Dong Shuchang from China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region captured the solar eclipse (日蚀) on June 21, 2020, in his photography work The Golden Ring,
2 . One of the biggest barriers to a manned mission to Mars is the fuel problem. If future Mars explorers ever want to return to Earth, they’ll not only need enough fuel to get to Mars, but also enough to get back home. And fuel is heavy. If the plan is to pack it from Earth for the whole journey, then that adds a lot of weight to the aircraft. It’s a difficult problem.
Now, in a new plan outlined in an article by a NASA team leader Kurt Leucht, the dream of making fuel right on Mars itself appears to be a real possibility. And the only raw material needed to make the rocket fuel? Martian soil.
The NASA team calls the method “in situ resource utilization”, or ISRU. It involves extracting（提炼）water from Mars’ distinctive red-colored dirt and using a process called electrolysis（电解）to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be combined with carbon, which is plentiful in Mars’ atmosphere, to make methane, which can be used as rocket fuel.
Of course, all of this requires time and an on-site factory that’s up to the task. For that, NASA is developing a team of robots that can be set up on Mars years in advance of a return trip to Earth, which will tirelessly work to manufacture the rocket fuel.
The whole plan does have one small challenge. Namely, it depends on the water content of Martian soil. If we start digging and there’s no water, or far less of it than expected, that could be a problem. But scientists are becoming increasingly confident that Mars’ soil actually has a fair amount of water locked into it, which is also enough for the survival needs of astronauts who plan to stay a while on the Red Planet.
“This technology will one day allow humans to live and work on Mars,” wrote Leucht, “and return to Earth to tell the story.”
1. What is one of the problems faced by Mars explorers?| A．They cannot carry enough fuel to return to Earth. |
| B．They have great difficulty surviving on Mars. |
| C．They need a large aircraft to carry enough fuel. |
| D．They cannot carry enough food to feed themselves. |
| A．By releasing a lot of carbon. | B．By providing water resources. |
| C．By producing methane directly. | D．By absorbing hydrogen in the air. |
| A．By doing experiments on Earth first. | B．By training factory workers on Mars. |
| C．By preparing a return trip in advance. | D．By employing robots as workers on Mars. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Optimistic. | C．Concerned. | D．Unclear. |
The US space agency NASA says new data from observations of the asteroid (小行星) Bennu still suggests that the object could one day hit Earth. But, the scientists
Bennu and other asteroids are considered near Earth objects. Scientists identify such objects
The latest data on Bennu was collected by NASA's Osiris- Rex spacecraft,
The Future Life on Mars
Compared with the life we
Firstly, without pollution on Mars, people will be able to drink cleaner water
Set to launch October 16, the Lucy spacecraft
6 . How many things can you see in the night sky? A lot! On a clear night you might see the Moon, some planets, and thousands of sparkling stars.
You can see even more with a telescope. You might see stars where you only saw dark space before. You might see that many stars look larger than others. You might see that some stars that look white are really red or blue. With bigger and bigger telescope you can see more and more objects in the sky. And you can see those objects in more and more detail.
But scientists believe there are some things in the sky that we will never see. We won’t see them with the biggest telescope in the world, on the clearest night of the year.
That’s because they’re invisible. They’re the mysterious dead stars called black holes.
You might find it hard to imagine that stars die. After all, our Sun is a star. Year after year we see it up in the sky, burning brightly, giving us heat and light. The Sun certainly doesn’t seem to be getting old or weak. But stars do burn out and die after billions of years.
As a star’s gases burn, they give off light and heat. But when the gas runs out, the star stops burning and begins to die.
As the star cools, the outer layers of the star pull in toward the center. The star squashes into a smaller and smaller ball. If the star was very small, the star ends up as a cold, dark ball called a black dwarf. If the star was very big, it keeps squashing inward until it’s packed together tighter than anything in the universe.
Imagine if the Earth were crushed until it was the size of a tiny marble. That’s how tightly this dead star, a black hole, is packed. What pulls the star in towards its center with such power? It’s the same force that pulls you down when you jump—the force called gravity. A black hole is so tightly packed that its gravity sucks in everything—even light. The light from a black hole can never come back to your eyes. That’s why you see nothing but blackness.
So the next time you stare up at the night sky, remember: there’s more in the sky than meets the eyes! Scattered in the silent darkness are black holes—the great mystery of space.
1. According to the article, what causes a star to die?| A．As its gases run out, it cools down. | B．It crashes into other stars. |
| C．It can only live for about a million years. | D．As it gets hotter and hotter, it explodes. |
| A．what a black hole is | B．why we can’t see black holes |
| C．black holes have enormous gravity | D．the formation of black holes |
| A．It burns up all of its gases. | B．It becomes invisible. |
| C．It falls to Earth. | D．It becomes brighter and easier to see. |
| A．Most black holes are so far away. |
| B．Because the gravity of a black hole is so strong that it sucks the light inward. |
| C．Because as the star’s gases burn, it stops giving off heat and light. |
| D．Because as a star cools, its outer layers pull in toward its center. |
7 . For years, planet-hunters have been searching for a planet other than Earth that can support life. They may have found one.
The planet is the sixth found orbiting a star called Gliese 581. Steven Vogt, one of the scientists involved, expects the new planet to have water. On Earth, when we find water, we find life.
A planet that can support life has to be just the right size for its system and just the right distance from its star. Some planets orbit so close to their stars that they’re much too hot for liquid water—or for life as we know it.
But a right-sized planet that's neither too close nor too far might be just right for water. Gliese 581 is probably just right. It is about three times as huge as Earth.
The new planet is 20 light years away, which is as far as 250 million trips to the Moon and back.
Gliese 581 is an exciting discovery—and astronomers are likely to find more soon, thanks to new, powerful telescopes specifically designed to look for planets.
| A．We can’t travel at the speed of light. |
| B．It’s pretty hard to imagine that water wouldn't be there. |
| C．Human beings won’t be visiting this planet any time soon. |
| D．So scientists looking for life on other planets look for water first. |
| E．It orbits its star so closely that it goes all the way around in only 37 days. |
| F．Astronomers will probably find more potential life-supporting planets soon. |
| G．Other planets keep their distance from the stars—where they’re too cold to have water or life. |
1.“天问一号”成功发射；
2.你的感想。
注意：
1.词数80左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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9 . Edmund Halley was an English scientist who lived over 200 years ago. He studied the observations of comets which other scientists had made. The orbit of one particular comet was a very difficult mathematical problem. He could not figure it out. Neither could other scientists who dealt with such problems.
However, Halley had a friend named Newton, who was a brilliant mathematician. Newton thought he had already worked out that problem, but he could not find the papers on which he had done it. He told Halley that the orbit of a comet had the shape of an ellipse.
Now Halley set to work. He figured out the orbits of some of the comets that had been observed by scientists. He made a surprising discovery. The comets that had appeared in the years 1531, 1607, and 1682 all had the same orbit. Yet their appearances had been 75 to 76 years apart.
This seemed very strange to Halley. The different comets followed the same orbit. The more Halley thought about it, the more he thought that there had not been three different comets, as people thought. He decided that they had simply seen the same comet three times. The comet had gone away and had come back again.
It was an astonishing idea! Halley felt certain enough to make a prediction of what comet would happen in the future. He decided that this comet would appear in the year 1758. There were 53 years to go before Halley’s prediction could be tested. In 1758 the comet appeared in the sky. Halley did not see it, for he had died some years before. Ever since then that comet has been called Halley’s comet, in his honor.
1. Halley made his discovery ________.| A．by doing experiments | B．by means of his own careful observation |
| C．by using the work of other scientists | D．by chance |
| A．1704 | B．1705 | C．1706 | D．1707 |
| A．Halley and other scientists | B．the orbit of a comet |
| C．Newton and Halley | D．Halley and his discovery |
| A．Edmund Halley was an American scientist. | B．Halley made his discovery by doing experiments. |
| C．Newton was a famous mathematician. | D．The orbit of a comet had the shape of a circle. |
10 . The famous scientist Stephen Hawking spoke at a science festival in Norway in 2017, “We are running out of space and the only places to go to are other worlds... Spreading out may be the only thing that saves us from ourselves. I’m convinced that humans need to leave Earth.”
Hawking was not alone in this view. Many experts feel that the only way for humanity to last far into the future is to colonize (移民于) other planets. That way, if a terrible disease, nuclear war or some other disaster strikes Earth, civilization as we know it would still have a chance. Mars is one of the most attractive destinations. NASA, the United Arab Emirates, the private company SpaceX, and the organization Mars One all have plans to send humans there. “Either we spread Earth to other planets, or we risk going extinct,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said at a conference in 2013.
But not everyone agrees that colonizing Mars or any other planet is such a great plan. The most common argument against going is that it’s just too expensive or dangerous. It will take huge amounts of money and other resources just to get people there, let alone set up a place for them to live. It’s not even clear if humans could survive on Mars. One of the biggest dangers there is deadly radiation that ruins the planet.
Maybe all the time and money people would pour into a Mars mission would be better spent on more urgent projects here on Earth, like dealing with poverty or climate change. Some experts argue that handling a problem like an asteroid (小行星) strike or disease outbreak while staying here on Earth would be much easier and less expensive than surviving on a new planet.
In addition, moving to a new planet could harm or destroy anything that already lives there. Mars seems uninhabited, but it could possibly host micro-organism like. Human visitors may destroy this life or permanently change or damage the Martian environment. Some feel that’s too much of a risk to take.
1. Why did the author mention NASA, the United Arab Emirates, SpaceX and Mars One?| A．To stress the risk of dying out on Earth. |
| B．To provide evidence for Hawking’s theory. |
| C．To show growing intention of moving to Mars. |
| D．To explain the advanced technology in astronomy. |
| A．Civilization is difficult to maintain on Earth. |
| B．It is costly and risky to colonize Mars. |
| C．Poverty is the most urgent problem to handle. |
| D．All the time and money should be spent on Earth. |
| A．Not fit to live on. | B．Not steady to keep. |
| C．Not easy to approach. | D．Not safe to set foot on. |
| A．Mars, Our Future Planet |
| B．Moving to A New Planet |
| C．Should We Colonize Mars? |
| D．Stay Home or Outer Space? |
