Read the text and answer the questions below.
The largest thing in the universe
More than ten years ago, while taking the temperature of the universe,
astronomers found something odd. They discovered that a patch of sky,
spanning the width of 20 moons, was unusually cold.
The astronomers were measuring the thermal radiation that bathes the
entire universe, a glowing relic of the big bang. To gaze at this cosmic
microwave background, or CMB, is to glimpse the primordial
1
universe, a time when it was less than 400,000 years old.
The CMB blankets the sky, and looks pretty much the same
everywhere, existing at a feebly cold temperature of 2.725 kelvins - just
a couple degrees warmer than absolute zero. But armed with the newly
launched WMAP satellite, the astronomers had set out to probe
temperature variations as tiny as one part in 100,000. Born from the
quantum froth that was the universe a half-moment after the big bang,
those random fluctuations help scientists understand what the cosmos is
made of and how it all came to be.
And standing out amidst those fluctuations was a cold spot. Over the
years, astronomers have come up with all sorts of ideas to explain it,
ranging from instrumental error to parallel universes. But now, they're
homing in on a prime suspect: an enormous cavern of emptiness called
a cosmic supervoid, so big that it might be the largest structure in the
universe.
According to theory, such a vast void, in which nary a star or galaxy
exists, can leave a frigid imprint on the CMB. The answer to the mystery,
then, might simply be a whole lot of nothing. Yet puzzles remain, and the
case is far from closed.
Primordial1 - ancient, existing a very long time.
In boxes 1–5, chose
TRUE if the statement agrees with the
information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the
information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
Do the following statements agree with the information given
in Reading Passage?
1. Astronomers often find something odd on the sky.
2. The CMB is the thermal radiation across the entire
universe.
3. The CMB varies from extremely low to very high
temperatures.
4. Investigation of fluctuations of temperature in the space
help scientists to understand what the cosmos is made
of.
5. The cosmic supervoid is the largest structure in the
universe.
Answer with Hint
1.Not Given
The first paragraph tells us that astronomers have found something
odd on the sky. But is it written anywhere that they do it often? No.
That is why this information is not given in this text.
2.True
It is said in the second paragraph: "The astronomers were
measuring the thermal radiation that bathes the entire universe, a
glowing relic of the big bang. To gaze at this cosmic microwave
background, or CMB ..."
3.False
It is said in the third paragraph: "The CMB blankets the sky, and
looks pretty much the same everywhere, existing at a feebly cold
temperature of 2.725 kelvins". Thus, CBM exists everywhere only at
low temperatures.
4.True
It is said in the third paragraph: "....those random fluctuations
help scientists understand what the cosmos is made of...".
5.Not given
The fourth paragraph tells us that cosmic supervoid is so big that
it might be the largest structure in the universe. But is it? This
information is not given in this text.
