Thousands of years ago, Chinese poet Qu Yuan wrote the poem Tianwen, meaning Quest for Heavenly Truth. He came up with a series of questions about the sky, stars, nature and the world around us. The poem showed his spirit of finding the truth.

Inspired (激励) by the great poet, China named its latest series of planetary exploration missions (行星探测任务) after the poem in 2020. The first one in the series — a Mars exploration mission — has been named Tianwen 1, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on April 24^th, 2020, China’s Space Day. This shows China’s wish to explore the universe.

China has made great progress in space exploration. In 1970, China sent its first man-made Earth satellite (卫星), becoming the fifth country in the world to send a man-made satellite independently. Since 2003, China has carried out six Shenzhou manned missions. China’s moon exploration missions — the Chang’e series — started in 2007. In December 2018, China became the first country to send the probe (探测器) Chang’e 4 to the moon’s far side.

The Tianwen series will follow the Shenzhou and Chang’e series and move further into space. The first step is to send a Mars probe this year, which will mean the start of China’s exploration of the red planet. The probe is planned to circle around, land on and explore Mars in one mission. If it succeeds, it will be the first to finish all of these tasks in one mission. The Long March 5 rocket will send the probe to Mars.

After this mission, China plans to visit Mars again in 2028, aiming to collect soil from the ground of the planet and bring it to Earth. Around 2030, China will explore Jupiter and several small planets.

【小题1】The first Mars exploration mission is named Tianwen 1 because ________.

A．it explains the spirit of Chinese people

B．it shows the wish of exploring the universe

C．it has many questions about the sky, stars and the world

【小题2】Paragraph 3 mainly tells us ________.

A．how China explored the moon

B．how many missions China has completed

C．the development of China’s exploration in space

【小题3】“The red planet” in paragraph 4 refers to ________.

A．Moon

B．Mars

C．Jupiter

【小题4】What do we know about the Mars exploration mission?

A．China will send the probe on Space Day.

B．It will be the first mission of the Tianwen series.

C．China will send a Mars probe named Long March 5.

【小题5】Which can be the best title of the passage?

A．China Started to Explore Mars

B．Tianwen and China’s Exploration Missions in Space

C．The History of Chinese Planetary Exploration Missions