2014-2015学年人教版高中英语选修21英语练习题.pdfVIP

语 篇 提 能 阅读理解 A Picture our solar system. In the centre, theres our star, the sun. Orbiting the sun are eight planets, including Earth. But what about planets outside our solar system? About 15 years ago, scientists developed the tools to detect these “exoplanets”. Since then, theyve spotted about 450. Most of the findings include one, two or three enormous gas­filled planets orbiting a star. But on August 24, 2010, a group of European scientists announced an unusual discovery. They say theyve identified a solar system thats similar to ours. It consists of as many as seven planets orbiting a sun­like star. The star is over 100 lightyears away from us. The five planets that the scientists are most certain about are large — up to 25 times the size of Earth. According to Christophe Lovis, one of the scientists behind the finding, these five planets are similar to Neptune (海王 星 ). “Theyre made mainly of rocks and ice， ” he said. “Theyre probably not suitable for people to live in.” There are also signs of two more planets. One is thought to be similar to Saturn (土星). The other may be the smallest exoplanet ever spotted. Its only slightly larger than Earth. Because its so close to its star, the small planet takes just over a day to orbit it. Spotting faraway planets is challenging. The blazing light given off by the star they orbit makes the planets hard to see. That is why we cannot yet be 100% sure about these seven planets. The scientists havent actually seen them. Instead, they used a powerful telescope to study the star for six years. The star gave the scientists clues about the planets that orbit it. According to Alan Boss, a scientist who wasnt involved with the study, this method is best for “finding