A new airplane may soon be able to travel into the space at more than five times the speed of sound.
      A project by the aerospace company Boeing is making progress. Boeing will finish advanced design work for an experimental space-plane. The experimental space-plane is called the XS-1, or the “Phantom Express”. It would be operated without a human pilot.
     The goal of the project is to make it easier to reach low earth orbit, between 160 and 2,000 kilometers above the surface of the earth. For example, the space-plane could be used to send a satellite into the space very quickly. Now, a lost satellite might take months to replace.
     By 2020, the project could make it possible to use one of the XS-1 vehicles 10 times within 10 days. The Phantom Express space-plane would reduce the cost of sending things into the space to one tenth of today. And the low cost would make them possible "on demand".

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1. If sound travels at the speed of 340m/s, the XS-1 could travel at the speed of _____per hour.

A 340m

B 1,700m

C 1,700km

D 6,120km

解析：选D。数字计算题。根据第一段A new airplane may soon be able to travel into the space at more than five times the speed of sound.可知这种飞机的速度是音速的5倍以上，因此其每小时飞行距离为340×3600×5米=6120000米=6120千米，故选D。

2.Who will operate the first XS-1?

A Yang Liwei.

B An astronaut.

C Any pilot.

D Nobody.

解析：选D。细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句It would be operated without a human pilot.可知这种太空飞机上没有飞行员，故选D。

3.What can we learn from the third paragraph?

A The satellite could move in the low earth orbit.

B The satellite could be sent into the space by a plane.

C It takes a short time to replace a lost satellite.

D The experiment will be done in the low earth orbit.

解析：选A。推理判断题。根据第三段第一、二句The goal of the project is to make it easier to reach low earth orbit, between 160 and 2,000 kilometers above the surface of the earth. For example, the space-plane could be used to send a satellite into the space very quickly.可知其目标是使进入近地轨道更容易，比如可以用来发射卫星到太空中，那么卫星应该是在近地轨道上运行的，故选A。

4.What does the underlined phrase “on demand” mean?

A 有要求的

B 按需定制

C 需求量大

D 质量高的

解析：选C。词义猜测题。根据最后一段倒数第二句The Phantom Express space-plane would reduce the cost of sending things into the space to one tenth of today. 可知这种飞机将使得发射卫星的成本大大降低，因此需求量会很大，故选C。

5. Where can you see this passage?

A In a cookbook.

B In a newspaper.

C In a travel magazine.

D In a music book.

解析：选B。文章出处题。根据全文内容是在介绍一种新型太空飞机，并着重介绍了其优势可知这应该是科普技术类新闻，应该出现在报纸上，故选B。