On December 25, 2000, many people across North America
received a rare Christmas treat when the moon passed in front of the sun
resulting in a partial solar eclipse. Solar eclipses occur when
the moon (47) between the earth and the sun, and the moon’s
shadow covers part of the earth; and a total solar eclipse takes place when the
moon’s shadow blocks out the sun (48) . What made this
particular solar eclipse unique was that this event has occurred on December
twenty-filth only 30 times (49) the past 5000 years, the
last time in 1954. But people must be exceptionally
(50) when attempting to view a solar eclipse. Without taking
precautionary (51) , one can permanently damage the retina of
the eye; however, there are several safe methods of (52)
this heavenly marvel. First, you can view a solar eclipse by
using eclipse safety glasses for filtering out the sun’s (53)
rays. They should be used when any part of the sun is
visible. Sunglasses can block out some of the sun’s ultraviolet
rays, but the results can be very deceptive. The eye’s natural (54)
to this darkened state when wearing sunglasses is to make the pupil
larger, which allows in more light and can (55) the damage
to your eye. You can watch an eclipse by projecting the sun’s
(56) on a piece of paper either by using a telescope, or
easier yet, by creating a pinhole in a piece of paper and viewing the result on
another piece of paper, thus called a pinhole projector. [A]
lively [I] during [B] passes
[J] intensify [C] among
[K] measures [D] careful
[L] reaction [E] target
[M] investigating [F] entirely
[N] harmful [G] image
[O] poses [H] witnessing