2 . An Indian spacecraft's first attempt to make a soft, controlled landing in the moon's south polar region has ended in painful silence: Shortly before touchdown (降落), the robotic lander - part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission - fell out of contact with mission control(航天地面指挥中心). The Indian Space Research Organization says that the spacecraft stopped communicating with Earth when it was within 1.3 miles of the lunar surface. ''The Vikram descent (下降)was as planned, and normal performance was observed, up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometers, '' said Kailasavadivoo Sivan, ISRO's chairman, in a statement roughly half an hour after signal loss. ''The data is being analyzed.''
A successful landing would have made India just the fourth country to touch down anywhere on the lunar (月球的)surface, and only the third nation to operate a robotic rover (巡视器) there. Nevertheless, the Chandrayaan-2 mission's orbiter(航天器) remains safely in lunar orbit, with a year-long scientific mission ahead of it. Like any voyage to a world beyond Earth, Vikram's flight was a risky endeavor, requiring the lander to slow itself down to a near standstill(停止), scan for surface obstacles (障碍物) by itself, and then take steps to avoid them during touchdown. The majority of attempts to land robots on the moon have ended in failure, either during launch or on the way to the surface.
Following its launch on July 22, Chandrayaan-2 spent the last several weeks inching its way to the moon, ultimately entering lunar orbit on August 20. On September 2, Vikram separated from the mission's orbiter, and the newly freed lander began a series of braking maneuvers (刹车操作)to lower its orbit and ready itself for landing. Had things proceeded without a fault, Vikram and Pragyaan - the small solar-powered rover it carried - would have set down on the moon at a latitude of about 70 degrees South, on a highland between Manzinus C and Simpelius N.
This landing site was ''somewhere new that we haven't seen before, so that makes it another area for ground-truthing remote sensing data,'' Clive Neal, a lunar geologist, said in an interview before the landing attempt, ''It was going to certainly enhance our knowledge of what the moon is like in those areas, so it was going to be another very good place for science and exploration.''
1. What happened to the lunar lander according to paragraph 1?
| A．It made a soft landing. | B．It got data from the lunar surface. |
| C．It lost contact with Earth. | D．It lowered itself at a wrong altitude. |
2. Why was the Vikram's flight a risky endeavor?
| A．It demanded higher technique. |
| B．There were not enough funds to support it. |
| C．Few Indian scientists agreed with the voyage. |
| D．No country has succeeded in landing robots on the moon. |
3. What can we learn about Vikram from the third paragraph?
| A．It entered lunar orbit four weeks after its launch. |
| B．It landed on the moon at an altitude of about 70 degrees South. |
| C．It separated from the mission's orbiter before entering the lunar orbit. |
| D．It lowered its orbit by starting the braking maneuvers to prepare for its landing. |
4. What's Clive Neal's attitude towards the landing?
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Neutral. | D．Negative. |
