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)
Humans have always been interested in the moon. About 2, 000 years ago, scientists had already known that the moon moves around the earth and where it would be in the sky at different times of the year. In old times, everything about the moon was learned by watching it carefully at night.
When scientists could use telescopes (望远镜) to study the moon more closely, they found the moon was made of rocks. Most scientists thought moon rocks would be different from those on earth. This was because they believed the moon had once been a planet that was caught in the earth’s gravity millions of years ago.
In 1969, moon rocks were finally brought to the earth and studied. Much to their surprise, scientists found that, except for water, the moon and the earth were made of the same things. Once again, new ideas were needed for this new study.
After years of study, most scientists now think that the moon was once part of the earth. They believe very early in its history, maybe 4 million years ago, something that was about the size of Mars hit the earth. This sent billions of rocks into space around our planet. These rocks slowly joined together and after many years became the moon.
Humans’ steps of exploring the moon will never stop. In the future, even though our ideas about the moon may change again, we’ll still show an interest in it.
1. At first, most scientists thought moon rocks were2.
3. Now most scientists think the moon once belonged to
4. People will never stop
5. How did people learn about the moon in ancient times?
Venus (金星) is close to the Earth. It is the second planet from the Sun. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Venus is similar (相似的) to the Earth in size and mass (质量). So people often describe it as “the Earth’s sister planet”.
Scientists have been learning about Venus for a long time. First, they looked at Venus through telescopes (望远镜). But Venus is covered with thick clouds. Scientists could not see Venus well through the clouds. So they made guesses at it.
For a long time, scientists thought that Venus had water and plants. They thought Venus might have animals too. But they didn’t know for sure.
Then scientists found a way to learn more about Venus. In the 1960s, they began sending probes (航天探测器) to Venus. The probes flew through the thick clouds. They took pictures of Venus up close. They found out many things too. The probes sent the pictures and things they found out back to the scientists.
阅读短文，回答问题。
1. Why do people often describe Venus as “the Earth’s sister planet”?(不超过10个词)
2. What did scientists think Venus may have?(不超过5个词)
3. When did scientists begin sending probes to Venus?(不超过5个词)
4 . Chang’e-5 has returned from the moon to Earth. The mission’s success made China the third country to bring back samples (样本) from the moon.
Chang’e-5 was China’s third mission to land on the moon, and it’s first to get samples from the moon. There were no astronauts on this trip. Scientists ran the mission with robotic machines.
Chang’e-5 was launched (发射) from Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on November 24th, 2020. On December 1st, it got to the moon. During the stay on the moon, it got 1,731 grams of lunar samples. On December 3rd, our national flag was shown on the moon. After that, Chang’e-5 was ready to go home. On December 17th, Chang’e-5 landed safely in Inner Mongolia.
Chang’e-5 was the first mission to get samples from the moon in over 40 years. The samples will help scientists better understand the history of the moon and the solar system.
The Chang’e-5 mission has made many Chinese people excited and proud of their country’s success. The mission also showed that China has a first-rate (一流的) space program that is able to compete with other countries.
Answer the following questions according to what you read.
1. Was Chang’e-5 China’s first mission to get samples from the moon?
2. When was Chang’e-5 launched?
3. How long has Chang-5 been in space?
4. Who could use the samples to do some research?
5. As Chinese, how do we feel about Chang’e-5’s success?
Scientists have worked out when our Sun will die. It won’t be any time soon. It will be in 10 billion years. The scientists are from the University of Manchester in the UK. They predict that in about 5 billion years from now, the Sun will turn into a “red giant”. This is the scientific name given to a star at the end of its life. When our Sun becomes a red giant, its centre will shrink (收缩) . Its outer layers will expand (膨胀) as far as Mars. This means Earth will be burnt and disappear. After our Sun turns into a red giant, it will become a bubble of gas and space dust. The scientists say no humans will be on Earth when the Sun dies out.
The Sun is still quite young in space years. It is just 4.6 billion years old. This means it is only around one third into its lifespan (寿命) . Professor Albert Zijlstra, a scientist from the University of Manchester, explained what happens at the end of a star’s life. He said, “By this point in the star’s life, it is running out of fuel. Then it turns off and dies.” Professor Zijlstra was happy that modern science can count the age of stars and what will happen to them. “We even have found out what the Sun will do when it dies.” He said.
1. According to the scientists, when will the sun die?2. When do we call a star “red giant”?
3. What will happen to humans when the sun dies out?
4. What’s the lifespan of the Sun?
5. Should we worry about the sun’s death? Why or why not?
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 |
7 . Mars (火星) is a planet (行星). It is the fourth planet from the sun and is more than 200,000,000 kilometers from it. That is a very long way. Mars is also a very long way away from Earth but sometimes you can see it clearly at night. Most stars are white. But Mars is a little red. It is a very big planet. It is about half the size of Earth. The planet Earth has one moon. Mars has two moons. They are called Phobos and Deimos.
Long ago, the only way to study Mars was just to look at it. People with good eyes could see some things but not everything. Later on, it was easier, because scientists had telescopes (望远镜). They could see Mars come clearly. They learnt much more about Mars this way. In the twentieth century (世纪) things got even better. First of all, we had spacecraft. They flew close to Mars and sent back information. Then, they sent spacecraft to fly around Mars. Finally, spacecraft landed (着陆) on Mars.
Maybe one day a man will walk on Mars.
根据短文内容完成以下任务。
1. 回答问题：How far is Mars from the sun?
2. 回答问题：What color is Mars?
3. 完成句子：
4. 完成句子：The article mainly talks about
5. 请选出划线单词spacecraft 的汉语意思。________（填字母代号）
| A．宇宙飞船 | B．望远镜 | C．潜艇 |
Say hello to Changesite-（Y）— the sixth new lunar mineral（月球矿物）!
Chinese scientists found it in moon samples（样品）brought back by the Chang’e 5 lunar probe in December 2020. It has become the first lunar mineral found by Chinese scientists, making China the third nation in the world, after the United States and Russia, to have achieved such a success, reported China Daily.
Changesite-（Y）looks crystal（晶莹的）clear like a diamond. But its chemical content is different from any other known mineral.（A）It has a high level of rare earth（稀土）, reported China Science Daily. Li Ziying, chief scientist of the lunar sample research, said that the finding of this new mineral will help researchers study the history and physical traits（特征）of the moon. The value of the rare earth in（B）it will also be studied.
（C）Besides the new mineral, scientists also measured the content（含量）of helium-3（氦-3）from the Chang’e 5 samples. Helium-3 is a valuable fuel（燃料）that can provide safer nuclear energy（核能）. It is not radioactive（放射性的）and would not produce dangerous waste. On Earth, we have only 15 to 20 tons of helium-3 that can be used. But after studying the moon’s soil, scientists said there could be at least 1 million tons of helium-3 on the moon. That’s enough for all people on Earth to have clean energy for 10,000 years!
1. 把文中（A）处画线句子翻译成汉语。2. 写出（B）处画线单词指代的内容。
3. 把文中（C）处画线句子翻译成汉语。
4. 找出文中提到的地球和月球上可被利用的 Helium-3 的含量。
5. 简要概括本文大意（短语和句子均可）。
9 . Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in space? The most important thing to remember about living in space is that there is no gravity. That means astronauts can’t do a lot of things that you do easily in your daily life. For example, astronauts can’t pour themselves a cup of juice the way you can. Why? Because gravity makes the juice pour from the bottle into your cup. Astronauts can’t rely(依靠) on gravity. Astronauts can’t lie on beds and sleep the way you do because gravity is what holds you to your bed.
So how do astronauts live in space? Eating in space is like eating on earth in some ways. Food like rice and mashed(糊状的) potatoes sticks to spoons, so it doesn’t float away. Other foods come in cans or packages(盒). So they don’t float away, either.
There is no gravity in space, so astronauts do not have to sleep on beds or the floor. They can sleep anywhere they want, and they can sleep in any position they want. They usually use sleeping bags. They simply tie their sleeping bags to a wall, or a bed. That way, they don’t float around and bump(撞) into things while they are sleeping.
Astronauts are very busy people. They have jobs to do, and they work very hard. But they also need to relax sometimes. Astronauts usually get to talk to their families on a video call once a week. They also get to stay in touch by email. Astronauts can bring chess and other games with them. Some even bring musical instruments. Astronauts also watch movies and news programmes. Sometimes they talk to schools and news reporters, too. Astronauts may have a lot of work to do, but they also find time for fun.
根据短文内容，回答下列问题。
1. What’s the most important thing to remember about living in space?
2. Why doesn’t food like rice and mashed potatoes float away?
3. What do astronauts usually use when they sleep?
4. How often do astronauts usually get to talk to their families?
5. What do you think of the life in space?
Nowadays, a growing number of countries realize the importance of space and pay more attention to their space programs. Space exploration（探索） around the world has entered a new stage of rapid development that will have great influence on human society. Here is how China plans to take actions on space programs.
1. Why do more and more countries explore space?
Because space exploration has entered
2. What’s the purpose of the the space lab?
It will make sure astronauts work safely and keep on
3. When will the International space station be built?
It will be built
4. How does the writer like the China’s space program in the text?
He believes that China’s space program will
5. What planets will people explore according to the text?
People will explore①
