images taken by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite show the marks that ___19___ ancient network of rivers left on the ___20___ (planet) surface. The valleys formed as they would on earth, ___21___ a strong flow of water carving its way through the landscape.

___22___ is less clear is where the water came from. Due to a lack of knowledge about the past climate of Mars, scientists cannot tell whether it came from melting glaciers (冰川), groundwater ___23___ something unheard of, though some researchers are doubtful whether liquid water was responsible for the marks ___24___ (see) by the satellite. They say other materials such as sand or dust can flow like a liquid and produce similar results.

Mars formed more than 4.5 billion years ago and there is no liquid water on the surface of it today. But scientists generally believe it ___25___ (go) through an early wet and warm era that ended after 1.5 billion to 2.5 billion years, ___26___ (leave) the planet extremely dry and cold.

参考答案：

1．F    2．A    3．G    4．C    5．D

【导语】本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了宇航员在太空中吃什么以及怎样吃的几个需要考虑的因素。

1．根据上文“The most important factor is its nutrition.”（最重要的因素是它的营养）和下文“Providing junk food to eat, such as potato chips, sodas, and pizza, would make the astronauts unhealthy.”（提供垃圾食品，如薯片、苏打水和披萨，会使宇航员不健康）可知，选项与本段主旨一致，且与下文形成对比关系，说明健康对于宇航员的重要性。故F选项“保持宇航员健康是任何太空旅行的首要任务”切题。故选F项。

2．下文的“If the food that has been provided isn’t tasteful, the astronauts may avoid eating it.”（如果提供的食物不好吃，宇航员可能会避免吃）可知，说明了食物味道的重要性。故A选项“味道也很重要”切题。其中的“Taste”与下文的“isn’t tasteful”相对应。故选A项。

3．根据下文“A loose knife inside the cabin would be dangerous.”（太空舱里有把松动的刀会很危险）说明太空舱中有刀是很危险的，由此推知，空处不用刀具的原因。G选项的“knives”与后文的“knife”相对应。故G选项“出于同样的原因，太空舱上从来不用锋利的刀具”切题。故选G项。

4．根据下文“The weight of every object included in a spacecraft must be counted up in order to ensure that there is enough fuel and power to carry the craft safely into space and back home again.”（航天器中每一个物体的重量都必须计算出来，以确保有足够的燃料和动力将航天器安全送入太空并再次返回。）可知，重量也是宇航员饮食中要考虑的因素。C选项与下文的“weight”相对应，且“Finally”与前文也形成了并列关系。故C选项“重量也是宇航员饮食中要考虑的因素”切题。故选C项。

5．根据下文的“Most foods are stored in plastic bags, and often, the foods are dehydrated (脱水的). When an astronaut is ready to eat, hot water is added to the meal to warm it up.”（大多数食物都储存在塑料袋里，而且通常都是脱水的。当宇航员准备吃饭时，会在食物中加入热水来加热。）可知，宇航员食物的包装很重要。D选项中的“packaging”与下文的“stored”相对应，“light”与本段的论点“weight”相对应。故D选项“食品包装要尽可能的轻”切题。故选D项。

6．B    7．D    8．B

【导语】本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了在航空领域的新变化，解释了私营公司进入航空领域的原因和意义以及太空探索的未来。

6．细节理解题。根据第一段的句子“Fifty years ago, astronauts traveled to space in rockets designed, built, and maintained by NASA and paid for by government funding. Today, the astronauts are often billionaires enjoying a journey into low orbit on a rocket they paid for from their billion-dollar bank accounts.(50年前，宇航员乘坐由美国国家航空航天局设计、制造和维护、由政府资助的火箭前往太空。今天，宇航员通常是亿万富翁，他们用十亿美元的银行账户支付火箭费用，享受着乘坐火箭进入低轨道的旅程)”可知，50年前，宇航员进入太空所需的费用是由政府来支付的。而现在，亿万富翁付钱，就可以乘坐火箭进入太空旅行。故选B项。

7．细节理解题。根据第四段的句子“And 85 private companies learn more about putting rockets and satellites into space, they’re able to help the likes of NASA on their missions(85家私营公司了解到更多关于将火箭和卫星送入太空的信息，他们能够帮助NASA等机构执行任务)”和第五段的句子“NASA using commercial companies to build a lot of the hardware to do a lot of those services of taking scientific payloads to the surface of the moon(NASA利用商业公司来建造很多硬件来做很多服务把科学载荷带到月球表面)”可知，NASA和私营公司在执行任务时进行合作。故选D项。

8．主旨大意题。文章先讲述了在航空领域的新变化，解释了私营公司进入航空领域的原因和意义，最后又说人类对太空的探索还远远没有结束。结合最后一段“Some even see the moon as an eventual staging area for human exploration of deep space. Mars is seen as the next stepping-off point toward the final frontier — though whether we’ll get there in our lifetimes is another question.(有些人甚至将月球视为人类探索深空的最终集结地。火星被视为通往终极边疆的下一个起点——尽管我们是否能在有生之年到达那里是另一个问题)”可知，B项“What’s next in space travel?(太空旅行的下一个目标是什么?)”可以作为本文的最佳标题。故选B项。

9．D    10．A    11．A    12．B

【导语】本文是说明文。文章介绍了人类往返火星面临的困难以及可能的解决方案。

9．细节理解题。根据第一段第一句“Sending human travelers to Mars would require scientists and engineers to overcome a range of technological and safety obstacles.(将人类送上火星需要科学家和工程师克服一系列技术和安全障碍)”可知，人类飞向火星要克服技术和安全阻碍。故选D。

10．细节理解题。根据第三段中“That is, humans should be able to safely travel and from Mars if the spacecraft has sufficient protection and the round trip is shorter than approximately four years. (也就是说，如果宇宙飞船有足够的保护，并且往返时间少于大约四年，那么人类应该能够安全地从火星出发)”可知，人类往返火星要有足够的保护措施。故选A。

11．细节理解题。根据第四段“The scientists’ calculations demonstrate that it would be possible to protect a Mars-bound spacecraft from energetic particles from the sun because, during solar maximum, the most dangerous and energetic particles from distant galaxies are decreased by the strengthened solar activity.(科学家们的计算表明，保护飞往火星的宇宙飞船不受来自太阳的高能粒子的伤害是可能的，因为在太阳活动高峰期，来自遥远星系的最危险的高能粒子会因太阳活动的加强而减少)”可知，因为在太阳活动高峰期，粒子辐射被削弱，所以太阳活动高峰期是人类飞向火星的最佳时间。故选A。

12．推理判断题。根据本文内容可知，文章介绍了人类往返火星面临的困难以及可能的解决方案，所以本文出自报纸的科学版。故选B。

13．C    14．A    15．B    16．D

【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章主要讲述了关于太空垃圾清理的问题。

13．词义猜测题。根据第一段中“China   deployed（部署） a satellite on Oct 24 to carry out technological tests for space debris（残骸） management”（中国于10月24日部署了一颗卫星，进行空间残骸管理的技术测试。）可知，这颗卫星是用来进行空间残骸技术测试的，所以划线句说明该航天器旨在展示减少空间碎片排放的技术。故划线此处的含义为“减少、缓解太空垃圾”。故选C。

14．推理判断题。根据第二段“Since the dawn of the space age in the 1950s, humans have launched thousands of rockets and sent even more satellites into orbit. Many are still there, and we are now facing an ever-increasing risk of space junk.”（自20世纪50年代太空时代开始以来，人类已经发射了数千枚火箭，并将更多的卫星送入轨道。许多仍然存在，我们现在面临着越来越多的太空垃圾的风险。）可知，上世纪50年代以来发射了众多卫星，很多依然滞留太空轨道，使地球面临一个太空垃圾日益增加的风险。暗指很多卫星已经成为不能再有效工作的垃圾，故选A。

15．推理判断题。文章第一段用一个新闻引出话题，第二段提出太空垃圾带来威胁，第三段进一步解释危险，第四、五段举了两个例子来说明威胁；第六段提出科学家们想办法解决这一难题，第七、八段又举例分别介绍UK和EUROPE的解决办法。可推知，选项B的结构图示与文章的论述一致，故选B。

16．主旨大意题。阅读全文以及根据第一段“China deployed（部署） a satellite on Oct 24 to carry outtechnological tests for space debris （残酸） management,according to the China Aerospace Scienceand Technology Corp.The spacecraft aims to demonstrate technologies to alleviate space debris.(据中国航天科技集团公司称，中国于10月24日部署了一颗卫星，对空间碎片管理进行技术测试。该航天器旨在展示缓解空间碎片的技术。）”可知本文主要介绍了空间站的碎片垃圾很多，以及科学家们就这个问题提出的解决方案。所以D项“Space debris cleanup(空间碎片清理)”为最佳标题。故选D。

17．discoveries    18．suitable    19．an    20．planet’s    21．with    22．What    23．or    24．seen    25．went    26．leaving

【导语】本文是一篇说明文，主要讲的是人们对火星是否适合生命存在的探索。

17．考查名词的复数。句意：在过去的几年里，随着一些关于火星的重要发现，人们对探索火星的兴趣有所增长。discovery意为“发现”，是可数名词，前面有some，因此空格处用复数，故填discoveries。

18．考查形容词。句意：它们提出了关于火星过去大气层的进一步问题，科学家最终想知道它是否适合生命存在。空格处用形容词作表语，suit的形容词形式是suitable，意为“适合的”，故填suitable。

19．考查冠词。句意：欧洲航天局的火星快车卫星拍摄的图像显示，火星表面留下了古老的河流网络的痕迹。network是可数名词，表泛指，前面需加不定冠词，ancient是元音音素开头，因此不定冠词用an，故填an。

20．考查名词所有格。句意：欧洲航天局的火星快车卫星拍摄的图像显示，火星表面留下了古老的河流网络的痕迹。根据语境可知，planet和surface之间是所属关系，空格处用名词所有格planet’s，故填planet’s。

21．考查介词。句意：山谷的形成就像它们在地球上一样，强劲的水流在景观中蜿蜒流过。根据语境可知，“a strong flow of water carving its way through the landscape”是伴随前面动作的，因此空格处用介词with表伴随，故填with。

22．考查主语从句。句意：不太清楚的是水从哪里来。分析可知，空格处引导的是主语从句，从句中缺少主语，句子表示“不太清楚是事情”，空格处用what引导主语从句，位于句首，首字母大写，故填What。

23．考查连词。句意：由于缺乏对火星过去气候的了解，科学家们无法判断它是来自融化的冰川、地下水还是一些闻所未闻的东西，尽管一些研究人员怀疑液态水是否造成了卫星上看到的痕迹。根据语境可知，“melting glaciers (冰川), groundwater”和“something unheard of”是并列关系，由前面的whether可知，空格处用or，表示“或者”，whether...or...表示“是……还是……”，故填or。

24．考查过去分词。句意：由于缺乏对火星过去气候的了解，科学家们无法判断它是来自融化的冰川、地下水还是一些闻所未闻的东西，尽管一些研究人员怀疑液态水是否造成了卫星上看到的痕迹。分析可知，空格处用非谓语动词，由by可知，空格处用过去分词表被动，故填seen。

25．考查时态。句意：但科学家们普遍认为，它经历了一个早期的潮湿和温暖的时代，在15亿年到25亿年之后结束，使地球变得极其干燥和寒冷。分析可知，空格处是宾语从句的谓语，句子描述过去的事情，时态用一般过去时，空格处用过去式，故填went。

26．考查现在分词。句意：但科学家们普遍认为，它经历了一个早期的潮湿和温暖的时代，在15亿年到25亿年之后结束，使地球变得极其干燥和寒冷。believe后的宾语从句中，谓语是went，空格处用非谓语动词，前面描述的事情和leave之间是主谓关系，因此空格处用现在分词，作结果状语。故填leaving。