2009年12月大学英语四级模拟试题(2)

　　READING COMPREHENSION
　　Questions 71 to 75 are based on the following passage:
　　The failed Skylab will come screaming home to earth in disappointmentsometime next month, but it will fall we know not where.
　　That precise information is beyond even the calculations of scientistsand their computers.
　　The best they can tell us is that the space station, weighing 77 tons andas high as a 12-story building, will break into hundreds of pieces that willbe scattered across a track 100 miles wide and 4,000 miles long.
　　We are again exposed to one of those unexpected adventures, or misadven-tures, of science that attracts our attention from the boring routines ofdaily existence and encourages us to think a lot about man's future.
　　What worries Richard Smith, the Skylab's director, is the'big pieces'that will come through the atmosphere. Two lumps, weighing 2 tons each, andten, weighing at least 1,000 pounds each, will come in at speeds of hundredsof miles an hour, and if they crash on land they will dig holes up to 100feet deep.来源：www.hxen.net
　　What worries us, with our lack of scientific knowledge and our quickimagination, is both the big and little pieces, although project officialssay there is a very small chance that anyone will be injured by them.
　　That's good to know , but it doesn't remove the doubts of the millionswho still remember the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. That accidenttook place in 1979 in spite of what scientists had assured us as to thesafety of the nuclear reactor.
　　71. Where the Skylab will fall _______.
　　A) is kept secret
　　B) will be announced soon
　　C) is predicted by scientists
　　D) can't be predicted
　　72. The broken Skylab will be _______.
　　A) in two lumps--one weighing 2 tons and the other weighing 10 tons
　　B) falling with the force of a 12-story building
　　C) composed of 12 big pieces and hundreds of smaller pieces
　　D) an attractive scene to millions of people
　　73. The author suggests that _______.
　　A) the danger of the Skylab's fall has been overestimated
　　B) it's useless to worry over things you can't do anything about
　　C) computers can solve the problem caused by the broken Skylab
　　D) the danger of the Skylab's fall has been underestimated
　　74. The author refers to Three Mile Island _______.
　　A) because he fears that a piece of the Skylab may strike a nuclear power plant
　　B) as a doubtful comment on the officials' words
　　C) because he is afraid of nuclear power
　　D) because the nuclear reactor there and the Skylab were built by the same company
　　75. The author expresses his _______.
　　A) interest in the failure of the Skylab
　　B) willingness to give his advice
　　C) doubtful attitude toward scientists
　　D) eagerness to see more new scientific discoveries