题目内容：

We hope you've finally made your peace with Pluto being downgraded from a planet to an ice dwarf (冰矮星)，because we have some more jarring news for you : It seems your teachers may have been wrong about the number of continents on the earth，too.

Earlier this year, scientists published a report in the journal of the Geological Society of America detailing an eighth continent called Zealandia, roughly the size of India and almost completely hid itself under the Pacific Ocean east of Australia. Covering all of New Zealand as well as several nearby islands, Zealandia likely spent the best of its above-water days as part of the supercontinent Gondwana before fragmenting off Australia and Antarctica some 80 million years ago. This lost, underwater continent is just beginning to reveal its secrets, making for one of the most promising scientific discoveries this year.

While researchers have been aware of the 1. 9 million-square-mile mass for two decades， Zealandia has only recently become the object of serious study since the Geological Society paper argued that it fits all the criteria for a proper continent, including a continental crust (地壳)that's distinctly separate from the seabed in terms of elevation, thickness, and geology. A team of 32 scientists from 12 countries just completed their first visit to six dig sites around Zealandia, where they drilled up more than 8,000 feet of sediment cores (沉积物岩心)that will help explain the lost continent's 80-million-year history.

Because there is no official body that formally recognizes continents, whether or not Zealandia ends up in future geography textbooks will come down to its acceptance by the scientific community at large, possibly with a little help from travelers like you.

1.Why does the author mention Pluto?

A. To express his or her pity.

B. To introduce the topic.

C. To go against the teachers»

D. To explain the ice dwarf.

2.What do we know about Zealandia in Paragraph 2?

A. It neighbors Australia.

B. It belongs to Gondwana now.

C. It is similar to Antarctica in size.

D. It has a history of over 80 billion years.

3.What can most probably help discover more secrets about Zealandia?

A. The sediment cores on Zealandia.

B. The wildlife in New Zealand.

C. The standard for a continent.

D. The seabed near Antarctica.

4.Where does the text probably come from?

A. A travel brochure.

B. An advertisement.

C. An geography magazine.

D. A science fiction.