阅读理解。
The first breath-taking pictures of the Earth taken from space showed it as a solid ball covered by brown
land masses and blue- green oceans. We had never seen the Earth from that distance before. To us, it appeared
as though the Earth had always looked that way and always would. Scientists now know, however, that the
surface of the Earth is not as permanent as we had thought.
Scientists explain that the surface of our planet is always moving. Continents moves about the Earth like
huge ships at sea. They float on pieces of the Earth's outer skin. New outer skin is created as melted rock
pushed up from below the ocean floor. Old outer skin is destroyed as it rolls down into the hot area and melts
again.
Only since the 1960s have scientists really began to under- stand that the planet Earth is a great living
machine. Some experts have said this new understanding is one of the most important revolutions in scientific
thought. The revolution is based on the work of scientists who study the movement of the continents-a science
called plate tectonics.
The modern story of plate tectonics begins with the German scientist Alfred Wegener. Before World War
One, Wegener argued that the continents had moved and were still moving. He said the idea first occurred to
him when he observed that the coastlines of South America and Africa could fit together like two pieces of a
puzzle. He proposed that the two continents might have been one and then split apart.
Wegener was not the first person to wonder about the shape of the continents. About 500 years ago,
explorers thought about it when they made the first maps of Americas. The explorers noted the east coast of
North America and South America would fit almost exactly into the west coast of Europe and South Africa.
What the explorers did not do, but Wegener did, was to investigate the idea that the continents move.
1. What does the writer mainly tell us in the passage?
A. The first breath-taking pictures of the Earth taken from space.
B. Human's recognition of the earth's surface.
C. The German scientist Alfred Wegener.
D. The early explorers' discovery.
2. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. We didn't see the Earth from far away until we saw the picture taken in the space.
B. Our ancient thought that the surface of the earth is still.
C. Alfred Wegener was not the first person to investigate the idea that the continents move.
D. The coastlines of India and Africa fit together.
3. The last word of the third paragraph "tectonics" means "____".
A. study of construction
B. study of architecture
C. earth surface
D. structural geology
