Question

  Since the beginning of time,man has been interested in the moon. The Romans designed a special day to show admiration and respect to the moon. They called it "Moonday" or "Monday", as we know it today. Later,the great mind of Leonardo da Vinci studied the moon and designed a machine to carry a human to the moon. Leonardo said that one day a great machine bird would take a person to the moon and bring great honour to the home where it was born.

  Four and a half centuries later,Leonardo's idea was realized. Apollo H took three Americans Collins,Aldrin,and Armstrong to the moon. The mis?sion did fill the whole world with great surprise,as Leonardo had said it would.

Numerous essays,articles,and books were written about man's first moon mission. But perhaps the most interesting story was one written before the event over 100 years before.

  In 1865,French author Jules Verne wrote a story about the first journey to the moon. His story was very similar to the 1969 Apollo H mission.

  Verne's spacecraft also contained three men―two Americans and a Frenchman. The spacecraft was described as being almost the same size as Apollo U . The launch site in Verne's story was also in Florida. The space?craft in Verne's story was named the "Columbiad". The Apollo H command ship was called "Columbia". His description of sending the spacecraft into space could easily have been written about how Apollo K was sent into space.

  Verne's story was the same as the actual event in several other respects. The speed of Verne's spacecraft was 36       ,000 feet per second;Apollo II 's was 35,533 feet per second. Verne's spacecraft took 97 hours to reach the moon; Apollo II,s        time was 103 hours. Like Apollo H 's spacemen,Verne's space?men took pictures of the moon's surface,relaxed on their seats,cooked with gas,and experienced weightlessness. They too came down in the Pacific and were picked up by an American warship.

  What were the reasons for Jules Verne's extreme accuracy (精确) in de?scribing an event 100 years or more before it actually occurred? He based his writings on the laws of physics and astronomy. Nineteenthcentury science and the vivid Verne's imagination gave people an unbelievably accurate prediction of one of the greatest events of the 20th century.

1. Jules Verne wrote his story of a man's visit to the moon about       .

   A. 100 years before the Apollo H mission

   B. 10 years before the Apollo H mission

   C. four and one half centuries ago

   D. 100 years ago

2. Verne's story about the first journey to the moon is very similar to       .

   A. the second US space mission

   B. the Apollo II mission

   C. Leonardo da Vinci's story

   D. numerous other books on the same subject

3. The passage suggests that Jules Verne       .

   A. developed the laws of physics

   B. based his writings on the works of Leonardo da Vinci

   C. was very lucky in what he had described about the future

   D. knew a great deal about the laws of physics and astronomy

4. The passage mainly describes       .

   A. the rapid progress of mankind

   B. Verne's accurate prediction of the future

   C. the 1969 Apollo K moon mission

   D. the 19 th century science and technology

Answer 1

1. A

2. B

3. D推理判断题。根据最后一段第二句"He based his writings on the laws of physics and astronomy. "可知答案。

4. B主旨大意题。文章主要讲述了法国作家Jules Verne 写的第一次月球之旅的故事与100年后的Apollo Ⅱ发射情景极其相似。