1. When will the solar eclipse happen?
| A．At 2:50 pm. | B．At 3:20 pm. | C．At 3:10 pm. |
| A．To keep the birds safe. | B．To stop the birds singing. | C．To protect her eyes. |
2 . The Moon is attracting much attention these days as NASA is ready for its Artemis I launch and preparing for more to follow. The mission objectives are clear: develop a sustainable presence on its surface and pave the way to go to Mars.
And then what? What’s the next great leap in humans’ quest for the secrets of the universe? When it comes to the near future scientific exploration, there are a few areas of the solar system that will be receiving some special attention.
First off, there’s Venus, a planet which was a relative paradise with oceans and a pleasant atmosphere. Something went terribly wrong there a few billion years ago, and NASA has scheduled a series of missions to explore what exactly is going on there.
At the other end are the gas giants. Several of the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn are covered in thick sheets of ice, and underneath that ice sit oceans of liquid water. NASA has missions planned to investigate those mysterious worlds, hunting for any signs of possible life hidden deep within.
As for us humans, Mars is certainly the grand prize in the coming decades. If we have the adequate drive and funds, we can establish a semi-permanent presence on the red planet, keeping crews working and studying in person on the Martian surface. The other planets of our solar system are not so suitable for people to settle on. Mercury is too close to the Sun for comfort and too far away from the Earth.
Over the coming decades, humans expect to see a rise of “space hotels”, set up for visiting tourists and scientific explorations. Naturally, turning the space rock into a habitat for humans is not very practical considering our current level of technological maturity, but in my best estimation, it’s the next easiest thing to accomplish after the Moon and Mars, of course.
1. What does the underlined word “quest” probably mean in the second paragraph?| A．Request. | B．Explanation. |
| C．Question. | D．Search. |
| A．Mars. | B．Venus. |
| C．Mercury. | D．Gas giants. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Hopeful. |
| C．Critical. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．The launch of Artemis I. |
| B．The secrets of the solar system. |
| C．The missions of NASA. |
| D．The areas of the future universe exploration. |
3 . Like a phoenix (凤凰), some stars may burst to life covered in “ash,” rising from the remains of stars that had previously passed on.
Two fireballs covered in carbon and oxygen, ashy byproducts of helium fusion (氦聚变), belong to a new class of stars, researchers report in the March Monthly Notices. Though these burning objects are not the first stars found covered in carbon and oxygen, they are the first discovered to have helium-burning cores.
“That merger (并合) tells you the star must have evolved differently,” says study author Nicole Reindl.
The stars may have formed from the merger of two white dwarfs (白矮星), the remaining hearts of stars that exhausted their fuel, Reindl further explains. One of the two was rich in helium, while the other contained lots of carbon and oxygen. These two white dwarfs had already been orbiting one another, but gradually drew together. Eventually the helium-rich white dwarf “ate” its partner, leaving carbon and oxygen all over its surface, just as a messy child might get food all over their face.
Such a merger would have produced a star covered in carbon and oxygen to burn nuclear fusion in its core again, says Tiara Battich, a German astrophysicist.
To test this idea, Battich copied the evolution, death and eventual merger of two stars on his computer and simulated (模拟) the process. He found that putting together a carbon-and-oxygen-rich white dwarf and a more massive helium one could explain the compositions of the two stars observed by Reindl and her colleagues.
“But this should happen very rarely,” Battich says. In most cases the opposite should occur, because carbon-oxygen white dwarfs are usually the more massive ones. For the rarer case to occur, two stars slightly more massive than the sun must have formed at just the right distance and the right time.
"The origins story Battich proposes demands a very specific and unusual set of circumstances, " says Simon Blouin, a Canadian astrophysicist. “But in the end, it makes sense.”
1. What’s the newest discovery of the merger of two stars?| A．It produces a mass of helium ash. |
| B．It possesses a helium-burning core. |
| C．It is covered in carbon and oxygen. |
| D．It makes an oxygen atmosphere for life. |
| A．By co-working with Rcindl’s team. |
| B．By making astronomic observations. |
| C．By building models on his computer. |
| D．By testing the two stars’ compositions. |
| A．the carbon-oxygen white dwarf “ate” the helium one |
| B．the helium white dwarf “ate” the carbon-oxygen one |
| C．helium white dwarfs are usually the more massive ones |
| D．carbon-oxygen white dwarfs are usually the more massive ones |
| A．The formation of stars makes sense. |
| B．The burning of stars brings them to life. |
| C．Stars inspire scientists to reflect on the universe. |
| D．Star mergers can unfold in more than one way. |
4 . It’s more than 384,000km from Earth. We can see it most nights. And it’s not made of cheese! I am, of course, talking about the Moon. Astronauts have taken giant steps to explore this natural satellite floating in space, but despite it being out of reach for most of us,
The Moon, obviously, provides moonlight. A full moon, seen roughly once a month, can light up our way on an otherwise dark night. But while this lunar light can be impressive to look at,
The Moon might affect our behaviour too. Writing about this for BBC Future, Claudia Hammond explains one interesting theory. Just as the Moon’s gravitational pull affects the tides, it exerts its influence on the water in our bodies. But she points out “the Moon is smaller than the Earth, so its gravitational pull is correspondingly less powerful. What’s more, it exerts the same force on us regardless of whether it’s new or full.”
| A．it can affect our sleeping patterns |
| B．it still moves us in mysterious ways |
| C．great achievements have been made by us |
| D．There are many theories about how the Moon can affect other things too |
| E．Even winemakers look to the Moon when planting and pruning grapevines |
| F．Research into ancient myths about the effects of the lunar cycle on us is ongoing |
| G．Scientists attach great significance to space exploration about the lunar cycle on us |
5 . Space is where our future is — trips to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Most people would think that apart from comets (彗星) and stars, there is little else out there.
The first piece of space junk was created in the year of 1964, when the American satellite Vanguard I stopped operating.
The major problem with the space trash is that it may hit working satellites and damage travelling spaceship. In addition to this, many pieces of junk may crash with each other and break into pieces which fall back to the Earth.
| A．Future plans include a cooperative effort among many nations. |
| B．The junk floats slowly around the Earth. |
| C．However, since our space journey started, we have left much trash (垃圾) in space. |
| D．It is said that there are now over 500,000 pieces of man-made trash orbiting the Earth at speeds of up to 17, 500 miles per hour. |
| E．It lost its connection with the ground centre. |
| F．To avoid this, scientists have invented several ways for clearing the sky. |
| G．It hasn’t result in any serious problems up to now. |
6 . A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there was a large and magnificently brilliant star that shone across the young expanding universe. The light from that blue star travelled through space for billions of years, and then one day a few thin beams crashed into a polished mirror-the light bucket of the Hubble Space Telescope.
In a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature, a team of astronomers asserts that this is the most distant individual star ever seen. They describe it as 50 to 100 times more massive than our sun, and roughly 1 million times brighter, with its starlight having travelled 12.9 billion years to reach the telescope.
The lead author on the report, Brian Welch, gave the star a name: Earendel, meaning “morning stars”. “Earendel was found in a young galaxy known as the Sunrise Arc, and ‘morning stars’ seemed appropriate,” Welch said.
“This is one of the major discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope in its 32 years of observation, ” said Rogier Windhorst, a co-author of the report. In recent decades, astronomers have seen galaxies at that distance, and even farther away, but galaxies are collections of billions of stars and the very distant ones have typically been nothing more than smudges of light.
Despite its mass and brilliance, Earendel’s discovery would not have been possible were it not for the cosmic alignment. Between Hubble and the star lies a galaxy cluster, WHL0137-08，which is so huge that its mass wraps the fabric of space, creating a power of natural magnifying (放大) glass that magnifies the light form objects behind it, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing (引力透镜效应). Earendel sits on or close to that space ripple, causing it to “pop out” from the general glow of its galaxy because the phenomenon magnified its brightness at least a thousand fold.
In interviews this week, several scientists who are not part of the Earendel team praised the discovery, noting that further observations could firm up the claim and potentially provide insights into the early evolution of stars.
1. How does the first paragraph develop?| A．By listing several figures. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By describing the process. | D．By analyzing cause and effect. |
| A．The star Earendel is quite different from the Sun. |
| B．Brian Welch made the discovery of the Earendel alone. |
| C．Both Earendel and the galaxy Sunrise Arc are very old. |
| D．Astronomers have never discovered galaxies that far. |
| A．Because the star is incredibly huge in its mass. |
| B．Because the star shines brightly enough to be detected. |
| C．Because the brightness of the star is enhanced enormously. |
| D．Because the Hubble space telescope is properly placed in space. |
| A．Critical. | B．Indifferent. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Appreciative. |
7 . Now, imagine we’re deep space explorers and we’ve found something out in space that is both extremely heavy and very small. This mysterious object would pull so powerfully that nothing inside could escape to the outside.
Our movie, titled “ Black hole eats a star ” gets a million views online.
Are there white holes? We have good evidence from our telescopes that black holes really do exist.
White holes are unlikely because they are an “in reverse” kind of thing. Time in our universe only flows in one direction: forward. So for now, white holes are just an interesting possibility.
| A．This kind of object is a black hole. |
| B．Is there a white hole in the universe? |
| C．Now picture yourself near a black hole. |
| D．However, we’ve never seen a white hole. |
| E．And could a black hole become a white hole? |
| F．We’d never see anything escape from the black hole. |
| G．But now imagine what would happen if we played it in reverse. |
8 . Mounting a telescope on the balcony at home, Wang Zhipu, a 16-year-old boy from Fujian Province, observes the skies, takes photos and begins his voyage into space after class. Recently, his efforts were rewarded when he won the title of “Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2021” in the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s annual astrophotography contest. His winning entry, entitled Family Photo of the Solar System, shows seven of the eight planets lined up horizontally, with the sun on the left and moon on the right, both pictured larger in size than normal.
“All families are unconventional, so I adored this fresh, gently playful concept around the solar system,” said the competition judge Sue Prichard while talking about Wang’s picture. “A meaningful technically accomplished work from a rising star of astronomical photography.”
It hasn’t been easy taking pictures of outer space. For about half a year, Wang had to calculate the best time to shoot planets when they’re opposite the sun in Earth’s sky to get the brightest images. What’s more, he still needed to wait for clear weather to see better. For example, to capture a clear picture of Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, which is often cited as the most difficult of the five brightest planets to see with the naked eye, Wang tried to shoot it three times in the early morning but failed. At sunset, he shot 10, 000 frames of video and selected several thousand better frames to overlay, further refine them and form a more satisfactory picture.
Sometimes Wang would be so absorbed in his observations that he wouldn’t go downstairs to fetch a coat, even in the middle of winter. Other times, he stood for hours under the burning sun to get the perfect shot. To get an ideal shot, he often gets up at dawn, sleeps early to wake up at midnight, and even takes time off from evening classes when necessary.
1. What kind of feeling does Sue Prichard show for Wang’s prizewinning picture?| A．Curiosity. | B．Indifference. | C．Appreciation. | D．Anxiety. |
| A．Figure out when the planets shine best. |
| B．Find out where clear weather can be seen. |
| C．Work out how far the planets are from the sun. |
| D．Make out when the planets face the earth most directly. |
| A．Wang’s passion for outer space. |
| B．Wang’s habits of observing stars. |
| C．Wang’s addiction to shooting skills. |
| D．Wang’s choices of shooting occasions. |
| A．Stars Gathering, Teenager Is the Brightest |
| B．Medals Shining, Teenagers Gains the Gold |
| C．Eyes on the Stars, Teenager Wins Top Photo-prize |
| D．Dreams in Heart, Teenager Succeeds in Top Contest |
9 . A new study focuses on K2-18b, an exoplanet(系外行星) discovered in 2018, which orbits a red dwarf star close enough to receive about the same amount of radiation from its star as Earth does from our sun.
Recently, scientists have discovered gas giants that have water in their atmospheres, but this is the least giant planet ever to have water detected in its atmosphere. “The water detection was quite clear to us relatively early on,” lead author Bjorn Benneke, a professor at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the Universite de Montreal, told Space.com in an interview.
“Studies have suggested that planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres could host certain forms of life.” Benneke said. However, “K2-18b’s large atmosphere is extremely thick and creates high-pressure conditions, which likely prevents life as we know it from existing on the planet’s surface.” a news release reads. While these researchers found evidence for liquid water clouds on K2-18b, because of its lack of surface, rain wouldn’t pool on the planet. Without a real surface, so to speak, landing on the planet would also be nearly impossible to land on, especially because the gas is so thick and has such an incredibly high pressure that any Earth-created spacecraft sent there would be destroyed.
Benneke suggests that, possibly, this planet formed by rock absorbing large amounts of gas, “like a vacuum cleaner,” he said. The gas absorbed would have more than doubled the planet and increased its volume Warren eightfood.
To come to these conclusions, the research team analyzed data from Hubble Space Telescope observations that they made between 2019 and 2020 of the K2-18b planet passing in front of its star eight times. This type of research, Benneke said, is leading toward a final goal of “being able to study real, true earth-like planets.” We are not quite there yet, he said, but this is really exciting.”
1. Why is it impossible to land on the K2-18b?| A．It has thin gas. | B．It doesn’t have a real surface. |
| C．It has too much water. | D．It is too far from the earth. |
| A．By releasing gas itself. | B．By receiving radiation from the sun. |
| C．By taking in much gas by rocks. | D．By getting away from the red dwarf star. |
| A．Scientists are making progress in studying real earth-like planets. |
| B．It is impossible for humans to land on other earth-like planets. |
| C．Scientists have succeeded in exploring K2-18b completely. |
| D．The K2-18b planet has passed before its star eight times between 2019 and 2020. |
| A．The exploration of the outer space. |
| B．The study of solar systems’ environment. |
| C．The discovery of the K2-18b planet. |
| D．The research on the K2-18b planet. |
10 . Do you think alien beings exist somewhere in the universe? It seems like Mars, our closest neighbor, has inspired the most science fiction as the place where aliens are most likely to come from. Recent Mars probes (探测) have shown us that there is no life on that planet—at least not now. But that does not mean that life does not exist elsewhere—after all, the universe is really big. A lot of scientific research is going on in the search for “extraterrestrial life”.
Think about it—why should the seven billion people on this little planet be the only living beings in the universe? It would, in fact, seem logical that this is not the case. So scientific research in this matter is based around the idea of finding other planets that have environments that can support life —environments similar to the Earth. The search is on for the evidence of the existence, or earlier existence of life: from very wise beings to simple organisms (有机物).
So far, there have been a number of theories as to which planetary bodies may have an atmosphere that can support such life and therefore deserve closer attention. As for places within our own Milky Way Galaxy, it has been assumed over the decades that Mars and Venus, as well as some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, may have been hosts for life. Now, as technologies have improved and we can obtain measurements of the composition of the atmosphere on extra-solar planets, the chances of finding “alien” life forms are increasing.
There has been a theory that some of the planets in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Gliese 581 may be able to support life. In 2007, scientists discovered exoplanet Gliese 581c—and felt that its atmosphere was most suitable for supporting life. But further research revealed that it would not. Now, attention has been turned to Gliese 581d, at the outer edge of the star’s habitable zone. The main standards for deciding whether a planetary body can be life-supporting are atmospheric conditions which allow the existence of water. Gliese 581 is about 20. 4 light years away from the Earth, so even if life does exist there, the distance would mean that communication would be unlikely.
Having said this—who says alien life forms (if they exist) need water?
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Life existing outside of the Earth. |
| B．The evidence of the existence of life. |
| C．Other faraway planets in the universe. |
| D．Creatures known from science fictions. |
| A．Modern scientific theories. | B．Atmospheric conditions. |
| C．Environments similar to the Earth. | D．Advanced technologies. |
| A．the atmosphere of Gliese 581c was most suitable for life |
| B．it is not certain whether alien life forms need water or not |
| C．the 7 billion people on the Earth are the only beings in the universe |
| D．the distance of 20. 4 light years makes it impossible to find life on Gliese 581d |
| A．Do Aliens Exist? | B．Is Mars Suitable for Life? |
| C．Are Alien Life Forms Various? | D．Can We Communicate with Aliens? |
