The great advance in rocket theory 40 years ago showed that liquid-fuel rockets were far superior in every respect to the skyroc

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问题    The great advance in rocket theory 40 years ago showed that liquid-fuel rockets were far superior in every respect to the skyrocket with its weak solid fuel, the only kind of rocket then known. However, during the last decade, large solid-fuel rockets with solid fuels about as powerful as liquid fuels have made their appearance, and it is a favorite layman’s question to inquire which one is "better". The question is meaningless; one might as well ask whether a gasoline or a diesel engine is "better". It all depends on the purpose. A liquid-fuel rocket is complicated, but has the advantage that it can be controlled beautifully. The burning of the rocket engine can be stopped completely: it can be re-ignited when desired. In addition, the thrust can be made to vary by adjusting the speed of the fuel pumps. A solid-fuel rocket, on the other hand, is rather simple in construction, though hard to build when a really large size is desired. But once you have a solid-fuel rocket, it is ready for action at very short notice. A liquid-fuel rocket has to be fueled first and cannot be held in readiness for very long after it has been fueled. However, once a solid-fuel rocket has been ignited, it will keep burning. It cannot be stopped and re-ignited whenever desired (it could conceivably be stopped and re-ignited after a pre-calculated time of burning has elapsed) and its thrust cannot be varied. Because a solid-fuel rocket can be kept ready for a long time, most military missiles employ solid fuels, but manned space flight needs the fine adjustments that can only be provided by liquid fuels. It may be added that a liquid-fuel rocket is an expensive device; a large solid-fuel rocket is, by comparison, cheap. But the solid fuel, pound per pound; costs about 10 times as much as the liquid fuel. So you have, on the one, hand, an expensive rocket with a cheep fuel and on the other hand a comparatively cheap rocket with an expensive fuel.
Solid fuel rockets are expensive to operate because of their ______.

选项 A、size
B、fuel
C、construction
D、complicated engines

答案B

解析 文中提到相比之下,液体燃料驱动的火箭造价更高,但the solid fuel,pound per pound;costs about 10 times as much as the liquid fuel,可以判断固体燃料驱动火箭昂贵之处在于其燃料。
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