It was 12 o’clock at night. Jack
Have you ever seen Mars? Have you
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the seventh largest in the solar system. The
On April 7, 2001, America sent Odyssey to Mars. The journey took Odyssey
| A．just | B．yet | C．even | D．never |
| A．proud | B．alone | C．already | D．afraid |
| A．star | B．air | C．light | D．sun |
| A．hear about | B．heard from | C．heard about | D．hear from |
| A．interest | B．interested | C．interesting | D．interests |
| A．planet | B．plant | C．star | D．satellite |
| A．look | B．with | C．like | D．looks like |
| A．much | B．few | C．several | D．a lot |
| A．discovered | B．find | C．worked | D．find out |
| A．to find | B．finds | C．to finding | D．find |
2 . China’s Shenzhou XIII crewed spacecraft docked with the Tiangong space station on Saturday morning, with astronauts ready to enter the station to start a six-month journey.
The three-member crew — mission commander Major General Zhai Zhigang, Senior Colonel Wang Yaping and Senior Colonel Ye Guangfu — will then float into the core module（舱）. They will install equipment and verify technologies and plans for the next steps in the Tiangong space station program. Their Shenzhou XIII spacecraft was lifted by a Long March 2F carrier rocket that blasted off at 12:23 am at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China’s Gobi Desert.
The mission is expected to become the longest crewed spaceflight by China, doubling the time spent in the Shenzhou XII mission. It will also see the first spacewalk by a Chinese woman.
1. When did Shenzhou XIII crewed spacecraft docked with the Tiangong space station?| A．on Sunday morning. | B．on Sunday afternoon. | C．on Saturday afternoon. | D．on Saturday morning. |
| A．For half a year. | B．For a few days. | C．For three months. | D．For several hours. |
| A．3 | B．13 | C．2 | D．12 |
| A．the Xichang Satellite Launch Center | B．the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center |
| C．the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center | D．the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center |
| A．second | B．third | C．first | D．fourth |
3 . China has taken a whole new step in its moon exploration. President Xi Jinping on Dec. 17, 2020 congratulated the complete success of the Chang’e-5 mission(任务) that brings back the country’s first samples collected from the moon. Following America and Russia, China has become the third country in the world to collect rocks from the moon.
Chang’e-5 first took off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan on November 24, 2020. It landed on a massive lava plain (熔岩平原) of the moon on December 1, 2020. Then it started to collect the samples. The samples may help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins. It may help work out how the moon comes into being and how it develops. Hopefully, the success of the collection will set an example for other more difficult missions in the future which will be carried out on other planets.
After the returning capsule (太空舱) landed back on Earth, it will be taken to Beijing by plane, where the capsule will be opened and the samples will be ready for study. “China will also provide some of the samples to scientists in other countries”, said Pei Zhaoyu, a director at the CNSA.
As the Chang’e-5 mission has been completed successfully, Chinese scientists are already making plans for future moon exploration, including project to build a scientific research station on the moon. “We hope to work together with other countries to build the international lunar scientific research station, which could provide a shared platform for lunar scientific exploration and technological experiments,” Pei said.
1. The Chang’e-5 mission was to ________.| A．try a circle around the moon |
| B．help other countries to bring back the rocks |
| C．send congratulations to other countries from the moon |
| D．bring back the rocks from the moon to the Earth |
| A．a month | B．about a week | C．twenty-four hours | D．twenty-three days |
| A．起源 | B．未来 | C．温度 | D．地形 |
| A．Three countries have collected rocks from the moon since the 1970s. |
| B．China will build the international lunar scientific research station alone. |
| C．Some of the samples may be shared with other countries scientists. |
| D．The capsule will be sent to Hainan for further study. |
| A．the future plans to explore the moon |
| B．the place where Chang’e-5 landed or |
| C．the purpose of collecting samples from the moon |
| D．China’s success in completing the Chang’e-5 mission |
Our Neighbourhood (附近的)Stars
Most of the stars that we see in the night sky are billions of kilometers away. But there is one star which is much closer to the Earth. We see it every day as a large, bright ball in the sky. It is called the Sun. It is the only star in our solar system(太阳系). It gives us heat and light. Without the sun, there would be no life on our planet.
The nearest star outside the solar system is called Alpha Certauri. It is bigger and hotter than the Sun. It looks much smaller because it is very far away. It takes four years for light to reach us from Alpha Centauri. The Earth is only about eight light minutes away from the Sun.
The Sun is not our nearest neighbour in space. The Moon is just 380, 000 kilometers away. It is the only part of the solar system that people have visited from the Earth. Where will we go next?
1. The Sun is not the only star in our solar system.2. Without the sun, there would be no life on our planet.
3. Alpha Certauri is bigger and hotter than the Sun.
4. It takes four years for light to reach us from the Earth.
5. People have visited the Moon from the Earth.
5 . China’s Eye In the Sky
July 31 was a big day for China. On that day, China’s first global satellite navigation (satnav) system (全球卫星导航系统), Beidou, started its full-scale (全面的) work. More than 120 countries and regions are now using Beidou services.
Beidou means “Big Dipper (北斗七星)” in Chinese. In old times, when people got lost, they looked up at the Big Dipper for direction (方向). Now, China’s own satellite navigation system, BeiDou, is there to keep us safe and bring us convenience.
With as many as 59 satellites (卫星), Beidou has “sharp eyes”. These satellites fly around the Earth. They can “see” rivers, forests and mountains. They can “see” houses and schools. Of course, they can “see” you, too! From space, they can tell where you are on the ground, with a difference of no more than 10 meters.
A satnav system uses groups of satellites. It sends information to a receiver (接收器), such as a smart phone. The more satellite a system has, the more accurate (精确的) it is.
Beidou is the world’s fourth navigation satellite system. The earliest system is the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States. The US has put 24 satellites into space to make sure GPS can locate (定位) a person correctly and globally. Likewise, Russia’s GLONASS and European Union’s Galileo can also work globally.
BeiDou can find you wherever you are. It helps you go faster by finding shortcuts (捷径) and using correct directions. It can look for mines (矿产) in deep mountains. It can give orders to driverless cars. This summer, Chinese people fought the flood in the South. Beidou helped measure (测量) the rise and fall of the flood water.
What’s more, when people are in danger and there is no cell phone signal, they can use Beidou to send a 1,200- word message to ask for help.
1. A satnav system works correctly and globally by using ________| A．a satellite | B．a group of satellites |
| C．a receiver like a smart phone | D．a group of receivers |
| A．7. | B．24. | C．59. | D．120. |
| A．The United States. | B．South Korea. | C．Russia. | D．China. |
| A．There are 60 Beidou satellite above our heads. |
| B．Beidou only works in China. |
| C．Beidou can be used for many things. |
| D．Everyone needs to have a smart phone that can use Beidou. |
6 . Venus（金星）is the second nearest planet from the sun. It is only a little smaller than the earth, about 95% of the earth’s diameter（直径）and 80% of the earth’s mass（质量）. Earth and Venus are sometimes called the twin planes.
The word Venus means the goddess of love and beauty in Greek. ▲ probably because it is one of the brightest planets we have known by now. We human beings have known Venus for a long time. It has a cloudy atmosphere. This helps it reflect sunlight. So it appears to be very bright.
It is easily observed in the sky. It is seen near the sun. It seems that it is the brightest thing in the sky except the sun and the moon. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, and is often thought as the Morning Star or as the Evening Star. A lot of observation of Venus was important to Copernicus’s Heliocentric Theory of the solar system.
Scientists for years thought that Venus was very likely to have life in some forms. In 1962, scientists sent the first spacecraft to explore Venus, and we will know more about Venus in the future.
1. What’s Venus like?| A．It’s bigger and lighter than the earth. | B．It’s smaller and heavier than the earth. |
| C．It’s bigger and heavier than the earth. | D．It’s smaller and lighter than the earth. |
| A．It is very beautiful | B．We can’t see it clearly |
| C．We name the planet so | D．The name is so beautiful |
| A．Venus is the brightest in the sky. | B．Venus is known as the Morning Star or the Evening Star. |
| C．Venus is a planet. | D．Venus is in the solar system. |
| A．In a sports magazine. | B．In a science report. |
| C．In a fashion magazine. | D．In a story book. |
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.
1. According to the first two paragraphs, moonbows are ________.| A．created by sunlight | B．much easier to find |
| C．seen during the day | D．more difficult to form |
| A．A half moon hangs high in the bright sky. |
| B．A full moon is 50 degrees from the horizon. |
| C．A nearly full moon hangs low in the dark sky. |
| D．Water drops are in the opposite direction of the sun. |
| A．cover | B．drop | C．connect | D．produce |
| A．Conditions of moonbows. | B．Background of moonbows. |
| C．Locations of moonbows. | D．Development of moonbows. |
8 . 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.
1. What Zhu Rong brought from heaven to the world was ________.| A．fire | B．wars | C．water | D．animals |
| A．a big fight | B．complete darkness | C．light and hope | D．Chinese culture |
| A．the earth | B．Mars | C．the moon | D．the sun |
| A．Zhu Rong is a bad person in an ancient Chinese story |
| B．China has made great progress in space technology |
| C．the writer is proud of China’s space technology |
| D．the official doesn’t like the name Zhu Rong |
I hope everything is going well. I have something very special to tell you. Last week I went into space for the first time!
My parents visited space last year, but I was too young to go with them. Anyway, a month ago, I had my birthday party. It was very exciting when I opened my p
Two weeks after my birthday, I had to go on a short training course. It was quite difficult, and I had to study very hard. L
Finally, the day arrived, and my parents took me to the a
I admit that for a few seconds I felt a little nervous when I sat in the space shuttle. However, when we l
My first space flight only lasted fifteen minutes, but I will never forget it. I a
Yours
Mark
10 . The Big Bang theory offers us an answer about where the universe came from. But after learning about it, you might ask, “Where will the universe go? Will it ever come to an end?”
Scientists have been thinking about these questions. However, it’s hard to know what will happen. After all, the universe is so big. Still, scientists have made some guesses about the ending of the universe. In the 1800s, the study of heat showed that the universe might someday experience
“heat death”. Our universe “runs” well because of temperature differences. It’s kind of like how a car engine is able to run because it’s hotter inside than outside. But if temperatures become the same everywhere in the universe, the universe will die.
Will the universe continue to expand? And what will the ending of the universe be like? Scientists gave us some related theories.
We know that our universe is expanding. Dark energy causes it to expand faster and faster. The theory, The Big Rip, suggests that this change will continue forever. Eventually, the faster and faster change will make everything in the universe be ripped. As the universe expands, galaxies, stars and planets will pull away from each other. Light from stars will no longer reach Earth. This will make the universe colder. Finally, the temperature of the universe will reach absolute zero. All movement stops at this temperature. This is called The Big Freeze. The Big Crunch is different from the other two. Instead of expanding forever, it suggests that the universe is heavy enough to stop the expansion. Then, like a star that grows too large, the universe will collapse in on itself, maybe creating a new singularity.
1. Which of the following is NOT the guess about the ending of the universe?| A．The Big Crunch. | B．The Big Rip. | C．The Big Freeze. | D．The Big Bang. |
| A．Being warm. | B．Being cool. | C．Being large. | D．Being small. |
| A．The universe will surely come to an end one day. |
| B．Maybe the universe won’t expand all the time because of its weight. |
| C．Keeping the temperatures all the same can make the universe live longer. |
| D．The universe expands so fast that everything in it will stick together like glue. |
