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  3. Mauna Kea in Hawaii: Astronomy on the World’s Highest Island Mountain Four thousand years ago, a volcano exploded in a far a

Mauna Kea in Hawaii: Astronomy on the World’s Highest Island Mountain Four thousand years ago, a volcano exploded in a far a

admin2010-08-04  40
问题     Mauna Kea in Hawaii: Astronomy on the World’s Highest Island Mountain
    Four thousand years ago, a volcano exploded in a far away area of the Pacific Ocean. Today, the Mauna Kea volcano is inactive. It is on the Big Island in the state of Hawaii. It is the highest mountain on any island in the world. It is also the highest mountain in the Pacific Ocean. And it is one of the best places in the world to study the heavens. This is because the air is clear, dry and generally free from pollution. Astronomers from around the world come to the Manna Kea observatory to explore the universe.
Go Up to the Mountaintop
    Astronomers must compete for observation time on Mauna Kea. But visitors are welcome any time. They must either walk up more than four thousand kilometers to the top of the mountain. Or they can join a guided vehicle tour that leaves from the Mauna Kea Visitors Center, about two-thirds of the way up the mountain. Erik West is our guide for the trip up the mountain.
    Mr. West says visitors who want to drive up the mountain must have a special kind of four wheel-drive vehicle. He also explains some health and safety issues because of the height of the mountain. Being at such a high elevation can affect people’s health.
    Visitors must not have any heart or breathing problems. They must not have dived deep underwater in the past twenty-four hours. And visitors must be over the age of sixteen.
    Now we are ready to drive our vehicles up the mountain. One behind the other, the cars follow a steep road during the forty-five minute drive. They drive over lava rock created by the volcano when it was active.
Tour Around the Astronomy
    When we reach the top of the mountain, we get out of our vehicles. We see a group of domed observatories that look like a garden of giant mushrooms. The air up here is cool. Mr. West warns that the air can make people sick because it has forty percent less oxygen than at sea level. He says it has different effects on people. Some people feel light-headed, dizzy or sick to their stomachs. If any people get so sick that they need oxygen, they must leave and go back down the mountain.
    The first large telescope was built on Manna Kea in nineteen seventy. Now there are thirteen groups of observatories. One of them is called SMA, or Submillimeter Array. It includes eight different telescopes that operate together. Eleven countries and several universities are involved with the telescopes. Tile biggest telescopes are the ten-meter Keck telescopes. Mr. West says telescopes keep getting bigger because astronomers want to be able to collect as much light as possible.
How the Astronomy Works
    The Keck One and Keck Two are world’s largest optical and infrared 红外线) telescopes. Their mirrors are divided into thirty-six hexagonal(六边形) parts. They work together as one piece of reflective glass. During the day, Keck One is a sleeping giant of steel devices closed inside a protective covering. The dome covering weighs about seven hundred tons. It is about thirty meters to the top of the dome. The whole minor structure is about twenty-four meters tall.
    The real action begins at sundown. The dome opens and starts rotating to where the astronomers need it. The mirror rotates to the place where they will be observing. Throughout the night, the mirror moves to follow an object as it crosses the sky. But the astronomers are not near the telescopes. They are in the control room keeping warm.
    Over the years, astronomers have made many important discoveries here. They have discovered new moons around Jupiter (木星). They have taken pictures that help measure the expansion of the universe. They have observed hundreds of small objects orbiting the Sun past the orbit of the planet Neptune(海王星).
    Mr. Rolf Kudritzki, the director of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy that operates the Mauna Kea Observatory, says astronomers also look for signs of life in the universe beyond our solar system. He noted that Mauna Kea telescopes recently discovered some of the planets orbiting distant stars.
    Space telescopes, such as the Hubble (哈勃太空望远镜), are different from land-based telescopes. The Hubble works outside the earth’s atmosphere to capture finely detailed views of the universe. But the small size of space telescopes limits their light-collecting power. Mr. Kudritzki says land-based observatories can often provide more details about objects in the universe. These include the distance, size, mass and the chemicals that make up an object in space.
    He says that land-based observatories, like those on Manna Kea, are in some ways better than space telescopes. These observatories provide astronomers with less costly observing time and many different kinds of tools for observing objects in space. He says the Manna Kea observatories will continue to be a valuable addition to earth-orbiting telescopes for many years to come.
A Mountain of Gods
    Manna Kea is important to astronomers who study the universe. But for Native Hawaiians, the mountain is a religious place. Manna Kea is home to their most important gods. And it is the burial place of their ancestors. The Hawaiian tradition says Manna Kea is the mountain of the gods. Tradition says Wakea, the sky father, and Papa, his wife, gave birth to the Hawaiian Islands on Manna Kea.
    The Office of Manna Kea Management was started in 2000. It helps the University of Hawaii supervise the mountain as a science center and cultural center. Bill Stormont is director of the office. He says it seeks to balance tile interests of astronomers, native Hawaiians and environmentalists. He says that it is important that the native Hawaiians have a voice in the future development of Manna Kea.
    Ms. Piseiotta is among a group of Native Hawaiian activists who have taken legal action to halt a plan to build four to six small telescopes on the mountain. The American space agency, NASA, sup ports the project.
    It says it will do little harm to the environment. Ms. Pisciotta does not dismiss the value of astronomy. She is a former telescope operator herself. But she wants greater control over protecting her culture and traditions in the future.
    She says she supports the idea that astronomy is necessary to search for life in the universe. But she also believes that good science would want to protect traditions that are thousands of years old.
    Rolf Kudritzki says science and culture can exist together on Manna Kea. He says both sides must be willing to discuss the issues. Ms. Pisciotta hopes that she has a voice in deciding a future that protects the past.
Visitors to the Mauna Kea have two choices to go up to the mountaintop.
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案A
解析 在Go Up to the Mountaintop这一小节一开始就写到人们可以选择步行四千公里到达山顶，也可以从位于距山顶三分之二处的游客中心乘坐一种特殊的四轮交通工具上山。
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