A team of scientists are carrying out a project at the University of Greenwich in London. They are trying to find ways to make food on Mars in the future. The project is called Feeding Mars. It tries to use water, fish and fish waste to grow fruit and vegetables on Mars.
It would take at least 21 months to reach Mars, learn about its surface and return to Earth. So it would be a big help if the spacemen could grow fresh food on Mars itself. However, farming on Mars will be very hard. There’s a lot of water that could be taken from ice just below the surface, but the land on Mars is short of the nutrients that living things need. The team says that they could solve the problem by growing plants and fish together. Fish waste can then be used to provide nutrients for plants.
“It is expected that you can grow lots of food, such as vegetables, tea and medicinal plants on Mars,” said Dr. Benz Kotzen, who leads the project. “You can even harvest fish for food then.”
1. The project tries to use water and fish to grow fruit on the moon.2. The project would take at least 21 months to return to Mars.
3. The poor land condition makes it difficult to farm on Mars.
4. Scientists could grow plants and fish together to solve the nutrients’ problem.
5. Dr. Benz Kotzen was disappointed about this project.
Scientists have worked out when our Sun will die. It won’t be any time soon. It will be in 10 billion years. The scientists are from the University of Manchester in the UK. They predict that in about 5 billion years from now, the Sun will turn into a “red giant”. This is the scientific name given to a star at the end of its life. When our Sun becomes a red giant, its centre will shrink (收缩) . Its outer layers will expand (膨胀) as far as Mars. This means Earth will be burnt and disappear. After our Sun turns into a red giant, it will become a bubble of gas and space dust. The scientists say no humans will be on Earth when the Sun dies out.
The Sun is still quite young in space years. It is just 4.6 billion years old. This means it is only around one third into its lifespan (寿命) . Professor Albert Zijlstra, a scientist from the University of Manchester, explained what happens at the end of a star’s life. He said, “By this point in the star’s life, it is running out of fuel. Then it turns off and dies.” Professor Zijlstra was happy that modern science can count the age of stars and what will happen to them. “We even have found out what the Sun will do when it dies.” He said.
1. According to the scientists, when will the sun die?2. When do we call a star “red giant”?
3. What will happen to humans when the sun dies out?
4. What’s the lifespan of the Sun?
5. Should we worry about the sun’s death? Why or why not?
When we look up at the night sky, we see the twinkling stars. But what we don’t see is the space junk (垃圾) floating up the space. Now there may be as many as 170 million pieces of space junk in Earth’s orbit (轨道). If they hit our satellites or spaceships, they can destroy them and make them stop working.
Facing the big danger by space junk, scientists are working hard on its cleanup although it’s really a tough job and takes a long time. The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to use a “junk truck”, ClearSpace-1, in 2025. It’s a spaceship that can find its target and move close to it, then catch it with its four “arms”. This is not going to be an easy job because even the smallest junk circles Earth as fast as 8 kilometers a second. Once it catches the junk, the spaceship will carry it back to Earth. This is because the junk will burn up when traveling through the atmosphere (大气层), so there won’t be much left when it reaches Earth. However, the spaceship itself will burn up at the same time.
Since the original cleanup plan will cause huge loss, scientists are trying to work out other plans. One new plan is to send a spaceship carrying special tools, which are used to shoot to stick into the space junk, moving it away from the orbit and throwing it into Earth’s atmosphere.
Space junk is a huge threat which endangers our satellites or spaceships, but why haven’t space agencies around the world done anything yet? One reason is the cost. To catch one piece of space junk larger than 10cm wide would cost between $4,000 and $60,000 (about 30,000 to 436,000 yuan) per kilogram.
With space traffic increasing, all nations have to work together to find out more ways to reduce space junk, or there will be more in-space accidents.
阅读短文，根据短文内容完成填空。（每空限填一词）
| SOME INFORMATION ABOUT SPACE CLEANING PLAN: ✧ Scientists are trying to work out space cleaning plans because space junk is ✧ ESA plans to use ClearSpace-1, a ✧ The space junk travels so ✧ In the new space cleaning plan, a spaceship is used to ✧ Although the |
| nearest, learn, Thanks, includes, far, seen, receiving, smaller, Thanks to, |
The universe (宇宙) is so wide that we still don’t know much about it. It
Our knowledge of the universe has been growing all the time.
5 . Do you want to celebrate your birthday in space? It would be very different from what you might do on earth.
Some astronauts feel sick for the first few days in space. Some feel as if they have a cold all the time. That’s because without gravity, the fluids (液体) in their bodies move towards their heads. Their faces look a little fatter.
And because gravity is not pressing on the spine (脊椎). The spine relaxes and stretches (舒展).
Since nothing has weight, astronauts can lift heavy objects easily.
| A．They can even lift each other. |
| B．For example, your birthday cake would be flying. |
| C．Astronauts grow three or four centimeters in space. |
| D．Your friends could still sing Happy Birthday to You. |
| E．For the same reason, their waists get smaller and their chests get bigger. |
What do black holes look like? We finally got the answer: they look like dark circles with a bright ring around the outside. Scientists took the world’s first photo of a black hole. The black hole is very far from Earth—about 55 million light years away. This is not the only black hole in the universe.
Black holes are mysterious in the universe. A photo can help us learn more about them. How much do you know about black holes? Try to answer the following questions.
Q: What is a black hole?
A: A black hole comes from a dying star. The star turns in to a small point. The point has much mass and strong gravity (引力) . The strong gravity of a black hole pulls things. The black hole “eats” these things. Black holes can even “eat” light. That’s why a black hole looks “black”.
Q: If black holes are “black”, how do scientists know they are there?
A: We cannot see black holes. But we can see how their strong gravity works on the things around them. A black hole’s gravity pulls dust and gas into it. And if a star is orbiting (绕轨道运行) a point in space, scientists can study the star’s orbit. They can tell if the star is orbiting a black hole.
Q: How did scientists take the picture of the black hole?
A: Scientists didn’t use a camera to take the picture. They used eight radio telescopes in different places across the world. The telescopes got information from the black hole. Scientists used computers to deal with the information. It took them two years to get the final picture.
Q: Will the sun turn into a black hole? And if it does, will it “eat” Earth?
A: The sun won’t become a black hole. According to NASA, it does not have enough mass to turn into one. When the sun dies, it will become a smaller and cooler star. Even if the sun becomes a black hole, Earth would still be safe.
1. Which of the following is NOT true about black holes?| A．They are about 55 million light years away from Earth. |
| B．Black holes look “black” because they pull light and “eat” it. |
| C．There is more than one black hole in space. |
| A．moves | B．shakes | C．feels |
| A．using cameras to take pictures |
| B．using radio telescopes around the world |
| C．watching the stars carefully in the sky |
| A．Earth will die at once. | B．Earth will become black. | C．Earth will still be safe. |
| A．Learning about black holes | B．Earth and the black holes | C．Something about the universe |
7 . From a plane you can see the fields, cities, mountains or rivers below. If we go into space, we see more and more of the earth. People and man—made satellites (卫星) are sent into space to look at the earth, the stars and other planets and learn more about them.
The moon is our nearest neighbor in space. It is our satellite and men have visited it already. It is smaller than the earth. Plants can’t grow on the moon because there is no air or water on it. There are lots of mountains on the moon. At night, it is very cold on the moon. It is not comfortable to live on the moon if possible. On the moon, there is much dust here and there. The things on the moon are much lighter than the things on the earth.
The moon hasn’t its own light. It shines back (反射) the light of the sun. When the sun is shining on the side of the moon that faces us, it looks like a great round ball. We can’t see the moon when the sun is shining on the side of the moon that faces away from us.
In fact, the moon isn’t as near as it looks. It is 380, 000 kilometers away from the earth. Of course we can fly to the moon in a spaceship. It only takes more than three days to get there by spaceship.
根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。
1. The underlined words “dust” in the passage means “ ________” in Chinese.
| A．液体 | B．尘土 | C．冰山 |
| A．find there is more air |
| B．see more of the earth |
| C．learn more about the sun |
| A．a great round face |
| B．a great square box |
| C．a great round ball |
| A．Many kinds of plants can grow on the moon. |
| B．It takes the spaceship at least three days to the moon. |
| C．People can live on the moon easily. |
| A．Something about the moon. |
| B．How to get to the moon. |
| C．The introduction (介绍) the sun. |
Do you know anything about the Moon? How much do you know about it?
The Moon is not a friendly place. There is no air or water. There are only lots of dust (灰尘) and mountains around on it.
So people can’t hear any sounds on it.
But from the Moon, you can see our beautiful Earth. It is shining more brightly than the other stars in the dark.
| A．So there are no animals or plants there |
| B．The Moon is also a very quiet world |
| C．Do you want to go to the moon |
| D．You can take some photos with your camera |
| E．When the Sun shines in the day, the temperature is very high |
| F．Will you be hungry in space |
| G．Let’s see an exciting film about space |
The universe (宇宙) is everything out in space. Nobody
Now let me tell you something about the
We live on the outside part of the Earth. Around us is the air. It takes the Earth 24
Can you tell me something else about the universe? I think it is
| A．leaves | B．knows | C．blows | D．pollutes |
| A．gardens | B．planes | C．stars | D．rockets |
| A．Maths | B．Sun | C．Earth | D．Land |
| A．goes | B．waits | C．shows | D．keeps |
| A．water | B．ice | C．snow | D．cloud |
| A．watch | B．hear | C．feel | D．touch |
| A．nights | B．minutes | C．days | D．hours |
| A．easily | B．brightly | C．badly | D．slowly |
| A．flies | B．kicks | C．ties | D．becomes |
| A．weak | B．nervous | C．interesting | D．tiring |
10 . It is widely agreed that the overuse of coal and oil has caused serious environmental problems. Scientists are trying to find new clean energies that do not pollute the air, the water or the ground. Solar power(太阳能)is one of them.
Solar power is a kind of electricity which is produced by taking energy from the sun, using solar panels(面板，电池板). The power is easy to get and will never be used up. Whenever it is sunny, there is the power. The power is clean and renewable. It helps to reduce waste and pollution, which is great for the environment. For some areas that are too far away to send electricity to, solar power is especially necessary. People there use solar power for lights, TVs, computers, washing machines, fridges and many other things.
Therefore, more and more countries, such as China, the USA, Japan and India, encourage scientists to develop practical(实用的)technology to put solar power to use. However, the power is not as widely used as expected(预期的).
One of the challenges(挑战)is that a solar power system needs sunshine. Countries or areas with a lot of rain, like the UK, are not suitable to develop such power systems(系统). Secondly, a solar power station requires a very large site(地点)to fix(安装)enough solar panels to collect sunlight and change it into electricity. What’s more, solar panels are expensive at present though the energy itself doesn’t cost anything.
Today scientists are working hard to develop more practical and cheaper solar power systems. Maybe one day solar power will be one of the most important clean energies in our life.
1. Solar power is a kind of energy taken from ________.| A．the air | B．the sun | C．the water | D．the ground |
| A．短缺 | B．滥用 | C．用完 | D．习惯 |
| A．Because a solar system needs sunshine. |
| B．Because solar panels are expensive. |
| C．Because fixing solar panels needs very large sites. |
| D．All of A, B and C. |
| A．The ways to use solar power. |
| B．The advantages of solar power. |
| C．The places to build the solar power stations. |
| D．The difficulties of putting solar power to use widely. |
| A．Solar energy itself is expensive. |
| B．Solar power will be used up very soon. |
| C．Solar power is a kind of clean and useful energy. |
| D．Solar power is much better than the other energies. |
