Question

One of my first memories as a child in the 1950s was a discussion I had with my brother in our tiny bedroom in the family house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

We had heard in school about a planet called Pluto. It was the farthest, coldest, and darkest thing a child could imagine. We guessed how long it would take to die if we stood on the surface of such a frozen place wearing only the clothes we had on. We tried to figure out how much colder Pluto was than Antarctica, or than the coldest day we had ever experienced in Pennsylvania.

Pluto, which famously was downgraded from a “major planet” to a “dwarf planet”（矮星） in 2006, captured our imagination because it was a mystery that could complete our picture of what it was like at the most remote corners of our solar system.

Pluto’s underdog discovery story is part of what makes it so attractive. Clyde Tombaugh was a Kansas farm boy who built telescopes out of spare auto parts, old farm equipment and self-ground lenses. As an assistant at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombaugh's task was to search millions of stars for a moving point of light, a planet that the observatory’s founder thought existed beyond the orbit of Neptune. On February 18，1930，Tombaugh found it. Pluto was the first planet discovered by an American, and represented a moment of light in the midst of the Great Depression’s dark encroachment (入侵).

Pluto is much more than something that is not a planet. It’s a reminder that there are many worlds out there beyond our own and that the sky isn’t the limit at all. We don’t know what kinds of fantastic variations on a theme nature is capable of making until we get there to look.

1.Why did Pluto become famous in 2006 according to the passage?

A. Because it lost its major planet status.

B. Because it disappeared in the sky.

C. Because it was discovered by an American.

D. Because it was proved to be the coldest planet in the universe.

2.What can be a suitable title for the text?

A. An American Scientist: Clyde Tombaugh

B. Pluto was First Discovered by a Boy

C. Pluto’s Strange Romance

D. The Days I Spent with My Brother in Pennsylvania

3.What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?

A. Clyde Tombaugh discovered the darkness in the Great Depression.

B. Pluto was the only planet that was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.

C. Clyde Tombaugh’s job was to build telescopes for Lowell Observatory.

D. Clyde Tombaugh’s telescopes used for searching stars were very simple.

4.What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph most probably mean?

A. Pluto is no less than a planet in the solar system.

B. Pluto is much more than a planet in the solar system.

C. Pluto is more important than any other planet in the sky.

D. Pluto is not a planet in the solar system, but it is more than a planet.

Answer

1.A

2.C

3.D

4.D

【解析】

试题分析：文章讲述了小时候作者对冥王星的认识，以及冥王星被发现和被从太阳系去除的经过，更表现了冥王星的神秘和魅力，这使作者认识到宇宙是无穷的，也是不断变化的，需要我们不停去探索。

1.Pluto, which famously was downgraded from a “major planet” to a “dwarf planet”（矮星）in 2006, captured our imagination because it was a mystery that could complete our picture of what it was like at the most remote corners of our solar system可知，在2006年冥王星被从太阳系大行星中被去除，失去了其大行星地位，故选A。

2.“冥王星的奇怪浪漫史”概括全文，故选C。

3. 推理判断题。根据第四段Clyde Tombaugh was a Kansas farm boy who built telescopes out of spare auto parts, old farm equipment and self-ground lenses.和On February 18，1930，Tombaugh found it. Pluto was the first planet discovered by an American, and represented a moment of light in the midst of the Great Depression’s dark encroachment (入侵).可知，是Clyde Tombaugh用他简陋的仪器发现了冥王星，成了第一个发现行星的美国人，并且给黑暗的大萧条时期带来了一线光明。故选D。

4.天空根本不是极限，它们是不断变化的需要我们去探索。故选D。

考点：考查科普类短文阅读。

【名师点睛】

科普类阅读主要考查考生对书面语篇的整体领悟能力和接受及处理具体信息的能力。试题的取材，密切联系当前我国和世界经济、科技等方面的变化。

科普类文章阅读技巧：

一、这类文章的总体特点是：科技词汇多，句子结构复杂，理论性强，逻辑严谨。具体说来它有以下特点：

1、文章中词汇的意义比较单一、稳定、简明，不带感情色彩，具有单一性和准确性的特点。

2、句子结构较复杂，语法分析较困难。为了描述一个客观事物，严密地表达自己的思想，作者经常会使用集多种语法现象于一体的长句。

3、常使用被动语态，尤其是一些惯用被动句式。

二、命题特点：科普类阅读的主要命题形式有事实细节题、词义猜测题、推理判断题以及主旨概括题等，其中推理判断题居多。

【命题趋势】阅读理解题主要考查考生对书面语篇的整体领悟能力和接受及处理具体信息的能力。分析历年的科普类文章我们不难发现以下特点：

1、文章逻辑性强，条理清楚，语法结构简单，用语通俗。

2、文章内容注重科技领域的新发现。内容新颖，从而使文章显得陌生，内容抽象复杂。

3、命题方面注意对具体细节的准确理解和以之为依据的推理判断。

4、以人们的日常行为或饮食健康入手，探讨利弊，诠释过程，阐述概念。

三、应对策略：

1、要注意平时多读科普知识类文章，学习科普知识，积累常见的科普词汇，提高科普英语的阅读能力。

2、要熟悉科普类文章的结构特点。标题是文章中心思想高度而又精辟的概括，导语一般位于整篇文章的首段。背景交待一个事实的起因。主体则对导语概括的事实进行详细叙述，这一部分命题往往最多，因此，阅读时要把这部分作为重点。结尾往往也是中心思想的概括，并与导语相呼应，命题者常在此要设计推理判断题。

3、在进行推理判断时，一定要以阅读材料所提供的科学事实为依据，同时所得出的结论还应符合基本的科普常识。