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  3. Mounting evidence has led astronomers to just such an improbable conclusion, at least 90 percent and possibly 99 percent of all

Mounting evidence has led astronomers to just such an improbable conclusion, at least 90 percent and possibly 99 percent of all

admin2013-05-04  56
问题     Mounting evidence has led astronomers to just such an improbable conclusion, at least 90 percent and possibly 99 percent of all matter in the universe is completely invisible.  Astronomers call this invisible stuff dark matter.
    An astronomer first reported the invisible matter after noting some unusual behavior in visible matter. In 1993, Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky observed that galaxies in a cluster of galaxies travelled at higher speeds than expected. He concluded that something was causing strange gravitational effects on these galaxies.
    Galaxies are like vast islands in deep space containing billions of stars that are held together by the force of gravity. Some galaxies are part of larger systems called clusters, which contain many galaxies. Most galaxies, however, belong to smaller systems called groups. Groups and clusters in turn form even larger structures known as superclusters. Just as the force of gravity keeps stars together in galaxies, so the force of gravity appears to keep galaxies together in clusters.
    This same force of gravity keeps planets orbiting around the sun, rather than flying off into space. How great a force gravity exerts depends on the mass of the objects attracted and the distance between them, a principle discovered by Newton. The amount of mass and the distance between objects also determine how fast the objects travel as they orbit each other. For example, in our solar system, the sun is the most massive object, making up about 99.9 percent of the mass of the solar system, and the force of its gravity keeps Earth and the other planets in orbit around it. The orbital speeds of the planets decline with increasing distance from the sun. The planet nearest to the sun, Mercury, travels at an orbital speed of 48 kilometers per second, while the distant planet Pluto orbits at speed of 4.7 kilometers per second.
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
选项 A、Ninety percent of all the matter in the universe is invisible.
B、Dark matter causes visible matter to behave in a strange way.
C、Galaxies in a cluster sometimes behave in an unusual manner.
D、Invisible matter keeps galaxies together with gravity.
答案C
解析 第二段指出，1933午，瑞士天体物理学家茨威基观测到，某些星系的运转速度比料想的要快。由此他推测，某种物质可能对这些星系施加厂引力，从而造成了它们的反常行为 (unusual behavior)。这里，星系有反常行为是可观察到的事实，而造成这一事实的原冈却仅仅是未经证明的推测。A项不对。第一段指出，越来越多的(mounting)证据使天文学家得出一个令人难以置信的结论：宇宙中至少有90%，甚至于99%的物质是隐匿的(invisible)。值得注意的是，这一结论也仅仅是推测而已。
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