Wouldyouliketotravelintospace,andexperienceweightlessne...

问题详情：

Would you like to travel into space, and experience weightlessness like an astronaut? Meet Sir Richard Branson — a billionaire English businessman, who has made it his life’s duty to make space accessible to tens of thousands of people. Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic, has been testing low orbital (轨道的) spacecrafts that can carry passengers into space.

       In 1996, the “Ansari X Prize” challenged private teams around the world to build a manned vehicle that could travel to an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) — the boundary where outer space begins — and back. The winner would be awarded $10 million. Twenty-six companies rose to the challenge. Only one company succeeded. In 2004, Scaled Composites’s SpaceShipOne made it to space and back twice, winning the prize money and making history.

       Richard Branson was attracted to the possibility of ordinary citizens going into space. He announced a partnership with Scaled Composites to build a next generation vehicle. SpaceShipTwo, announced in 2009, was designed to carry six passengers and two pilots.

       An aircraft carrier would carry SpaceShipTwo to a height of 50,000 feet and then release it. Rocket engines would push the spacecraft at 3.5 times the speed of sound, sending it 62 miles above the surface of Earth in about 90 seconds. Once in space, passengers will experience a short period of zero gravity, and can get out of their seats and float around the cabin. After five minutes in space, the vehicle would re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and land on a runway. The total time from lift-off to touchdown is expected to be about 3.5 hours.

       On October 11, 2010, SpaceShipTwo completed its first successful test flight. Last year, Richard Branson announced that the first commercial flight could begin as early as 2015. However, just a few months ago, while on a test run, SpaceShipTwo broke apart within two minutes of being released from the aircraft carrier. Will this be a setback (挫折) for space tourism? Anyway, it is just a matter of time before the technology is perfected and space travel becomes a reality.

5. Richard Branson’s dream is to _____.

A. win the “Ansari X Prize”                 B. become a billionaire businessman

C. help more people travel into space    D. travel into space in SpaceShipOne

6. What can we learn about SpaceShipTwo?

A. It could hold at least ten persons.     B. It traveled into space and back twice.

C. It reached outer space in 3.5 hours.        D. It held Branson’s expectations.

7. The fourth paragraph is mainly about _____.

A. SpaceShipTwo’s first flight into space     B. how SpaceShipTwo would work

C. passengers’ experience of space travel     D. how far a spacecraft can travel

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

A. Space tourism: a challenge for man         B. Virgin Galactic’s rapid development

C. Richard Branson’s trip to space              D. A sharp rise in space tourism

【回答】

CDBA

知识点：阅读理解

题型：阅读理解