2012年職稱英語理工A真題閱讀理解為教材新增文章，以下為教材原文：

Small But Wise

On December 14, NASA1 blasted a small but mighty telescope into space. The telescope is called WISE and is about as wide around as a trashcan. Don't let its small size fool you: WISE has a powerful digital camera, and it will be taking pictures of some the wildest objects2 in the known universe, including asteroids, faint stars, blazing galaxies3 and giant clouds of dust where planets and stars are born.

"I'm very excited because we're going to be seeing parts of the universe that we haven't seen before, "said Ned Wright, a scientist who directs the WISE project.

Since arriving in space, the WISE telescope has been circling the Earth, held by gravity in a polar orbit4 (this means it crosses close to the north and south poles with each lap5). Its camera is pointed outward, away from the Earth, and WISE will snap a picture of a different part of the sky every 11 minutes. After six months it will have taken pictures across the entire sky.from 0527wd.cn

The pictures taken by WISE won't be like everyday digital photographs, however. WISE stands for "Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer." As its name suggests, the WISE camera takes pictures of features that give off infrared radiation6.

Radiation is energy that travels as a wave. Visible light, including the familiar spectrum of light7 that becomes visible in a rainbow, is an example of radiation. When an ordinary digital camera takes a picture of a tree, for example, it receives the waves of visible light that are reflected off the tree. When these waves enter the camera through the lens, they're processed by the camera, which then puts the image together.

Waves of infrared radiation are longer than waves of visible light, so ordinary digital cameras don't see them, and neither do the eyes of human beings. Although invisible to the eye, longer infrared radiation can be detected as warmth by the skin.

That's a key idea to why WISE will be able to see things other telescopes can't. Not everything in the universe shows up in visible light. Asteroids, for example, are giant rocks that float through space — but they absorb most of the light that reaches them. They don't reflect light, so they're difficult to see. But they do give off infrared radiation, so an infrared telescope like WISE will be able to produce images of them. During its mission WISE will take pictures of hundreds of thousands of asteroids.

Brown dwarfs8 are another kind of deep-space object that will show up in WISE's pictures. These objects are "failed" stars — which means they are not massive enough to jump start9 the same kind of reactions that power stars such as the sun. Instead, brown dwarfs simply shrink and cool down. They're so dim that they're almost impossible to see with visible light, but in the infrared spectrum they glow.from 0527wd.cn

詞匯：

trashcan / 'træ?,kæn/n.垃圾箱

infrared/'infr?'red/ adj.紅外線

asteroid/'æst?r?id/ n.小行星

dwarf/dw?:f/ n. 矮星

注釋：

1.NASA (美國國家航空航天局)是縮寫詞，全稱是National Aeronautics and Space Administration。

2. the wildest objects ：任何你能想象得到的天體。wild 有“未被人馴養(yǎng)的”“荒唐的”“離奇的”意思。

3. faint stars, blazing galaxies：指的是那些只能看到微弱的光和因燃燒而無法觀察到的天體。

4. polar orbit：極地軌道。指軌道平面與赤道面夾角為90。的人造地球衛(wèi)星軌道。人造衛(wèi)星運行時能到達(dá)南北極區(qū)上空，即衛(wèi)星能飛經(jīng)全球范圍的上空。需要在全球范圍內(nèi)進(jìn)行觀測和應(yīng)用的氣象衛(wèi)星、導(dǎo)航衛(wèi)星、地球資源衛(wèi)星等都采用這種軌道。

5. lap：一圈。原指競賽場的一圈或游泳池的一個來回，如： She overtook the other runners on the last lap. 她最后一圈超過了其他參賽者。

6. infrared radiation：紅外線輻射

7. spectrum of light：光譜，即，光輻射的波長分布區(qū)域。

8. Brown dwarfs：褐矮星。褐矮星非常暗淡，很難發(fā)現(xiàn)它們，要確定它們的大小就更加困難。

9.jump start: 啟動

練習(xí)：

1 .What is so special about WISE?

A It is small in size but carries a large camera.

B It is as small as a trashcan.

C Its digital camera can help astronomers to see the unknown space.

D Never before has a telescope carried a digital camera in space.

2. Which is NOT the synonym for the word "snap" in the third paragraph?

A make.

B shoot.

C take.

D photograph.

3. The camera on WISE

A is no different from an ordinary camera.

B does not see infrared radiation while the ordinary camera does.

C catches the infrared radiation while the ordinary camera does not.

D reflects light that human eyes can see.

4. Which of the following is NOT correct about "asteroids" according to paragraph 7?

A Asteroids float through space giving off visible light.

B Asteroids do not reflect light that reaches them.

C It is difficult to take asteroids' pictures by ordinary cameras,

D The WISE telescope can take pictures of asteroids

5.What is implied in the last paragraph?

A Brown dwarfs give off visible light.

B Brown dwarfs give off infrared radiation.

C Brown dwarfs are power stars like the sun.

D Brown dwarfs are impossible to see with the WISE telescope.

答案與題解：

1. C 短文的第一和第二段提供了答案。WISE 的特殊之處就在于，雖然體積小，但它的數(shù)碼相機(jī)能拍到任何天體，所以能夠幫助天文學(xué)家觀測到宇宙空間中( in the known universe )的未知天文現(xiàn)象。其他選項都不是短文表達(dá)的意思。

2. A snap 是個多義詞，可以解釋為“拍照”，更為確切的意思是“拍快照”。這里shoot, take 和photograph 都是snap 的同義詞。

3. C 短文第六段和第四段提供了答案。人類的肉眼和普通相機(jī)看到的光是visible lights ，看不見紅外線輻射( infrared radiation) ，而WISE 的相機(jī)能夠看到。

4. A 短文第七段第二句說并非所有的宇宙中的物體都會發(fā)出可見光，比如asteroids ，所以A是正確選項。其他選項的內(nèi)容都可以在該段中找到。

5. B 最后一段的第一句說，褐矮星能出現(xiàn)在WISE 照片中，根據(jù)上文對WISE 望遠(yuǎn)鏡的描述只有WISE 望遠(yuǎn)鏡才能拍到紅外線射線，所以B是正確選擇。

譯文:

 小而聰明

12月14日，美國國家航空航天局發(fā)射了一個體積小而威力大的望遠(yuǎn)鏡，它的名字叫“WISE”(聰明)，大約只有一個垃圾盒子那么寬。你可千萬不要輕視這個小東西，WISE可是一款商強(qiáng)數(shù)碼相機(jī)，它將在人類已知的宇宙里拍攝任何你所能想到的天體，包括小行星、那些只能看到微弱的光和因燃燒而無法觀察的天體，以及自行星和恒星誕生以來的巨大塵埃云。

Ned Wright是主持WISE項目的科學(xué)家，他說：“我十分興奮，因為我們就要看到以前從未看到過的那部分宇宙”。

到達(dá)宇宙空間后，WISE由于受極地軌道重力作用，一直在圍繞地球旋轉(zhuǎn)。(這意味著，每轉(zhuǎn)一圈，它就離南極和北極靠近)。它的鏡頭是向外的，遠(yuǎn)離地球。每11分鐘WISE就會抓拍天空一個不同的部分。六個月之后，它將把整個天空拍攝完畢。

然而，WISE拍攝的相片不會像我們?nèi)粘５臄?shù)碼相片。WISE是Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (廣域紅外勘測探測器)的縮寫。正如名字所示，WISE能拍到發(fā)出紅外線輻射物體的相片。

輻射是波浪狀行進(jìn)的一種能量。人能看到的光，包括大家熟悉的、在彩虹里看到的光譜就是射線的一個例子。當(dāng)普通的數(shù)碼相機(jī)給一棵樹照相時，它能接收到樹反射回來的、可見的光波。光波通過鏡頭進(jìn)入到相機(jī)里，相機(jī)對它進(jìn)行加工，然后把圖像合成。

紅外線的波長比可見光長，所以，普通的數(shù)碼相機(jī)捕捉不到他們，人眼也看不到這種射線。盡管人們看不到，人的皮膚能感受到較長紅外線帶來的溫暖。

這就是為什么WISE能捕捉到其他望遠(yuǎn)鏡看不到的物體的主要原因。宇宙中，不是所有的東西都以可見光的方式呈現(xiàn)出來。例如，小行星是在太空中漂浮的大巖石，但是小行星吸收射到他們表面的大部分光。他們不能反射光，所以要看到他們很困難。但他們卻釋放出紅外線，所以，像WISE這樣的紅外線望遠(yuǎn)鏡才能夠捕捉到它們的圖像。WISE的任務(wù)就是拍攝成千上萬的小行星圖像。

WISE的另一任務(wù)是為另外一種太空深處的天體一褐矮星拍照。這種天體是“失敗的”恒星，它們是一些不夠大，不能像太陽的能量那樣啟動相同的反應(yīng)。褐矮星只能縮小和冷卻。他們發(fā)出的光如此之微弱，人們根本看不到，但是在線外頻譜中，它們是發(fā)光的。

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（責(zé)任編輯：liushengbao）