1 . Until recently, gravitational waves could have been the stuff of Einstein’s imagination. Before they were detected, these waves in space time existed only in the physicist’s general theory of relativity, as far as scientists knew. Now, researchers are on the hunt for more ways to detect the waves. “The study of gravitational waves is booming,” says astrophysicist Karan Jani of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. “This is just remarkable. No field I can think of in fundamental physics has seen progress this fast.”

Just as light comes in a variety of wavelengths, so do gravitational waves. Different wave lengths point to different types of origins of the universe and require different kinds of detectors. Gravitational waves with wavelengths of a few thousand kilometers—like those detected by the United States, Italy and Japan—come mostly from pairs of black holes 10 or so times the mass of the sun, or from collisions of dense cosmic blocks called neutron stars (中子星). These detectors could also spot waves from certain types of exploding stars and rapidly moving neutron stars.

In contrast, huge waves that span light-years are thought to be created by orbiting pairs of bigger black holes with masses billions of times that of the sun. In June, scientists reported the first strong evidence of these types of waves by turning the entire galaxy (星系) into a detector, watching how the waves make slight changes to the timing of regular blinks from neutron stars throughout the Milky Way.

Physicists now hope to dive into a vast, cosmic ocean of gravitational waves of all sorts of sizes. These waves could reveal new details about the secret lives of exotic objects such as black holes and unknown parts of the universe.

Physicist Jason Hogan of Stanford University thinks there are still a lot of gaps in the coverage of wavelengths. “But it makes sense to cover all the bases. Who knows what else we may find?” he says. The search for capturing the full complement of the universe’s gravitational waves exactly could take observatories out into the moon, to the atomic area and elsewhere.

1. What does Karan Jani think of the current study on gravitational waves?

A．It is rapid and pioneering.

B．It is slow but steadily increasing.

C．It is interrupted due to limited detectors.

D．It is progressing as fast as any other field.

2. What do the detected gravitational waves mostly indicate?

A．The creation of different kinds of detectors.

B．Collisions of planets outside the solar system.

C．The presence of light in different wavelengths.

D．Activities involving black holes and neutron stars.

3. How did scientists manage to find huge waves’ evidence?

A．By analyzing sunlight.

B．By locating the new galaxy.

C．By using the whole galaxy as a tool.

D．By observing the sun’s regular movement.

4. What can be inferred about the future study according to the last paragraph?

A．It’ll exclude the atomic field.

B．It’ll focus exactly on the mapping of the galaxy.

C．It’ll require prioritizing certain wavelengths on the moon.

D．It’ll explore potential places to detect gravitational waves.

2 . Mars is truly a fascinating planet for those of us here on Earth.     1     It is about half as big as Earth and is often referred to as the Red Planet because of its red surface.

The Red Planet has the largest volcano in the solar system-Olympus Mons.     2     That’s about three times the height of Mount Qomolangma.

Mars also has an atmosphere, but it is very thin and made up mostly of carbon dioxide. Because of its thin atmosphere and greater distance from the Sun, Mars is much colder than Earth.     3     The dust storms of Mars can grow so big that sometimes they blanket the entire planet and last for months. The poles on Mars are a lot like Antarctica, capped by ice, but much of Mars’s ice is made from carbon dioxide, not water.

Scientists believe that studying Mars can help answer some of the key questions about our planet Earth, or even the universe.

    4     Since 1960, more than half of all attempted Mars missions have failed. The USA, Russia, the European Space Agency, and several other countries have lost many spacecraft in their quest to explore the Red Planet. Nevertheless, they will still continue their explorations. Chinese experts are confident about their plan to explore Mars, in spite of the many challenges. The first Mars unmanned spacecraft was launched from Wenchang around 2020. But it is only the beginning of deep voyages into outer space.     5    

A．It is roughly 27 kilometres high.

B．Missions to Mars have never been easy.

C．Mars, however, today has no active volcanoes.

D．The temperature at the planet’s surface varies widely.

E．However, Mars does have weather, with clouds and winds.

F．China will continue to explore the mysteries of the universe.

G．It is one of the few planets that we can see with our own eyes.

3 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

Since the beginning of time, exploring the Universe has been a dream of humankind. Human     1     (curious) has fuelled interest in exploring and discovering new worlds, pushing the boundaries of     2     known, and expanding scientific and technical knowledge.

States and space agencies     3     (work) on space exploration since the first space launch. The first space launch led to the first human space flight,     4     led to the first moonwalk. Nowadays focus has shifted to joint human and robotic missions, near - Earth asteroids (小行星), Mars and destinations beyond our own solar system.

Space exploration and the innovation     5     (involve) in it are essential drivers for opening up new areas in space science and technology. That produces new partnerships     6     develops capabilities that create new opportunities for     7     (address) global challenges. Space exploration also motivates young people     8     (pursue) education and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (the STEM disciplines).

Though the precise nature of future benefits from space exploration is not easily predefined (预先确定), current trends suggest that significant advantage may     9     (find) in areas such as new materials, health and medicine, transportation and computer technology. As the benefits of space exploration and innovation become     10     (well) known, increasingly more countries and non - governmental entities are interested in engaging in exploration and innovation.

4 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Following Russia and the US, China became the third country that realized the dream     1    (send)humans into space independently.     2     the high risks, scientists still believed in the importance of space exploration.     3    (determine)to help people survive well into the future, Chinese scientists all have plans to     4    (far)study and explore other planets like Mars and Jupiter.

6 . Shining just 12 light-years from Earth, the star Tau Ceti so resembles the sun that it has appeared in numerous science- fiction stories and was the first star astronomers ever searched for signs of intelligent life, half a century ago. In 2012 Tau Ceti grew still more interesting when astronomers reported five possible planets somewhat larger than Earth circling closer to the star than Mars orbits (围绕……运动) the sun—one of which is in the star’s habitable zone. Newly released images taken by the Herschel Space Observatory provide even more insight about Tau Ceti’s solar system: greater detail about its dust belt.

Dust arises when asteroids and comets (小行星和彗星) crash into one another, so its location reveals where these dust- creating objects—which are too small to be seen directly—orbit a star. In Tau Ceti’s case, “it’s quite a wide dust belt,” says Samantha Lawler of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. As her team reported in November, the belt’s inner edge is roughly two to three astronomical units (AUs) from the star, which is the position of our own sun’s asteroid belt. (An AU is the distance from Earth to the sun.) Tau Ceti’s dust belt extends out to 55 AU, which would be just beyond our system’s main Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, the zone of small bodies whose largest member is probably Pluto. Presumably full of asteroids and comets, Tau Ceti’s dust belt most likely lacks a planet as large as Jupiter, Lawler says. The gravity of such a massive planet would have driven away most small space rocks.

Within a year a new series of radio telescopes in Chile called ALMA should provide a sharper view of the disk, especially of its inner edge. The ALMA images will help astronomers confirm whether the star’s five proposed planets are indeed real. If the disk overlaps the planets’ hypothesized (假设的) orbits, then they probably do not exist; they would have kept away most asteroids near the star, removing the source of dust.

If those planets do exist, however, Lawler’s team suggests that Tau Ceti’s planetary system may resemble what our solar system would have looked like had the four giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune- never formed: small planets orbiting close to the star, and nothing but asteroids, comets and dust beyond.

1. According to astronomers, the five possible planets of Tau Ceti________.

A．resembled Earth in size

B．functioned like a solar system

C．were located in Tau Ceti’s habitable zone

D．were nearer to Tau Ceti than Mars to the sun

2. Which of the following is true of Tau Ceti’s dust belt?

A．It is narrower than the asteroid belt in our system.

B．The bodies inside it are all smaller than Jupiter.

C．The gravity of Tau Ceti makes it get denser.

D．It is over 55 astronomical units in width.

3. According to the passage, the five planets are most likely to exist if________.

A．they don’t move into the dust belt while orbiting Tau Ceti

B．they have kept away most asteroids and comets

C．they don’t crash into any asteroid or comet

D．they can be seen clearly by ALMA

4. It can be inferred from the passage that Tau Ceti’s dust belt________.

A．is useful because it stops asteroids or comets crashing into the star

B．makes Tau Ceti different from the sun because it extends farther

C．is interesting because it keeps other planets away from Tau Ceti

D．plays a role in helping decide whether the five planets are real

9 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The astronauts abroad China’s Tiangong space station gave a live science lecture to Chinese students on earth on December 9th, 2021. They showed     1     they worked and lived in the station. The lecture was interactive as the students on the ground were able to communicate     2     them in real time during the class.

The space environment has many special     3    (condition) that are not available on the ground, and there are many scientific experiments that can only be done in the space environment. Although the experiments     4    (demonstrate) by the astronauts are not unusual, they can help to motivate young people’s enthusiasm for science and popularize the public’s scientific knowledge.

With the     5    (construct) of the Tiangong space station, Chinese astronauts will also be able to stay in orbit for a long time     6     give lectures from space. Tiangong can become a long-term classroom in space,     7    (open) the door of knowledge to people in China and other countries.

Eight years ago, the astronauts of Shenzhou X spaceship     8    (give) the first lecture from space to Chinese students. Now the signal is     9    (clear) and more stable thanks to the advancements in Chinese telecommunications technology.

It is predictable that more space lectures of various forms will be delivered from the Chinese space station in the future. It is to be hoped that more astronauts, scientists and engineers     10    (emerge) from the students watching these lectures to carry on the exploration of the unknown.

10 . 阅读下面材料, 在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The Perseverance Rover on Mars continues to perform amazing feats of science. Most recently, an instrument on the Perseverance     1     (turn) carbon dioxide into oxygen, a process that could one day help astronauts breathe on the red planet.

96%of the Martian atmosphere is carbon dioxide, which doesn’t do much for humans who need oxygen     2     (breathe). Scientists say it is a critical first step in     3     (change) carbon dioxide into oxygen on Mars. The experimental instrument aboard Perseverance     4     (know)as MOXIE.

“MOXIE has more work to do. It is helping us move toward our goal of one day seeing humans on Mars, ”scientists say. “Oxygen serves a much     5     (great) purpose than just being the air we breathe. The rocket propellant (推进剂) depends     6     (heavy) on oxygen,     7     future explorers will depend on producing propellants on Mars to make the trip home. Whether for rockets     8     astronauts, oxygen is the key. ”

MOXIE works     9     separating oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules, which are made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. A waste product, carbon monoxide, is emitted into the Martian atmosphere. Much larger and better     10     (version) of MOXIE could be used to turn huge quantities of carbon dioxide into oxygen.