1 . The universe is expanding faster than it used to, meaning it’s about a billion years younger than we thought, a new study by a Nobel Prize winner says.
At issue is a number called the Hubble constant, a calculation for how fast the universe is expanding. Some scientists call it the most important number in cosmology, the study of the origin and development of the universe.
Using NASAS Hubble Space Telescope, lohns Hopkings University astronomer Adam Riess concluded in this week’s Astrophysical Journal that the figure is 9% higher than the previous calculation, which was based on studying leftovers from the Big Bang.
The trouble is， Riess and others think both calculations are correct. Confused? That’s OK, so are the experts. They find the conflict so confusing that they are talking about coming up with “new physics”, incorporating (合作) perhaps some yet-to-be-discovered particle or other cosmic (宇宙) “fudge factors” like dark energy or dark matter
“Its looking more and more like were going to need something new to explain this,” said Reiss, who won the 2011 Nobel in physics.
NASA astrophysicist John Mather, another Nobel winner, said this leaves two obvious options, “1. We’re making mistakes we can’t find yet. 2. Nature has something we can’t find yet.”
Even with the discovery, life continues on Earth the way it always has. But to astrophysicists trying to get a handle on our place in this expanding universe, this is a cosmic concern. In fact, the universe is really mystical (神秘的). Scientists have done lots of study about it but there is still much they haven’t discovered.
1. What is the finding of the new study?| A．The earth is younger than expected. |
| B．Many universal problems are rising. |
| C．The universe is growing faster than before. |
| D．The finding is based on past scientists’ calculations. |
| A．The Hubble constant. | B．The faster expanding universe. |
| C．The development of the universe. | D．The scientific research on the universe. |
| A．They want to raise a new theory. |
| B．They want to explore dark matter. |
| C．They want to further calculate the finding. |
| D．They want to mix together both calculations. |
| A．We cannot find anything useful. |
| B．Astronomers are making many mistakes. |
| C．We need to learn about the universe. |
| D．We cannot find something new from nature. |
2 . A study confirmed that the cracks found on Mars’s surface last year by the Curiosity Rover are evidence of ancient lakes that likely dried up about 3.5 billion years ago. The new study provides further evidence of what the climate on the Red Planet may have been like in its ancient past.
The study, published online in Geology, proved that cracks on Mars’s surface previously photographed by Curiosity are dry mud cracks which could have only been formed when wet ground was exposed to the air. This conclusion was based on an analysis of a single area of rock known as “Old Soaker.”
Researchers used the Curiosity rover and information from its many tools including the Mars Hand Lens Imager, ChemCam Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) and the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) to study both the physical appearance and the chemistry of the rock, which is described as no bigger than a coffee table.
The analysis showed that cracks on the rocks were formed by exposure to air, rather than heat or the flow of water. In addition, the shape of the cracks suggests it experienced a single drying event on the planet, rather than getting wet and drying over repeatedly. The position of the cracks, closer to the center of the ancient lake rather than alongside it, also suggests that the lake levels changed often, rising and falling over time.
“The mud cracks are exciting because they help us to understand this ancient lake system,” lead study author Nathaniel Stein, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said, referring to the ancient lake system on the planet.
Scientists have known of the existence of ancient water on Mars for years. A 2015 NASA study that measured water in Mars’s atmosphere suggested that ancient oceans may once have had more water than our own Arctic Ocean. However, because the planet has less gravity and a thinner atmosphere than Earth, this water evaporated(蒸发) into space over the course of several billion years.
1. What is the Curiosity Rover?| A．An organization. | B．A scientist. |
| C．A planet. | D．A machine. |
| A．The cracks are near the center of an ancient lake. |
| B．Mars was getting wet and drying more than once. |
| C．The lake level on Mars seldom changes over time. |
| D．The cracks on the rocks were formed by water flow. |
| A．Ancient water still exists on Mars now. |
| B．The gravity on Mars is stronger than that on Earth. |
| C．The atmosphere on Earth is thicker than that on Mars. |
| D．The ancient Arctic Ocean had more water than it has now. |
| A．Water on Mars. | B．A trip to Mars. |
| C．A study on Mars. | D．Cracks on Mars. |
3 . Surprise! High School Student Discovers New Planet Three Days Into NASA.
When 17-year-old Wolf Cukier accepted an internship (实习) at NASA, he expected to be challenged and gain insights into pursuing a career in astrophysics (天体物理学) . Instead, he attained worldwide fame for an achievement finding a new planet!
The teenager came across the distant world while examining images of the variations in star brightness captured by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and uploaded to Planet Hunters TESS by amateur citizen astronomers. “I was looking through the data for everything the volunteers had marked,” Cukier said. “About three days into my internship, I saw a signal from a system called TOI 1338. At first, I thought it was a stellar eclipse (日食) but the timing was wrong. It turned out to be a planet.” Further research revealed that TOI 1338 b, as it is now called, is a rare circumbinary planet (环双星行星) — a world orbiting two stars. Even more exciting, TOI 1338 b is the first circumbinary world discovered by the TESS mission.
The researchers believe that TOI 1338 b is about 6.9 times larger than Earth. The experts claim that TOI 1338 b's two stars vary in size. It is also the only planet in the TOI 1338 system, which lies 1,300 light-years away from Earth.
Not surprisingly, the High School senior is looking to pursue a career in physics and astrophysics. When asked of his plans to seek out a job at NASA, the youngster said, “I've no idea about NASA's hiring practices but it can't hurt!” He added, “A career in space research is appealing.”
1. What kind of writing does the text belong to?| A．A biography. | B．A novel. |
| C．A diary. | D．A news report. |
| A．It is a rare planet with only one star. |
| B．It is about 6.9 times smaller than Earth. |
| C．It lies 1,300 light-years away from Earth. |
| D．It is the first cirumbinary planet discovered by human. |
| A．Cukier is very proud of himself. |
| B．NASA is very strict on hiring practices. |
| C．Cukier has great interest in working at NASA. |
| D．Cukier knows nothing about NASA'S hiring practices. |
| A．A New Planet. | B．NASA's Tess Mission. |
| C．A World-famous Teenager. | D．The Discovery of a New Planet. |
GALAXIES AND THE UNIVERSE |
| Galaxies are huge groupings of stars, planets, gas, and dust. Our sun is in the MILKY WAY galaxy, which measures about 100,000 light-years across. That long thin milky bright shape across the middle of the night sky is made up of about several billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is a spiral（旋转的）galaxy, but there are other types. |
| The milky way is only one galaxy among a few hundred million galaxies in our universe （each with hundreds of billions of stars）. |
| SPIRAL GALAXY: galaxies that have spiral arms that emerge from the center. Our solar system is located on one of the arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Our galaxy has a huge black hole at its center that billions of stars revolve around.
|
| ELLIPTICAL GALAXY: shaped like a huge egg. The stars in these galaxies tend to be very old. Furthermore, the old stars in ellipticals tend to be yellow and reddish, which according to our understanding of stellar evolution, means they are smaller, dimmer stars.
|
| IRREGULAR GALAXY: There are many other shapes of galaxies that aren't spiral or elliptical. They all fit into the irregular category. Like the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, they have rather unusual-looking shapes.
|
1. What is true about the Milky Way?
| A．There are only stars inside it. |
| B．There is a black hole at its center. |
| C．It’s the biggest spiral galaxy in the universe. |
| D．It takes 100,000 years to get there from Earth. |
| A．Shape. | B．Size. |
| C．Number of stars. | D．Distance from the sun. |
| A．Whale Galaxy — similar to the Milky Way both in size and shape. |
| B．Cygnus A (3C 405) Galaxy — the brightest egg shape we can observe. |
| C．Cigar Galaxy — long and narrow galaxy that looks like an ashy cloud. |
| D．Sunflower Galaxy — galaxy with multiple arms radiating from its bright core. |
5 . Scientists have discovered a “monster black hole” so massive that, in theory, it shouldn’t exist. It’s a stellar (恒星) black hole — the type that forms after stars die, collapse, and explode. Researchers had previously believed that the size limit was no more than 20 times the mass of our sun because as these stars die, they lose most of their mass through explosions that expel (排出) matter and gas swept away by stellar winds.
This theory has now been toppled by LB-1, the newly discovered black hole. Located about 15,000 light years away, it has a mass 70 times greater than our sun, according to a press release from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The findings were published by Chinese researchers in the journal Nature on Wednesday. “Black holes of such mass should not even exist in our galaxy, according to most of the current models of stellar evolution,” said Liu Jifeng, head of the team that made the discovery.
“LB-1 is twice as massive as what we thought possible. Now theorists will have to take up the challenge of explaining its formation.”
Scientists are now scratching their heads at how LB-1 got so huge.
The Chinese team has proposed a number of theories. LB-1’s sheer size suggests that it “was not formed from the collapse of only one star,” the study said — instead, it could potentially be two smaller black holes orbiting each other.
Another possibility is that it formed from “fallback supernova.” This is when a supernova — the last stage of an exploding star — ejects (排出) material during the explosion, which then falls back into the supernova, creating a black hole.
This fallback formation is theoretically possible, but scientists have never been able to prove or observe it. If this is how LB-1 formed, then we may have “direct evidence for this process” for the first time, the study said.
There are several types of black holes and stellar black holes like LB-1 are on the smaller side, according to NASA. Supermassive black holes are much bigger — they can be billions of times the mass of our sun.
Scientists believe supermassive black holes may be connected to the formation of galaxies, as they often exist at the center of the mass star stems but it is still not clear exactly how, or which form first.
1. Why does the writer write the article?| A．To report the great achievement Chinese scientists have made in black hole theory. |
| B．To inform the readers of the basic knowledge about the black hole. |
| C．To share with the readers the new development of the black hole discovery. |
| D．To demonstrate the significance of discovering new black holes for science. |
| A．overturned | B．supported | C．suspected | D．tested |
| A．It is the biggest black hole ever discovered. |
| B．It lost only a small part of its mass through explosion. |
| C．It couldn’t have been formed from the collapse of one star, |
| D．Its discovery may lead to some breakthrough in the “fallback formation theory”. |
| A．If the sun in our galaxy dies some of its mass will be taken away by stellar winds. |
| B．A massive supernova will be formed and then exploded if the sun in our galaxy dies. |
| C．“The Milky Way” was formed after a supermassive black hole collapsed and exploded. |
| D．If “the Milky Way” dies, a supermassive black hole will be formed after its death. |
