調查局三等
105年
[電子科學組] 綜合法政知識與英文(包括中華民國憲法、法學緒論、兩岸關係、英文)
第 45 題
📖 題組：
Some 66m years ago Earth was hit by a space rock reckoned to have been 10km across. The resulting chaos caused the extinction of dinosaurs and many other species, opening the way for the age of mammals－and ultimately humans. It also left a big hole in what is now southern Mexico. That hole is one of only three known of similar dimensions (the other two are Vredefort in South Africa and Sudbury in Canada). And this is odd. For, during the billions of years that Earth has had a solid crust, many more than three big asteroids might have been expected to have hit it. That thought led Brandon Johnson of the MIT and Timothy Bowling of Purdue University in Indiana, to wonder how many other craters have vanished, either by erosion or by being swallowed into Earth’s interior as its crust moves around, and therefore whether it is likely that some have survived and been overlooked. They have just published their analysis in Geology. Earth’s crust formed more than 4 billion years ago, but the oldest surviving blocks of it large enough to harbor craters date back only 3.5 billion years. What is known of the sizes and orbits of modern asteroids suggests that, if things have not changed over the aeons, about 14 big asteroids (defined as having a diameter of more than 7.4km, which would cause a crater at least 85km in diameter) should hit Earth every billion years. That means 49, give or take seven, over the past 3.5 billion years. Such impacts may have been more common in the past, when more big asteroids were around. Allowing for this, Earth would have been hit by 113, give or take 11, of them. Either way, a lot of craters are missing.
Some 66m years ago Earth was hit by a space rock reckoned to have been 10km across. The resulting chaos caused the extinction of dinosaurs and many other species, opening the way for the age of mammals－and ultimately humans. It also left a big hole in what is now southern Mexico. That hole is one of only three known of similar dimensions (the other two are Vredefort in South Africa and Sudbury in Canada). And this is odd. For, during the billions of years that Earth has had a solid crust, many more than three big asteroids might have been expected to have hit it. That thought led Brandon Johnson of the MIT and Timothy Bowling of Purdue University in Indiana, to wonder how many other craters have vanished, either by erosion or by being swallowed into Earth’s interior as its crust moves around, and therefore whether it is likely that some have survived and been overlooked. They have just published their analysis in Geology. Earth’s crust formed more than 4 billion years ago, but the oldest surviving blocks of it large enough to harbor craters date back only 3.5 billion years. What is known of the sizes and orbits of modern asteroids suggests that, if things have not changed over the aeons, about 14 big asteroids (defined as having a diameter of more than 7.4km, which would cause a crater at least 85km in diameter) should hit Earth every billion years. That means 49, give or take seven, over the past 3.5 billion years. Such impacts may have been more common in the past, when more big asteroids were around. Allowing for this, Earth would have been hit by 113, give or take 11, of them. Either way, a lot of craters are missing.
Over the past 3.5 billion years, roughly how many asteroids may have hit Earth?
- A 14
- B 85
- C 113
- D 11
思路引導 VIP
請仔細觀察文章最後三句話：當作者考慮到「古代撞擊頻率可能比現在更高」這個變因後，他最終提出哪一個數字，來代表這 $3.5$ 億年來總共可能發生的撞擊次數呢？
🤖
AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
哼，還算不錯。
至少你沒被那些顯而易見的陷阱絆倒。這點閱讀定位能力，在這種基本題上算是勉強及格吧。
- 觀念驗證：看來你還記得要把文章讀完。前面那個 $49 \pm 7$ 次不過是個煙霧彈，真正的答案就藏在後面那句「過去撞擊更頻繁」的提示，以及最終的「Allowing for this, Earth would have been hit by $113$, give or take $11$」這種白紙黑字的結論。連這都分不清，那還能做什麼？
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