1 . Using first-of-their-kind observations from the James Webb Space Telescope. a University of Minnesota Twin Cities-led team looked more than 13 billion years into the past to discover a unique, minuscule galaxy cluster (星系团) that generated new stars at an extremely high rate for its size. The galaxy is one of the smallest ever discovered at this distance —around 500 million years after the Big Bang — and could help astronomers learn more about galaxies that were present shortly after the universe came into existence.
......
What does the underlined word “minuscule” in paragraph l mean?| A．Extremely small. | B．Remarkably dark. |
| C．Especially remote. | D．Quite complicated. |
| A．Landon Mars. | B．Find water on Mars. | C．Send detectors on to Mars. |
3 . 听双语新闻——填词
China requests names for solar observatory
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has initiated a call for suggestions to name the country’s newest solar observatory, which will be launched into a sun-synchronous
The newest Chinese solar observation satellite, the Advanced Space-Based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), will help solar physicists study the relationships between the solar magnetic
4 . 听双语新闻——语法填空
China requests names for solar observatory
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has initiated a call for suggestions to name the country’s newest solar observatory, which will be
The newest Chinese solar observation satellite, the Advanced Space-Based Solar Observatory (ASO-S), will help solar physicists study the
5 . Benefits of Space Exploration
On April 12, 1961, the Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey to outer space.
● Medical benefits.
●
The space race has led to technological advancements in the shortest period of time, such a vacuum-sealed (真空密封的) food, fireproof materials and modern vacuum cleaners. Today, we still use them in our daily lives. Yet, we even don’t know that some NASA engineers originally developed them for the Apollo program that took humankind to the moon.
● Creation of STEM jobs.
Space exploration is one of the industries that require the largest percentage of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) jobs. A lot of those jobs are positions for engineers, data analysts, doctors, biologists and so on. Although these positions require highly qualified people to fill them, they are some of the highest-paid jobs in the market.
| A．Space tourism industry. |
| B．Development of new technologies. |
| C．Is exploring space a waste of time and money? |
| D．As you can see, it is important for us to keep pushing the limits of space exploration. |
| E．So the growing space industry creates high-paid jobs. |
| F．The medical benefits of space exploration reach every area of the human body. |
| G．The age of space exploration started that day. |
6 . These findings are good news for life in the universe as they dispel concerns that potentially habitable planets could not form too close to very massive stars. Previously, scientists thought the intensity of ultraviolet (紫外线的) radiation produced by massive stars would interfere (干扰) with the distribution of dust and gas in planet-forming stars, possibly preventing the formation of rocky planets like Earth, for instance. The NGC 6357 group contains more than ten super bright and massive stars, suggesting most of the group’s matter is exposed to high levels of ultraviolet radiation.
What does the underlined word “dispel” in paragraph mean?
| A．Strengthen. | B．Remove. | C．Ignore. | D．Prove. |
7 . China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time last Saturday. This makes China the first country to make a successful landing on Mars on its first mission to Mars. China’s Zhurong rover (探测车), named after a traditional Chinese fire god, has touched down on the martian surface, the China National Space Administration confirmed on the morning of Saturday, May 15.
The rover is part of the Tian wen-1 mission, which consists of an orbiter, a probe, and a lander. The mission was launched in summer last year, and took seven months to complete its journey to the red planet. It arrived at Mars in February this year, and since then the spacecraft has been performing operations such as capturing images of Mars.
Believe it or not, traveling to Mars is actually the easy part of such a mission. The truly hard part is landing on the planet’s surface, as landers must contend with factors like the planet’s thin atmosphere, its variable dust storms, and a communication delay between Mars and Earth. This delay makes it impossible for people in mission control on Earth to control a craft in real time as it approaches the planet, so the landing must be performed autonomously.
To slow its speed as the lander approached the surface, it used both a parachute (降落伞) and a retrorocket (减速火箭) in its own “seven minutes of terror” as it moved through the atmosphere. It then landed in the Utopia Planitia area, a large impact basin, part of which was exploded by NASA’s Viking 2 lander in the 1970s.
According to China’s slate news agency Xinhua, President Xi Jinping said he was sending “warm congratulations and sincere greetings to all members who have participated in the Mars exploration mission.”
The rover will now begin its three-month mission to explore the Utopia Planitia area, where it will be searching for surface and subsurface ice. The mission will involve both the rover and the orbiter working in concert to create a map of water ice, with the orbiter focusing on the planet’s polar regions.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?| A．The Tianwen-1 mission includes four space missions. |
| B．Zhurong was known as a great astronomer in ancient China. |
| C．The spacecraft has carried out a series of experiments in advance. |
| D．China achieved success in landing on Mars creating a new record. |
a. Mars’s atmosphere. b. Mars’s bad weather
c. The landing instructions. d. The communication delay.
| A．abc | B．bed | C．abd | D．abcd |
| A．The landing way is quite different. | B．The landing process is full of danger. |
| C．The landing site is unknown to NASA. | D．The landing time is calculate precisely. |
A. wraps B. poorly C. generating D. incomplete E. sufficient F. further G. Compressing H. heats I. uncertainty J. pressurize K. drowned |
Neptune Rains Diamonds, and Now We Might Finally Know How
Deep within the hearts of Neptune and Uranus, it could be raining diamonds. Now, scientists have produced new experimental evidence showing how this could be possible.
The hypothesis goes that the intense heat and pressure thousands of kilometres below the surface of these ice giants should split apart hydrocarbon compounds, with the carbon
The new experiment used the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)X-ray laser for the most precise measurements yet of how this “diamond rain” process should occur-and found that carbon transitions directly into crystalline diamond.
Neptune and Uranus are the most
The atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus are primarily made up of hydrogen and helium, with a small amount of methane. Below these atmospheric layers, a superhot, superdense fluid of “icy” materials such as water, methane, and ammonia
And calculations and experiments dating back decades have shown that, with
A previous experiment led by physicist Dominik Kraus used X-ray diffraction to demonstrate it. Now Kraus and his team have taken their research a step
It’s challenging to replicate the interiors of giant planets here on Earth. The first step is to heat and
In the previous experiment, X-ray diffraction(衍射)was used to then probe the material. This works well for materials with crystalline structures, but less so with non-crystalline molecules, so the picture was
This allowed them not just to observe the conversion of carbon into diamond, but also what happens to the rest of the sample-it splits off into hydrogen. And there’s pretty much no leftover carbon.
9 . On Monday, August 21, millions of Americans across the country wore their protective eyeglasses to watch the highly expected total solar eclipse. Though the eclipses, which occur about every 18 months, are not rare, this one was historic. It was not only the first total solar eclipse visible from the mainland US in more than 38 years, but also the first to be seen coast to coast in almost a century.
The crowds were thrilled as the moon briefly blocked the sun, covering cities all the way from Oregon to South Carolina (SC) with darkness. A cold ran down many spines as the temperatures dropped dramatically, by up to 12 degrees Fahrenheit, during totality. Those fortunate enough to have clear skies not only saw the corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere, which is usually not visible in the sun’s glare, but also the bright stars and planets.
Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative everywhere. The crowds who gathered in Charleston, SC, the last big city in the path of totality, had to struggle against a thick cloud cover when the partial eclipse began at 1:17 pm. It did thin out a little as totality took place at 2:46 pm, allowing for a good view of the eclipse, but not the sun’s corona! However, some splendid flashes of lightning that occurred just as the moon covered the sun helped ease the disappointment somewhat.
All in all, the rare event, believed to be the most observed and most photographed eclipse in history, was a huge success. As Bill Nye, aka “the Science Guy” briefly put it, “Experiencing an eclipse changes the way we feel about space and how we are connected. This moment will remind us all that we share a common origin among the stars and that we are all citizens of the same planet.”
1. What do we know about the eclipse on August 21?| A．It was first viewed by the citizens in Carolina. |
| B．It caused a temperature decrease in some cities. |
| C．It was the first total solar eclipse visible in the US. |
| D．It cheered astronomy lovers from all over the world. |
| A．where people could enjoy a good eclipse |
| B．when the total solar eclipse happened in Charleston |
| C．what people saw in Charleston during the eclipse |
| D．why the weather was bad in Charleston |
| A．Astonishing. | B．Disappointing. | C．Troublesome. | D．Meaningful. |
10 . NASA will crash a spacecraft into an asteroid (小行星) to try to change its orbit, attempting to prevent humans going the same way as the dinosaurs.
Earth is constantly being disturbed by small pieces of debris (碎片), but they usually burn up or break up long before they hit the ground. Once in a while, however, something large enough to do significant damage makes impact. About 66 million years ago, one such crash is thought to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Someday, something similar could end human beings—unless we can find a way to tackle it.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) mission is the first attempt to test if such asteroid redirection is a realistic strategy: investigating whether a spacecraft can autonomously reach a target asteroid and intentionally crash into it, as well as measuring the amount of redirection. “If it works, it would be a big deal, because it would prove that we have the technical capability of protecting ourselves,” said Jay Tate, the director of the National Near Earth Object Information Center.
The 610kg Dart spacecraft is scheduled to be launched at the target—the Didymos system—a harmless pair of asteroids consisting of a 163-metre “moonlet” asteroid called Dimorphos that orbits a larger 780-metre asteroid called Didymos (Greek for “twin”). The plan is to crash the spacecraft into Dimorphos when the asteroid system is at its closest to Earth—about 6.8 million miles away.
About 10 days before impact, a miniaturized satellite called LiciaCube will separate from the main spacecraft, enabling images of the impact to be relayed back to Earth. Combined with observations from ground-based telescopes, and an onboard camera that will record the final moments before the crash, these recordings will enable scientists to calculate the degree to which the impact has changed Dimorphos’s orbit. The expectation is that it will change the speed of the smaller asteroid by approximately 1% and reduce its orbit around the larger asteroid.
Then, in November 2024, the European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft will visit the Didymos system and conduct a further close-up analysis of the consequences of this snooker (斯诺克) game, recording details such as the precise makeup and internal structure of Dimorphos, and the size and shape of the hole left by Dart. Such details are vital for transforming asteroid redirection into a repeatable technique.
Even then, it is impossible that any single redirection strategy would be enough. “The problem is that no two asteroids or comets are alike, and how you redirect one depends on a huge number of variables. There is no silver bullet in this game. What you need is a whole folder of different redirection methods for different types of targets,” said Tate.
So, while this may be one small step towards planetary protection, many more are likely to be necessary to avoid destruction.
1. What is the purpose of Paragraph 2?| A．To explain the necessity of launching a spacecraft. |
| B．To examine the impact of dinosaurs’ extinction. |
| C．To highlight the crisis threatening human beings at present. |
| D．To show the damage caused by small pieces of debris. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Helping the satellite separate from the spacecraft. |
| B．Recording the scientists’ ground-based observations. |
| C．Sending impact data back to Earth. |
| D．Calculating the length of Dimorphos’s orbit. |
| A．There is no possibility to satisfy NASA’s needs. |
| B．There is no challenge too big to overcome. |
| C．There is no strategy to help make an obvious decision. |
| D．There is no single solution to the complex problem. |
