TPO22托福阅读Passage3 The Allende Meteorite 文本+题目原文+答案解析

 The Allende Meteorite

Sometime after midnight on February 8,1969, a large, bright meteor entered Earth's atmosphere and broke into thousands of pieces, plummeted to the ground, and scattered over an area 50 miles long and 10 miles wide in the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. The first meteorite from this fall was found in the village of Pueblito de Allende. Altogether, roughly two tons of meteorite fragments were recovered, all of which bear the name Allende for the location of the first discovery.

Individual specimens of Allende are covered with a black, glassy crust that formed when their exteriors melted as they were slowed by Earth's atmosphere. When broken open, Allende stones are revealed to contain an assortment of small, distinctive objects, spherical or irregular in shape and embedded in a dark gray matrix (binding material), which were once constituents of the solar nebula—the interstellar cloud of gas and dust out of which our solar system was formed.

The Allende meteorite is classified as a chondrite. Chondrites take their name from the Greek word chondros—meaning "seed"—an allusion to their appearance as rocks containing tiny seeds. These seeds are actually chondrules: millimeter-sized melted droplets of silicate material that were cooled into spheres of glass and crystal. A few chondrules contain grains that survived the melting event, so these enigmatic chondrules must have formed when compact masses of nebular dust were fused at high temperatures—approaching 1,700 degrees Celsius—and then cooled before these surviving grains could melt. Study of the textures of chondrules confirms that they cooled rather quickly, in times measured in minutes or hours, so the heating events that formed them must have been localized. It seems very unlikely that large portions of the nebula were heated to such extreme temperatures, and huge nebula areas could not possibly have lost heat so fast. Chondrules must have been melted in small pockets of the nebula that were able to lose heat rapidly. The origin of these peculiar glassy spheres remains an enigma.

Equally perplexing constituents of Allende are the refractory inclusions: irregular white masses that tend to be larger than chondrules. ■ They are composed of minerals uncommon on Earth, all rich in calcium, aluminum, and titanium, the most refractory (resistant to melting) of the major elements in the nebula. ■ The same minerals that occur in refractory inclusions are believed to be the earliest-formed substances to have condensed out of the solar nebula. ■ However, studies of the textures of inclusions reveal that the order in which the minerals appeared in the inclusions varies from inclusion to inclusion, and often does not match the theoretical condensation sequence for those metals. ■

Chondrules and inclusions in Allende are held together by the chondrite matrix, a mixture of fine-grained, mostly silicate minerals that also includes grains of iron metal and iron sulfide. At one time it was thought that these matrix grains might be pristine nebular dust, the sort of stuff from which chondrules and inclusions were made. However, detailed studies of the chondrite matrix suggest that much of it, too, has been formed by condensation or melting in the nebula, although minute amounts of surviving interstellar dust are mixed with the processed materials.

All these diverse constituents are aggregated together to form chondritic meteorites, like Allende, that have chemical compositions much like that of the Sun. To compare the compositions of a meteorite and the Sun, it is necessary that we use ratios of elements rather than simply the abundances of atoms. After all, the Sun has many more atoms of any element, say iron, than does a meteorite specimen, but the ratios of iron to silicon in the two kinds of matter might be comparable. The compositional similarity is striking. The major difference is that Allende is depleted in the most volatile elements, like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and the noble gases, relative to the Sun. These are the elements that tend to form gases even at very low temperatures. We might think of chondrites as samples of distilled Sun, a sort of solar sludge from which only gases have been removed. Since practically all the solar system's mass resides in the Sun, this similarity in chemistry means that chondrites have average solar system composition, except for the most volatile elements; they are truly lumps of nebular matter, probably similar in composition to the matter from which planets were assembled.

TPO22 托福阅读 Passage3The Allende Meteorite 题目

Question 1 of 14: The word "location' in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. sight

B. sake

C. success

D. place

Question 2 of 14: Which of the following can be inferred from paragraph 1 about the large meteor that entered Earth’s atmosphere on February 8, 1969?

A. It was almost ten miles wide.

B. It was the biggest meteor ever to hit Mexico.

C. It weighed more than two tons.

D. It broke into more pieces than most meteors do.

Question 3 of 14: Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

A. Allende meteorites were formed when constituents of the interstellar cloud of gas and dust got trapped inside small, roughly spherical objects and these objects became bound together in a dark gray matrix.

B. Inside Allende meteorites is a dark gray matrix that binds together small spherical or irregular objects formed from the interstellar cloud of gas and dust out of which the solar system was made.

C. By breaking open Allende meteorites, scientists were able to find out what the solar nebula was made of.

D. Allende meteorites were filled with material formed almost entirelyfrom interstellar gas and dust.

Question 4 of 14: The word "allusion" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. addition

B. modification

C. resemblance

D. reference

Question 5 of 14: The word "enigmatic" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. dangerous

B. mysterious

C. interesting

D. surprising

Question 6 of 14: According to paragraph 3, what does the presence of grains inside some of the chondrules indicate?

A. The chondrules were formed of silicate material.

B. The chondrules were formed at high temperatures and then cooled rapidly.

C. The grains were formed in huge areas of the solar nebula

D. The grains were formed after the chondrules were fused together into chondrites.

Question 7 of 14: According to paragraph 4, all of the following are true about the minerals found in the refractory inclusions EXCEPT:

A. These minerals are among the most resistant to melting of all the major elements in the solar nebula.

B. These minerals are believed to be some of the first elements to have condensed out of the solar nebula.

C. These minerals are among the least commonly found elements on Earth.

D. These elements occur in the order that scientists would have predicted.

Question 8 of 14: The word "pristine" in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. pure

B. solid

C. ordinary

D. trapped

Question9 of 14: According to paragraph 5, which of the following is indicated by studies of the mixture holding the inclusions together?

A. Large amounts of this material were formed by condensation or melting in the nebula.

B. This material contains more iron and iron sulfide than had previously been thought.

C. This material is very similarto the material from which the refractory inclusions are made

D. The grains in this material are made from the same elements as chondrules are.

Question10 of 14: In paragraph 6, why does the author mention that "the Sun has many more atoms of any element, say iron, than does a meteorite specimen"?

A. To show how difficult it is to compare the composition of a meteorite with that of the Sun

B. To explain why a comparison of the compositions of a meteorite and of the Sun has to be done in terms of ratios of elements

C. To identify the most common element in both the Sun and meteorite specimens

D. To emphasize how much larger the Sun is than any meteorite specimen

Question11 of 14: According to paragraph 6, the composition of chondritic meteorites differs from the composition of the Sun primarily in

A. containing nebular matter

B. containing many fewer atoms of iron

C. the relative amount of volatile elements

D. the ratio of iron to silicon

Question 12 of 14: According to paragraph 6, what is the significance of the similarity in composition between chondrites and the Sun?

A. It indicates what the matter from which planets were formed was probably like.

B. It may explain howthe Sun originally developed.

C. It helps scientists estimate the variations in the chemical composition of different meteors.

D. It suggests that most meteorites may contain large quantities of volatile elements.

Question13 of 14:  Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage

It is therefore still unclear if all inclusions were formed in the same way.

Where would the sentence best fit?

A. They are composed of minerals uncommon on Earth, all rich in calcium, aluminum, and titanium, the most refractory (resistant to melting) of the major elements in the nebula.

B. The same minerals that occur in refractory inclusions are believed to be the earliest-formed substances to have condensed out of the solar nebula. 

C. However, studies of the textures of inclusions reveal that the order in which the minerals appeared in the inclusions varies from inclusion to inclusion, and often does not match the theoretical condensation sequence for those metals.

D. /

Question14 of 14:  Studies of the Allende meteorite provided information about the composition of chondritic meteorites and their possible origin.

Answer Choices

A. When Allende entered Earth's atmosphere, it broke into thousands of pieces called chondrites because they look like glassy, black seeds.

B. The mineral content of chondrules suggests that they were probably formed in isolated regions of the nebula that remained much hotter than the rest.

C. Chondrules are tiny, millimeter-sized drops of silicate materials that probably formed when lumps of nebular dust were fused at extremely high temperatures and then quickly cooled.

D. Irregularly shaped inclusions in Allende are composed of minerals that are resistant to melting and are believed to be the earlest minerals to have condensed out of the nebula.

E. The matrix that holds the chondrules and inclusions together in Allende consists mainly of grains of nebular dust that were trapped inside the meteor before they could be melted.

F. Except for being depleted in volatile elements, chondritic meteorites are probably very similar in composition to the matter from which planets were assembled.

TPO22托福阅读Passage3 The Allende Meteorite 真题解析

Question 1 of 14

答案： D

解析： location“位置”，所以正确答案是D的place。这题比较简单，不能选sake，location完全没有sake“目的，理由”的意思。

Question 2 of 14

答案： C

解析：以时间做关键词定位至第一句，提到一个meteor碎成了很多碎片落在了一个区域内。A错，不是meteor ten miles wide，是那个区域；B的biggest原文没提到也没有相关信息可以推断，并且太绝对；C正确，原文第二句说收集了大致两吨的碎片，那meteor自然不止两吨；D的more pieces原文没有信息可以推断，不选。

Question 3 of 14

答案： B

解析：这个句子打大致内容就是Allende meteorites包含各种各样的objects，后面的内容都是修饰objects的，所以正确答案是B。A选项的Allende meteorites were formed原文未提及，而且cloud of gas and dust got trapped原文也未提及；C和D的主干完全错误。

Question 4 of 14

答案： D

解析： allusion“暗指，暗示”，所以正确答案是D的reference。A添加，B修改，C相似，在这里意思都不正确。

Question 5 of 14

答案： B

解析： enigmatic“神秘的，成谜的”，来自enigma谜，所以正确答案是B的mysterious。A危险的，C有趣的和D令人惊讶的，在这里意思表达都不正确。

Question 6 of 14

答案： B

解析：以presence of grains inside some of the chondrules做关键词定位至第四句，说C包含了melting之后剩下的颗粒，这些神奇的颗粒一定是在高温下nebular dust were fused的时候形成的，然后快速冷却，所以正确答案是B。A表达是正确的，但问题问的是grains indicate什么，A答非所问，不选；C完全没提到；D的after错误，不选，原文说的是when。

Question 7 of 14

答案： D

解析： 此题可以采用排除法，A的most resistant to melting做关键词和C的least commonly found都定位至第二句，正确，都不选；B的first elements做关键词定位至第三句，earliest- formed与first同义替换，正确，不选；D的order做关键词定位至最后一句，最后一句说order varies from inclusion to inclusion，所以scientist不能预测，D与原文相反，可选。

Question 8 of 14

答案：A

解析：pristine“原始的，清新淳朴的”，所以正确答案是pure。原文提到原来认为matrix是怎么样的，但详细研究表明matrix的大部分通过condensation和melting形成的，不是单一的，所以前句应该与其相反，正确答案是A。其他三个答案都与后文的转折无关。

Question 9 of 14

答案：A

解析：以 mixture holding the inclusions together做关键词定位至最后一句，提到matrix是nebula里面通过condensation或melting形成的，所以正确答案是A。B的比较没提及，不选；C完全未提及；D的same material没提到，都不选。

Question 10 of 14

答案：B

解析：先看例子所在句，但这句话整个是一个例子，所以看前一句。前句提到为比较陨星和太阳的组成成分，应该应用的是元素的比值而不是单纯应用元素的丰度，所以正确答案是B，C和D完全不合文意，A的difficult原文未提及，不选。

Question 11 of 14

答案： C

解析：以differ做关键词定位至第五句，提到最主要的区别在于与太阳相比，Allende没有挥发性元素，所以正确答案是C，其他答案都不合文意。

Question 12 of 14

答案： A

解析：以similarity做关键词定位至第四句和最后一句，但第四句没有提到任何内容，所以答案在最后一句，提到除了chondrites没有可挥发性元素之外，其他的成分都与太阳系的平均成分相同，是nebular的lump，同行星组成成分相同，所以正确答案是A。B错误，原文提到的是行星形成，不是太阳；C的variation未提及；D的有挥发性元素不是similarity体现的，不选。

Question 13 of 14

答案：D

解析：此处有两个过渡点，名词inclusion和连词therefore。根据inclusion可以确定A，C或者D可能是正确的，C的however与上一句的内容衔接紧密，被排除；依据therefore可以确定正确答案是D，之前提到不同的inclusion的成分不同，结果是不能确定inclusion是不是同样方式形成的。

Question 14 of 14

答案：CDF

解析：A选项是原文第三段提到的一个细节，不选；B选项原文未提及，不选；C选项对应原文第三段的内容，正确；D选项对应原文第四段的开头两句，也是这段的主要内容，正确；E选项与原文相反，第二段最后一句提到matrix曾经是solar nebula的组成部分，而这个选项说matrix是由solar nebula grain组成的，所以不选；F选项对应原文最后一段，正确。

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