" My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas. " Many American school children are taught this sentence to help them reme

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问题     " My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas. " Many American school children are taught this sentence to help them remember the order of the planets of the solar system. Soon though, this may change because, on July 29th, a team of astronomers announced the discovery of a very distant celestial body larger than Pluto. The researchers claim that the new body—which they are informally calling Xena—should be classified as a planet.
    The new body—temporarily named 2003 UB313—orbits the Sun once every 560 years. It is currently over 14 billion kilometres away, about three times farther out than Pluto, making it the most distant object ever discovered in the solar system. The researchers think it is part of the Kuiper belt, a ring of rocky objects that extends beyond Neptune.
    Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology, Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory and David Rabino witz of Yale University discovered the object in data recorded at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego in October 2003, but its motion did not become apparent until they reanalysed the data in January 2005.
    The question of whether or not the new body should be considered a planet has rekindled the debate over what exactly counts as a planet. A handful of objects of similar size to, but smaller than, Pluto have been discovered in the Kuiper belt over the past few years. These have not been considered planets, mainly because they were smaller than Pluto. But 2003 UB313 is larger than Pluto. If Pluto is a planet, shouldn’t it be as well?
    The case is not so clear cut. Many astronomers argue that Pluto should not be considered a planet. It is more like a large asteroid, they hold. Meanwhile, Dr Brown asserts that as Pluto has historically been considered a planet, anything larger should also be considered one.
    Ultimately,the International Astronomical Union, a group of professional astronomers, will end this existential anxiety. Dr Brown expects the process to take months, and the team is not allowed to reveal its suggested name until then. Since most Greek and Roman names have already been used, he and his colleagues have previously drawn upon Native American and Inuit mythology for names. He will only hint that the new name comes from a different tradition altogether.
    Time will tell whether mother will be serving " nine polished xylophones", " nine pizzas" or just "noodles".  
According to the passage, when was the new planet first detected?

选项 A、On July 29th, 2005.
B、In October 2003.
C、In January 2005.
D、On March 13th, 2003.

答案B

解析 细节题。由题干可以看出,这里问新星体的发现日期,因此寻找文中出现日期的部分,首段第二句以及第三段都出现了日期,仔细阅读这两处内容,第三段指出:Mike Brown等人在2003年10月的数据中记录了该星体的发现。这是提到的最早的日子,故为答案。首段第二句指出:不久之后,这种情况就会发生改变,因为7月29日,一组天文学家宣告发现一个比冥王星还要大的遥远天体。可见7月29日是科学家正式宣告的日期,排除[A]。2005年1月是第三段最后提到的该行星的运动变得明确的时间,排除[C]。[D]2003年3月13日是对第二段提到的命名2003UB313的曲解,文章没有提及此内容,故排除。
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