A: Mr. Liu, can I ask you some questions about Mars?

B: Sure, go ahead.

A: Is Mars hot?

B: Mars might look red-hot. But don't let its color fool you. Mars is much farther away from the sun than Earth. So it gets less light and heat.

A: Why "Mars"?

B: Mars takes its name from the Roman god of war (罗马战神). In China, the red color makes people think of fire. So they call the planet "fire star".

A: Are there Martians on Mars?

B: Unluckily, we haven't found any "people" on Mars yet. They are kind of like Santa Clause. Nobody can see them, but many people believe they are real.

A: Will we lose weight on Mars?

B: Living on Mars could be good in many ways. For example, you might not need to go on a diet to lose weight. If you weigh 50kg on Earth, you will only weigh 19kg on Mars. This is because the surface gravity (表面重力) on Mars is only about 38 percent of that on Earth. Do you want to know your weight on Mars? Just multiply your weight by 0.38. That's it.

A: Thank you. We know a lot about Mars now.

B: You're welcome.

How to Choose books you'll love

Do you have trouble choosing a book to read? With so many choices it can be hard to decide which books are right for you. Here are some tips of choosing the ones you're more likely to enjoy. 

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Thinking about stories you've enjoyed in the past can give you clues about what genres① you prefer. Maybe you like science fiction, which transports you to completely made-up worlds. Or perhaps you like historical fiction, made-up stories based on true events. Nonfiction is another choice. Think about the topics that interest you or an interest you have and want to know more about. 

Ask forrecommendations②

You can visit the library and ask a librarian to guide you to the shelves that feature the genre you'd like to dive into. Another idea is to ask friends with similar tastes what books they have liked and would recommend. You can also find a list of recommendations from the Internet. 

Search for "readalikes"

If you enjoyed a particular book, you may like others that are similar in style, known as a "readalike." You can look up a writer whose book you liked in the past, and find out whether they have written sequels③ or other books you might enjoy. If you have read through an entire series and are looking for new writers, you can checkout the website www.baidu.com and put in the name of the writer you like, the site's search engine will suggest similar writers to you. 

Take the stress off

You won't love every book you read, and that's OK! No matter how far along you are in the book you are reading, if you don't like it, it's fine to stop reading it. When you take the stress off yourself to finish a book you're not enjoying, you free yourself up to choose another book. 

Have you ever dreamed of traveling in space？To travel in space，we first have to work out where our food will come from. 

Today's space travellers don't go to the Moon or Mars. They go to the International Space Station （ISS）. There，the spacemen live for weeks to months. 

If you visited the ISS years ago，nearly every kind of food you ate would have come from the Earth. 

In 2014，scientists sent the ISS a space garden with some vegetable seeds（种子）. With water and some light, the vegetables in the gardern grew. Those were the first foods being grown on the Iss. But the spacemen couldn't eat them and had to send them back to the Earth. The next year，after scientists made sure they were safe，the spacemen grew a second crop. This time the vegetables were ready for the spacemen to eat. 

Gardening is different in space than it is on Earth. Without gravity，plants don't know which way is up. But they learn how to grow. They send their leaves in the direction of light and their roots into the soil. 

The spacemen also have grown vegetables as well as flowers. That's important to know a plant can flower in space，because flowering is part of how some plants make fruit. 

While the space garden is small for now，hopefully it could one day help provide people with food on long﹣time space trips. 

注意：

1. 词数80左右，开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数；

2. 短文须回答以上两个问题，可适当发挥，使全文连贯、通顺；

3. 文中不得提及真实的人名、校名等相关信息。

Dear Peter,

Thanks for your letter. I'm very glad to tell you something about the Chinese saying "Read 10,000 books and travel 10,000 miles."

Yours,

Li Hua

*在英语中12:00 pm 指的是中午12点，12:00 am 指的是午夜12点。