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Is there intelligent (有智力的) life on other planets? For years, scientists said “no.” or “we don’t know.” But today this is changing. Seth Shostakovitch and Alexandra Barnett are astronomers (天文学家). They believe intelligent life exists (存在)
Why do Shostakovitch and Barnett think intelligent life exists on other planets? The first
In the past, it was hard to look for
Have beings from space already visited Earth? “Probably not,” says Shostakovitch. “It’s a long way away. However, intelligent beings may contact us in other way, such as radio signals (信号). In fact, they may be trying to communicate with us now, but we don’t have the right tools to
What do you know about Mars（火星）? What does it look like?
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun in our solar system（太阳系）and is named after the Roman god of war. Mars goes around the sun at a distance of about 228 million kilometers. You can tell which planet is Mars because it is bright red and looks like a red and orange ball in the night sky. It’s very beautiful. But during spring and summer, the surface of it is covered by strong storms. The gravity（重力）on the surface of Mars is about 2/5 as strong as it is on the earth. So a person who weighs 90 kilos on earth weighs only 36 kilos on Mars. The temperature on Mars is between -138℃ and 28℃. The air has only 0.13% oxygen.
Scientists are still searching for more information about Mars.
1. Who is Mars named after?（根据短文内容回答问题）2. How can you tell which planet is Mars?（根据短文内容回答问题）
3. Why does a person who weighs 90 kilos on the earth weigh only 36 kilos on Mars?
4. In the passage, the underlined word “it” refers to
5. Do you think people may live on Mars in the future? Why?（不超过20个词）
Our Milky Way Galaxy may be home to 2 billion planets that have the right conditions to support life. These planets have the correct temperature for liquid water. While no one knows what alien life would look like, if it is anything like life on earth, it would need water to keep alive. According to the research, there are nearly 2 billion habitable planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is just one of 100 to 200 billion galaxies in the universe.
The earth was formed 9 billion years after the Big Bang. Many of the planets in the Milky Way were formed millions and some even billions of years before the earth. If intelligent life had existed on any of these planets, they would be much more developed than humans. With that much time to develop the technology for space travel, we should have been visited by aliens many times.
So where is everyone? Some people believe that aliens have visited earth many times, and some governments of the world might have known very well. some believe that we have also been visited many times in the ancient past. They point to the Egyptian pyramids or the huge heads of Easter Island. They say that there was no way that ancient humans were able to create these structures without alien assistance.
According to Harvard professor Avi Loeb, . For example, in 2017, a cigar-shaped object came within 33 million km of the earth as it passed through our solar system. It was named Oumuamua, which means “messenger from the distant past reaching out to us” in Hawaiian. Loeb says that its unusual shape and the fact that it sped up as it left our solar system sets it apart from anything else we’ve seen. He thinks it was a probe sent by an alien civilization. Jackie Fairey, says everyone should have reservation about this. She is one of many scientists who say there are more reasonable explanations for Oumuamua. That hasn’t stopped Professor Loeb. He has written a new book on Oumuamua called Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.
1. According to the passage, if there were aliens, they ________.| A．could be similar to humans on the earth |
| B．must help build the Great Wall |
| C．would be smarter than humans on the earth |
| D．have a shorter history than humans |
| A．we hasn’t been visited by aliens for we got nothing from the universe |
| B．we not only have been visited by aliens, but also have evidence |
| C．no one could be sure about whether the evidence we’ve got is true |
| D．all of researchers doubt about the fact that we have been visited |
| A．there are fewer than 100 billion habitable planets in the universe |
| B．some aliens did actually, and on the earth in ancient times |
| C．some governments received information from the oumuamua |
| D．scientists Leob doesn’t agree with the idea that Fairey holds |
| A．Where are all the aliens? |
| B．When will the aliens visit us? |
| C．Oumuamua: Have you ever been here? |
| D．How many habitable planets are there? |
4 . On August 12, 2018, NASA sent up the Parker Solar Probe (帕克太阳探测器) to explore the mysteries of the sun. It was named after Eugene Newman Parker, an American physicist who predicted important facts about solar activity and solar wind.
The Corona is much hotter than the surface of the sun. In order to get close to the sun, Parker is protected by a special material. This allows it to keep cool inside, even when the temperature around it is as high as 1,400℃.
In April 2021, on its eighth trip around the sun, Parker actually entered the sun’s corona. It flew through the corona about five hours. For the first time in history, a spacecraft (航天器) has “touched” the sun. Though this happened in April, it took scientists a few months to get the information back and then several more months to confirm the news.
Since then, the probe has got into the corona more times. As it circles closer to the sun’s surface, Parker is making new discoveries that other spacecraft were too far away to see. The discoveries will also help us know more about space weather which has a great influence on the earth as well as astronauts in space.
Parker will keep moving closer to the sun and diving deeper into the corona until we lose contact (联系) with it sometime around December 2025. It will give us plenty of chances of learning something new about our life-giving star.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. The probe got its name from ________.
| A．a NASA engineer | B．a special material |
| C．an American physicist | D．an unsolved mystery |
| A．What the probe will do. |
| B．What the probe is made of. |
| C．Why the probe can get so close to the sun. |
| D．Why the sun’s corona is hotter than its surface. |
| A．发布 | B．确认 | C．执行 | D．传播 |
| A．To get to the surface of the sun. |
| B．To protect the astronauts in space. |
| C．To collect more information about the sun. |
| D．To test the highest temperature it can stand. |
| A．It is the only spacecraft sent up to the sun. |
| B．It is the first spacecraft to get into the sun’s corona |
| C．It will come back to the earth at the end of 2025. |
| D．It flew around the sun five times before entering the corona. |
①What is it like to exercise in space? Simple things can be harder in microgravity (微重力), while difficult tasks might suddenly be a breeze. A video on Tuesday shows that Zhai Zhigang, one of the astronauts of Shenzhou XIII spaceship, is practicing tai chi with flowing (流畅的) movements.
②The three astronauts, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu have been in space for about two months since they began their six-month mission (任务) to build the space station on October 16th. Chinese people have long been wondering what really goes on inside the space station. While people were still surprised by Wang Yaping’s zero-gravity hairstyle, Zhai showed his “flying” skill and was clearly very good at it.
③ ※ The tradition of Chinese astronauts practicing tai chi started in 2012 when the country’s Shenzhou IX astronaut Liu Yang first did so in space and called the experience comfortable. Before returning from the Shenzhou XII mission in September, astronaut Nie Haisheng also practiced tai chi in the Tianhe core module during an Earth-space video call with Hong Kong youths.
④For space travelers, doing exercise is important. They must exercise to counter (抵消) the gravity-free conditions because the experience of “muscle and bone loss (肌肉和骨质流失)” in space will influence their health and ability to work in the long term.
⑤Besides doing tai chi, Chinese astronauts also play table tennis or ride a bike and run on a treadmill (踏步机) to help train their breathing.
1. What may the underlined part “a breeze” in the first paragraph mean?| A．Something popular. | B．Something impossible. |
| C．Something very easy. | D．Something more difficult. |
| A．Zhai was not the first who practiced tai chi in spaceship. |
| B．Actually, no Chinese astronaut has ever done that before. |
| C．Many astronauts followed Zhai to practice tai chi later. |
| D．In fact, Zhai had no idea how to practice tai chi before. |
| A．The ways of having strong muscles. | B．The reason how gravity comes into being. |
| C．The exercise astronauts do in spaceship. | D．The importance of doing exercise in space. |
| A．The purpose of the Shenzhou XIII mission isn’t mentioned. |
| B．Nie Haisheng found the practice of doing tai chi very comfortable. |
| C．Chinese people really want to learn about the astronauts’ life in space. |
| D．Doing exercise in space can help astronauts live with gravity in the space station. |
Three Chinese astronauts, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, the core module（核心舱）of Tiangong space station, will work and live there for about six month.
The answer, of course, is yes, because the microgravity （微重力）conditions on the space station can help produce experimental results that are impossible to get on the earth. And cells in microgravity also grow different in space.
The universe （宇宙）is a treasure house for humans to explore.
| A．Are the costs worth it? |
| B．Living in space is actually expensive. |
| C．Is it true to live in the space station for such a long time? |
| D．A space station provides a place for the scientific exploration. |
| E．This has been the longest mission so far for Chinese astronauts. |
| F．Giving people deeper understanding of some basic life science processes. |
In 2020, China’s Chang’e 5 mission collected 1,731 grams of moon soil (土壤) and brought it to Earth. (A)China became the third country to collect moon soil after Russia and the United States. Up to now, a total of 44,857.7 milligrams of the soil have been given to 62 research teams in China. By studying the soil, scientists learn more about the moon’s geology (地质), weather and other things, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). What new findings have scientists made? Let’s have a look.
Air on the moon
In May, scientists from Nanjing University found that the soil on the moon might be useful for turning carbon dioxide (CO2) into oxygen (氧气) and fuel (燃料). The soil has some special chemicals in it. (B)These can work as catalysts (催化剂) to make oxygen with sunlight and CO2. If this really works, astronauts can turn the CO2 they breathe into oxygen. Then they can live on the moon for a longer time. The team hopes for a chance to test this system on the moon someday.
Powerful energy
(C)Helium (氦)-3 is a valuable fuel that can provide safer nuclear energy (核能). It is not radioactive (放射性的) and would not produce dangerous waste. It’s rare (稀有的) on Earth, but after studying samples of moon soil, scientists found that the moon is rich in Helium-3! According to Ouyang Ziyuan, a senior adviser to China’s lunar program and its former chief scientist, there is enough Helium-3 on the moon for all people on Earth to have clean energy for 10,000 years!
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8 . Have you ever looked at the sky and thought about darkness? Is it nothing? Or is there something in the dark? Cosmologists (宇宙学家) try to answer questions about things in space. They even study the darkness in space. They say the universe is about 5 percent “normal” matter—things we can see, like Earth and other planets, and the sun and other stars. But about 70 percent of the universe is something called dark energy.
Cosmologists say the other 25 percent of the universe is dark matter. Dark matter has some weight. It’s heavy so we know it’s there. But we can’t see it, so it is very hard to study something that you can’t see!
One possible kind of dark matter is a brown dwarf (褐矮星). A brown dwarf is too big to be a planet and too small to be a star. Brown dwarfs are colder than stars, and they don’t give off light that people can see. Cosmologists found them by using a telescope that finds heat. They found the first brown dwarf in 1995.
Cosmologists know a lot about one kind of dark matter—black holes. In 1783, an English astronomer, John Michell, guessed that there were black holes. But cosmologists didn’t find any black holes until 188 years later. Since then, they’ve found many black holes in space.
It’s very dark with much gravity (引力) in a black hole. There is so much gravity in a black hole that nothing can get out, not even light. This is why we can’t see them. Cosmologists find black holes by looking at things around them.
For example, stars and gases near a black hole move very fast.
Things in space can fall into a black hole, and when they do, they can never get out. But don’t worry—Earth will never fall into a black hole because there is not one close enough.
1. When did cosmologists first find black holes?| A．In 1783. | B．In 1971. | C．In 1995. | D．In 1595. |
| A．They are as big as planets or stars. | B．They give off light that people can sec. |
| C．The first one was found by using a telescope. | D．They are much hotter than stars and planets. |
| A．Black Holes in Space. | B．Dark Energy in Space. |
| C．Normal Matter in the Universe. | D．Dark Matter in the Universe. |
| A．We have known nothing about dark matter so far. |
| B．Earth could fall into a black hole in several centuries. |
| C．The earth is too far away from a black hole to fall into it. |
| D．The biggest black hole is as big as ten billion of our sun. |
9 . It’s 2050. The Earth is dying, and moving to Mars seems to the only way out for humans. A team of American astronauts (宇航员) begin to search on Mars. This is what the movie Red Planet begins with. Known as the Red Planet, Mars is the favourite of writers and filmmakers.
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the next planet beyond the Earth. Mars is the only planet whose surface can be seen from the Earth. It is about half size of our planet.
The surface of Mars is more like the Earth than any other planet. But it is further from the Sun than the Earth, so temperatures on Mars are much lower. Plants and animals can not live now on Mars. But many scientists still believe that such life may have been on Mars long ago.
On 6th August, 1996, scientists discovered a piece of rock from Mars, which fell to the Earth 13,000 years ago. 10 years later, some scientists still didn’t accept that there was life on Mars. People may not be sure about life on Mars until a sample (样本) of life is brought back. Some further researches are being done in many countries. If you want to know more, please click www. space exploration. com.
1. Why is the movie Red Planet mentioned?| A．To advise readers to go to Mars. | B．To compare Mars with the Earth. |
| C．To introduce the topic. | D．To tell stories about American astronauts. |
| A．Mars is bigger than the Earth in size. |
| B．The surface of Mars is similar to that of the Earth. |
| C．The temperatures are much higher on Mars. |
| D．Mars is one of the planets whose surfaces can be seen from the Earth. |
| A．There was life on Mars. | B．A piece of rock from Mars is discovered. |
| C．Plants and animals could live on Mars. | D．There was no life on Mars. |
| A．a website | B．a notice | C．a tour guide | D．a diary |
For the first time ever, plants from Earth are growing on the moon. The China National Space Administration (中国国家航天局) showed photos of cotton plants. The administration said the cotton plants were among several plants that were “growing well”. Other plants that are now growing on the moon are vegetables.
The plants are part of a project to the far side of the moon. Project leader Liu Hanlong says the cotton seeds were the first to come up. He said the plants were chosen because they were small, strong and could grow in the difficult conditions on the moon’s surface.
Professor Hanlong said the project’s aim was to understand more about how plants grow outside of Earth. The long-term aim is to develop plants that can grow not only on the moon but also on the Mars (火星).
The professor said: “We have considered the future survival live in space. Learning about these plants growing in a low-gravity (低重力) environment would allow us to know that in the future humans may live in the space.”
1. Plants have never grown on the moon before this project.2. Chinese scientists showed photos of tea plants growing on the moon.
3. Cotton seeds were the first plants to come up.
4. Scientists said their long-term aim is to grow plants on Venus (金星).
5. There are no chances of survival in space.
