1 . No spacecraft will ever land on the sun. the sun is a flaming ball of gas that reaches thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. But next year, a ship from Earth will fly closer to it than any man made craft has flown before. The mission(任务)is a big development for scientists and, maybe, for everyone else.
In September 2018, NASA plans to launch the Parker Solar Probe. After a journey of nearly 90 million miles, it will fly within 3.8 million miles of the sun. within two months of launching, the probe is expected to reach the sun’s corona(日冕). That’s the sun’s outer atmosphere of gases.
Getting there won’t be easy. Designing a spacecraft tough enough to hold up to the sun’s heat has proved difficult. But that hasn’t stopped engineers from trying. Temperatures in the corona can reach millions of degrees. The probe will limit itself to regions where things get no hotter than 2,500oF. That’s still a heavy heat load for a spacecraft. But a 4.5-inch-thick heat shield(罩)will protect the probe’s camera and scientific instruments.
NASA says the data the probe collects could provide knowledge into the physics of stars. Our sun is special to us. But as a star, it’s rather common. So the better we understand how it works, the better we understand all stars of its mass and color.
Perhaps the most important is what the probe may show us about solar storms. During solar storms, charged particles stream through the solar system. They can disable communications satellites and shut down powder systems. One study has found that a very intense solar storm could cause up to $2 trillion in damage in the US alone. It could also black out the East Coast for a year.
Understanding solar storms might allow us to predict them and protect ourselves. That could make even a mission with a billion-plus price tag one of NASA’s great bargains.
1. What can we learn about the probe?| A．It’ll fly closer to the sun that the previous ones |
| B．It’s the first man made instrument to fly to the sun |
| C．It’ll get to the core of the sun in nearly two months |
| D．It’ll fly about 3.8 million miles to reach the corona. |
| A．Directing the probe to collect data |
| B．Reducing the temperature of the probe |
| C．Building a shield against the heat |
| D．Limiting the probe to proper regions |
| A．Exploring the stars | B．Getting close to the sun |
| C．Designing a spaceship | D．Protecting the earth |
| A．Monitoring satellites | B．Exploring solar energy |
| C．Developing scientific instruments | D．Forecasting solar storms |
2 . It seems that we are one step closer to finding alien life and maybe a future home for humanity. Scientists from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) have found a new solar system filled with planets that look like Earth and could even support life.
The group of seven planets, which orbits a star called Trappist-1, is 40 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius(水瓶座). And three of them are in the so-called “habitable (宜居的)zone” ----the area around a star where liquid water is most likely to be found. This is important because water is a necessary ingredient for life.
All of the planets were found using a method called “transit photometry.” This works by watching out for when a planet passes in front of its host start. This blocks out a small amount of light, allowing us to see the planet and learn about its size.
“This is an amazing planetary system---not only because we have found so many planets, but because they are all surprisingly similar in size to the Earth,” astronomer Michael Gillon from the University of Liege in Belgium told The Independent.
Trappist-1 is a “dwarf star (矮星)” which is colder and shines dimmer than our sun. If a person were on one of the seven planets, everything would look a lot darker than usual. The amount of light heading toward our eyes would be about 200 times less than we get from the sun, according to The Independent.
Because of that, Trappist-1, together with many other dwarf stars, was never on the list of places where scientists look for alien life. but Michael Gillon, lead researcher behind the discovery, decided to give dwarf stars a chance. He built a telescope in Chile to observe 60 of the closest dwarf stars, and it turned out that Trappist-1 was worthy of the effort.
The researchers hope that they can spend more time watching the newly found planets to learn more about them. Even though more research is needed before determining whether these planets could really support life, the discovery is still encouraging. It shows just how many Earth-size planets could be out there.
“The discovery gives us a hint that finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when,” NASA scientist Thomas Zurbuchen told the Telegraph.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE about the newly found planets?| A．It will take human beings about 40 years to travel to them |
| B．Some of them might have the proper conditions to support life |
| C．They are spread out in the habitable zone around Trappist-1 |
| D．Underground ice has been found in some them |
| A．tell apart different stars |
| B．test the brightness of stars |
| C．search for and measure planets |
| D．work out the distance between stars |
| A．scientists will soon find an Earth-like planet that can support human life |
| B．researchers know a little about the environment on the newly found planets |
| C．dwarf stars have long been a popular choice in the hunt for Earth-like planets |
| D．the size of a planet is the top concern when scientists search for a “second Earth” |
| A．Life in space soon? |
| B．Any aliens in space? |
| C．Trappist-1, a dark dwarf star |
| D．New record, seven new solar systems |
3 . When people find out that I am a journalist, they often ask me: What do you think about the future of newspapers?
I tell them that I think the future of communications is moving online. People expect me to be fearful for the future of print. After all, in some people's minds I wouldn't be able to build a career in journalism if it all moves online. However, strangely enough, I’m actually comforted by the fact that online journalism is becoming usual. I am a blogger who has always been able to find a home for my writing online.
Since I began writing blogs, I have become aware of how many people you can reach with online writing. Compare this to the newspapers circulation base, and you will have a strong reason for online journalism.
In her successful blog post titled The Job I have spent the last year learning is not the one I will have, author Jenny Surane states, "Print is an expensive product to love. And general managers, publishers and editors must now figure out a profitable way to get their news into readers' heads.” She goes on to state that people don't feel like picking up a newspaper now and would rather scroll(滚屏) through their Twitter feed, and get news from many different sources.
If print is dying, then a new form of communicating information is being born. The need for information has not died. If anything, it has increased. What has died, rather, is the way in which information is presented.
Now more than ever, in this age of information, there is a desire for stories on the same topic from different points of view. The printing industry can keep pate with the need of providing a variety of sources, if it chooses to.
Is the future of print grim? Maybe, But is the future of journalism of communicating information to people, grim as well? Definitely not.
1. According to Paragraph 2, the author feels .| A．confident about the future of his career |
| B．worried about the future of print |
| C．tired of being a newspaper journalist |
| D．embarrassed about online writing |
| A．Twitter is not very popular |
| B．It is hard to manage online journalism |
| C．Prim still has its advantages |
| D．People have more choices to get information |
| A．Promising | B．Depressing |
| C．Unforgiving | D．Encouraging |
| A．To explore the future of journalism |
| B．To analyze the cause of print decline |
| C．To explain the bright future of a journalist |
| D．To introduce a successful blog post about print |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（
），并在其下面写出该加的词。删除：把多余的词用斜线（
）划掉。修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
With the development of science and technology, intelligent robots will be wide used in the future. At home, robots will help people do some housework and taking care of the elderly, babies and patients. In addition to these task, robots will even be able to play the chess and do exercise with people. In factories, robots will be used to perform some dangerous jobs avoid accidents.
Robots will change our future life by many ways, what will make it more colorful and comfortable. Therefore, we shouldn’t depend on intelligent robots too much, for they were made to help humans rather than replace us. As helpers of we humans, robots should be used properly.
We had heard in school about a planet called Pluto. It was the farthest, coldest, and darkest thing a child could imagine. We guessed how long it would take to die if we stood on the surface of such a frozen place wearing only the clothes we had on. We tried to figure out how much colder Pluto was than Antarctica, or than the coldest day we had ever experienced in Pennsylvania.
Pluto, which famously was downgraded from a “major planet” to a “dwarf planet”（矮星）in 2006, captured our imagination because it was a mystery that could complete our picture of what it was like at the most remote corners of our solar system
Pluto’s underdog discovery story is part of what makes it so attractive. Clyde Tombaugh was a Kansas farm boy who built telescopes out of spare auto parts, old farm equipment and self-ground lenses. As an assistant at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombaugh's task was to search millions of stars for a moving point of light, a planet that the observatory’s founder thought existed beyond the orbit of Neptune. On February 18，1930，Tombaugh found it. Pluto was the first planet discovered by an American, and represented a moment of light in the midst of the Great Depression’s dark encroachment (入侵).
Pluto is much more than something that is not a planet. It’s a reminder that there are many worlds out there beyond our own and that the sky isn’t the limit at all. We don’t know what kinds of fantastic variations on a theme nature is capable of making until we get there to look.
1. Why did Pluto become famous in 2006 according to the passage?
| A．Because it lost its major planet status. |
| B．Because it disappeared in the sky. |
| C．Because it was discovered by an American. |
| D．Because it was proved to be the coldest planet in the universe. |
| A．An American Scientist: Clyde Tombaugh |
| B．Pluto was First Discovered by a Boy |
| C．Pluto’s Strange Romance |
| D．The Days I Spent with My Brother in Pennsylvania |
| A．Clyde Tombaugh discovered the darkness in the Great Depression. |
| B．Pluto was the only planet that was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. |
| C．Clyde Tombaugh’s job was to build telescopes for Lowell Observatory. |
| D．Clyde Tombaugh’s telescopes used for searching stars were very simple. |
| A．Pluto is no less than a planet in the solar system. |
| B．Pluto is much more than a planet in the solar system. |
| C．Pluto is more important than any other planet in the sky. |
| D．Pluto is not a planet in the solar system, but it is more than a planet. |
