首先来看一些天文学词汇，扫一下盲*_*，顺序与它们在文章中出现的顺序保持一致：
01.NASA
n. 国家航空航天局；美国航空及太空总署
NASA是National Aeronautics and Space Administration的缩写。
02.spacecraft
n. 航天器；宇宙飞船
03.planet
n. 行星
04.rocky
adj. 多岩石的
05.Earth
n. 地球
太阳系（the solar system）的八大行星分别为：水星（Mercury），金星（Venus），地球（Earth），火星（Mars），木星（Jupiter），土星（Saturn），天王星（Uranus），海王星（Neptune）。冥王星（Pluto）曾经是“九大行星”成员之一。
06.light-year
n. 光年
也即在一年中光走过的距离，因此“光年”是距离单位而非时间单位。
07.constellation
n. 星座
这个星座是天文学范畴的，不是娱乐八卦中所谓“影响人类性格”的占星术astrology。
08.liquid water
n. 液态水
09.surface
n. 表面
来看一个经典例句：
【例】Nearly 10 percent of the Earth's surface is covered by ice.
（来源：Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English）
10.gravity
n. 重力；地心引力
11.planetary scientist
n. 行星科学家
12.star
n. 恒星
13.sunlight
n. 太阳光
14.atmosphere
n. 大气；大气层
15.planetary geologist
n. 行星地质学家
16.active volcano
n. 活火山
“死火山”是extinct volcano。
17.orbit
v. 环绕轨道运行
n. 轨道
18.the Milky Way
n. 银河
19.habitable planet
n. 适合人类居住的行星
20.launch
v. 发射
21.satellite
n. 卫星
22.mass
n. 质量
还记得物理中的G = mg吗？也即物体所受到的重力等于质量（mass）和当地重力加速度（acceleration of gravity）的乘积。
23.circle
v. 环绕
n. 圆圈
24.space telescope
n. 太空望远镜
下面一起来读这篇文章，就当作读一篇托福阅读文章吧*_*：
NASA finds 'Earth's bigger, older cousin'
By Michael Pearson, CNN
Updated 1435 GMT (2135 HKT) July 24, 2015
(CNN) NASA (01) said Thursday that its Kepler spacecraft (02) has spotted "Earth's bigger, older cousin": the first nearly Earth-size planet (03) to be found in the habitable zone of a star similar to our own.
Though NASA can't say for sure whether the planet is rocky (04) like ours or has water and air, it's the closest match yet found.
"Today, Earth (05) is a little less lonely," Kepler researcher Jon Jenkins said.
The planet, Kepler-452b, is about 1,400 light-years (06) from Earth in the constellation (07) Cygnus. It's about 60% bigger than Earth, NASA says, and is located in its star's habitable zone -- the region where life-sustaining liquid water (08) is possible on the surface (09) of a planet.
A visitor there would experience gravity (10) about twice that of Earth's, and planetary scientists (11) say the odds of it having a rocky surface are "better than even."
While it's a bit farther from its star (12) than Earth is from the sun, its star is brighter, so the planet gets about the same amount of energy from its star as Earth does from the sun. And that sunlight (13) would be very similar to Earth's, Jenkins said.
The planet "almost certainly has an atmosphere (14)," Jenkins said, although scientists can't say what it's made of. But if the assumptions of planetary geologists (15) are correct, he said, Kepler-452b's atmosphere would probably be thicker than Earth's, and it would have active volcanoes (16).
Earth's bigger, older cousin! @NASAKepler discovers new distant planet that's near-Earth-size:http://t.co/kEdzbbFEqE pic.twitter.com/hoog1ZsdNs
— NASA (@NASA) July 23, 2015
It takes 385 days for the planet to orbit (17) its star, very similar to Earth's 365-day year, NASA said. And because it's spent so long orbiting in this zone -- 6 billion years -- it's had plenty of time to brew life, Jenkins said.
"That's substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet," he said in a statement.
Before the discovery of this planet, one called Kepler-186f was considered the most Earthlike,according to NASA. That planet, no more than a 10th bigger than Earth, is about 500 light-years away from us. But it gets only about a third of the energy from its star as Earth does from the sun, and noon there would look similar to the evening sky here, NASA says.
The $600 million Kepler mission launched in 2009 with a goal to survey a portion of the Milky Way (18) for habitable planets (19).
From a vantage point 64 million miles from Earth, it scans the light from distant stars, looking for almost imperceptible drops in a star's brightness, suggesting a planet has passed in front of it.
It has discovered more than 1,000 planets. Twelve of those, including Kepler-425b, have been less than twice the size of Earth and in the habitable zones of the stars they orbit.
Missions are being readied to move scientists closer to the goal of finding yet more planets and cataloging their atmospheres and other characteristics.
In 2017, NASA plans to launch (20) a planet-hunting satellite (21) called TESS that will be able to provide scientists with more detail on the size, mass (22) and atmospheres of planets circling (23) distant stars.
The next year, the James Webb Space Telescope (24) will go up. That platform, NASA says, will provide astonishing insights into other worlds, including their color, seasonal differences, weather and even the potential presence of vegetation.
