Earth’s Inner Core
Scientists have long struggled to understand what lies at the planet’s center, Direct
observation of its center is impossible,so researchers must_____(51)to other evidence.
In 1889,a German scientist detected a severe earthquake in Japan.Geophysicists concluded
that shock waves_____(52)jolts(晃动)from one side of Earth through the center to the
other side.Then in 1936,Danish geophysicist Inge Lehmann studied the waves______(53)
to determine that within Earth’s core of molten(熔化了的)iron lies a solid inner core-but_____
(54)that core was made of eluded(难倒)her.Other geophysicists quickly
determined that Lehmann’s inner core was composed mostly_____(55)iron. Since then,
Lehmann’s discovery has_____(56)conventional Earth science.
But now scientists are challenging traditional theory with new and radical _____(57)
For example,Earth’s center could actually contain an“inner core within the inner core,claim Ishii and colleague Adam Dziewonski.
Analyzing hundreds of thousands of earthquake wave _____(58),they maintain that the inner core has at its heart a tiny, even more solid sphere(球体) . This sphere‘‘may be the oldest fossil____(59)from the formation of Earth,”says Dziewonski.
Dziewonski and Ishii speculate that shortly_____(60) Earth formed around 4.8billion years ago,a giant asteroid(小行星)smashed into the young planet and nearly melted it. But Earth’s center didn’t quite melt;it______(61)mass as the planet cooled. The core within a core may be the kernel(核心)that endured.“Its presence could change our basic ideas about the_____ (62)of the planet,”Dziewonski says idea is tame(温和的)compared to the_____(63)theories of independent geophysicist J.Marvin Herndon.Earth’s inner core is made not of iron,he claims
but a_____(64)of nickel and silicon Hemdon has a truly revolutionary notion:Within the nickel silicide(硅化物)inner core is also an“inner”inner core—an 8 km—wide ball of the element uranium.Uranium is radioactive.Hemdon thinks the uranium releases heat energy as its atoms_____(65)fission-split and crash into another in a chain reaction. In other words,we may live on top of a gigantic, “natural”nuclear power plant.
51 A try B leave C turn D point
52 A create B receive C feel D overcome
53 A work B solution C job D patterns
54 A whether B what C why D how
55 A from B within C of D to
56 A followed B dominated C restored D opposed
57 A ideas B demands C phenomena D movements
58 A things B acts C methods D records
59 A taken B benefited C left D kept
60 A after B before C since D when
61 A expanded B modified C gained D melted
62 A size B origin C structure D shape
63 A radical B traditional C classical D conventional
64 A system B copy C model D compound
65 A charge B last C experience D show
2017年职称英语考试理工类A级完形填空试题1.doc