| A．From TV. | B．From the newspaper. | C．From the Internet. |
| A．Less than 24 hours. | B．24 hours and 37 minutes. | C．37 hours. |
1. When did the man listen to the news?
| A．At 5 o’clock. | B．At 6 o’clock. | C．At 7 o’clock. |
| A．It was about the space station. |
| B．It was about the astronauts. |
| C．It was about the earth. |
4 . It sounds like something from science fiction — a space journey into the vast expanse of space, heading towards Mars. While we’re not quite ready to put a person on the land, the question we ask today is:
The space race saw the USA and USSR compete to achieve the first in spaceflight. The Soviet Union released Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite (人造卫星), before anyone else.
However, not everyone agrees.
It seems the main reason is the search for extraterrestrial (地球外的) life.
| A．Leading astrophysicist Neil Tyson is one of them. |
| B．And the US landed on the Moon first. |
| C．One of these could be the survival of our species. |
| D．May landing on Mars inspire more people to become interested in science? |
| E．It has been believed that, at one time, Mars was filled with life. |
| F．Surely inspiring a new generation to visit the stars is reason enough. |
| G．Why are so many countries interested in going to Mars? |
5 . Nuclear bombs. That’s the go-to answer for incoming space objects like asteroids (小行星) and comets, as far as Hollywood is concerned. Movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon rely on nuclear weapons, delivered by stars like Bruce Willis, to save the world and deliver the drama.
But planetary defense experts say in reality, if astronomers spotted a dangerous incoming space rock, the safest and best answer might be something more subtle, like simply pushing it off course by crashing it with a small spacecraft.
That’s just what NASA did on Monday evening, when a spacecraft headed straight into an asteroid called Dimorphos, which is around 7 million miles away and poses no threat to Earth. It’s about 525 feet across and orbits another larger asteroid.
In images streamed as the impact neared, the egg-shaped asteroid grew in size from a little spot on screen to having its full rocky surface come quickly into focus before the signal went dead as the craft hit right on target.
Events happened exactly as engineers had planned, they said, with nothing going wrong. “As far as we can tell, our first planetary defense test was a success,” said Elena Adams, the mission systems engineer, who added that scientists looked on with “both terror and joy” as the spacecraft neared its final destination.
The impact was the peak of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a 7- year and more than $ 300 million effort which launched a space vehicle in November of 2021 to perform humanity’s first ever test of planetary defense technology. It will be about two months, scientists said, before they will be able to determine if the impact was enough to drive the asteroid slightly off course, probably shortening its original orbit.
NASA plans to launch an asteroid-hunting space telescope named NEO Surveyor in 2026. “We’ve tracked lots of space rocks, especially the larger ones that could cause extinction-level events. Thankfully, none currently threatens Earth. But many asteroids the size of Dimorphos haven’t yet been discovered, and those could potentially take out a city if they came crashing down.” explains Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer.
1. How did scientists know the craft hit the asteroid successfully?| A．The little spot on the screen suddenly disappeared. |
| B．The signal from the craft was lost as it hit the target. |
| C．They monitored the craft with satellites in space. |
| D．They recorded the whole process with a telescope. |
| A．To save the world and deliver a drama. | B．To search for evidence of alien life. |
| C．To test technology for defending Earth. | D．To end the asteroid’s threat to Earth. |
| A．It is expected to blow up after the impact. | B．It may orbit the same asteroid after the hit. |
| C．It is an egg-shaped asteroid around Earth. | D．It is a dangerous incoming space rock. |
| A．Larger asteroids will no longer threaten Earth. |
| B．NASA is responsible for the safety of Earth. |
| C．Asteroids are equally destructive whatever the size. |
| D．NEO Surveyor is aimed to track smaller asteroids. |
6 . A satellite is an object in space that orbits around another. It has two kinds — natural satellites and artificial satellites. The moon is a natural satellite that moves around the earth while artificial satellites are those made by man.
Despite their widespread impact on daily life, artificial satellites mainly depend on different complicated makeups. On the outside, they may look like a wheel, equipped with solar panels or sails. Inside, the satellites contain mission-specific scientific instruments, which include whatever tools the satellites need to perform their work. Among them, high-resolution cameras and communication electronics are typical ones. Besides, the part that carries the load and holds all the parts together is called the bus.
Artificial satellites operate in a systematic way just like humans. Computers function as the satellite’s brain, which receive information, interpret it, and send messages back to the earth. Advanced digital cameras serve as the satellite’s eyes. Sensors are other important parts that not only recognize light, heat, and gases, but also record changes in what is being observed. Radios on the satellite send information back to the earth. Solar panels provide electrical power for the computers and other equipment, as well as the power to move the satellite forward.
Artificial satellites use gravity to stay in their orbits. Earth’s gravity pulls everything toward the center of the planet. To stay in the earth’s orbit, the speed of a satellite must adjust to the tiniest changes in the pull of gravity. The satellite’s speed works against earth’s gravity just enough so that it doesn’t go speeding into space or falling back to the earth.
Rockets carry satellites to different types and heights of orbits, based on the tasks they need to perform. Satellites closer to the earth are in low-earth orbit, which can be 200-500 miles high. The closer to the earth, the stronger the gravity is. Therefore, these satellites must travel at about 17,000 miles per hour to keep from falling back to the earth, while higher-orbiting satellites can travel more slowly.
1. What is Paragraph 2 of the text mainly about?| A．The appearance of artificial satellites. | B．The components of artificial satellites. |
| C．The basic function of artificial satellites. | D．The specific mission of artificial satellites. |
| A．Providing electrical power. | B．Recording changes observed. |
| C．Monitoring space environment. | D．Processing information received. |
| A．By relying on powerful rockets to get out of gravity. |
| B．By orbiting at a fixed speed regardless of gravity’s pull. |
| C．By changing speed constantly based on the pull of gravity. |
| D．By resisting the pull of gravity with advanced technologies. |
| A．They are more affected by earth’s gravity. |
| B．They take advantage of rockets more effectively. |
| C．They have weaker pull of gravity in higher orbits. |
| D．They are equipped with more advanced instruments. |
Some researchers think there might be a connection between UFOs and angel sightings. They say the angels and heavenly figures might actually have been extraterrestrials(外星人)。
After his experience in the 1980s with "the most beautiful thing" he ever saw, Lewis might agree with that assessment.
It was a Saturday morning in Mariposa, California, and Lewis had to work that day. The air was fresh from a cool rain the night before, and the morning sky was bright with a few scattered clouds.
"I was heading out to my car in the back parking lot of the apartment complex where I lived when I noticed someone kneeling next to my car," Lewis says. "This person saw me and quickly stood up holding a crowbar(撬棍),"
The young man was quite obviously astonished by Lewis's interruption, and although Lewis sensed the boy was up to no good, it hadn't yet hit him what he was doing. Then Lewis looked through the passenger window of his car and saw that the steering wheel column had been stripped(脱去)of its cover. He realized that the young man was trying to steal his car.
"I asked him what he was doing," Lewis recalls, "He gave me a lame story about his friend's car being stolen last night and that my car looked like his friend's and so on. I didn't want to hear it. I told him I was going to call the police, which I did on my cell phone."
Lewis dialed 911 and gave the dispatcher(调度员)the address. He told the would-be thief that the police were on their way and warned him not to leave. "If he did, I wasn't going to try to stop him because he had that crowbar," Lewis says.
As Lewis was questioning the young man, trying to detain(扣留)him, he began to notice three rather large clouds in a single-file formation that were almost overhead.
"Then I saw it," he says."A shiny object exited from the first cloud and entered the next and then came out of that one. It was shiny, like brightly polished objects, moving at a good speed. I couldn't make out the shape."
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
By this time, Lewis was so distracted by the UFO.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________"As it sailed overhead, some of the arms and legs would move up and down, giving the impression of being alive!"
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