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  3. With the unemployment rate topping 8% and the government $ 16 trillion in debt, it’s easy to question why taxpayers are spending

With the unemployment rate topping 8% and the government $ 16 trillion in debt, it’s easy to question why taxpayers are spending

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问题     With the unemployment rate topping 8% and the government $ 16 trillion in debt, it’s easy to question why taxpayers are spending $2.5 billion on an SUV-sized Mars rover(探测车)named Curiosity, which landed successfully on the red planet in the early hours of Monday. Couldn’t this money go toward something closer to home, such as providing shelter for the homeless or building roads? Yes, it could. But this kind of thinking is shortsighted.
    The Mars project is the latest manifestation of America’s restless desire to answer previously unanswerable questions and take on new challenges. To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, America does things like this not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
    Getting the probe down safely on Mars, after a 350 million mile journey, was certainly no easy feat. Virtually all the technology used in the approach and landing was new, or used in new ways. Once settled in, Curiosity should be a particularly awe-inspiring project. It is designed to shed light on big questions; Could life forms have ever existed on Mars? Might they still exist? And are we alone in the universe?
    When budgets are tight, space projects such as Curiosity come in for particular abuse. They are often portrayed as complicated flights of odd ideas. They are not. They are both inspirational and immensely practical. Technology is, after all, an engine of economic growth. If that is a goal, as well it should be, why not support a program that makes science exciting and showcases some of the most interesting things that technology can do? One of the main benefits of projects like this one is to promote a confident America. Throughout history, nations that explore, and engage in science, lead the world. Beginning in the 15th century, for example, European nations sent sailors around the globe and provided the impetus for thinkers such as Copernicus, Galileo and Newton to invent modern physics and astronomy. Not coincidentally, Europe came to dominate the world until the dawn of the 20th century.
    Those who would slash space program budgets apparently haven’t learned history’s lessons and don’t see the great possibilities that the future presents—possibilities reflected in every image transmitted back from the rover.
Although the probe on Mars is not easy, America still insists it because______.
选项 A、new technology and new ways are found to solve the problems
B、the probe can shed light on many big questions
C、the nation’s confidence can be strengthened through the probe
D、the nation has a restless desire to take on new challenges
答案D
解析 事实细节题。定位句中，作者指出火星计划是美国想要解决之前无法解答的问题以及应对新挑战的无休止欲望的最新表现。而作者在定位句之后又借用了肯尼迪总统的话印证了定位句中提出的这种美国精神，即迎难而上，接受挑战，因此D)“美国对于接受挑战有一种永不停息的欲望”为本题答案。A)“找到了解决这些问题的新技术和新方法”是对火星计划难度的一个说明，而不是美国坚持该计划的原因，故排除；B)“该探测能够解释许多大问题”是对火星计划的目的介绍，故排除；C)“该探测能够激发美国的自信心”是火星计划能够带来的益处，而不是美国坚持的原因，故排除。
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