SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER
“Are we alone? What’s out there?” People have always looked up at the stars and wondered about space. Today, scientists design vehicles to carry astronauts into space to make important discoveries.Space exploration has come a long way, and we now hope to discover other planets that are suitable enough to support life.
Before the mid20th century, most people felt travelling into space was only a dream that could never come true. However, scientists were determined to realise that dream. After many experiments, they succeeded in making rockets that could escape Earth's gravity. On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR and successfully orbited around Earth. Afterwards, the USSR focused on sending people into space, and on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in the world to enter space. Over eight years later, on 20 July 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, famously saying, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” Following this, there were many more important space achievements. For example, on 5 September 1977, America’s NASA space agency launched Voyager 1 to study deep space, and it still transmits data to this day. And the International Space Station (1998) has provided a continuous human presence in space, with astronauts from many different countries on board.
Although scientists try to make sure nothing goes wrong, accidents can still happen. For example, all the astronauts on the Soyuz 11, Challenger, and Columbia spacecrafts died during their missions. However, while such disasters brought much sadness and disappointment, the desire to explore the universe did not die. This is because people believe in the importance of carrying on space exploration despite the huge risks.
China’s space programme started later than those of Russia and the US, but it has made great progress in a short time. China became the third country in the world to independently send humans into space in 2003, when Yang Liwei successfully orbited Earth in the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. Then Shenzhou 6 and 7 completed a second manned orbit and the first Chinese spacewalk, followed by the vehicle Jade Rabbit being sent to the moon to study its surface. On 23 July 2020, China sent Tianwen 1 to explore the surface of Mars. It arrived in February 2021 and then sent back lots of valuable information. And from 2021 to 2022, China completed a number of rocket missions to establish its own space station. In 2022, the launch of the Mengtian module signaled the basic completion of the Tiangong Space Station. This modern space station will allow astronauts to conduct many important experiments, greatly furthering our understanding of the universe.
The future of space exploration remains bright. Many countries have plans to further study planets like Mars and Jupiter. Despite the difficulties, scientists hope to make more valuable discoveries that will enable the human race to survive well into the future.
1. Look at the pictures and discuss the following question with your classmates.
Do you think it meaningful for us to spend so much money exploring space?
A.Fast reading
2. Match the main idea of each paragraph.
| A．What people achieved in the past years. B．Why people don't stop exploring space despite risks. C．The future exploration in space. D．Human beings always want to explore space. E．The achievement which China has made. |
B.Careful reading
Choose the best answer according to the text.
3. Yang Liwei successfully orbited Earth in the Shenzhou spacecraft in ．
| A．2; 2000 | B．3; 2001 |
| C．5; 2003 | D．1; 2002 |
| A．Nobody thought it possible to travel into space before the mid20th century. |
| B．On 14 October 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR. |
| C．China became the third country to independently send humans into space. |
| D．Disasters in the space exploration made everyone sad but not disappointed. |
| A．we want to establish more space stations |
| B．we plan to carry more brave people into space |
| C．we can provide a continuous human presence in space |
| D．we believe in the significance of space exploration |
| Time | Events |
| on 4 October 1957 | the Sputnik 1 satellite was |
| on 12 April 1961 | Yuri Gagarin became the first person in the world |
| on 20 July | Armstrong stepped onto the moon, saying, “That's one small step for a man, one giant |
| on 5 September 1977 | America launched Voyager 1 to study |
| in | China became the third country in the world to |
7. A.写出句中表示时间的词汇
1．Before the mid20th century, most people felt travelling into space was only a dream.
2．On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR and successfully orbited around Earth.
3．Afterwards, the USSR focused on sending people into space, and on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in the world to enter space.
4．Over eight years later, on 20 July 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon．
B.在课文中找出另外两个有时间状语的句子
1.
2.
2 . The call for public engagement with the unthinkable is especially germane in this moment of still-uncontrolled pandemic and economic crises in the world’s most technologically advanced nations. Not very long ago, it was also unthinkable that a virus would shut down nations and that safety nets would be proven so disastrously lacking in flexibility.
What does the underlined word “germane” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
| A．Scientific. | B．Credible. |
| C．Original. | D．Relevant. |
3 . As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化). This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity, to be a sort of “novelty generator”. The only system known to exhibit this is Earth’s biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life’s endless “creativity” in some virtual model, those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.
What does the word “enamored” underlined in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?
| A．Shocked. | B．Protected. | C．Attracted. | D．Challenged. |
