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  3. “Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Lois to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase

“Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Lois to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase

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问题     “Two centuries ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Lois to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase,” George W. Bush said, announcing his desire for a program to send men and women to Mars. “They made that journey in the spirit of discovery... America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons.”
    Yet there are vital differences between Lewis and Clark’s expedition and a Mars mission. First, Lewis and Clark were headed to a place amenable to life; hundreds of thousands of people were already living there. Second, Lewis and Clark were certain to discover places and things of immediate value to the new nation. Third, the Lewis and Clark venture cost next to nothing by today’s standards. In 1989 NASA estimated that a people-to-Mars program would cost $ 400 billion, which inflates to $ 600 billion today. But the fact that a destination is tantalizing does not mean the journey makes sense, even considering the human calling to explore. And Mars as a destination for people makes absolutely no sense with current technology.
    Present systems for getting from Earth’s surface to low-Earth orbit are so fantastically expensive that merely launching the 1,000 tons or so of spacecraft and equipment a Mars mission would require could be accomplished only by cutting health-care benefits, education spending or other important programs or by raising taxes. Absent some remarkable discovery, astronauts, geologists and biologists once on Mars could do little more than analyze rocks and feel awestruck beholding the sky of another world.
    It is interesting to note that when President Bush unveiled his proposal, he listed these recent major achievements of space exploration: pictures of the rings of Saturn and the outer planets, evidence of water on Mars and the moon of Jupiter, discovery of more than 100 planets outside our solar system and study of the soil of Mars. All these accomplishments came from automated probes or automated space telescopes. Bush’s proposal, which calls for “reprogramming” some of NASA’s present budget into the Mars effort, might actually lead to a reduction in such unmanned science, the one aspect of space exploration that’s working really well.
    Rather than spend hundreds of billions of dollars to hurl tons toward Mars using current technology, why not take a decade or two decades, or however much time is required researching new launch systems and advanced propulsion? If new launch systems could put weight into orbit affordably, and if advanced propulsion could speed up that long, slow transit to Mars, then the dreams of stepping onto the Red Planet might become reality. Mars will still be there when the technology is ready.
    The drive to explore is part of what makes us human, and exploration of the past has led to unexpected glories. Dreams must be tempered by realism, however. For the moment, going to Mars is hopelessly unrealistic.
George Bush’s comparison of Lewis and Clark’s expedition and a Mars mission is mentioned
选项 A、to show that both are of the same and immediate value.
B、to encourage the American people to venture into space.
C、to display the same spirit of discovery in space exploration.
D、to stress that a Mars mission lacks sound and solid basis.
答案D
解析 推理判断题。文章第一段提到了布什的讲话，他将火星计划与梅里韦瑟·刘易斯和威廉·克拉克的探险相互比较。而作者在第二段说，这两者有巨大的不同，并且列举了梅里韦瑟·刘易斯和威廉·克拉克的探险可行的三个方面；并且在本段最后总结说“载人火星探险以人类目前的科技水平来说，毫无意义”。由此可见，作者将二者作比较的目的，就是为了证实现在进行火星探索还不具备基本条件。[D]所述内容与此相符。[A]说，二者具有相同的直接价值，文章只提到路易斯与克拉克的探险具有直接价值，而火星计划并没有。[B]与[C]项都是赞同火星计划，而作者的思想是反对火星计划，因此这两项与文章基调不符。
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