Question

    It looked to all the world like something that might have graced the cover of a 1950s comic book. On September 28th, on a warm Texas evening, Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, a rocketry firm, introduced his company's newest machine, Starship Mkl. It stands 50 metres tall and is made from shiny plates of stainless steel. Despite its name, it is not in fact an interstellar （恒星之间的） spacecraft. But it is a prototype （雏形）of an interplanetary one. Mr Musk hopes, one day, to use its successors to ferry passengers to the Moon or to Mars — or perhaps even, according to one piece of SpaceX concept art, all the way to Saturn （土星）.

In the 17 years since its founding, SpaceX’s cheap, reusable machines have revolutionised the rocket business. The firm's ukra-low prices have seen it seized a dominant share of the commercial satellite-launching market. Along with Boeing, an American aerospace giant, SpaceX is responsible for ferrying supplies to the International Space Station, It may soon fly astronauts there as well. But all of this commercial success is merely a necessary first step in Mr Musk’ bigger plan, which is to make humanity into a "niultiplanetary species" by establishing colonies in the universe.

That is where the Starship comes in. The prototype on display in Texas is only one half of an enormous rocket stack designed with planetary colonisation in mind. When paired with a Falcon Super Heavy booster （助推火箭），which is also being developed, the result should be able of lifting around 150 tonnes into orbit. That would make it the most powerful rocket ever built, superior to the Saturn V, which sent astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s. And unlike the Saturn V, whose three stages were abandoned to the sea or to space as their fuel was used up, the Starship and its booster will be reusable which should keep costs down.

It is a bold plan. Mr Musk's shorter-term plans are bold too. Besides designing a new spaceship and booster, SpaceX engineers are busy working on a new. more efficient engine to power them. Called Raptor, it is designed to bum super-cold methane rather than the kerosene that fuels the company's current Merlin engines. The Starship will sport six Raptor engines. But each Super Heavy booster will need somewhere between 24 and 37. The result will be a repairman's nightmare.

Mr Musk has said, perhaps optimistically, that a Starship prototype might be ready for a test flight all the way to orbit (although without its booster stage) within six months. That would be of a piece with its crazy development schedule. The traditional rocket-building industry is used to generous government contracts that are about job creation as much as rocket creation. However, SpaceX has adopted a different approach, closer to the rapid-fire development practices of the software industry.

The Starship prototype, for instance, was put together in a matter of months. It was built out in the open, rather than in a carefully controlled factory environment. The firm has two teams competing against each other to produce the best design,

1.What is the passage mainly about?

A.Starship Mkl VS Satum V

B.Development of space travel

C.A promising company in the rocket business

D.Starship Mk 1, a new kind of rocket in a sense

2.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A.Starship Mkl was designed to beat Boeing and dominate the market.

B.SpaceX aims to realize interplanetary travel and set up space colonies.

C.SpaceX is not dependent on the government's contracts to expand its business.

D.Starship Mkl beats Satum V in that it is recyclable, cost-saving and more powerful.

3.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A.Repairmen hate working with a powerful rocket.

B.The special fuel is in great demand and not always available.

C.Ifs no easy job to equip the rocket with the engines needed.

D.Too many engines may bring about great trouble once going wrong.

Answer

1.D

2.A

3.D

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了美国火箭公司SpaceX的最新的机器——星际飞船Mkl。它实际上不是一个星际飞船，它是星际飞船的原型，实际上它是史上最强大的火箭。

1.主旨大意题。文章开头提出美国火箭公司SpaceX的最新的机器——星际飞船Mkl，紧接着介绍了这一命名为星际飞船的机器实际上是火箭，结合全文内容可知，本文主要是介绍星际飞船，在某种意义上是一艘火箭。故选D。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段的But all of this commercial success is merely a necessary first step in Mr Musk’ bigger plan, which is to make humanity into a "niultiplanetary species" by establishing colonies in the universe.及第三段的That is where the Starship comes in. 可知，Mr Musk的计划是通过在宇宙中建立殖民地，让人类成为一个“跨星际物种”，也就是说星际飞船的设计是为了让人类进入其它星球，所以A选项“Starship Mkl 的设计目的是击败波音，并主导市场”错误。故选A。

3.词义猜测题。根据上文Called Raptor, it is designed to bum super-cold methane rather than the kerosene that fuels the company's current Merlin engines. The Starship will sport six Raptor engines. But each Super Heavy booster will need somewhere between 24 and 37.可知，这架名为“猛禽”的飞机被设计用来燃烧超冷的甲烷，这艘星际飞船将有六个猛禽引擎——超重的助推器。由此可推测出，The result will be a repairman's nightmare.（结果将是修理工的噩梦）意思是指太多的发动机一旦出故障就会带来很大的麻烦。故选D。