Unless we spend money to spot and prevent asteroids (小行星) now, one might crash into Earth and destroy life as we know it, say so

admin2012-01-30  51

问题     Unless we spend money to spot and prevent asteroids (小行星) now, one might crash into Earth and destroy life as we know it, say some scientists.
    Asteroids are bigger versions of the meteoroids (流星) that race across the night sky. Most orbit the sun far from Earth and don’t threaten us. But there are also thousands whose orbits put them on a collision course with Earth.
    Buy $ 40 million worth of new telescopes right now. Then spend $10 million a year for the next 25 years to locate most of the space rocks. By the time we spot a fatal one, the scientists say, we’ll have a way to change its course.
    Some scientists favor pushing asteroids off course with nuclear weapons. But the cost wouldn’t be cheap.
    Is it worth it? Two things experts consider when judging any risk are: 1) How likely the event is; and 2) How bad the consequences if the event occurs. Experts think an asteroid big enough to destroy lots of life might strike Earth once every 400000 years. Sounds pretty rare—but if one did fall, it would be the end of the world. "If we don’t take care of these big asteroids, they’ll take care of us," says one scientist. "It’s that simple. "
    The cure, though, might be worse than the disease. Do we really want fleets of nuclear weapons sitting around on Earth? "The world has less to fear from doomsday (毁灭性的) rocks than from a great nuclear fleet set against them," said a New York Times article.
What do scientists say about the collision of an asteroid with Earth?

选项 A、It is very unlikely but the danger exists.
B、Such a collision might occur once every 25 years.
C、Collisions of smaller asteroids with Earth occur more often than expected.
D、It’s still too early to say whether such a collision might occur.

答案A

解析 依据文章第五段第三行始可以断定小行星与地球碰撞的概率极小,但可能性确实存在,这正是A项的内容。
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