问题详情：
A Plan For Exploring Mars
NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long－armed lander on Mars' icy north pole to search for clues (线索) for water and possible signs of life.
The MYM386 million Phoenix Mars is planned to touch down in the Martian arctic in stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples (标本，样品) to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice－rich soil near the arctic surface.
Scientists hope the Phoenix mission will find clues to the geologic history of water on the Red Planet and determine whether microbes(微生物)existed in the ice.
Phoenix will be the first mission of the Mars Scout program, a renewed, low－cost effort to study the Red Planet. “The Phoenix mission explores new territory in the northern plains of Mars analogous to the permafrost regions on Earth，” Peter Smith said.
True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous(先前的) missions. The lander for Phoenix was built to fly as part of the 2001 Mars Surveyor program. But the program broke down after the well－known disappearance of the Mars Polar Lander in Polar Lander lost contact during a landing attempt near the planet's south pole after its rocket engine shut off prematurely,_causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction.
The Phoenix probe had been in storage at a Lockheed Martin clean room in Denver before it was reused for its present mission. It will carry science instruments that were designed for the Mars Surveyor program including an improved panoramic camera and a trench－digging robotic arm. Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later.
1．The passage mainly tells readers that ________.
A．clues of water will be found in Phoenix
B．Phoenix will be sent to find clues of water on Mars
C．August 2007 will see Phoenix lift off
D．the Mars Scout program will be carried out
2．The underlined word “prematurely” (Paragraph 5) means “________”．
A．on time B．behind the time
C．out of work D．ahead of time
3．According to the passage, we know Phoenix will land on Mars ________.
A．in May 2008 B．in August 2007
C．in August 2008 D．in September 2008
4．According to the passage, the name “Phoenix” is after the meaning of ________.
A．rebirth B．death C．energy D．hope
5．After Phoenix lands on Mars, we can infer it will firstly ________.
A．find soil samples and send them to the earth
B．look for the icy land to dig for the soil samples
C．take photos and send them to the earth
D．find the remains of the Mars Polar Lander
【回答】
1.解析：选B。主旨大意题。文章的第一段就是该文章的主题句，由此可知文章要讲述的是凤凰号将被送往火星去寻找是否有水源和生命迹象。
2．解析：选D。词义猜测题。由后面的句子可知Phoenix是在空中离地面130英尺处坠向地面，因此可以推测rocket engine提前结束工作。A项干扰*最大，按照常识我们知道，飞船的各个程序必须是准确的，因此我们就认为是on time，但是从“causing the spacecraft to fall about 130 feet to almost certain destruction”我们知道，飞船提前降落了，因此火箭脱落提前了。
3．解析：选A。细节计算题。由文章最后一段最后一句“Phoenix will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in August 2007 and land on the planet nine months later”可以计算出。
4．解析：选 A。推理判断题。由第五段的“True to its name, Phoenix rose from the ashes of previous(先前的) missions”可知选A。C, D有一定的干扰*，文章并没有提到能量或希望，而从“rose from the ashes”我们可以得出再生的意思。
5．解析：选B。推理判断题。由文章的第二段“The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples (标本，样品) to analyze”可知，Phoenix的目的就是要通过挖掘*地，取出样本进行研究。因此，它首先要寻找*地。A, C有一定干扰*，文章中没有明确提到这两项内容。
知识点：科普环保类阅读
题型：阅读理解
