Many of us think, wrongly, that the moon doesn’t change. For example, the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ruoxu once wrote that “Generations have come and passed away; From year to year the moons look alike, old and new.”
However, a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience shows that the moon is in fact slowly shrinking over time. For the study, a group of US scientists examined and analyzed thousands of photographs taken by the NASA orbiter Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. They found that there were lots of faults (断层) on the surface of the moon. These faults were formed by recent movement on the moon.
According to NASA, the moon is made up of pieces of rocks with a hot core. The moon continued to expand as it was born. But in this process, it released energy and cooled down. Then it began to shrink, in a way comparable to the shrinking of a grape into a raisin (葡萄干) . Over the past several hundred million years, it has become 46 meters “skinnier”. But due to its hard and rocky crust (外壳), the moon’s surface continues to push up. “Some of these quakes can be fairly strong around five on the Richter scale,” said Thomas Watters, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in the US.
But does that mean the moon is a dangerous place that human shouldn’t try to explore and live on in the future? Maybe not, reported the Telegraph, “This isn’t anything to worry about. The moon may be shrinking, but not by much. It’s not going anywhere,” Watters comforted us.
The new discovery proves that the idea that the moon is a dead, boring place is wrong. “We have been to the moon and we’ve done some great science, but there is still a lot we don’t know. The moon is shrinking — we didn’t really realize that until recently. It’s a much more active and interesting place than we thought and we should explore that,” NASA scientist Nathan Williams said.
1. Why does the writer quote the poem?
A. To praise the beauty of the moon.
B. To show people’s long-standing idea of the moon size.
C. To arouse people’s interest in the topic.
D. To get readers familiar with the poem.
2. Which point of view about the moon may the writer agree to?
A. It is becoming slightly smaller. B. It stays the same as before.
C. It is getting older and older. D. It may disappear one day.
3. What can we learn about the moon from the third paragraph?
A. It has become 46 meters fatter due to expanding.
B. It has changed from a grape into a raisin in recent years.
C. It quakes even at seven on the Richter scale.
D. It has a hot core and releases energy when expanding.
4. Who thinks that we needn’t worry about the moon?
A. Zhang Ruoxu. B. Thomas Watters.
C. Nathan Williams D. The journalist.
5. What does Nathan Williams think of the moon?
A. It is a dead and boring place. B. It has lots of faults on the surface.
C. It is worth exploring more D. It isn’t a place where we can live.
