1 . Will humans someday live and work on Mars（火星）? Many scientists think so. In fact, they are already working on plans to turn Mars into a new Earth.

Humans need three basic things to live: water to drink, air to breathe and food to eat. Because of the shortage of those above, it is impossible to live on Mars right now. Then how can we make Mars a right place for humans to live on? The answer is to change the environment of the planet so that it is similar to Earth’s.

On Mars, the temperature is about —60℃. So one of the main purposes is to warm it up. One idea for warming Mars comes from a problem here on Earth ——climate change. Most scientists agree that Earth is becoming warmer because of increased levels of greenhouse gases（气体）in our atmosphere（大气）. We might create similar conditions on Mars by building factories that give off greenhouse gases. The gas will change the atmosphere on Mars. Rain will fall, and it may be possible to grow plants for food. There will be many difficulties in changing Mars. The program could take many centuries, and the cost will be high. We have some of the technology, such as the ability to create greenhouse gases, but not the money. Anyway, life on Mars is a real possibility for future people.

1. The writer writes this article to________.

A．talk about living conditions on Mars at present

B．talk about difficulties people meet with on Mars

C．introduce plans to turn Mars into our future home

D．introduce scientists’ discovery about our atmosphere

2. ________is the key to warming Mars.

A．Rain

B．Plant

C．Money

D．The greenhouse gas

3. What can be inferred（推断）from the passage?

A．Money is one of the difficulties to hold back the program.

B．Mars is the only planet for humans to live on in the future.

C．It is possible for people to live on Mars in the near future.

D．Technology can change Mars into a right place to live on now.

2 . 阅读下面短文，根据其内容填空或回答问题。（1至4题每空不超过三个词，5题回答问题）

We can often read interesting “facts” about space online. However, some of them are wrong. The following are some common myths（荒诞说法）about space.

Myth 1: The sun is yellow.

Many people believe the afternoon sun is yellow. However, the light it gives out is white. The earth’s atmosphere （大气层）makes the sun appear yellow and the sky appear blue. This is called Rayleigh scattering（瑞利散射）. The sky is, in fact, as clear as glass.

Myth 2: The asteroid belt（小行星带）is dangerous.

In many movies, the asteroid belt is often described as a dangerous place. It is crowded with rocks that run into each other. However, these movies are wrong. In fact, all the asteroids together weigh only about four percent of the moon. That’s why scientists are excited when they happen to see even one asteroid crashing （碰撞）into another.

Myth 3: The Great Wall of China is the only man-made building that can be seen from space.

It all depends on where you believe space begins above the earth. From the International Space Station （ISS）, you can see the Great Wall and many other man-made buildings. From the moon, you can’t see any buildings, but you may see some city lights.

Myth 4: The moon is very close to the earth.

Sometimes, the moon looks very close. It seems like you can almost touch it. In fact, the moon is about 385000 kilometers away from the earth. If you take a Boeing 747 and fly to the moon at full speed, the journey will take about 17 days!

1. ________ changes the colors of the sun and the sky.
2. According to the underlined sentence, we can infer that the weight of the moon is ________ than the weight of all asteroids.
3. The Great Wall and many other man-made buildings can ________ from the ISS.
4. It will take ________ to travel from the earth to the moon by taking a Boeing 747 at full speed.
5. After reading the text, what can you learn from it?
________________________________________________

3 .

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.

2. The underlined word “pulls” in the first answer most probably means ________.

A．moves

B．shakes

C．feels

3. Scientists know black holes are there by ________.

A．using cameras to take pictures

B．using radio telescopes around the world

C．watching the stars carefully in the sky

4. What will happen if the sun becomes a black hole?

A．Earth will die at once.

B．Earth will become black.

C．Earth will still be safe.

5. The best title for the passage may be “________”.

A．Learning about black holes

B．Earth and the black holes

C．Something about the universe

4 . 请通读下面对话，根据对话内容，文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选择，选项中有一项为多余选项。
Jack: Hi, Mom! We learned about light in physics classes. It travels very fast.
Mom:     1    
Jack: Oh. It travels at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. The light from the sun reaches us in less than 9 minutes.
Mom: Is the light from the sun the nearest to the earth?
Jack:     2     The light from the nearest star except the sun needs about 4 years to reach the earth.
Mom:     3    
Jack: It takes tens of billions of years for light from the farthest star to reach the earth.
Mom: Oh!     4     I think you can be an astronomer (天文学家) when you grow up.
Jack: Thank you, Mom!     5    
Mom: I believe you, my son!

A．How long does it take for light from the farthest star to reach the earth?

B．How clever you are!

C．How far is it from the earth to the farthest star?

D．Do you know how fast it travels?

E．I will try my best.

F．Yes, it is.

6 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容，从每个方框内所给的11个词汇中选择10个意义相符的词，必要时可加情态动词或助动词，进行词形变化，填入空白处。

reach,   be,   go,   find,   not know,   discover,   think,   call,   have,   communicate,   keep

Scientists think that there has been life on the earth for hundreds of millions of years. However, we haven’t     1     life on any other planets yet.

The earth is a planet and it     2     around the sun. Seven other planets also go around the sun. None of them has an environment like that of the earth, so scientists do not     3     they will find life on them. The sun and its planets are called the solar system, and our solar system is a small part of a much larger group of stars and planets,     4     the Galaxy or the Milky Way. There     5     billions of stars in the Galaxy, and our sun is only one of them.

Scientists     6     many other galaxies in the universe already. They are very far away and their light     7     to travel for many years to reach us. So how large is the universe? It is impossible to imagine.

Scientists have sent spaceships to the planet Mars to take photos. They have even sent spaceships to travel outside the solar system . However, no spaceship has travelled far enough     8     other stars in our Galaxy. Scientists have always asked the questions: With so many stars in the universe, are we alone or is there life in space? Have there been visitors to the earth from other planets? Why has no one     9     with us? We     10     the answers yet.

7 . The International Space Station (ISS) is the biggest satellite because scientists want to live on it. They think that the best way to learn more about space is to live there. The space shuttle discovery has taken off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida several times and carried a few groups of astronauts to the International Space Station.

When the space station is finished, it will be like a city in space. People will stay and study there with many of the things they have at home. Labs, living rooms and power stations are being built. The ISS is the most expensive space program ever. Millions and millions of dollars are being spent on it every year.

Scientists hope that the ISS will be a stepping stone for future space exploration. " The ISS will help us better understand the human body, explore(know more about) space and study the earth. It can help us make life on the earth better, "said Kathryn Clark, an ISS scientist. Sixteen countries are in the program: The US, Russia, Canada,Japan, Brazil and 11 European countries. China is not an ISS country, but it helped with some of the experiments. In 2003, China sent some rice up to the ISS to find out what space would do to it.

If you watch the sky for about an hour after the sun goes down, you may see the moving ISS. After it's finished, more than 90 percent of the world's population will be able to see the space station. So keep looking up, and maybe you'll see it get bigger and brighter.

1. What do the scientists think is the best way to learn more about space?

A．To watch it every day.

B．To send the satellites.

C．To live in space.

D．To fly far into space.

2. It seems that ________.

A．we can probably see the ISS when the sun goes down

B．some scientists from China have been to the ISS in 2013

C．China is one of the members in the ISS group

D．the ISS is still in the space but has stopped working

3. What does the underlined phrase power stations mean in Chinese in Paragraph 2?

A．供应站

B．救济站

C．发电站

D．空间站

4. Why did the scientists send up the International Space Station (ISS)?

A．Because they would send up most of the earth people to live there.

B．Because they could talk with some Chinese school students.

C．Because they hoped to travel to Mars and Venus some day.

D．Because they wanted to live in space and do better research.

5. What's the best title of this passage?

A．The Space

B．The Space Ship

C．The Biggest Satellite

D．The Future Space Exploration

8 .

Xinhua news－China’s Chang’e-5 probe (探测器) will get to the earth from the moon on December 17th, 2020.

On December 3rd, 2020, a Chinese spaceship, Chang’e-5 probe, took off from the surface of the moon. It carried the country’s first samples (样本) of the soil and rocks on the moon.

Chang’e-5 probe is the first Chinese spaceship to take off from a star in space except the earth. On November 24th, Chang’e-5 probe was launched from Wenchang, Hainan Province in China. It landed safely on the moon on December 1st.

The takeoff from the moon overcame a lot of difficulties, including the different environments between the earth and the moon. “But luckily, we made it.” Xing Zhuoyi, a designer of Chang’e-5 probe said excitedly. Before the takeoff, a Chinese national flag was unfolded from the probe. “Everybody in the science hall clapped their hands together warmly.” Xing said. At that time, he felt so proud of his work and his country.

Chang’e-5 is one of the most important and challenging tasks in Chinese space history. It has also been the world’s first moon-sample task in more than 40 years. If successful, the task will help improve China’s science and technology development. It will play an important part in China’s future moon landing and deep-space exploration (探索).

1. When did Chang’e-5 take off from the moon?

A．On November 24th, 2020.	B．On December 1st, 2020.
C．On December 3rd, 2020.	D．On December 17th, 2020.

2. What is the most possible meaning of the word “launched”?

A．发射

B．接收

C．返回

D．运输

3. When was the last time the world got moon samples?

A．In the 1970s.

B．In the 1980s.

C．In the 1990s.

D．In the 2000s.

4. Which is the right order according to the passage?
① Chang’e-5 probe landed safely on the moon.
② A Chinese national flag was unfolded from the probe.
③ Chang’e-5 probe took off from the surface of the moon.
④ Chang’e-5 probe was launched from Wenchang, Hainan Province.

A．①②③④

B．①③②④

C．④③①②

D．④①②③

5. The best title of this passage may be________ .

A．A Story of Chang’e	B．A Great Step for China Space
C．A New Journey to the Earth	D．China’s Science and Technology

9 . 根据首字母提示补全短文。

There is nothing more i    1     to life than the Sun. W    2     the Sun, all living things on the Earth would die. The Sun is a star. In the sky there are t    3     of stars like the Sun. They are as large as the Sun and as hot as the Sun. At night you can see many stars, but in the day you can o    4     see one star—the Sun.

The Sun is much n    5     to us than any other star. That is w    6     it looks the biggest and brightest of all the stars. The distance of the Sun from the Earth is as m    7     as about 150,000,000 kilometres. Most stars are thousands of light years a    8     from the Earth.

Do you know what a light year is? N    9     in the world travels faster than light. It travels about 300,00 kilometres per second. And one light year is the distance that light travels in one y    10    .

10 .

A. looks like          B. near        C. because        D. spaceship        E. costs          F. takes

The moon is the nearest neighbour in space. It is our satellite (卫星) and men have visited it already. It is smaller than the earth. Plants can’t grow on the moon     1     there is no air or water on it.

The moon doesn’t have its own light. It shines back the light of the sun. When the sun is shining on the side of the moon which faces us, it     2     a great ball. We can’t see the other side of the moon. Because that side never faces the earth.

In fact, the moon isn’t as     3     as it looks. It is three hundred and eighty thousand kilometres away from the earth. Of course we can fly to the moon in a     4    . A spaceship flies very, very fast, and it flies at about eleven kilometres a second. So it only     5     more than three days to get there by spaceship.