托福阅读真题Official 50 Passage 3（六）

托福阅读真题Official 50 Passage 3（六）

Star Death

Until the early-to mid-twentieth century,scientists believed that stars generate energy by shrinking.As stars contracted,it was thought,they would get hotter and hotter,giving off light in the process.This could not be the primary way that stars shine,however.If it were,they would scarcely last a million years,rather than the billions of years in age that we know they are.We now know that stars are fueled by nuclear fusion.Each time fusion takes place,energy is released as a by-product.This energy,expelled into space,is what we see as starlight.The fusion process begins when two hydrogen nuclei smash together to form a particle called the deuteron(a combination of a positive proton and a neutral neutron).Deuterons readily combine with additional protons to form helium.Helium,in turn,can fuse together to form heavier elements,such as carbon.In a typical star,merger after merger takes place until significant quantities of heavy elements are built up.

We must distinguish,at this point,between two different stellar types:Population I and Population II,the latter being much older than the former.These groups can also be distinguished by their locations.Our galaxy,the Milky Way,is shaped like a flat disk surrounding a central bulge.Whereas Population I stars are found mainly in the galactic disk,Population II stars mostly reside in the central bulge of the galaxy and in the halo surrounding this bulge.

Population II stars date to the early stages of the universe.Formed when the cosmos was filled with hydrogen and helium gases,they initially contained virtually no heavy elements.They shine until their fusible material is exhausted.When Population II stars die,their material is spread out into space.Some of this dust is eventually incorporated into newly formed Population I stars.Though Population I stars consist mostly of hydrogen and helium gas,they also contain heavy elements(heavier than helium),which comprise about 1 or 2 percent of their mass.These heavier materials are fused from the lighter elements that the stars have collected.Thus,Population I stars contain material that once belonged to stars from previous generations.The Sun is a good example of a Population I star.

What will happen when the Sun dies.In several billion years,our mother star will burn much brighter.It will expend more and more of its nuclear fuel,until little is left of its original hydrogen.Then,at some point in the far future,all nuclear reactions in the Sun’s center will cease.

Once the Sun passes into its“postnuclear”phase,it will separate effectively into two different regions:an inner zone and an outer zone.While no more hydrogen fuel will remain in the inner zone,there will be a small amount left in the outer zone.Rapidly,changes will begin to take place that will serve to tear the Sun apart.The inner zone,its nuclear fires no longer burning,will begin to collapse under the influence of its own weight and will contract into a tiny hot core,dense and dim.An opposite fate will await the outer region,a loosely held-together ball of gas.A shock wave caused by the inner zone’s contraction will send ripples through the dying star,pushing the stellar exterior’s material farther and farther outward.The outer envelope will then grow rapidly,increasing,in a short interval,hundreds of times in size.As it expands,it will cool down by thousands of degrees.Eventually,the Sun will become a red giant star,cool and bright.It will be so large that it will occupy the whole space that used to be the Earth’s orbit and so brilliant that it would be able to be seen with the naked eye thousands of light-years away.It will exist that way for millions of years,gradually releasing the material of its outer envelope into space.Finally,nothing will be left of the gaseous exterior of the Sun;all that will remain will be the hot,white core.The Sun will have become a white dwarf star.The core will shrink,giving off the last of its energy,and the Sun will finally die.

Question 11 of 14

According to paragraph 5,which of the following will be true about the inner core of the dying Sun?

A.It will contract,sending an energy wave through the rest of the star.

B.It will shine with a bright red glow before it finally shrinks and dies.

C.It will expand to hundreds of times its previous size.

D.It will shrink due to the weight of the outer envelope.

正确答案：A

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：根据the inner core of the dying Sun定位到第五段第四句和第六句。

选项分析：

第四句contract into a tiny hot core对应A选项It will contract。第六句A shock wave caused by the inner zone’s contraction will send ripples through the dying star对应A选项sending an energy wave through the rest of the star。

B选项shine with a bright red glow与第四句The inner zone,its nuclear fires no longer burning矛盾。

C选项expand to hundreds of times its previous size出自第七句The outer envelope will then grow rapidly，但第七句说的是外部区域而不是内部。

D选项due to the weight of the outer envelope与第四句under the influence of its own weight矛盾。

Question 12 of 14

Paragraph 5 supports which of the following about the death of the Sun?

A.The Sun’s outer envelope will expand rapidly as a result of decreasing temperatures in the outer zone.

B.The Sun will reach the red giant stage millions of years before it becomes a white dwarf star.

C.After the Sun has released the material of its outer envelope into space,nuclear fusion will continue at the remaining core for a limited period.

D.While the outer region of the Sun expands,it releases all its material into space.

题目详解

题型分类：事实信息题

原文定位：全段都在说the death of the Sun，根据选项定位。

选项分析：

B选项概括了第五段后半部分，对应倒数二、四、六句Eventually,the Sun will become a red giant star...It will exist that way for millions of years...The Sun will have become a white dwarf star，正确。

A选项，原文第七八句说的是随着扩张，外部区域会冷却下来；而不是因为降温而扩张。因果关系有误。

C选项released the material of its outer envelope出自倒数第四句，但是这里没有提到nuclear fusion。

D选项倒数第四句只说了releasing the material of its outer envelope into space，但没有说all its material，D选项推测极端。

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