Many kids are crazy about space. Last month, a space agency (机构) told the public that they were _________ “a planet protection officer.” Some people laughed at the funny job title, but a 9-year-old boy took the information _________. He wrote a letter to the agency, saying that he wanted the job.

“Dear sirs, my name is Sam Lee. I think I am the _________ person for the job,” he wrote.

What are Sam’s _________? For one, he wrote, “My sister says I act like an alien (外星人)” Sam also said he had watched almost all the _________ movies he could find. His last sentence may touch people’s hearts: “I am young, so I can learn to think like an alien.”

Sam soon got a _________ from Bill Black, director of the agency. “We have received your letter. It is great that you are interested in the job. This job is to _________ the earth from germs (细菌) on things brought back from other planets.” Bill ended the letter with some warm words, _________ Sam to study hard and do well in school. “We hope to _________ you at the agency one day.” he wrote.

“Among kids, there are __________ space scientists.” Bill told a newspaper. “We think of this letter as a chance that may forever change our kids’ life.”

You might have seen beautiful rainbows in the sky before. They form when sunlight falls on water drops in the air. But in fact, moonlight can also create rainbows in the same way. They are called “moonbows”. They are similar to rainbows, but they are created by moonlight instead of direct sunlight.

Moonbows are rarer than rainbows. Different weather and astronomical （天文学的）conditions have to be just right for moonbows to be created.

The moon has to be very low in the sky-only 42 degrees from the horizon （地平线）. The moon period has to be a full moon or nearly full. The sky must be very dark for a moonbow to be watched clearly-any bright light can obscure it. Water drops must appear in the air in the opposite direction of the moon.

Moonbows appear on the opposite side of the moon and usually look white to the human eye. This is because their colors are not bright enough to be noticed by the human eye. It is possible, however, to view the colors in a moonbow using long exposure （长时间曝光）photography.

Moonbows more often appear in some locations around the world. Most of these locations usually have waterfalls, which create thin fog in the air. Some of these locations are the Yosemite National Park in California and Cumberland Falls State Resort Park in Kentucky, US; Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe; and Waimea in Hawaii, US.

Moonbows do really happen. So at a certain time and a certain place, when a moonbow happens to appear, you can’t miss it if you’re right there.

Seth dropped his schoolbag and headed straight for the fridge. He needed a good snack if he was going to stay up late to watch the super perigee moon. He didn’t care about the moon, but Mr. Andrews assigned (布置作业) a project and expected him to do all that work in one night.

“Hungry?” Mom asked.

“Not really, but I have to eat something. Mr. Andrews is making me watch the moon tonight and write up information on it.”

“Oh, that’s right. Tonight is the super perigee moon.” Mom smiled. “What a fun assignment.”

Fun? Was she crazy? “I don’t think staying up late to stare (凝视) at the moon sounds like fun at all.”

Mom laughed. “You just wait. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it more than you think you will.”

Seth didn’t think so. Mr. Andrews told the class that the super perigee moon appears when the full or new moon is the closest to the Earth. They spent an entire class talking about how big the moon usually looks. Seth didn’t see why this was such a big deal.

When the sun set, Seth walked outside. “That’s strange,” he said to his dad, “It’s so bright out here.”

“The super perigee moon is about 30% brighter than usual,” Dad said. “When I was younger, Grandpa used to study astronomy. He taught me all about space. The super perigee moon was always one of my favorite things to look at.”

Seth stared at the moon. Not only was it bright, it was huge—bigger than any full moon he’d ever seen.

“About 40% larger than usual,” Dad said.

Seth opened the notebook and started to write down the information his dad told him. “Think I should take pictures for the assignment?”

“Why not? It’s a good idea. It would get you good marks.”

“And I’d like to have pictures to remember this. It’s pretty cool.”

“So I guess you’re not too upset that you have to do the homework after all,” Dad said.

Seth continued to stare in awe (无比崇敬地) at the super perigee moon. “I think it’s the best assignment we’ve had all year.”

It was 12 o’clock at night. Jack _______ finished his work. He walked _______ back home along the street. The street was quiet. He looked east（向东）. About halfway（在中途）up the sky he saw the planet Mars. It looked like a red star. It had bright _______ in the sky.

Have you ever seen Mars? Have you _______ it? Do you know if there is life on Mars? Now let me tell you something about Mars. I am sure you will be _______ in it.

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the seventh largest in the solar system. The _______ gets the name probably because it has the red color. Of all the planets in the solar system, Mars is most _______ the earth, and the easiest one to travel to.

On April 7, 2001, America sent Odyssey to Mars. The journey took Odyssey _______ months. On October 24, 2001, it landed on Mars. Recently scientists have _______ there may be liquid （液体的）water on Mars. Water is very important because where there is water on the earth, there is life. Look forward ________ life on Mars some day!

7 . China has named the nation’s first Mars rover（火星车）ZhuRong. For all of us, Zhu Rong is a well-suited name.

In an ancient Chinese story, Zhu Rong had the face of a man and the body of an animal. H rode on two dragons. When he had a big fight with Gong Gong, the god of water, Zhu Rong won. But after the fight, the human world came into complete darkness. Then he brought fire from heaven（天国）to the world.

“Zhu Rong is regarded as the earliest god of fire in traditional Chinese culture,” a space official said. “The first Mars rover was named Zhu Rong. The name symbolizes（象征）light and hope for space exploration（探索）in our country, and means to guide humans to continue exploration.”

After leaving the earth last summer, Zhu Rong circled Mars for several months and landed on it in May. In recent years, our country has sent up the world’s first quanturn satellite（量子卫星）, and Chang’e-4 has made a soft landing on the moon. We have made great progress in space technology and will soon start building our own space station.

8 . Named after the “quest for heavenly truth”, Tianwen 1, China’s first Mars probe（探测器）, has given us impressive pictures of the red planet. The first high-resolution（高分辨率的）pictures of Mars taken by Tianwen 1 were made public by the China National Space Administration（CNSA） on March 4.

“These are the first close-up pictures of Mars’ surface taken by China, ” said Bao Weimin, a scientist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The pictures were taken at different distances from Mars. The two black-and-white pictures were taken by the high-resolution camera on Tianwen 1 when the probe was about 330-350 kilometers above the Martian surface. As for the color picture, it was taken by Tianwen 1’s medium-resolution（中分辨率的）camera when the probe was about 5, 000 kilometers above the red planet. It shows Mars’ North Pole.

The high-resolution camera can take both color and panchromatic（全色的）pictures. Panchromatic pictures, which are black and white, are the clearest, having the largest amount of data for scientific study, said Liu Tongjie. The medium-resolution camera, can only produce lesser clear pictures. Scientists put the panchromatic and color pictures together to form a clear and beautiful color picture, Liu added.

Tianwen 1, the country’s first independent Mars task, was sent up on July 23, kicking off the nation’s planetary exploration program. The probe entered its preset orbit above Mars on Feb 24 and is looking for a landing site on the planet’s largest plain. The probe is expected to land on the red planet sometime between May and June.