1 . On April 8th 2024, millions of Americans put on their special glasses to watch a total solar eclipse (日全食). The picture above shows its full progression (进展).
The total solar eclipse could be seen in North America. A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth. As the moon shortly covered the sun on April 8th, cities went into darkness. The temperatures dropped greatly by up to 7°C during totality (全食), reported dogonews.com.
There are five stages in a total solar eclipse:
Partial eclipse begins (1st contact):
The Moon becomes visible over the Sun’s disk. It looks like the Moon has taken a bite out of the Sun.
Total eclipse begins (2nd contact):
The Moon covers the entire disk of the Sun, and people are now within the Moon’s umbra (本影).
Totality and maximum eclipse:
The Moon completely covers the disk of the Sun. Only the Sun’s corona (日冕) is visible. This is the most dramatic stage of a total solar eclipse. At this time, the sky goes dark, temperatures can fall, and birds and animals often go quiet. The midpoint of time of totality is known as the maximum point of the eclipse.
Total eclipse ends (3rd contact):
The Moon starts moving away, and the Sun reappears. Those fortunate enough to be in the Moon’s umbral can see Baily’s beads and the diamond ring effect just after totality ends.
Partial eclipse ends (4th contact):
The eclipse ends as the Moon leaves the Sun’s disk.
To Chinese people regret, we can’t watch the beautiful view this time. A total solar eclipse will occur on September 2nd 2035 in China. If you are an amateur astronomer (天文爱好者) in China you could ________.
1. Where can people watch total solar eclipse on April 8th 2024? (不超过15词)2. Which is the darkest stage of the total solar eclipse? (不超过5词)
3. What would the writer say at the end of the text? (不超过20词)
2 . Would you like to take a trip to the moon? People have already landed on the moon. Some day, the moon might become a popular place to visit. How will a trip to the moon be? Here are some facts.
There is no oxygen (氧气) or water on the moon. In order to stay alive (活着), you would have to take your own oxygen and water. It is silent (寂静地) on the moon. Sounds can’t be carried from place to place because there is no air. On the moon, the temperature goes down to 240℃ below (在……以下) 0℃ at night, and it warms up to 212℃ above 0℃ during the day.
What will the surface (表面) of the moon look like? The moon has more than 30,000 holes on it. One of the biggest is 146 miles wide.
When you walk on the moon, you’ll feel light on your feet. That’s because you weigh only about 20 pounds on the moon. You might forget what day it is there because a moon day lasts for two weeks. But you won’t need an umbrella anymore because it never rains on the moon. And the weather on the moon never changes at all.
根据上述内容，选择最佳选项。1. What do you need to take to the moon in order to stay alive?
| A．Oxygen and water. | B．Food and umbrellas. | C．Sounds and oxygen. |
| A．It is the same as that on the Earth. |
| B．It is much lower than that on the Earth. |
| C．It is 240℃ above zero. |
| A．October 3. | B．October 8. | C．October 15. |
| A．The moon has less than 30,000 holes on it. |
| B．No one has ever visited the moon. |
| C．The weather on the moon never changes at all. |
| A．The weather on the moon. |
| B．What the moon is like. |
| C．Take a trip to the moon. |
3 . If you watch the sky for about an hour after the sun goes down, you may see some “moving star”. But they are not really stars. They are man-made satellites. And the biggest of all is the International Space Station (ISS). From May to July is the best season to watch the ISS flying over the earth. And people can see it with their eyes during the time. The scientists want to live on the ISS. They think that the best way to learn more about space is to live there.
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 program. Billions of dollars are spent on it every year.
Scientists thinks that the ISS will be crucial for future space exploration. “The ISS will be more useful some day. The ISS will help us understand the human body better, explore space and study the earth. It can help us make life on the earth better,” said Kathryn Clark, an ISS scientist.
Sixteen countries are part of the space program: the US, Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and 11 European countries. China has 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.
1. From the first paragraph, we can learn ________.| A．we can't see the ISS with our eyes |
| B．March is the best season to watch the ISS flying over the earth |
| C．all the moving stars are really stars |
| D．the biggest man-made satellite is ISS |
| A．To live on the earth. | B．To watch the ISS flying over the earth. |
| C．To live on the ISS. | D．To make life on the earth better. |
| A．Important. | B．Expensive. | C．Impossible. | D．Strange. |
| A．To use as astronauts’ food. | B．To sell it to aliens. |
| C．To do some experiments. | D．To make it grow better in space. |
| A．A storybook. | B．A notice about life and health. |
| C．A magazine about science. | D．A website about space exploration. |
4 . For thousands of years, humans have explored (探索) the Earth. Nowadays, we are exploring space. Astronomers are the modern-day explorers. Now, many astronomers are looking for new planets and new places for humans to live in the future. But where do astronomers start exploring?
First of all, astronomers look for a star. That’s because our own Earth moves around a star—the Sun. More importantly, it is neither too far from nor too near to the Sun for heat and light. So when astronomers have found the star, they look at the planets around it. In recent years, astronomers have found nearly 400 new planets with stars. However, many of these planets are either too near to the star or too far away.
However, if the planet is in a good place, astronomers look for three key things: water, air and rock (岩石). Water is the most important because all life needs water. Humans can drink it and they can also grow plants with water. And plants produce air for humans to breathe and food to eat. Rock on a planet is also important. That’s because there is often water under the rock.
After many years of exploring, astronomers have found a planet like the Earth. It’s Gliese 581g and it’s near a star. The astronomers think it has water and rock and the temperature is between -31℃ and -12℃. That’s cold, but not colder than Antarctica or the Arctic Circle, for example, Gliese 581g is bigger than the Earth. A year on Gliese 581g is only 37 Earth days, not 365 Earth days. But astronomers do not think these are big differences and some of them think Gliese 581g will be a new Earth. However, Gliese 581g is twenty light years from the Earth.
1. How do astronomers discover a new planet for humans to live on? Choose the right order.a. Astronomers look for three key things.
b. Astronomers look for and find a right star.
c. Astronomers look at the planets around the star.
| A．a-b-c. | B．b-a-c. | C．b-c-a. | D．c-a-b. |
| A．Water. | B．Air. | C．Rock. | D．Food. |
| A．the Earth | B．Gliese 581g | C．the Sun | D．Gliese |
| A．37 | B．365 | C．10 | D．15 |
| A．Gliese 581g is already a new Earth. |
| B．There are some planets like our Earth. |
| C．Water, air and rock are important. |
| D．Astronomers are looking for a new Earth. |
Scientists have always wanted to know more about the universe.
Years ago, they knew many things about the moon. They knew how big it was and how far away it was from the Earth. But they wanted to know more about it. They thought the best way was to send men to the moon.
The moon is about 384,000 kilometers away from the Earth. A plane can not fly to the moon, because the air reaches only 240 kilometers away from the Earth. But something can fly even when there is no air. That is the rocket.
How does a rocket fly? There is gas (气体) in the rocket. When the gas is made very hot inside the rocket, it will rush out of the end of the rocket, so it can make the rocket fly up into the sky.
Rockets can fly out into the space. Rockets with men in them have been to the moon. Several satellites without men in them have flown to another planet much farther away than the moon. One day rockets may be able to go to any place in space.
1. Scientists have known ________ the moon was.| A．how long | B．how heavy | C．how big |
| A．there is no air above 240 kilometers away from the Earth |
| B．there is no gas in the plane |
| C．the plane is not strong enough |
| A．keeping the air in the rocket fresh |
| B．making the rocket fly up |
| C．keeping the men in the rocket warm |
| A．the stars | B．the satellites of the Sun | C．another planet much farther away than the moon |
6 . What do black holes look like? Human beings have wanted to know about it for a long time. In 2019, 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. Scientists didn’t use a camera to take the picture. They used eight radio telescopes in different places around the world. Telescopes got signals (信号) from the black hole. Scientists used computers to process (处理) the signals. It took them two years to get the final picture.
The black hole is very far from Earth—about 55 million light years away. One light year is the journey that light travels in one year. One light year is about 9 trillion (万亿) kilometers.
This isn’t the only black hole in the universe. In fact, scientists believe every large galaxy (星系) has a big black hole at its center. The one in our galaxy is called Sagittarius A.
Black holes are some of the most mysterious (神秘的) things in the universe. This photo can help us learn more about them.
1. What do we know about black holes?| A．They are dark holes with a bright center. |
| B．They are many black circles inside each other. |
| C．They are black holes with colorful rings in the center. |
| D．They are dark circles with a bright ring around the outside. |
| A．Scientists took the picture of the black hole with a camera. |
| B．The black holes aren’t very far from the Earth. |
| C．The picture of the black hole can help us learn a lot about them. |
| D．Sagittarius A is the only black hole in the universe. |
| A．In a science magazine. | B．In a storybook. |
| C．In a travel guidebook. | D．In a physics exercise. |
7 . Do you know Venus (金星)? Of the eight planets, Venus is the nearest one to us. Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In Greek her name was Aphrodite. Venus and the Earth are almost the same size, and you would weigh almost the same on both planets. If you were 70 pounds on Earth, you would be 63 pounds on Venus. Venus is an “unfriendly” planet. Because of its thick cloud, you can’t see the surface (表面). In many ways, Venus is like the Earth. It has active volcanoes (火山), mountains and valleys, too. But Venus is too hot for life. It has the highest temperature of the planets in our solar system, about 480°C. Besides, the Earth lets heat out through volcanoes, hot springs. But Venus lets heat out in a different way. Venus has no moons. Scientists call Venus the Earth’s sister planet because Venus and the Earth are almost the same size. For a long time, most scientists thought that Venus probably had plants, animals, and possibly even human beings. However, because Venus is so hot, it is impossible for anything to live there.
1. Aphrodite is the goddess of ________ in Greek.| A．love and beauty | B．danger and thought |
| C．love and thought | D．beauty and danger |
| A．70kg | B．63kg | C．54kg | D．20kg |
| A．It’s the nearest planet to us. |
| B．It’s almost the same size as the Earth. |
| C．People can’t see it clearly from the outside. |
| D．Anything can’t live there. |
| A．The surface of Venus is much hotter than that of the Earth. |
| B．Venus has the same way to let heat out as the Earth. |
| C．The Earth and Venus are similar in size. |
| D．Both the Earth and Venus have active volcanoes. |
| A．The Introduction to Venus | B．The Story of Venus |
| C．Life on Other Planets | D．Planets Around Us |
Tony: Hello, Lucy. I haven’t seen you for several hours. Where have you been?
Lucy: Hello, Tony.
Tony: Really? Would you like to tell me some?
Lucy: Of course. What do you want to know?
Tony: Well.
Lucy: For millions of years.
Tony: Wow! So long.
Lucy: Not yet. But they have discovered water on Mars.
Tony: That sounds very interesting. Have they found life on Mars?
Lucy: No, they haven’t. And scientists have already found that there’s no life on the moon.
Tony:
Lucy: Yes, that’s right. Oh, I want to return the book about journeys to space to Jack, but I can’t find him. Do you know where he is?
Tony:
| A．There is life only on Earth, isn’t there? |
| B．How long has there been life on Earth? |
| C．I have gone to the cinema. |
| D．So have scientists found life on other planets? |
| E．He has been to the space museum. |
| F．I have been to the museum. |
| G．He has just gone to the school library. |
9 . Scientists think that there
The earth is a planet and it
Scientists have also discovered many other galaxies in the universe. They are very far away and their light has to travel for many years to reach us. So
Scientists have sent spaceships to the planet Mars
Scientists have always asked the questions: with so many stars in the universe, are we
| A．have been | B．has been | C．is | D．are |
| A．yet | B．already | C．just | D．ever |
| A．go | B．went | C．goes | D．going |
| A．No one | B．Neither | C．Either | D．None |
| A．called | B．call | C．to call | D．calls |
| A．what large | B．how small | C．how large | D．how long |
| A．to take photos | B．take photos | C．taking photos | D．takes photos |
| A．enough far | B．enough near | C．far enough | D．near enough |
| A．lonely | B．alone | C．along | D．long |
| A．someone | B．anyone | C．somebody | D．no one |
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 |
