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  3. For centuries, explorers have risked their lives venturing into the unknown for reasons that were to varying degrees economic an

For centuries, explorers have risked their lives venturing into the unknown for reasons that were to varying degrees economic an

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问题     For centuries, explorers have risked their lives venturing into the unknown for reasons that were to varying degrees economic and nationalistic. Columbus went west to look for better trade routes to the Orient and to promote the greater glory of Spain. Lewis and Clark journeyed into the American wilderness to find out what the U. S. has acquired when it purchased Louisiana, and Apollo astronauts rocketed to the moon in a dramatic show thanks for technological muscle during the cold war.
    Although their missions blended commercial and political-military imperatives, the explorers involved all accomplished some significant science simply by going where no scientists had gone before.
    Today Mars looms as humanity’s next terra incognita(未探明之地). And with doubtful prospects for a short-term financial return, with the cold war a rapidly fading memory and amid a growing emphasis on international cooperation in large space ventures, it is clear that imperatives other than profits or nationalism will have to compel human beings to leave their tracks on the planet’s reddish surface. Could it be that science, which has long played a minor role in exploration, is at last destined to take a leading role? The question naturally invites a couple of others: Are there experiments that only humans could do on Mars? Could those experiments provide insights profound enough to justify the expense of sending people across interplanetary space?
    With Mars the scientific stakes are arguably higher than they have ever been. The issue of whether life ever existed on the planet, and whether it persists to this day, has been highlighted by mounting evidence that the Red Planet once had abundant, stable liquid water and by the continuing controversy over suggestions that bacterial fossils rode to Earth on a meteorite(陨石)from Mars. A more conclusive answer about life on Mars, past or present, would give researchers invaluable data about the range of conditions under which a planet can generate the complex chemistry that leads to life. If it could be established that life arose independently on Mars and Earth, the finding would provide the first concrete clues in one of the deepest mysteries in all of science: the prevalence of life in the universe.
At present, a probable inducement for countries to initiate large-scale space ventures is
选项 A、international cooperation
B、nationalistic reasons
C、scientific research
D、long-term profits
答案C
解析 推理判断题。作者在第三段And with doubtful prospects for a short-term financial return，with the coldwar a rapidly fading memory and amid a growing emphasis on international cooperation in large spaceventures，it is clear that imperatives other than profits or nationalism will have to compel human beingsto leave their tracks on the planet’s reddish surface．Could it be that science，which has long played aminor role in exploration，is at last destined to take a leading role?文中指出，人们忽略了短期的金钱回报，也淡忘了冷战，同时在大型太空探险中更加注重国际间的合作，比利益和民族主义更加重要的是人类对这个表面发红的星球的进一步探索和认识。后来作者又问：是不是科学终于要在探索中起重要作用?同时根据上下文，可以断定人类对于火星的探索是基于科学研究的原因。因此答案是C。
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