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WW3000 Pass L2 L10

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61 views4 pages

WW3000 Pass L2 L10

Uploaded by

2017 Rose
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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WORDLY WISE 3OOO ONLINE

Level 2 • Passage
Lesson 10

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star


How far up does the sky go? It seems to go on forever. No one
knows where space ends. No one even knows if it has an end. So
let us explore a small piece of it, our system of planets.

People have always gazed at the night sky. Long ago, they
saw the moon and the stars just as we do today. But some people
noticed something more. They saw that some stars moved slowly
across the night sky. Now we know that the moving objects are not
stars at all. They are planets circling the sun.
About five billion years ago, the sun and planets were formed.
They were made from clouds of gas and dust. Gravity pulled the
chunks and pieces together to make lumps of matter. More and
more dust was added to them. This made the lumps get bigger.
The largest lump became the sun. It is a giant star. It shines brightly
because it is an enormous ball of fire. Eight smaller lumps circle
the sun. These are the planets. They reflect light from the sun.
The four planets furthest from the sun are Neptune, Uranus,
Saturn, and Jupiter. No astronaut will ever land on any of these
four. That is because they are made of gas. Each of these planets
has rings around it. Each planet also has several moons. Jupiter is
the largest planet. Its diameter is eleven times that of the Earth.
Four smaller planets are closer to the sun. They are Mars, Earth,
Venus, and Mercury. All of them are made of solid rock. Mercury is
the closest to the sun. It is very hot. The temperature there can rise
to 840 degrees. That’s almost twice as high as the top setting on
an oven!
About four hundred years ago, the telescope was invented.
People were able to look closely at the planets for the first time. The

© SSI • May be copied for single-classroom use only. 1  


®
Wordly Wise 3000®Online Level 2 • Passage • Lesson 10

early astronomers were surprised. Saturn’s rings were beautiful.


Mars had huge craters. Jupiter had several moons. One of them
was even bigger than Mercury.
Our planet Earth travels around the sun. It is on a path
between those of Mars and Venus. We think that Earth is one of
the few planets in the universe that has liquid water. Our distance
from the sun gives us just the right amount of heat. If we were
much closer, the oceans would boil away. If we were much farther
away, the oceans would turn to ice. But the temperature is just
right. So life in all of its forms is possible on Earth.
Scientists now know that there are other suns besides our own.
These suns also have planets circling them. They are very, very far
away. Is there life on any of them? We do not know. They might
have creatures that are smarter than we can imagine. Or Earth
may be the only planet anywhere that has life. As more of space is
explored, we may someday find out.

Answer each of the questions with a sentence.

1. According to the passage, what planet besides Earth has living


creatures on it?

______________________________________________________________________

astronomy ______________________________________________________________________
besides 2. What did some of the very first astronomers see in the night sky?
crater
______________________________________________________________________
degree
diameter ______________________________________________________________________

gaze 3. What would you see if you were gazing at Saturn?

gravity ______________________________________________________________________
reflect
______________________________________________________________________
telescope
universe

© SSI • May be copied for single-classroom use only. 2  


®
Wordly Wise 3000®Online Level 2 • Passage • Lesson 10

4. How does gravity affect an object in space that gets close to


our planet?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
5. Why will we probably not find any craters on the four giant planets?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
6. Do you think there might be other life in the universe? Explain
your answer.

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
7. What details in the passage tell you that the planets formed by
degrees?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
8. How does the diameter of Jupiter compare with that of Earth?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
9. Why is it not correct to say that the sun reflects light?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________
10. How did the invention of the telescope help science?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

© SSI • May be copied for single-classroom use only. 3  


®
Wordly Wise 3000®Online Level 2 • Passage • Lesson 10

• Besides and beside look almost the same but have very
different meanings. As you just learned, besides means in
addition to or also. Beside means next to. Be careful to use
these words correctly, or you may say something you do not
mean. For example:
Melanie ate two scoops of ice cream beside the table.
Melanie ate two scoops of ice cream besides the table.
(She must have had a bad stomachache after that meal!)

© SSI • May be copied for single-classroom use only. 4  


®

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