News For Kids

ICRT

News For Kids brings you easy stories in English, with Chinese translations to help students and second language learners here in Taiwan! Stories are written and recorded by ICRT correspondents, and uploaded every weekday morning.

Categories: Education

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This Planet Has Clouds Made of Sand Scientists study planets, stars, and more in space. Space is cool. It has many surprises! 科學家研究太空中的行星跟恆星，還有其他很多現象。外太空總是帶給我們各種驚喜。 WASP-107b is a planet. It’s much bigger than Earth. It's much hotter. It's about 500 degrees!* *It's close to its sun, so one year is six days! 行星WASP-107b比地球大很多，也比地球熱。它距離它的太陽很近，所以它一年只有6天。 WASP-107b is strange*. *Winds blow 36,000 kilometers per hour.And the planet is very light and fluffy! Some scientists call it a "cotton candy" planet. 這顆行星很奇怪。它又輕又蓬鬆，風速還高達6000公里，科學家把它叫做「棉花糖行星」。 WASP-107b’s clouds are very strange. They're made of… sand?!?Scientists think the rocks in the sand are very small. They're smaller than the rocks in Earth’s sand. 它的雲層也很奇怪，是由細沙組成。科學家認為沙子中的顆粒非常小，比地球的沙粒小很多。 These sand clouds make sand rain! The sand goes down to the planet. It turns into a gas. The gas goes up to the clouds. Water does the same on Earth. 這些沙雲會下沙雨! 落到行星的表面就會變成氣體，這些氣體又會上升變成雲，就像地球的水一樣。 How do scientists know about these sand clouds? A special space telescope showed them. It's helping scientists find out more about space. 科學家透過韋伯太空望遠鏡觀察到這些沙雲。這種望遠鏡幫助科學家更了解太空。 Clouds rain sand onto a cotton candy planet. What a surprise! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Vocabulary 這個太陽系外的行星，非常特別。 1. cotton candy 棉花糖 Hey, look, there’s a cotton candy stand! 你看，那裏有賣棉花糖的攤子。 Cotton candy! 棉花糖! I haven’t had it for years. 我好多年沒吃了。 I loved it when I was little.我小時候好喜歡。 2. cloud 雲朵 Yeah, it’s so fluffy it’s like eating clouds. 對啊，它好鬆軟，吃起來像在吃雲朵。We’d like 2 cotton candies. 我們要兩支棉花糖。 Sure, that’s 60 NT. 好，共六十塊。 3. made of 做成 What is this made of, do you think? 你覺得這是什麼做的呢? Sugar, of course. 當然就是糖囉。 Just sugar? 只有糖嗎? 4. water 水 Why? You think there’s something else? 為什麼? 你覺得還有別的嗎? I think there’s water. 我覺得還有水。 Do you like cotton candy? 來跟我一起讀單字。 cotton candy棉花糖 cloud雲朵 made of做成 water水 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quiz 1. Which is true about WASP-107b? a. It’s smaller than Earth b. It’s colder than Earth. c. It’s bigger than Earth. 2. How many degrees is it on WASP-107b? a. About 15 b. About 50 c. About 500 3. What kind of rain comes from WASP-107b’s clouds? a. Sand b. Water c. Fire Answers: 1. c 2. c 3. a