New Zealand was the only major land mass on its re­entry path.

　　Nasa says satellite debris scattered (撒落) over the south Pacific Ocean about as far away from large land masses as you can get.It says the US Air Force calculated the satellite entered Earth's atmosphere generally above American Samoa.But pieces of it did not start hitting the water for another 480 kilometers to the northeast, southwest of Christmas Island.Experts believe the metal pieces fell over an 800­kilometre span.

　　On Saturday, scientists said it was possible some pieces could have reached northwestern Canada, but Nasa said overnight that new calculations show it landed earlier than they thought, nowhere near North America.

　　Nick Johnson, Nasa's chief scientist for orbital debris, said the satellite had descended “well within” the range predicted (预测) by the Joint Space Operations Center (JSOC)．“This was not an easy re­entry to predict because of the natural forces acting on the satellite as its orbit decayed (轨道变形)．Some other nations around the world also were monitoring the satellite's descent in the last two hours and all the predictions were well within the range estimated by JSOC.”

　　UARS was launched aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1991.Nasa stopped using the satellite in 2005, after moving it into a lower orbit that cut its life short by 20 years.

　　文章大意：Nasa地图准确预测了卫星碎片的坠落轨迹。

【高三英语备考总复习人教版必修三：Units 3～5质量过关检测】相关文章：

★ 2017届高考英语二轮复习课时训练：7（含解析）

★ 【北京专用】2014届高考英语一轮复习方案课时作业：必修5 Unit 4 Making the news

★ 2017届高考英语二轮复习书面表达限时测验：6（含解析）

★ 【外研英语，七省专用】2014《走向高考》一轮总复习（2016春出版）第二部分 学生作业手册：必修一1-4

★ 贵州省贵阳市2014高考英语（新人教版）一轮阅读训练（4）附答案

★ 2017届高考英语二轮复习课时训练：21（含解析）

★ 贵州省贵阳市2014高考英语（新人教版）一轮阅读训练（22）附答案

★ 【北师大版】2014届高考英语一轮复习指导课时作业：Unit 3 A卷 Word版含解析

★ 【北师大版】2014届高考英语一轮复习指导课时作业：Unit 5 A卷 Word版含解析

★ 【浙江专用】2014届高考英语一轮复习课时作业(三十五)选修7Unit 5《Travelling abroad》