1 . It sounds like something from the field of science fiction — a space exploration into vast outer space, heading towards the Red Planet While we’re not quite ready to put a person on it, the question we ask today is:     1    

The space race saw the USSR (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and USA compete to achieve firsts in spaceflight. The USSR released Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite, before anyone else,     2     Now it appears that Mars is the body of desire. While to be the first nation to land on it is an obvious draw, there are other reasons why we want to get there.

    3     You only have to look at the fossils of the dinosaurs to see the benefit of finding another habitable planet. While Mars doesn’t have the right conditions to call it home just yet, there's always the concept of terraforming-changing the environment of a planet to suit our needs.

However, not everyone agrees. Leading astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said the concept of changing habitability of a planet is not always practical.     4    

It seems that the main reason at the moment is the search for alien (外星的) life.    5     Now seemingly dead, the potential fossils could answer questions about our own evolution and that of our planet. One theory is that bacterial life on our planet didn't start here, but was brought here via asteroid from Mars.

3 . “Pale moon rains. Red moon blows. White moon neither rains nor snows.” For generations, people have watched the moon for signs of changes in the weather. The moon does, in fact, affect the Earth’s climate and weather patterns in several unnoticeable ways.

The most obvious effect the moon has on the Earth can be seen in the ocean tides (潮汐). A world without tides would have very different weather systems. Tides are one factor that influences the movement of ocean currents, which move warm or cool water about the Earth. Warm ocean currents bring warmer wetter weather, while cold ocean currents bring colder drier weather.

While the lunar nodal cycle is set to bring marked change over the coming decades, the moon affects the Earth in a few other little-known ways on a shorter timescale.

The moon is also thought to affect polar temperatures and contribute to fluctuations (波动) in the extent of Arctic ice. Satellite measurements have shown that the poles are 0.55℃ warmer during a full moon. In addition, tidal forces act to break up ice sheets and change ocean heat flows, converting the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean.

The moon’s influence, sometimes unnoticeable and sometimes strong, has had a formative impact on life on Earth. Some scientists argue that it is the moon that made life possible in the first place. The moon steadies the Earth as it spins on its axis (轴), helping to give us a stable climate. Without it, the Earth would rock more irregularly. The poles would move obviously in relation to the Earth’s orbit. Seasons, days and nights would all look very different. The moon is closest to the Earth in the universe, without which the Earth would be a very lonely place.

Throughout history, mankind have been working hard on the space     1     (explore) to learn more about the universe though it was thought     2     (possible) before the mid-20th century. However, so many scientists were     3     (determine) to help humans realize their dream.

With the first satellite launched and orbiting around Earth successfully, Yuri became the first astronaut     4    (send) into space in 1961. After that, American astronaut Neil Armstrong     5    （succeed) in stepping onto the moon. Although the failure of Challenger was     6     (disappoint), human beings went on with their desire to explore the universe, the International Space Station being the best example.

Following Russia and America, China became the third country in the world to     7     (independent) send humans into space in 2003,     8    Yang Liwei successfully orbited Earth. From then on, China made great progress in its space programme.

All in all,     9     the difficulties, scientists hope future     10     (discovery) will not only enable us to understand how the universe began, but also help us survive well into the future.

5 . If Mars were the popular kid in school, Venus (金星) would be the unwelcome one sitting in the corner, largely ignored. Venus has nearly the same mass and size as Earth, but being closer to the sun, it gets nearly twice as much heat from the sun.

However, instead of having a climate that is just a warmer version of Earth’s, Venus’s surface and atmosphere are unbearable: clouds of sulphuric acid (硫酸) blanket the planet, while at ground level, it is hot enough to melt lead. Despite this, there is now a sign that Venus may harbour life. Jane Greaves at Cardiff University, UK, and her colleagues recently detected (发现) phosphine (磷化氢) in Venus’s atmosphere, with one potential explanation that it is the by-product of biology. That is because the only way this gas is made on Earth is in laboratories or by microbes (微生物). Though this doesn’t mean it was produced by life on Venus, attempts to find non-biological explanations for its presence have so far failed. Our best way of confirming or rejecting the possibility of life on Venus is to go and have a proper look. While Mars has been the focus of interplanetary (行星间的) exploration efforts lately, the phosphine discovery lets people look at Venus in a new light. As NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted: “It’s time to prioritize Venus.”

In the months and years to come, computer simulations(模拟) will be used to further study the possible chemistries of the atmosphere on Venus. More laboratory experiments will be conducted to try to identify other ways the phosphine there could be produced. However, there is no guarantee that these efforts will reveal the true nature of this substance on Venus. A newly-proposed strategy is to directly sample the atmosphere and surface of Venus. By doing so, we would be able to take direct measurements of phosphine.

The discovery of phosphine in Venus’s atmosphere is a great accomplishment. The scientific efforts may be just what we need to finally refocus on this neglected world. Possibly, the quiet kid in the corner may get the last laugh

8 . 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?