1 . Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is home to both the highest mountain and the deepest, longest valley (山谷) in the solar system (太阳系). Olympus Mons, the highest mountain on Mars, is about 27 kilometers high, about three times as tall as Qomolangma. And the deepest valley on Mars reaches as deep as 10 kilometers and runs through east to west for about 4,000 kilometers, about one fifth of the distance around Mars and close to the width of Australia.

Mars is much colder than Earth because it’s farther away from the sun. The highest temperature can reach 20℃ while the lowest can be as low as -140℃. Just like Earth, the sun gives Mars seasons. However, the seasons that Mars experiences are more extreme than Earth’s. For example, when Mars is farthest from the sun, the southern part of Mars experiences a very long and cold winter, about six months on Earth.

Mars lies farther from the sun than Earth does, so the red planet has a longer year—687 days compared to 365 for our home world. However, the two planets have similar day lengths, 24 hours and 40 minutes for Mars and 24 hours for Earth.

Mars is far from an easy planet to reach but many countries like the USA, Russia, China and Japan are always trying to send people there. Robots have got the tickets to Mars and it’s believed that humans will get the tickets by the 2030s, although it is still a big challenge now. And scientists say it will take at least six months for people to travel to Mars.

根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
1. The height of the highest mountain in the solar system is ________.

A．10 kilometers

B．27 kilometers

C．800 kilometers

D．4,000 kilometers

2. What does the underlined word “extreme” mean in Paragraph 2?

A．Serious.

B．Impossible.

C．Beautiful.

D．Peaceful.

3. Mars has a longer year than Earth because ________.

A．Mars lies closer to the sun	B．Mars is farther away from the sun
C．Mars lies closer to Earth	D．Mars is farther away from Earth

4. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．No robots have arrived on Mars.	B．Humans have got to Mars.
C．It’s a long way to Mars from Earth.	D．There is no season on Mars.

5. This passage is mainly about some ________.

A．facts about Mars

B．ways to Mars

C．opinions on Mars

D．mountains on Mars

2 . Space tourism is no longer a thing of science fiction. There are lots of companies planning to send people into space in the next few years. Space X is one of the most famous companies offering trips to space. So far, it has had over 100 customers. And in April, 2022, it sent 4 people into space. Now, what can space tourists do while in space? Here are some examples:

See the Earth from space

Seeing the earth from a distance has always been a dream. It gives most people a sense of both achievement and wonder (which is also why people climb the highest mountain and dive the deepest sea on the Earth).

Stay in space hotel

Hotels are directly connected with tourism, right? So if there’s space tourism, there might also be space hotels up soon. Orion Span has been planning to send tourists to stay in their “space hotel”, which would hold six people at a time.

Eat in space

Eating is not easy in space. Even drinking water is difficult. Oh, a quick fact! You aren’t allowed to burp in space! Bubbles will come out of your mouth and it might be dangerous to leave them around.

Visit the Moon and other planets

Space tourism companies are racing to launch the first tourist flight to the Moon. Although there might be a long way to go before common people can step on the Moon, we will probably see it in our life time. And who knows, maybe we’ll even see hotels on the Moon.

With the industry rapidly developing, space tourism is around the corner, and it might come much faster than we think. Who knows what the future might be like? Will you be the next person to travel to space?

1. What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．A lot of companies have sent people into space.	B．It is possible for people to travel into space.
C．A number of companies will be built in space.	D．100 tourists travelled in space in April 2022.

2. How might most people feel when they see the Earth from space?

A．Excited.

B．Nervous.

C．Afraid.

D．Bored.

3. Which of the following is true?

A．Orion Span has built six hotels in space.	B．Space X has sent 4 customers to the Moon.
C．Eating in space is as easy as on the Earth.	D．It’s impossible to travel to the Moon at present.

4. In which section of a website can we read the article?

A．Culture.

B．Travel.

C．Sports.

D．Lifestyle.

4 . A group of scientists discovered a gas called phosphine on Venus (金星). That means there may be living things on the planet. This made many people start to imagine the talk between aliens and humans. Imagining himself as the life on Venus, a reporter from No. 1 Middle School wrote the following letter to people of Earth on the school newspaper.

Attention, People of Earth! Fine. The big secret is out. Many of your finest scientists have discovered there is life tens of millions of miles away—here, on the beautiful planet of Venus. Congratulations! However, we are asking you: Please stay away. We’re serious. We are not interested. No spacecraft to Venus, no exploring tasks, no visits. If we wake up one morning and find so many of you people walking around in spacesuits, we’re going to be really sad. We don’t want to be impolite. It’s just that we’re quite surprised and unpleasant by what you’ve been going on down there. Earth is in a mess. There are too many cars running on the roads, which creates lots of traffic jams. Many people suffer from serious illnesses. Some people do great damage to the forests and rivers. What’s worse, there are even fights between countries, etc. No wonder so many of you want to leave Earth for another planet. Leave us alone. Keep right where you are. We know you’d like it here. That’s what frightens us. You’d all move to our planet at once. If we start having you all up here, pretty soon, the other aliens like Martians and Jupiterians are going to come, too. But we can’t imagine what terrible things will happen to us! Venus is not Earth. It’s not your home. We suggest Earth people ▲ . It is a practical way to save you and your future generations. God bless you!

1. How will the Venusian feel if many Earth people visit Venus?

A．Interested.

B．Unhappy.

C．Excited.

D．Surprised.

2. What does the underlined sentence “what you’ve been going on down there” refer to?

A．Earth people found life on Venus by spaceship.

B．Earth people created different problems in their own life.

C．Earth people fought against aliens from other planets.

D．Earth people want to move to Venus with other aliens.

3. What can be filled in the blank ▲ ?

A．invite more aliens to live with you

B．run away from your own planet quickly

C．improve your planet by solving the problems

D．come to live with Martians or Jupiterians

4. Who actually wrote the letter?

A．An alien from Mars.

B．A scientist from Venus.

C．A Venusian from Planet Venus.

D．A reporter from a school newspaper.

5 . Scientists have always wanted to know more about the universe (宇宙).

Years ago, they knew many things about the Moon. They knew how big it was and how far 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’t 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 a 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 into the sky.

Rockets can fly far out into space. Rockets with men in them have been to the Moon. Several rockets without men in them have flown to another planet (行星) much farther away than the Moon. One day rockets may be able to go to any place in space.

1. Scientists have know ________ the Moon is.

A．how long

B．how big

C．how old

D．how many

2. A plane cannot fly to the Moon because ________.

A．there is no air above 240 kilometers away from the Earth

B．there is no gas in the place

C．the plane is not strong enough

D．the plane is terrible

3. The hot gas in the rocket is used for ________.

A．keeping the air in the rocket fresh

B．keeping the men in the rocket warm

C．making the rocket fly

D．making fresh air

4. Several rockets without men in them have flown to ________.

A．the stars	B．another planet of the sun
C．the Sun	D．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 (射电望远镜) in different places around the world. The telescopes got signals (信号) from the black hole. Scientists used computers to process 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 distance that light travels in one year. One light-year is about 9 trillion (万亿) kilometers.

This is not the only black hole in the universe (字宙). Actually, 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 things in the universe. This photo can help us learn more about them.

1. We can read this passage in a ________.

A．storybook

B．novel

C．travel guidebook

D．science magazine

2. The black hole looks like ________.

A．many black circles inside each other	B．dark holes with a bright center
C．dark circles with a bright ring around the outside	D．black holes with colorful rings in the center

3. How far is the black hole from Earth?

A．It’s about 495 million trillion kilometers.	B．It’s about 55 million kilometers.
C．It’s about 495 million kilometers.	D．It’s about 9 trillion kilometers.

4. What is Sagittarius A?

A．The large galaxy in the universe.	B．The black hole in our galaxy.
C．The name of the radio telescopes.	D．The center of the black hole.

7 . 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.

2. According to paragraph 3, which of the following things is the most important?

A．Water.

B．Air.

C．Rock.

D．Food.

3. What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 4 refer to?

A．the Earth

B．Gliese 581g

C．the Sun

D．Gliese

4. A year on the earth is about ________ years on Gliese 581g.

A．37

B．365

C．10

D．15

5. What’s the main idea of the text?

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.

8 .

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

2. A plane can not fly to the moon because ________.

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

3. The hot gas in the rocket is used for ________.

A．keeping the air in the rocket fresh

B．making the rocket fly up

C．keeping the men in the rocket warm

4. Several satellites without men in them have flown to ________.

A．the stars

B．the satellites of the Sun

C．another planet much farther away than the moon

9 . 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

2. If you are 60kg on Earth, you will be about ________ on Venus.

A．70kg

B．63kg

C．54kg

D．20kg

3. Why is Venus an “unfriendly” planet?

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.

4. Which one is NOT right according to the passage?

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.

5. Which is the best title for the passage?

A．The Introduction to Venus	B．The Story of Venus
C．Life on Other Planets	D．Planets Around Us

10 . 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.

2. What can we infer (推断) from the text?

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.

3. Where can we read this text?

A．In a science magazine.	B．In a storybook.
C．In a travel guidebook.	D．In a physics exercise.