名校最新大学英语四级阅读精讲的系列讲义：(135)

　　On December 14, NASA blasted a small but mighty telescope into space. The telescope is called WISE and is about as wide around as a trashcan. Dont let its small size fool you: WISE has a powerful digital camera, and it will be taking pictures of some the wildest objects in the known universe, including asteroids, faint stars, blazing galaxies and giant clouds of dust where planets and stars are born.

　　Im very excited because were going to be seeing parts of the universe that we havent seen before, said Ned Wright, a scientist who directs the WISE project.

　　Since arriving in space, the WISE telescope has been circling the Earth, held by gravity in a polar orbit . Its camera is pointed outward, away from the Earth, and WISE will snap a picture of a different part of the sky every 11 minutes. After six months it will have taken pictures across the entire sky.

　　The pictures taken by WISE wont be like everyday digital photographs, however. WISE stands for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. As its name suggests, the WISE camera takes pictures of features that give off infrared radiation.

　　Radiation is energy that travels as a wave. Visible light, including the familiar spectrum of light that becomes visible in a rainbow, is an example of radiation. When an ordinary digital camera takes a picture of a tree, for example, it receives the waves of visible light that are reflected off the tree. When these waves enter the camera through the lens, theyre processed by the camera, which then puts the image together.

　　Waves of infrared radiation are longer than waves of visible light, so ordinary digital cameras dont see them, and neither do the eyes of human beings. Although invisible to the eye, longer infrared radiation can be detected as warmth by the skin.

　　Thats a key idea to why WISE will be able to see things other telescopes cant. Not everything in the universe shows up in visible light. Asteroids, for example, are giant rocks that float through space but they absorb most of the light that reaches them. They dont reflect light, so theyre difficult to see. But they do give off infrared radiation, so an infrared telescope like WISE will be able to produce images of them. During its mission WISE will take pictures of hundreds of thousands of asteroids.

　　Brown dwarfs are another kind of deep-space object that will show up in WISEs pictures. These objects are failed stars which means they are not massive enough to jump start the same kind of reactions that power stars such as the sun. Instead, brown dwarfs simply shrink and cool down. Theyre so dim that theyre almost impossible to see with visible light, but in the infrared spectrum they glow.

　　1 .What is so special about WISE?

　　A It is small in size but carries a large camera.

　　B It is as small as a trashcan.

　　C Its digital camera can help astronomers to see the unknown space.

　　D Never before has a telescope carried a digital camera in space.

　　2. Which is NOT the synonym for the word snap in the third paragraph?

　　A make.B shoot.C take.D photograph.

　　3. The camera on WISE

　　A is no different from an ordinary camera.

　　B does not see infrared radiation while the ordinary camera does.

　　C catches the infrared radiation while the ordinary camera does not.

　　D reflects light that human eyes can see.

　　4. Which of the following is NOT correct about asteroids according to paragraph 7?

　　A Asteroids float through space giving off visible light.

　　B Asteroids do not reflect light that reaches them.

　　C It is difficult to take asteroids pictures by ordinary cameras,

　　D The WISE telescope can take pictures of asteroids

　　5.What is implied in the last paragraph?

　　A Brown dwarfs give off visible light.

　　B Brown dwarfs give off infrared radiation.

　　C Brown dwarfs are power stars like the sun.

　　D Brown dwarfs are impossible to see with the WISE telescope.

　　答案与解析：

　　1. C 短文的第一和第二段提供了答案。WISE 的特殊之处就在于，虽然体积小，但它的数码相机能拍到任何天体，所以能够帮助天文学家观测到宇宙空间中( in the known universe )的未知天文现象。其他选项都不是短文表达的意思。

　　2. A snap 是个多义词，可以解释为 拍照 ，更为确切的意思是 拍快照 。这里shoot, take 和photograph 都是snap 的同义词。

　　3. C 短文第六段和第四段提供了答案。人类的肉眼和普通相机看到的光是visible lights ，看不见红外线辐射(infrared radiation) ，而WISE 的相机能够看到。

　　4. A 短文第七段第二句说并非所有的宇宙中的物体都会发出可见光，比如asteroids ，所以A是正确选项。其他选项的内容都可以在该段中找到。

　　5. B 最后一段的第一句说，褐矮星能出现在WISE 照片中，根据上文对WISE 望远镜的描述只有WISE 望远镜才能拍到红外线射线，所以B是正确选择。