It was a fine spring day for a walk down the street. A mother and her two little girls walked along the sidewalk, happily laughing.  1, a hundred small alien ships appeared on the horizon. They started  2 off some electric rays. People screamed. Children cried. There was  3 everywhere.

    There came the tingling sound of glasses breaking everywhere. People fled in every   4. The mother was jostled (推) and lost hold of her 5. She raced around shouting and crying for her kids. She thought they were lost to her forever.

    The sky cleared up. The aliens were 6. But there was no sight of the children. Heart-broken, the mother reached her house, crying her eyes out.

    She heard someone 7“Mamma”. Was it her kids? She frantically (慌忙地) 8 around. There they were! Hand in hand they came running towards her. She ran towards them, too. Her arms stretched out 9 to hug them. She opened her eyes. The pillow felt wet. It was a dream!

    She raced to the kids' bedroom. Her lovely girls were sleeping peacefully. She kissed both their foreheads and  10“love you”.

      We want to explore and try to better understand the world in which we live. Space exploration is one of the ways.Through the exploration of space, we can begin to unravel the mysteries of our universe, and to better know our living environment.

      Space exploration provides us with knowledge about the beginning of our solar system, our own planet and ourselves. It also helps answer the questions that have puzzled us for many years. Solar system exploration is important because it is good for us.

      Space technology has become an important part of our daily lives. Some technology uses satellites to communicate. Satellites are also used to examine the changes in the Earth's climate and seas, for weather report and for military. We also use satellites in food production. Because of the use of space technology in crops, fewer and fewer people will suffer hunger.

        The space program provides a chance for nations to work together. The cooperation(合作) promotes peace and understanding between governments and their people. Many governments have taken part in the space technology, including the United States, Russia, Japan, the European nations and India. In the near future, other nations will take part in it. In fact, the United States remains the leader in new space technology.

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    Are you a big fan of E.T. (Extraterrestrial) or aliens? Then you should read Extraterrestrial Civilizations (《地球以外的文明世界》) by American writer Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). In his 1979 book, Asimov looked at whether there is life beyond the Earth. He also talked about how we might be able tocommunicate with aliens someday. Asimov even told us that there are possibly about 500,000 civilizations (文明) in the galaxy (银河系). The book may be a little out of fashion since it came out in the 70s. But you'll still enjoy the good reasoning (推理) and imagination of it. Asimov was a science fiction (科幻故事) master. His most famous works talk about the relationship between robots and humankind.

     Over millions of years ago, there were deserts. Now about one fifth of the Earth's surface       (be) deserts. The size of the world's deserts is always       (change). Deserts can be hot or cold. The Australian Desert is a hot desert, while the Gobi Desert in Mongolia is an example of a cold desert. Deserts are dry areas       less than 50 cm of rain falls each year. The Sahara Desert in Africa receives less than 1.5 cm a year.

             rain doesn't fall very often in deserts, sometimes even for years, there can be heavy rain

      (sudden). Because they are dry,deserts have wide changes in temperature each day. When the sun      (go) up, it is very hot. At night, the heat       (receive) by the ground during the day       (quick) disappears(消失), and then it becomes very cold. Because       the change, living in the desert is very difficult. Man can make deserts, but they can also stop them from getting larger and larger. Planting trees can prevent the sand from      (spread).