1 . Based on new data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission and other space science data sets, astronomers have created an animation to model dust in the Milky Way. The work was presented this week at a national astronomy meeting.
The animation shows the cumulative build-up of dust looking from Earth’s local neighbourhood to about 13,000 light years towards the galactic centre—around 10% of the overall distance across the Milky Way. Close by, dust swirls all around but, further out, the concentration of dust along the galactic plane (银道面) becomes clear. Two ‘windows’, one above and one below the galactic plane, are also revealed.
“Dust clouds are related to the birth and death of stars, so their distribution tells a story of how structures formed in the galaxy and how the galaxy evolves,” said Nick Cox, coordinator of the EXPLORE project which is developing the tools. “The maps are also important, for cosmologists (宇宙学家) in revealing regions where there is no dust, allowing us to have a clear, unobstructed view out of the Milky Way. This helps in studying the Universe beyond, such as to make Deep Field observations with Hubble or the new James Webb Space Telescope.”
“State-of-the-art machine learning and visual analytics have the power to greatly enhance scientific return and discovery for space science missions, but their use is still relatively novel in the field of astronomy,” said Albert Zijlstra, of the University of Manchester and the EXPLORE project. “With a constant stream of new data, we have an increasing wealth of information to mine—way beyond the scope of what humans could process in a lifetime. We need tools like the ones we are developing for EXPLORE to support scientific discovery, such as by helping us to characterize properties within the data, or to pick out the most interesting or unusual features and structures.”
1. What can we learn about the animation from the first two paragraphs?| A．It is created to replace the dust in the Milky Way. |
| B．It shows dust in a long span of space. |
| C．It employs space data from an individual data base. |
| D．The animation hasn’t been presented. |
| A．The distribution of dust clouds helps to dig the past of the galaxy. |
| B．Only Hubble and the new James Web Telescope can help explore the galaxy. |
| C．Cosmologists use maps to find where there is full of precious star dust clouds. |
| D．Dust clouds are closely related to the formation and death of various kinds of galaxies. |
| A．Fruitless. | B．Controversial. | C．Unrealistic. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Open Invitation of the Wide Galaxy | B．Thrilling Project for the European Team |
| C．Deep Dive into the Dusty Milky Way | D．Immersing Trip to the Grand Solar System |
2 . 假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
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。
Today, the once-in-500-years total solar eclipse (日食) took place. Unfortunate, I was ill and couldn’t observe it myself, so I had to watch it on television. I clearly watched the Diamond Ring, Bailey’s Beads (贝利珠) or solar eclipses in other areas. The sun on TV was originally round, what later became a boat, like a dog taking off a big bite of a biscuit. Gradually, the sun became thin than an eyebrow. Suddenly, Bailey’s Beads and the Diamond Ring jump out naughtily. Then, a large black disk obviously hung in the sky, the sky became as black as night. After the while, the sun slowly recovered. Ah ha, the dog couldn’t swallow the biscuit and spat out.
3 . The US space agency NASA has revealed an astonishing picture revealing new secrets of the Earth’s home galaxy (星系), the Milky Way. The sun is just one of hundreds of billions of stars that form the huge shape of our galaxy. Our solar system sits in an outlying region but the new image focuses on the centre of the Milky Way, a “noisy” area because of all the crowded stars. Light from this region takes about 26,000 years to reach Earth. For comparison, light takes just eight minutes to reach us from the sun.
The researchers use the data collected by two telescopes that see the sky in ways that are very different from the visible light our eyes can see to form the new image. Most of the data comes from 370 different pictures taken over the past 20 years by NASA’s Chandra X Observatory. This satellite telescope detects X-rays out in space. X-rays are a from of radiation that is sent out when violent events heat matter to temperatures of millions of degrees. Other data comes from the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, which can detect radio waves from space. These waves have much less energy than X-rays. They are usually produced by cooler material, such as huge clouds of gas between the stars.
The brightest sources include neutron stars which are the cores of huge stars that ran out of fuel and collapsed to city-sized balls of super hot matter. Many neutron stars and black holes jet out gases that appear in the picture as purple streaks (斑纹). Powerful magnetic fields in the area cause the jets to bend as they get further from their source. Astronomer Dr Daniel Wang, who has worked on the image over the past year, said the new picture described “a violent or energetic ecosystem”.
1. What can be learned about the Milky Way?| A．The center of it remains unknown. |
| B．The sun isn’t located in the center of it. |
| C．Its center is very peaceful. |
| D．Its center features fewer stars. |
| A．The collection of space data. |
| B．The function of the MeerKAT telescope. |
| C．The differences of space waves. |
| D．The formation of the new image. |
| A．They will absorb surrounding materials. |
| B．They will form super big matter. |
| C．They get bent if away from their source. |
| D．They are likely to explode when superheated. |
| A．Our galaxy’s violent heart | B．An attempt to travel in outer space |
| C．Radio waves from outer space | D．Stars’ purple streaks |
After traveling
The name Tianwen,
The mission
5 . The United States space agency, NASA. says its Mars exploration vehicle recently recorded a high level of methane (甲烷) gas on the planet. The discovery is exciting because the presence of methane gas could support the case for life on Mars.
NASA's Curiosity vehicle recently recoded the largest level of methane ever measured during its seven-year Mars mission.
Methane has no color or smell. A special instrument on Curiosity's Man Science Laboratory recorded the increased gas level. The device measures levels of chemical elements and gases in the Marian atmosphere. In addition to methane, the instrument can record levels of water and carbon dioxide.
Nearly all the methane gas found in Earth's atmosphere is produced by living thing. It usually comes from animal and plant life. But it can also be formed by geological(地质的) processes, such as interactions. between rocks and water.
It was not the first time Curiosity had found methane gas in the Martian atmosphere. About a year ago, NASA announced that Curiosity had discovered sharp seasonal increases in the gas. This time, NASA said the measured methane gas level was clearly larger than any others observed in the past. "It's exciting because microbial (微生物的) life is an important source of methane on Earth," NASA said in a statement announcing the discovery.
However, Curiosity's team carried out a follow-up methane experiment that showed a sharp drop in levels of the gas. That number was "close to the background levels Curiosity sees all the time." NASA said. The rise and fall of the methane gas levels left NASA scientists with more questions than answers.
"The methane mystery continues," said Ashwin Vasavada. Curiosity's project scientist, "We're more motivated than ever to keep measuring and put our brains together to figure out how methane behaves in the Marian atmosphere."
1. What do we know about methane go?| A．It is a must to living things. | B．It can be found everywhere. |
| C．It smells like carbon dioxide. | D．It's mainly from biological activity. |
| A．Humans have known much about Mars. |
| B．There will be more methane gas on Mars. |
| C．There is no progress in the 7 year's research. |
| D．The level of methane gas on Mars is not stable. |
| A．There may exist life on Mars. |
| B．Methane gas on Mars has a sudden increase. |
| C．The mystery about Mars will be solved soon. |
| D．They're known how methane as is formed on Mans. |
| A．Aimless. | B．Confident. |
| C．Stressed. | D．Serious. |
