What science fiction once told of other worlds far away is now a fact. Astronomers prove another solar system like ours with some planets in the constellation (星座) Andromeda ( 仙女座).

Geoffrey Marcy is a professor of astronomy and physics at San Francisco State University and says, “What we have found now, for the first time ever, is indeed a fully-grown system of planets around the star Upsilon Andromeda. It appears to have three planets, one close in, one at a middle distance, and one farther out.” The star is slightly larger than our sun. The planets are huge, like our Jupiter(木星)

Marcy’s partner in this research, Debra Fischer, describes the solar system, “Here’s the inner planet that goes around every 46 days, the middle planet that goes around every 242 days, and then the outer planet that goes around every three and a half to four years.”

Astronomically, it’s not far away, 44 light years. The sun of that solar system, Upsilon Andromeda, is so near and bright that it can be seen by using no equipment during summer and fall.

For twelve years astronomers searched the skies in the belief that if our sun has planets around it, surely others do, too. Geoffrey Marcy says, “And then starting three and a half years ago, we began finding for the first time planets singly, one planet here around one star.”

“When I look up at the stars now at night, I can imagine easily that every one of them has planets around them,” says Debra Fischer.

It was a tremble in the star that led Marcy to the planets. “The star rocks around due to the gravity of the planet much like a dog owner gets pulled around by a little dog.”

Can they support life? We don’t know, because present technology is not advanced enough to determine what the planets are made of. “That,” Marcy says , “is astronomy’s next challenge.”

1. What’s the relation between Andromeda (A), Upsilon Andromeda system (U) and the mentioned planets (P) ?

2. According to Debra Fischer, in the new solar system, ________.

   A. the larger a planet is, the shorter it takes to go around the star.

   B. it takes all the planets around three and a half to four years to go around the star

   C. the planets move around the star at uneven speeds

   D. the farther a planet is from the star, the longer it takes to go around the star

3. What led to Marcy’s discovery of the planets?

   A. The tremble of Upsilon Andromeda.     

B. That any planet has gravity.

C. That he believes any star has its planets.  

D. that he found a dog owner was pulled by his dog.

4. We can infer that the scientists are           .

   A. to find means to communicate with the living beings on the planets

   B. to find means to travel to the planets

   C. soon to be able to answer the question of whether there is life on these planets

   D. to find out whether the planets can support life.

第二卷(共35分)?

第五部分：?任務(wù)型閱讀 （共10小題；每小題1分，滿分10分）

There are a number of languages spoken throughout the world. Every person knows at least one language, which he learns in his childhood and is routinely used for speaking and writing. However, many people are fond of learning two or more languages, so they try to be bilingual, which means that they try to have the knowledge of two or more languages. And being bilingual can bring a person a number of benefits in various aspects. For example:

A person can get cognitive(認(rèn)知的) benefits from it. The bilingual people have two or more words for each idea and object. Therefore, a bilingual person can develop a creative thinking. The bilinguals are aware of which language should be spoken with which person in a particular situation. So they are more sensitive(敏感的) to the needs of the listener than the people who only use one language: Being bilingual also improves and enriches a person's mental development.

Being bilingual has a positive effect on a person's character. The bilinguals are able to switch between different languages and talk to different people in various languages. It increases a sense of self-esteem( 自尊). Being bilingual creates a powerful link in different people from different countries.

A bilingual education offers better curriculum(課程) results. The bilinguals tend to show a higher performance in examinations and tests. The bilinguals find it quite easy to learn and speak three, four or more languages.

Being bilingual offers potential employment benefits. It offers a wider choice of jobs in various fields. The bilinguals can get a great many career opportunities in transport, tourism, public relations, marketing and sales, banking, translation, law, teaching and so on.

So it can be concluded from the above that we should try our best to learn and master two or more languages.

Title: 71.__________ of being bilingual