Question

In the early hours of March 8, a Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its destination was Beijing. But for unknown reasons, it never arrived there.

There were 239 people on the Malaysia Airlines flight, including 154 Chinese. As of March 13, 12 different countries, including Malaysia, China, Vietnam and the US, were searching for the plane.

The disappearance is an “aviation (航空) mystery”, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority, said on March 10.There was no clear sign of a crash by March 13.

Between 1-2 hours after takeoff, the plane suddenly lost contact with people on the ground. The weather was clear, and the pilots didn’t make any calls . No evidence was found in the area where the flight last made contact. People are also talking about a possible hijacking (劫机).

International police agency Interpol confirmed on March 9 that at least two passengers on the flight had used stolen passports to get on board. “We are looking at all possibilities,” said Malaysian Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein. The incident is now being called simply a “plane disappearance”.

So, what are some possible causes of a plane disappearance? An AP story provided a summary.

1. A failure of the plane’s body or its engines. However, even if both engines stopped working, the plane could still glide (滑翔) for up to 20 minutes, giving pilots time to make an emergency call.

2. Bad weather. Planes are designed to fly through most severe storms. However, in June 2009, an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed during a bad storm over the Atlantic Ocean.

3. A bomb. Throughout history, several planes have been brought down by bombs.

4. An accidental shoot-down by some country’s military. In July 1988, the US Navy accidentally shot down an Iran Air flight. In September 1983, a Korean Air Lines flight was shot down by a Russian fighter jet.

No matter how unlikely a situation, it’s too early to determine what really happened to MH370. It could take months, if not years, to rule out any possibilities, say experts..

1.How many cities are mentioned in this passage?

A. Four cities.B. five cities.C. Six cities.D. Seven cities.

2.What could the underlined phrase “rule out” in the last paragraph mean?

A. cross outB. get rid ofC. take outD. take the place of

3.What could be the best title of the passage?

A. An Air CrashB. The Causes of the Disappearance

C. The Disappearance of MH 370D. An Aviation Mystery

 

Answer 1

1.A

2.B

3.C

【解析】

试题分析: 本文是一篇新闻报道，报道了在2014年3月8日，从马来西亚飞往北京的370客机神秘失踪的事件。在文章中一些专家对此分析了几种可能存在的情况，但是真正的原因得需要几个月，甚至几年的时间才可能查明。

1.A 细节理解题。从文章第一段和倒数第二段中的内容可知，文章一共提到了四个城市，即Kuala Lumpur、；Beijing、 Rio de Janeiro 、Paris，选A。

2.词义猜测题。根据上文分析的飞机失踪的原因，以及it’s too early to determine what really happened to MH370可以判断该词指“排除”，句意：专家说如果不是几年的话，也可能要花费几个月的时间排除任何的可能。选B。

3.主旨大意题。文章开头提出马航飞机失踪，然后在下文详细讲述了当时的情况，由此可知文章中心内容是讲述马航飞机的失踪事件，故C选项内容符合中心思想，选C。

考点：考查新闻报道类短文阅读。