【推荐1】The lander-ascender (上升器) combination of China's Chang’e 5 robotic lunar probe (探测器) has finished gathering subsurface samples and packed them in vacuum container and is continuing collecting surface samples, according to the China National Space Administration.

The administration said in a statement on Wednesday morning that the drilling and packing processes of rocks and soil from 2 meters beneath lunar surface concluded at 4:53 am. A mechanical arm is continuing gathering surface samples.

The combination landed on the moon at 11:11 pm on Tuesday, becoming the third spacecraft that has successfully touched down on the lunar surface this century. The first two aircraft that had achieved this are also from China — the Chang’e 3 and 4. The combination is tasked with collecting about 2 kilograms of samples.

China’s largest and most sophisticated lunar probe, Chang’e 5 was launched by a Long March 5 heavy-lift carrier rocket early on Nov 24 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, undertaking the world’s first mission since 1976 to return lunar samples to Earth. The spacecraft is composed of four parts — orbiter (轨道飞行器), lander, ascender and re-entry capsule (返回舱).

Before the landing, Chang’e 5 separated into two parts — the orbiter-reentry capsule combination and the lander-ascender combination — in a lunar orbit early on Monday morning so as to prepare for the landing operation.

While the lander-ascender combination is carrying out surface operations, the orbiter-reentry capsule combination is traveling in a lunar orbit at an average altitude of around 200 km above the moon. After all surface operations are done, an engine on the ascender will lift it to meet the reentry module. It will transfer the lunar samples to the module and then separate from it.

The orbiter-reentry combination capsule will then return to the Earth’s orbit, where the pair will break up and the reentry capsule will return to a preset landing site in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in mid-December.

If the mission is successful, it will make China the third nation to bring samples back from the moon, after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

1. What does the underlined word “sophisticated” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Popular.

B．Advanced.

C．Necessary.

D．Difficult.

2. Which one shows the correct order of the whole operation?
a. landing on the moon.
b. separating Chang’e 5 into two parts.
c. launching Chang’e 5 lunar probe from the rocket.
d. collecting subsurface and surface samples.
e. returning to the Earth’s orbit.

A．cbade.

B．baced.

C．bcaed.

D．cbdae.

3. What can we infer from the text?

A．Chang’e 5 has finished collecting samples on the surface.

B．The reentry capsule will return with the lunar samples.

C．The orbiter-reentry capsule will be together all the time.

D．The reentry capsule will return to the launch center.

4. Where can we most probably read this text?

A．In a travel brochure.	B．In a geography textbook.
C．In a science newspaper.	D．In a personal diary.

【推荐2】If you grew up watching the kid’s television channel Nickelodeon, you will probably understand that there is nothing greater than enjoying its special bright green slime ( 水晶泥). The week of May 11, astronauts (宇航员) aboard the International Space Station(ISS) joined the slime.

Nickelodeon sent two kilos of its green slime into space in the summer of 2019. The Slime in Space project’s idea was to create an educational trip for teachers to use in class. The green slime was also used to guide astronauts through a series of experiments that were designed to learn more about how slime acts in microgravity.

Researchers from Portland State University(PSU) were excited to design the experiments for the project. Mark Weislogel and his partner designed eight shows for NASA astronauts and European Space Agency astronaut aboard to perform.

If you’re wondering what we could hope to learn from sending slime into space, the answer lies in its very name. Slime is slimy. This is because it is a liquid that is thicker than liquids like water. This makes slime act in unexpected ways in the microgravity of the ISS. Improving our understanding of how thicker liquids act in space may help us improve the design of systems that something were designed with Earth’s gravity in mind.

“Interestingly, we consider liquid on Earth as that takes the shape of its container,” Koch tells CNN. “Water just turns into a ball in microgravity, so we’ve had to have a new understanding of different kinds of matter in space. This experiment shows how microgravity   can help us understand things on Earth, especially the things we take for granted.”

1. In paragraph one, Nickelodeon is mentioned .

A．to introduce the topic	B．to attract the kids
C．to make advertisements	D．to share a TV show

2. Why are the experiments with slime designed in space ?

A．Because they get students interested in space.

B．Because slime takes the shape of its container.

C．Because slime is popular with kids in the TV show.

D．Because they help us understand how slime acts in space.

3. What is Koch’s attitude towards the experiment with slime?

A．Puzzled.

B．Worried.

C．Uninterested.

D．Positive.

4. Which of the following can be the best title of the text?

A．Microgravity makes a difference to matters.

B．Astronauts join the slime in space for science.

C．Kids join the slime so as to become astronauts.

D．Experiments are designed with slimy slime.

【推荐3】The earth is the only planet that scientists think has life. Why does the earth have life while the other planets don’t? For one thing, the earth is just the right temperature. As the third planet from the sun, the earth seems to be just the right distance away. The planets which are closer to the sun are so hot. The farthest planets are cold balls.

When the earth developed—which scientists believe may have happened about 4 billion years ago—many gases covered the earth. The gases caused the earth to be hot. But something wonderful happened. The temperature was just right for thick clouds to form. It rained very hard for a very long time. This gave the earth its oceans. Water made it possible for plants to grow. The plants created oxygen in the atmosphere. Oxygen is the gas that humans and animals breathe.

Only one other planet in the solar system seems to be something like the earth. That planet is Mars(火星). Mars is smaller than the earth, and it is quite a bit cooler. But it is not too cold for humans. On some days, the temperatures are as low as a winter day in the northern United States. If you wore a special spacesuit, you could walk around on Mars. The most difficulty is that you have to bring your own air to breathe, because the air on Mars is too thin to breathe.

Mars has the largest volcano(火山) in the solar system. It is sixteen miles high. The highest volcano on the earth is five miles high. Scientists believe that Mars was once much better than it is now. Does this mean there could have been living things on Mars? Scientists are not sure, but there has been no sign so far.

1. Which of the following is NOT the reason that the earth has life?

A．The earth is just the right temperature.

B．There is oxygen in the atmosphere of the earth.

C．The volcanoes on the earth are lower than those on Mars.

D．The earth seems to be just the right distance away from the sun.

2. The underlined phrase “the third planet” in the first paragraph refers to_______.

A．the Sun	B．the Moon
C．the Earth	D．the Mars

3. Which of the following about the Mars is NOT true?

A．There is almost no oxygen in the air on Mars.

B．There could have been living things on Mars.

C．Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system.

D．Mars is smaller and quite a bit cooler than the earth.

4. Which is the first trouble for human to live on Mars?

A．The volcanoes.	B．The temperature.
C．The air.	D．The food.

5. Which of the following is probably the best title for the passage?

A．The Earth	B．The Moon
C．Planets in the Solar System	D．Mars is Most Like the Earth

【推荐1】When I heard that Vitaminwater is giving away $100,000 in a contest where the winner has to give up their cellphone for a year, my immediate thought was: I could never do that. Even a day would be very difficult for me. I admit that I'm addicted to my iPhone.

I sleep with it under my pillow. It's the first thing I reach for in the morning. I've never counted how many times I pick it up during the day, but it's at least several per hour, and often I can't go 5 minutes without looking at it.

What am I doing on my phone? Everything, it feels like. Making to-do lists, searching for random information, checking e-mails and so on. I've also become attached to social media because somehow it's become vital that I know exactly what my childhood best friend’s cousin is doing.

I know the importance of communication in theory. But in practice, I've been scolded more times than I can count by my boyfriend, "You love your phone more than me.”

I feel anxious when my phone isn't easily within reach, like life is happening without me. My already high general level of anxiety increases if I don't feel as informed as I can possibly be.

I'm tricked by my phone’s simplicity. I'll just look at it while I'm in the bathroom or waiting in line at a store. Those few minutes that seem harmless enough likely represent the whole days’ worth of time when I could have been reading books or simply letting my mind relax.

The possibility of going even a day without my smartphone fills me with fear. And yet it upsets me that I've become completely dependent on this technological advancement.

So, on second thoughts, I'm going to enter the contest. And even if I don't win, I promise to limit my phone usage to 15 minutes a day in May, for a start. “Giving up a phone seems like giving up a limb nowadays,” one competitor to the contest wrote on Facebook. Even though it is true to me, that's still a sad reflection on modern life. So this May, I'm going old school(守旧派). I hope I remember how.

1. How did the writer react when she heard about the cellphone-free contest?

A．She wanted to take part in it eagerly.

B．She thought it would be meaningless and boring.

C．She thought it would be too challenging for her.

D．She was confident that she could win the contest.

2. The writer feels uneasy when her phone is beyond reach because ______.

A．she thinks her phone is missing	B．she is unable to reach her friends
C．she can't search the information randomly	D．she is afraid that she will be cut off from the society

3. What can we infer from the passage?

A．The writer's boyfriend likes mobile phone more than her.

B．The writer is sure to get the reward prepared for the competitors.

C．The writer uses her phone while waiting in line in order to relax.

D．The convenience of cellphones fools the writer into wasting time

4. Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A．My Addiction to the Phone	B．Giving up My Phone—for May
C．The Advantages of My Phone	D．A Contest for Phone Users

【推荐2】Who’s in control of your life? Who’s pulling your strings? For the majority of us, it’s other people—society, colleagues, friends, family or our community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde put it,“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”

So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug—we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsening lives to keep getting their fix, we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.

But, just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom—the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think.People have their own agenda,and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they’re more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting tired and probably pleasing no one in the process.

So how can we take back control? I think there’s only one way—make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values—not values imposed from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic, effective, purposeful and happy life.

1. It can be concluded from the passage that 　　　.

A．it’s better to follow others’ opinions

B．it’s important to accept others’ comments

C．we shouldn’t change our own decision

D．we shouldn’t care too much what others think

2. What does the author try to argue in the third paragraph?

A．The price of taking the drug is freedom.

B．We may lose ourselves to win the approval of others.

C．We need to pay for what we want to get.

D．Changing opinions may cost us our freedom.

3. What Oscar Wilde said implies that　　　.

A．most people have a variety of thoughts

B．we have thoughts similar to those of others

C．other people’s thoughts are more important

D．most people’s thoughts are affected by others

4. The author tries to persuade the readers to accept his arguments mainly by 　　　.

A．discussing questions

B．making suggestions

C．analyzing causes and effects

D．providing examples and facts

【推荐3】When I sent my daughter, Emma, off for her freshman year of college a few years ago, I found myself affected by an unbelievable feeling of melancholy. Clearly, I'm not alone. Just last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that more than 90 percent of colleges offer to help moms and dads who are “struggling with the change.”

Between Thanksgiving, winter holiday, spring break and summer break, the first one out of my nest has come fluttering back home nearly every month of the year since she has been away. Good friends like to joke that they see more of her now than they did when she was a senior in high school. In the meantime, Emma calls, texts or e-mails me almost every day.

Given all this, missing Emma seems kind of silly；I've never really gotten the chance. So why, then, have I still felt on some level that I've experienced a great loss?

All summer long before Emma left that first year, I took Emma out for countless mother-daughter breakfasts, lunches, coffees and walks. At the same time, I seemed to find fault with Emma all the time. In my eyes, Emma had spent the weeks leading up to school going out with her friends too much, staying out way too late, making too big a mess, not working enough and, for goodness sake, certainly not spending enough time with me!

Although it's taken quite a while to realize what was happening, I now understand that my unhappiness and anxiety are not a reflection of how much time Emma and I spend together. Regardless of how often she comes home, or how many times a day we chat or text, Emma is now gone in a far grander sense. She is well on the road to adulthood, and from this, she will never return.

1. What does the underlined word “melancholy” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A．Fierce anger.	B．Deep sadness.
C．Extreme excitement.	D．Great satisfaction.

2. Why does it seem silly for the author to miss her daughter?

A．They keep in touch frequently.	B．Friends like to make fun of her.
C．Emma has grown up to an adult.	D．Other parents don't behave like this.

3. What actually made the author overly worried?

A．The untidiness of Emma's room.	B．The passing of Emma's childhood.
C．Taking Emma out all too often.	D．Spending little time with Emma.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Changes in the Parent-Child Relationship	B．The Most Concerned Parents of All Time
C．Growing Pains for College Students	D．Struggling to Let Go of My Daughter