Maybe many people know the universe is very big. If you stand in space, you will see many beautiful stars, like the sun and     1     planets. And then, let’s recognize our solar system. There are     2     planets in our solar system. They’re Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus     3     Neptune. The sun is very     4    . Its surface has 5600℃. Its gravitation (吸引力) is very strong. So the earth goes     5     sun. And the earth is our home.

We’re     6     on the earth, and it is the     7     beautiful in the solar system. It has lots of water and plants. And the     8     is the earth’s partner. It goes around the earth, and other planets are very far     9     the earth. So the people can’t reach them and     10     of them has an environment with air. People also can’t live on them. Finally, let’s see the sky at night. There is much beautiful and magic view in the universe.

Except Pluto (冥王星), there     1     eight planets in the solar system now, including Earth. By the distance from the Sun from close to far, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto used to be known as     2     smallest planet in our solar system, and the furthest planet from the Sun.

Pluto was discovered in 1930, and was named by an eleven-year-old girl from England. Pluto is only half     3     wide as the United States. This planet takes 248 earth years to travel around the Sun. It means we need 6. 5 earth days to spend a day on Pluto. Pluto is about 40 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Pluto is in an area of space called the Kuiper Belt     4     has thousands of small, icy objects. The temperature on Pluto is     5     low that Earth air would turn into ice soon. The gravity on Pluto is less stronger than that on Earth. So fat persons may prefer to move there, they would weigh much less on Pluto.

The Sun is very i    1     to us because it p    2     us with light and heat. D    3     the free time, we always go out and enjoy the sunshine. We see lots of r    4     on talking about the Sun. It will go on shining b    5     for about 5 or 6 billion years. How long it is!

The moon is     1     away from the earth. We can only see a small moon with our own eyes on the earth. When we see a small part of the moon, we call it a crescent moon (新月). When we see the whole moon, we call     2     a full moon. That’s all people knew about the moon in ancient times. They even didn’t know the moon goes     3     the earth. But they thought that there might be life on the moon. However, in July 1969, scientists sent Neil Armstrong to the moon and found that there weren’t any     4     on the moon.

Have you ever heard of the satellite (卫星) called Early Bird, which was built by a group of scientists     5     14 countries? So far, a few satellites have been put into space and they helped people to     6     photos of the earth and other stars.

    7     we know a lot about the moon and the earth now, people always ask the questions: Is there anyone out there in space? Are we alone? Our scientists haven’t got a clear answer     8    . It is still one of the greatest mysteries (谜底) and some people think it will be a secret for     9     long time. But we believe we can     10     the problem some day.

We see the sun every day. If it is     1    （sun）, we can see the moon at night, too. The moon is near us. So far astronauts     2    （visit） the moon several times. The moon is almost     3     nearest satellite（卫星） to the earth in space.

Light     4    （travel）at 300,000 kilometers a second. Light reaches us from the moon in less than a second and a half. The moon is about 382,000 kilometers away.

Light from the sun arrives in the earth in about 8.5     5    （minute）. The sun is about 149,640,000 kilometers away     6     the earth. Other stars are much     7    （far） away than the sun. Light from the nearest star reaches     8    （we）in about four years. When you look at a star, it is very small.     9     in fact many of them are much bigger than the sun. They look small only because they are     10    （real） far away.

10 . Andy heard from his friend that a comet (彗星) was coming. He knew that a comet is a space rock. He wanted to watch it at     1     before sleeping.

When the evening came, it was a bit cold. So Andy     2     on a coat. He looked up in the sky. He could see the moon and some stars, but     3     new or special.

“Where is the comet? I only see the moon and some stars, ” he asked his friend on the phone. His friend told him where to look,     4     he still didn’t see it.

Andy went to wake his father up who was just     5     in the bedroom. Then Andy looked up in the sky     6     his father. Several minutes     7    , they saw a fuzzy (模糊的) thing, which is bigger than a star. That was it.

“I think it would be like the moon or something, ” Andy said. “It's not big enough for that, and it might still be very     8     away from us,” his father said.

“I still wish I can see it better. ”

His father nodded and went inside. When he came back, he had a telescope(望远镜) in his hands. Through     9    , they saw the comet a little better. It wasn’t much, but it helped.

After that night, Andy became interested in space and he thought being a(n)     10     must be cool! He wanted to go to the moon and even Mars on the spaceship one day.