The world is not coming to an end on December 21st, 2012, the US space agency an

Theworld is not coming to an end on December 21st, 2012, the US space agencyannounced to dispel （消除） widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie．

The latest big screen 2012 was based onstories according to the Mayan calendar．It showed that by the end of 2012, a Planet Xwill collide （碰撞） with the earth．

Some websites accuse NASA of hiding thetruth on the planet's existence, but the US space agency considered suchstories as tricks．"There is no basis in fact for these claims," NASA said inits website．"If such a collision were real,scientists would have been tracking it for at least the last decade, and wewould see it with our eyes now．Obviously, itdoesn't exist and there will be no threat to the earth in 2012," itinsisted．"After all, our planet has been gettingalong just well for more than four billion years," added NASA．

There is another planet, Eris, floating inspace．But thesmall planet will remain safely fixed in the outer solar system and it can comeno closer than four billion miles to the earth, according to NASA．

And even if the planets were to line up assome have forecast, the effect on our plant would be very little．"And while comets andasteroids （小行星） have always hit the earth, big hits arevery rare," NASA noted．The last major collisionwas believed to be 65 million years ago, resulting the end of dinosaurs （恐龙）．

"We are sure that there are nothreatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs," thespace agency said．

1.．What played a key role in the spread of therumors?

    A．The Internet and the film2012．                        

B．The Mayan calendar．

    C．The US space agency．                                  

D．The television screen．

2.．The underlined word "it" in ParagraphThree probably refers to _     ___．

    A．thecollision                       B．the Planet X

    C．thethreat                          D．the NASA website

3.．We can conclude from the passage that __   __．

    A．the film 2012 is wellaccepted in the science field

    B．scientists have beentracking Planet X for over ten years

    C．the earth will exist formore than four billion years

    D．the rumors caused a panicamong some people

4.．What do we know about Eris according to thepassage?

    A．It doesn't exist in theuniverse．                     

B．It won't threaten the earth．

    C．It is too far to be seen．                              

D．It is similar to the earth.

试题答案

【答案】

1..A

2..B

3..D

4..B

【解析】略