2012年職稱英語理工類A級(jí)考試真題(部分)，僅供參考，預(yù)祝大家取得好成績。

Small But Wise

On December 14, NASA1 blasted a small but mighty telescope into space. The telescope is called WISE and is about as wide around as a trashcan. Don't let its small size fool you: WISE has a powerful digital camera, and it will be taking pictures of some the wildest objects2 in the known universe, including asteroids, faint stars, blazing galaxies3 and giant clouds of dust where planets and stars are born.

"I'm very excited because we're going to be seeing parts of the universe that we haven't 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 orbit4 (this means it crosses close to the north and south poles with each lap5). 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 won't 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 radiation6.

Radiation is energy that travels as a wave. Visible light, including the familiar spectrum of light7 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, they're 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 don't 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.

That's a key idea to why WISE will be able to see things other telescopes can't. 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 don't reflect light, so they're 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 dwarfs8 are another kind of deep-space object that will show up in WISE's pictures. These objects are "failed" stars — which means they are not massive enough to jump start9 the same kind of reactions that power stars such as the sun. Instead, brown dwarfs simply shrink and cool down. They're so dim that they're almost impossible to see with visible light, but in the infrared spectrum they glow.

詞匯：
trashcan / 'tr??,k?n/n．垃圾箱
infrared/'infr?'red/ adj．紅外線
asteroid/'?st?r?id/ n.小行星
dwarf/dw?:f/ n. 矮星

注釋：
1.NASA （美國國家航空航天局）是縮寫詞，全稱是National Aeronautics and Space Administration。
2. the wildest objects ：任何你能想象得到的天體。wild 有“未被人馴養(yǎng)的”“荒唐的”“離奇的”意思。
3. faint stars, blazing galaxies：指的是那些只能看到微弱的光和因燃燒而無法觀察到的天體。
4. polar orbit：極地軌道。指軌道平面與赤道面夾角為90。的人造地球衛(wèi)星軌道。人造衛(wèi)星運(yùn)行時(shí)能到達(dá)南北極區(qū)上空，即衛(wèi)星能飛經(jīng)全球范圍的上空。需要在全球范圍內(nèi)進(jìn)行觀測(cè)和應(yīng)用的氣象衛(wèi)星、導(dǎo)航衛(wèi)星、地球資源衛(wèi)星等都采用這種軌道。
5. lap：一圈。原指競賽場的一圈或游泳池的一個(gè)來回，如： She overtook the other runners on the last lap. 她最后一圈超過了其他參賽者。
6. infrared radiation：紅外線輻射
7. spectrum of light：光譜，即，光輻射的波長分布區(qū)域。
8. Brown dwarfs：褐矮星。褐矮星非常暗淡，很難發(fā)現(xiàn)它們，要確定它們的大小就更加困難。
start: 啟動(dòng)

練習(xí)：
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.?

答案與題解：
1. C 短文的第一和第二段提供了答案。WISE 的特殊之處就在于，雖然體積小，但它的數(shù)碼相機(jī)能拍到任何天體，所以能夠幫助天文學(xué)家觀測(cè)到宇宙空間中（ in the known universe ）的未知天文現(xiàn)象。其他選項(xiàng)都不是短文表達(dá)的意思。
2. A snap 是個(gè)多義詞，可以解釋為“拍照”，更為確切的意思是“拍快照”。這里shoot, take 和photograph 都是snap 的同義詞。
3. C 短文第六段和第四段提供了答案。人類的肉眼和普通相機(jī)看到的光是visible lights ，看不見紅外線輻射（ infrared radiation) ，而WISE 的相機(jī)能夠看到。
4. A 短文第七段第二句說并非所有的宇宙中的物體都會(huì)發(fā)出可見光，比如asteroids ，所以A是正確選項(xiàng)。其他選項(xiàng)的內(nèi)容都可以在該段中找到。
5. B 最后一段的第一句說，褐矮星能出現(xiàn)在WISE 照片中，根據(jù)上文對(duì)WISE 望遠(yuǎn)鏡的描述只有WISE 望遠(yuǎn)鏡才能拍到紅外線射線，所以B是正確選擇。