The Man on the Moon
本篇生词：
giant adj. 巨大的 rim n. 边缘
crater n. 火山口 surround vt. 包围
Did you ever look up at the moon and think you saw a man's face there? When the moon is round and full, the shadows of the moon mountains and the lines of the moon valleys sometimes seem to show a giant nose and mouth and eyes. At least, some people think so.
If there were a man on the moon----instead of mountains and valleys that just look like the face of a man----what would he be like?
He would not be like anyone you know. He would not be like anyone anybody knows.
If the man on the moon were bothered by too much heat or cold the way Earth people are, he could not stay on the moon.
The moon becomes very, very hot. It becomes as hot as boiling water. And the moon becomes very, very cold. It becomes colder than ice.
Whatever part of the moon the sun shines on is hot and bright. The rest of the moon is cold and dark.
If the man on the moon had to breathe to stay alive, he couldn't live on the moon because there's no air there. （He'd have to carry an oxygen tank, as astronauts do.） There's no food on the moon, either. Nothing grows----not even weeds.
If the man on the moon liked to climb mountains, he would be very happy. There are many high places there, such as the tall rims around the holes, or craters, of the moon. Some of these rims are as tall as Earth's highest mountains.
But if the man on the moon liked to swim, he would be unhappy. There is no water on the moon----just dust and rock.
When you think of what it's like on the moon, you may wonder why it interests our scientists. One reason is that the moon is Earth's nearest neighbor----it is the easiest place in space to get to.
Going back and forth between the moon and Earth, astronauts will get a lot of practice in space travel. Things learned on moon trips will be of great help to astronauts who later take long, long trips to some of the planets.
Scientists are also interested in the moon because it has no air. The air that surrounds Earth cuts down the view of the scientists who look at the stars through telescopes. A telescope on the moon would give them a clearer, closer view of the stars.