【推荐2】Believe it or not, the day when you can go to the moon is coming soon. You can go into space _______ space shuttle (太空船). It _______ about three days for the shuttle to go from the earth to the moon. The shuttle flies a long way to a space station. You can stay there for a short rest and then it will _______ you to the moon.

Now you can jump out of the shuttle. But you mustn’t take off your spacesuit (太空服), because it is very hot in the daytime and very cold at night on the _______. The moon is much smaller than the earth. Things are _______ on the moon than they are on the earth. You can jump high every time you take a step. You will find that it is never tiring to walk on the moon. You don’t need to take an umbrella or a raincoat with you _______ there is no rain on the moon. You can hear _______ because there is no air on the moon. And there are no animals or other living things there.       

The moon moves more _______ than the earth, so one day on the moon is as long as two weeks on the earth and one night is just as long as two weeks on the earth. What could you do in _______ long days and nights and in a silent world? Now ________ are trying to make the best of the moon. But our earth is really a far better place to live, as long as we take good care of it.

【推荐3】We have always been interested in the moon. Two thousand years ago, people already knew that the moon _________ around the earth and where it would be in the sky at different times of the year. At that time, everything about the moon was learned by _________ it carefully in the sky.

When scientists could use telescopes to study the moon more closely, their ideas began to _______. They could see that the moon was made of rocks. Most scientists thought moon rocks would be different from those on the earth. This was _________ they believed the moon had once been a planet that had been caught in the earth’s gravity (引力) millions of years earlier.

In 1969, moon rocks were finally _________ to the earth and studied. To their surprise, scientists found that, except water, the moon and the earth were made of the same things. Once again new ideas were needed for this new information.

After years of study, most scientists now think that the moon was once part of the earth. They believe very early in its history, maybe 4 billion years ago, something about the size of Mars hit the earth. This _________ billions of rocks into space around our planet. These rocks _________ joined together and after many years became the moon.

【推荐1】In Western countries, many people buy lots of presents(礼物) before Christmas. ________ some people think they shouldn’t buy too many things. They started a special day ________ Buy Nothing Day. They hope people don’t go ________ on that day.

Buy Nothing Day is on November 29. It ________ after Thanksgiving Day. Often, in Western countries, before Christmas, there are so many advertisements(广告) in the ________ and on TV. The advertisements make people ________ something.

Some people didn’t like going shopping or they wanted to save(节约) ________, so they started the Buy Nothing Day. The idea first started in Canada. And it became popular in some foreign ________. Now many people celebrate Buy Nothing Day. They get together to read stories, ________ songs and draw pictures. They still have a lot of fun. But some little children ask why they didn’t ________ many presents(礼物) like before. Do you want to have a try? Can you buy nothing just for one day?

In 1912, a man called Wilfrid Voynich bought a number of books in Italy. He bought so many that ________ didn’t look very carefully at the books. When he arrived home, he discovered he had bought ________ very strange handwritten manuscript (手写稿). It was written in a language he had never seen before. It was also full of ________ of plants.

Since then, the book—now known as the Voynich Manuscript—________ the world’s most mysterious (神秘的) manuscript. Many people have studied it, ________ no one has ever discovered its meaning and writer.

There are many ideas about who wrote it and why. Some say that it should ________ by a famous scientist like Francis Bacon. Some think it could be a religious (宗教的) text. Others think the manuscript ________ a hoax (骗局) and means nothing at all.

Scientists have learned that the manuscript was made between 1404 and 1438. However, this only tells us ________, not when the book was written. But there’s still hope. After all, the manuscript is real and there’s meaning to its words.

The Voynich Manuscript remains a mystery today. You can go online ________ it if you would like to know the truth. Are you interested ________ it? Then, please look up some information about it on the Internet.

【推荐3】An Accidental Invention

Did you know that tea, the most popular drink in the world (after water), ________ by accident?

Many people believes that tea was first drunk nearly 5,000 years ago. ________ a Chinese ruler called Shen Nong was the first to discover tea as a drink. One day Shen Nong was boiling drinking water ________ an open fire. Some leaves from a tea plant fell into the water and remained there for some time. It produced a nice smell so he tasted the brown water. It was quite delicious, and so, one of the world’s favorite drinks was invented. ________ thousand years later, Lu Yu, “the saint of tea”, mentioned Shen Nong in his book Cha Jing. The book describes how tea plants were ________ and used to make tea.

It also discusses where the finest tea leaves were produced and what kinds of water were used.