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  3. 共用题干 Europa's Watery UnderworldEuropa,one of Jupiter's 63 known moons,look...

共用题干 Europa's Watery UnderworldEuropa,one of Jupiter's 63 known moons,look...

admin2020-12-24  3
问题 共用题干
Europa's Watery Underworld

Europa,one of Jupiter's 63 known moons,looks bright and icy on the surface.But appearances can be
deceiving:Miles within its cracked,frigid shell,Europa probably hides giant pools of liquid water. Where
scientists find liquid water,they hope to find life as well.
Since we can't go diving into Europa's depths just yet,scientists instead have to investigate the moon's
surface for clues to what lies beneath.In a new study,scientists investigated one group of strange ice patterns
on Europa and concluded that the formations mark the top of an underground pool that holds as much water
as the U.S.Great Lakes.
Pictures of Europa,which is slightly smaller than Earth's moon,clearly show a tangled,icy mishmash
of lines and cracks known as"chaos terrains".These chaotic places cover more than half of Europa. For
more than 10 years,scientists have wondered what causes the formations.The new study suggests that they
arise from the mixing of vast underground stores of liquid water with icy material near the surface.
For scientists who suspect that Europa also may be hiding life beneath its icy surface,the news about
the new lake is exciting.
"It would be great if these lakes harbored life,"Britney Schmidt,a planetary scientist who worked on
the study,told Science News."But even if they didn't,they say that Europa is doing something interesting
and active right now."
Schmidt,a scientist at the University of Texas at Austin,and her colleagues wanted to know how chaos
terrains form.Since they couldn't rocket to Europa to see for themselves,they searched for similar forma-
tions here on Earth.They studied collapsed ice shelves in Antarctica and icy caps on volcanoes in Iceland.
Those features on Earth formed when liquid water mixed with ice.The scientists now suspect something
similar might be happening on Europa:that as water and ice of different temperatures mingle and shift,the
surface fractures.This would explain the jumbled ice sculptures.
"Fracturing catastrophically disrupts the ice in the same way that it causes ice shelves to collapse on
Earth,"Schmidt told Science News.She and her team found that the process could be causing chaos terrains
to form quickly on Europa.
The new study suggests that on this moon,elements such as oxygen from the surface blend with the
deep bodies of water. That mixture may create an environment that supports life.
选项 The formations on Europa's surface are rather unique in the universe.
A:Right
B:Wrong
C:Not mentioned
答案B
解析由文章第二段第二句“In a new study...the formations mark the top of an underground pool that holds as much water as the U.S.Great Lakes.”可知，科学家通过研究一组奇异的冰的图案 得出结论：这种结构是一个地下水库的顶部，这个水库的蓄水量相当于美国五大湖的蓄水量， 故选A。
由文章第三段最后一句话“The new study suggests that they arise from the mixing of vasi underground stores of liquid water with icy material near the surface.”可知，欧罗巴（Europa）上的 奇异冰图案是由大量的含有冰状物质的地下水经混合而成的，故选B。
由文章第一段的内容可知，欧罗巴是已知的木星63个卫星中的一个，但并未提及其被 发现的早晚，故选C。
由文章第三段的第乙句话中“Europa , which is slightly smaller than Earth ' s moon”可知， 欧罗巴比地球的卫星―月亮稍微小些，故选B。
由第六段的第二句话中“Since they couldn ' t rocket to Europa”可知，科学家目前还不能 去欧罗巴星球，故选B。
由文章第六段的内容可知，Schmidt及其同事在地球上寻找相似的结构进行研究。他 们研究了南极的冰架，认为他们得出的结论也可以解释欧罗巴上的冰形图案，故选B。
由文章第一段最后一句话的内容可知，科学家们认为有水的地方就很有可能存在生 命；最后一段也提到，欧罗巴星球表面的氧元素和地下水的化合，给生命的出现提供了环境，因 此水的存在是生命出现的必要条件。故选A。
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