第三部分阅读理解(共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分)

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项。

　　Many people will remember the flight of the space shuttle（航天飞机）challenger，in June，1983. The achievement of Sally Ride，America’s first woman astronaut to fly into space，made this flight especially memorable. Students from two Camden, New Jersey, high schools, however, are probably to remember Norma rather than Sally whenever they think about the flight.

　　Norma didn’t travel alone. She brought about 100 companions along with her. Norma was an ant，a queen ant who，with her subject，made up the first ant colony（群体）to travel into space. The ants were part of a science experiment designed by students to test the effects of weightlessness on insects.

　　The equipment designed by the students for their colony functioned perfectly throughout the long space trip. The young scientists and their teachers were very sad to find that their insect astronauts had all died at some point before the container was returned to the school and opened. The problem didn’t occur in space，but on the ground after challenger had landed. The container remained in the desert for nearly a week before the ant colony was moved. The hot，dry desert air dried out the colony’s container and the ants died from lack of moisture（水分）.

　　The project was termed success because it did provide useful information. Students will continue their efforts to pinpoint（精确找到）what went wrong. They will try to prevent the same difficulties from reoccurring on future missions. They don’t want to be discouraged either by the demise of the ants or by the $ 10,000 shuttle fare they will have to pay to send the next colony of ants into space.

51．What does the passage mainly tell us？

A．Sally Ride，America’s first woman astronaut.

B．How to keep ants alive in space.

C．How to make equipment for insects in space.

D．An experiment with ants in space.

52．According to the passage, we know that the underlined word“demise”is another word for“_____”.

A．death 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　B．colony

C．insect　　　　　　　　　　　　　　D．moisture

53．We don’t think the project was a failure. This is because_____.

A．everything went as smoothly as expected

B．the students had pinpointed exactly the reason

C．something important had been learned

D．the students had succeeded in the experiment

54．We can conclude that ants _____ on the next space trip.

A．will have to be kept alive in a container full of water

B．will have to be sent into space with the first woman astronaut

C．should be put into a container where there is enough food

D．should be put into a container which is not too dry