On Tuesday, China announced it had grown the first ever plants on the moon, days after landing on the moon’s “far side” Von Karman crater. The cotton seed sprouts (新芽) seemed to have withstood the tough lunar conditions: freezing temperatures, lower gravity levels, and radiation.
But by Thursday, the new cotton seed sprouts had dead already, according to Liu Hanlong, the experiment leader, in a government press conference statement.
After Chang’e-4 landed on the far side of the moon earlier this month, the probe (探测器) was sent a command to remotely water the plants and start the growing process. A tube directed natural light on the surface of the moon into the small container to allow the plants to grow. The probe entered a sleep mode on Sunday, the first lunar night after the probe’s landing.
Professor Xie Gengxin, professor at Chongqing University and chief designer of the experiment, told CNN that it ended after nine days when the control team shut down the power. Xie said temperatures inside the biosphere had grown too abnormal and reached extremes that would likely kill all life, including the seeds and eggs during the lunar night. Xie didn’t confirm why temperatures had risen to levels unbearable for the plants in spite of the measures taken by the research team.
Even though the experiment was quickly terminated, Xie considered it a success. The cotton were the only seeds to sprout, however, and despite many assumptions about the future possibility of moon clothes, the cotton plant’s main purpose this time was to give researchers the valuable data on how to cultivate life in the moon’s tough conditions. The eventual ability to grow plants on the moon could prove useful for long-term space missions, like a trip to Mars. Astronauts could theoretically harvest their own food in space, avoiding the need to return to Earth to resupply.
Aside from the apparent failure of the biological or plant experiment, the rest of China’s mission to the far side of the moon appeared on track as of Thursday. The historic mission is intended to accomplish a range of tasks, including conducting the first lunar low-frequency radio astronomy experiment and exploring whether there is water at the moon’s poles.
Chang’e-4 is the latest step in China’s robotic lunar-exploration program, named after a moon goddess in Chinese mythology. China plans to launch the Chang’e-5 sample-return mission sometime this year.
1.What does the underlined word “withstood” mean?
A.Appreciated. B.Suffered from.
C.Tolerated. D.Been subject to.
2.What is the fourth paragraph mainly about?
A.The measures of the research team. B.The cause of ceasing the experiment.
C.The reason for the extreme temperature. D.The failure and impact of the experiment.
3.What is the major target of the plant experiment?
A.To make moon clothes possible.
B.To ensure its value for long-term space missions.
C.To enable astronauts to harvest their own food without returning to Earth to resupply.
D.To accumulate the priceless data on how to grow life in the moon’s severe conditions.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.China’s moon plants have died
B.China’s mission to the far side of the moon
C.The Chang’e-5 sample-return mission
D.Astronauts’ efforts to cultivate life in the moon
Some of the most famous scientific discoveries happened by accident. From the microwave oven to penicillin, scientists trying to solve a problem have sometimes found unexpected things. This is exactly how we created phosphorene nanoribbons (磷烯纳米带) — a material made from one of the universe’s basic building blocks, which has the potential to revolutionize a wide range of technologies.
We'd been trying to separate layers of phosphorus crystals (晶体) into two-dimensional sheets. Instead, our technique created tiny ribbons one single atom thick and only 100 or so atoms across, but up to 100,000 atoms long. We spent three years improving the production process, before announcing our findings. The two-dimensional ribbons have a number of remarkable properties (属性). Their unbelievable width allows their properties, such as whether and how they conduct electricity, to be controllable. They are also very flexible, which means that they can follow any surfaces they’re put on perfectly, and can even be twisted.
More than 100 scientific papers predicted the transformative potential of these ribbons, should it be possible to create them, across a range of technologies — some as many as five years before the publishing of our discovery in Nature. Perhaps the most important of these is in the area of battery technology. The structure of phosphorene nanoribbons means that the charged ions (带电离子) that power batteries could soon move up to 1000 times faster than they currently possible do. This would mean a significant decrease in charging time, alongside an increase in capacity of approximately 50%. Such performance gains would provide massive boosts to the electric car and aircraft industries, and allow us to use renewable energy more readily, even on grey, calm days.
1.What does “we” in the text refer to?
A.Scientists. B.Doctors.
C.Publishers. D.Technicians.
2.What can we know about phosphorene nanoribbons in Paragraph 2?
A.Its shape. B.Its origin.
C.Its structure. D.Its characteristic.
3.What would reduce charging time according to the scientific papers?
A.The cleaner source of energy.
B.The bigger batteries of tiny ribbons.
C.The increasing capacity of batteries.
D.The faster moving speed of charged ions.
4.What does the text mainly introduce to us?
A.The amazing development of battery technology.
B.Significant changes brought by wonderful discoveries.
C.A “Wonder material” created accidentally by scientists.
D.Unexpected inventions made in human’s history.
The new garbage sorting regulation has taken effect in Shanghai starting from July 1. Many citizens are still confused about the classification of the four different types of trash. Thankfully, authorities have released an official guideline to explain the new rules.
The guideline, published by the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau, provides a rather clear definition on the four kinds of waste: recyclable waste, harmful waste, household food waste and residual (剩余的) waste.
Harmful waste, as the name suggests, includes various poisonous materials like used batteries, light bulbs, out-of-date medicines, paint and pesticides.
Household food waste — which is translated to “wet trash” in Chinese — refers to food leftovers, rotten food, pet food, fruit peels, remains of TCM herbs (中药) and flowers.
Paper, plastic, glass, metal and textiles (纺织品) are counted as recyclable waste.
The definition of residual waste is a little confusing. Anything that is not listed above belongs to this category.
As specific as the new guideline is, residents still have a hard time sorting trash correctly and are finding it challenging to memorize them all. For instance, both plastic bottles and bubble tea or coffee cups are plastic materials. However, the former falls to the category of recyclable waste and the latter belongs to residual waste. To save the hassle, some netizens have come up with their own way to sort trash.
“We should do this from a pig’s angle,” commented one netizen. “Those edible (可食用的) for pigs are household food waste. Those even pigs don’t want to eat are residual waste. If a pig consumes something and dies of it, then something must be harmful waste. Those that can be sold and the money we gain can be used to purchase pigs are recyclable waste.”
The new regulation came into effect on July 1. Those who do not sort their trash properly will be fined RMB 200.
1.What do the old coats that you want to throw away belong to?
A.Harmful waste. B.Wet trash.
C.Recyclable waste. D.Residual waste.
2.What is the common point of “wet trash”？
A.They can be broken down easily. B.They all come from plants.
C.They all have bad smells. D.They all have poisonous materials.
3.What is the tone of the netizen like?
A.Serious. B.Humorous.
C.Delightful. D.Uncertain.
4.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.The four sorts of garbage are forbidden in Shanghai.
B.Shanghai garbage sorting enforcement begins.
C.People are still confused about garbage sorting.
D.The netizens in Shanghai support the garbage sorting policy.
UNIQUE AND WEIRD NEW YEAR EVE TRADITIONS
Germany
In some parts of Germany, they do bleigiessen, or lead （铅）pouring. Pour a dollop（团）of molten lead in cold water and whatever shape forms may be telling about the year to come. A heart shape, naturally, means love will come your way. A crown predicts wealth and fortune. A star indicates happiness. But if you see a cross in the lead? You're as good as dead!
Latin America
If you're in Latin America, make sure you have some colorful underpants to ring in the new year. End — of — the — year partiers put on colorful underwear to ensure certain types of outcomes for the following year. Red for love and yellow for success.
Naples, Italy
Neapolitans like throwing things out of windows, at least on New Year's Eve. Furniture, kitchen machines, grandma. Well, maybe not the last one. Let's hope not, anyway. This tradition is meant to symbolize an out — with — the — old gesture and getting a brand new beginning for the new year. These days people are a bit more mindful about what they toss down to the street below.
Spain
In 1909, winegrowers in the Alicante region of Spain had a brilliant idea: start and promote an annual tradition that would involve people having to buy and eat more grapes. One must cat 12 grapes on New Year's Eve to encourage prosperity for the coining year. Now, it's u popular custom in Iberia. But the problem is that one has to cat a grape for each bell strike at midnight.
1.What does a cross shape mean?
A.Love. B.Wealth.
C.Happiness. D.Misfortune.
2.What's new about Neapolitans' tradition?
A.They hate using furniture.
B.They throw their grandma out of windows.
C.They are more careful about what to throw.
D.They like making gestures in front of the window.
3.Which country has the tradition of eating grapes?
A.Germany. B.Brazil.
C.Italy. D.Spain.
假定你是李华。你所在班级的交换生Peter正在进行一项关于垃圾分类的研究。他给你来信询问你们社区垃圾分类的实施情况，请给Peter回一份邮件，告诉他相关信息，邮件内容包括：
1. 写邮件的目的；
2. 垃圾分类的实施情况；
3. 你对垃圾分类的看法。
注意：1. 电子邮件的格式已为你写好，不计入总词数;
2. 词数：100左右。
垃圾分类：garbage classification
Dear Peter,
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Best wishes!
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同学们交换修改作文，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。错误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。
Early rising has many advantage. First, it helps us to keep health. We all need fresh air, and the air is freshest in the morning. Beside, we can improve our health by exercise regularly in the morning. Second, it can also benefits our study because in the morning we can lean more quickly. Third, it can make us to plan our work for the day. Only without a proper plan can we work well. Early rising can allow us enough time to get ready for your work. So we say that those who always gets up late should make an effort to get up early.
