2021届高考英语一轮复习课时提能练14 Astronomy：the science of the stars.docVIP

PAGE 1/ NUMPAGES 4 课时提能练(十四) Ⅰ.阅读理解 (2019·长沙测评)Scientists found gravitational waves as they watched the effects of two black holes running into each other and forming a much bigger one，a century after Albert Einstein predicted that such an event would send ripples(波纹) through space-time. Scientists“heard”the wave with the help of laser beams(激光束) sent through two pipes which form an angle of 90° between each other and are nearly 2,000 miles apart in the US.That equipment let them glimpse the nature of black holes.Together they made up the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory(LIGO)． Gravitational waves were first observed in September 2015 and the second detection(发现) occurred three months later.The third detection，which the astronomers called GW170104，was made on January 4,2017.The astronomers believed their latest finding“provides clues about the directions in which the black holes are spinning”． “Black holes are beautifully simple.You just need two numbers to describe them completely：mass，how much they bend space-time，and a spin，how much space-time moves about them，”said Dr. Christopher Berry of the University of Birmingham，one of the researchers in the project.“But it takes lots of hard work to measure these from our data.We now have wonderful mass measurements，and are starting to uncover details about the spins of these black holes，which could give evidence for how they formed.”The researchers said their discovery added further evidence to support Einstein's general theory of relativity and confirmed the existence of previously unknown black holes. More than 1,000 scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration were involved in the project along with an additional 280 researchers from the European-based Virgo Collaboration.Scientists hope gravitational waves will offer a completely different view of the universe，allowing them to study events that might be hidden from traditional telescopes.“We have further confirmation of the existence of s