PASSAGE 2
A planet is a body in space that revolves around a star. There are eight planets in our solar system, and these nine planets travel around the Sun. The names of the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Planets travel in orbits around their stars. All of the planets of the solar system revolve in elliptical orbits. In other words, their orbits are like large, flat circles. The time that it takes a planet to make one revolution around the Sun is called its year. The Greek were the first people to recognize and give names to some of the planets. The word “planet” comes from a Greek word meaning wanderer. If a person wanders, this means that he goes from one place to another and does not have a home. The Greek thought that the planets “wandered” in the sky. However, modem scientists can predict the movement of the planets very accurately.
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1. A planet revolves around the Earth. |
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2. Venus, Mars and Neptune are planets and stars. |
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3. The Greek were the first to recognize some of the planets. |
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4. The planets’ movement can never be predicted. |
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5. The planets in our solar system travel around the Sun and in elliptical orbits. |
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