“Mars Orbit Express” is a space probe (探测器). It was sent towards Mars by American scientists on August 12th，2005. Its tasks are to study Mars’ atmosphere and return photos to Earth. But before that “Mars Orbit Express” must travel about 100 hundred million kilometers and seven months. It reached Mars’ orbit(轨道)in March，2006.
Mars and Earth have similar weight and size. However，Mars is closer to the sun than Earth. Mars is very cold. The average temperature is below 50℃. The temperature at noon only reaches 20℃ during a Mars day. Its atmosphere is mostly CO2. It has much sand and two moons---Phobos and Deimos.
Scientists think Earth and Mars had similar beginnings 4.6 billion years ago. But while Earth supports millions of lives，Mars becomes bad. “Earth easily could have turned out like that.” said an scientist, “It is important for us to find out why and Mars Orbit Express’ should do that.”“Mars Orbit Express” also would help scientists to learn what might happen to Earth in the future. “Mars Orbit Express” would work for about four years.
【小题1】 What can you see through a telescope when watching Mars? ________.
| A．Much sand | B．A red star | C．Its atmosphere | D．Its size |
| A．taking pictures of Mars |
| B．studying the weight of Mars |
| C．finding out distance between Earth and Mars |
| D．telling the time it takes to go from Earth to Mars |
| A．Mars has a long history | B．Mars is big and heavy |
| C．Mars is close to the sun | D．Mars’ atmosphere is mainly O2. |
| A．Mars：differences from Earth | B．A probe：to learn more about Mars |
| C．Mars: change of temperature | D．A probe：to tell the future of Earth |