From tiny seeds, great discoveries grow. A mini-garden carried on China’s Chang’e 4 Moon Lander recently became home to the first plant to grow on another world.

This is yet another success for Chang’e 4. On January 2, the probe（探测器）became the first lander to touch down on the far side of the moon. This is the unknown face of the moon that is always looking away from us, so we never see it from down here on the earth. Although it is often regarded as the dark side of the moon, the far side actually gets as much sunshine as the near side. For example, when all we can see is a silver of a new moon, the far side of the moon is in full sunlight.

Part of Chang’e 4’s mission is to see how a moon base could be built for humans , including exploring（探索）whether humans could grow food and other plant products there, Chang’e 4 carried a mini-garden with air, water and soil with seeds planted in it. When plants shoot on the earth, their stems（茎）grow away from the gravity（the force that keeps your feet on the ground）, and so they always shoot upwards. The moon’s gravity is a sixth as strong as the earth’s, so Chang’e 4’s experiment was a test: would the earth plants know which way was up on the moon? Four days after landing, a tiny cotton shoot showed that they do.

Night has now fallen on the far side of the moon; sunlight will not return until the start of February. As a result, the cotton shoots died. Besides the darkness, the plants can’t stand the cold（it can drop to - 170℃ on the moon at night）. However, the experiment is a success, since it has proved that it is possible for plants to grow in space.

【小题1】Which of the following is TRUE about Chang’e 4?

A．It carried a mini-garden.	B．It landed on the near side of the moon.
C．It explored the moon base.	D．It found plants on the moon.

【小题2】From the text we can know that ________.

A．the far side of the moon gets less sunlight

B．we can see the far side of the moon from the earth

C．the stems fail to grow away from the earth’s gravity

D．the earth plants know the way to grow on the moon

【小题3】The underlined word “mission” in the third paragraph means ________.

A．direction

B．decision

C．plan

D．purpose

【小题4】What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Plants can be grown on the moon soon.

B．It is perfect to do experiments on the moon.

C．The cotton shoots can last 4 days on the moon.

D．We can see a new moon at the start of February.

【小题5】The best title of the passage is “________”.

A．Another Success of Chang’e 4	B．Chang’e 4 Moon Lander
C．Tiny Seeds in the Soil	D．The Steps of an Experiment