1 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. attraction       B. waiting       C. mystery       D. unique             E. simply            F. originally G. stable            H. popularity       I. donating       J. searching       K. interfere

There’s a rarely-visited, dusty corner of the world where something magical happens. The place, which looks like Mars with its red rock landscape, is the Tatacoa Desert, in Colombia.

Tatacoa is located in the region of Huila, south of the country’s capital Bogotá. Although Tatacoa, with its protruding cacti and red rippled rocks, is called a desert, it is in fact a dry tropical forest. But the exciting, and very     1    , feature of this desert, is what happens above it, at night.

Thanks to its remote location — it’s almost 30 miles and an hour’s drive over bumpy winding roads to the nearest town — Tatacoa has no light pollution to     2     with the night sky.

Up to 88 constellations (星座) are visible on a clear night, as well as both hemispheres — something that happens nowhere else in the world.

The warm and dry climate helps with stargazing; a     3     atmosphere, which happens in dry spots or places of high elevation, decreases something called scintillation, which is when a star’s light rises and falls rapidly. It’s why stars twinkle, which looks beautiful but isn’t so great for astronomers.

Not only is Tatacoa a natural wonder, but the DIY observatory that’s run by a Colombian man named Javier Fernanda Rua Restrepo has become a star     4     too. In fact, this humble building attracts stargazers from all over the world, from China to Iceland to Australia. And Restrepo has also become well-known in astronomer circles, with a few scientists     5     their own telescopes to support the grassroots observatory.

The Colombian, who is     6     from Cali, fell in love with the stars thanks to his father’s interest in astronomy and science, and first visited Tatacoa in 1997, to try to see the Comet Hale-Bopp. He stayed for a couple of days before heading back to his hometown. But within a month, he returned to Tatacoa — and never left, camping out for weeks on end     7     for the night to come so that he could watch the stars.

At first Restrepo had worked at the Colombian government’s observatory, which he helped staff for 15 years. But after budget cuts meant he lost his job, he figured he would     8     build his own.

In 2015, Restrepo opened the doors to his observatory — Tatacoa Astronomia — with just one telescope. Now, as Colombia has grown in     9     as a tourist destination, hundreds flock to Restrepo’s star party, which he holds once a year in July.

Tatacoa Astronomia is only open on starry nights, and Restrepo remains the sole employee. But that doesn’t distract from the intimacy and the specialness of the place. The structure sits on a small patch of land that Restrepo bought himself, and is cordoned (隔离) off by tarpaulin (油布) to add an extra sense of     10     and intrigue (阴谋) for visitors.

“The stars… they put my life into its tiny perspective,” he says, “and they constantly remind me there are greater things out there.”

2 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 80 words. Use your own words as far as possible.

Caves are important in many areas of science. Earth scientists study how rock forms and changes in caves. Biologists visit caves, too, to learn about the unusual species that live in them.

However, caves are important for another reason. On the walls of some caves are paintings. They were made by people who lived thousands of years ago. Some of the earliest paintings, like the ones in EL Castillo Cave in Spain, are forty thousand years old. Some are outlines of hands or simple designs. Others show animals or people hunting. They were painted using natural red, orange, white and black minerals. These works of art connect us with people who lived long ago.

Interestingly, most of these cave paints were not found by scientists. They were found by people exploring caves for fun. For example, the cave paintings in Lascaux, France, were found in 1940 by a group of boys. They had no idea that the pictures they found on the walls of the cave were over seventeen thousand years old. Over the years, people have found these types of amazing paintings in sites all over the world.

You can explore these caves, too. Some have become very popular tourist sites. They are easy to visit and have underground tours for the public. However, exploring other caves can be more difficult. You must be careful, and you need to be prepared for cold, darkness and danger. And you might have to walk through mud or water. Dress warmly and bring special equipment, such as helmet with a light. But these underground worlds are so fascinating that it is worth the trouble.

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