《2025年亮点给力提优课时作业本九年级英语下册译林版》

四、（2024·连云港市东海四校模拟）阅读理解。
Is there intelligent（有智力的）life on other planets? For years，scientists said “no” or “we don’t know”. But today this is changing. Seth Shostak and Alexandra Barnett are astronomers（天文学家）. They believe intelligent life exists somewhere in the universe. They also think we will soon contact these beings.
Why do Shostak and Barnett think intelligent life exists on other planets? The first reason is time. Scientists believe the universe is about 14 billion years old. “This is long enough for other planets to have intelligent life，” say Shostak and Barnett. The second reason is size—the universe is huge. “Tools like the Hubble Space Telescope have shown that there are at least 100 billion galaxies，” says Shostak. “And our galaxy，the Milky Way，has at least 100 billion stars. Some planets going around these stars might be similar to the Earth.”
In the past，it was hard to look for signs of intelligent life in the universe. But now，powerful telescopes allow scientists to discover smaller planets. These planets might have intelligent life.
Have beings from space already visited the Earth? “Probably not，” says Shostak. However，intelligent beings may contact us in other ways，such as radio signals（信号）. In fact，they may be trying to communicate with us now，but we don’t have the right tools to receive their messages. However，this is changing. By 2052，we could make contact with other life forms in our universe and we might help each other.
1. Why was it hard to look for signs of intelligent life in the universe in the past?
A. There were not any smaller planets.
B. The Milky Way didn’t exist at that time.
C. The astronomers were not interested in them.
D. There were not any powerful telescopes.
2. What does the underlined phrase “life forms” in the last paragraph mean?
A. messages B. tools
C. intelligent beings D. radio signals
3. What is the best title for Paragraph 2?
A. The age and size of the Earth
B. Why intelligent life might exist
C. Our galaxy：the Milky Way
D. The Earth：the only planet with intelligent life

答案： D@@C@@B