Human innovation (创新) has allowed people to explore space for decades. Within a space station, astronauts have enough air, food and water to complete missions of a year or longer without a resupply. But missions to further reaches of space are a different matter. Establishing a base on the moon or sending humans to Mars seems just on the horizon. That can only happen if innovative and foolproof ways are developed to supply humans with enough air, water and food.
One company, Interstellar Labs, has developed an advanced, closed loop system that can grow plants anywhere, even in space. They call their AI managed greenhouses BioPods and they are designed to be very efficient. In fact, Interstellar Labs claims that BioPods reduce the amount of land and water needed to produce food by 99 percent. That is not an impossible claim. BioPods don’t use any soil to grow plants, and the vast majority of water is recycled and recirculated.
Plants are grown inside BioPods using aeroponics, the practice of hanging plants in the air and spraying a mist of nutrient-rich water on their roots. By using aeroponics, the BioPod system carefully conserves water with amazing results. According to Interstellar labs, BioPod-grown plants are up to 300 times more productive than traditionally grown plants, using only a small amount of water.
The conditions inside of a BioPod are controlled by AI, which can change anything from the lighting to the temperature and humidity to maximize growth. This optimizes (使最优化) growing conditions no matter what the environment is outside, including the emptiness of space.
The BioPods themselves can be built in almost any environment, too. The pod’s structure is made with a 3D printer using raw materials in liquid form. The inside part is sealed with an inflatable membrane (充气膜) that is also 3D-printed. This means that a BioPod could be built right on the surface of the moon or Mars, making transporting a large structure unnecessary.
Like most technology developed for space exploration, BioPods can also be used on Earth to provide highly efficient food production systems even in the harshest environments.
1. In writing paragraph 1, the author aims to____________.| A．present a topic | B．make a comparison |
| C．reach a conclusion | D．propose a definition |
| A．They are widely used for space exploration. |
| B．They are highly productive and efficient greenhouses. |
| C．They are easy to operate without need for soil or water. |
| D．They are deigned to be used in harsh environments on Earth. |
| A．Food Consumption in Space Station | B．Space Exploration with BioPods |
| C．Growing Food in Space Pods | D．3D Printers Used in Space Lab |
| A．Positive. | B．Cautious. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Disapproving. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Selfies（自拍）are developing daily and people are looking for the most creative ways to record their precious memories. It started with standard selfies taken with smartphones, then there was an era of selfie sticks. It's finally time to bring this selfie trend another step further and introduce a game-changer that is taking the world by storm!
Thousands of people suddenly started uploading their incredible aerial（飞行）selfies that left everyone wondering：how can I achieve the same? Soon, word about this device got out and the new type of selfie went around the world!
DroneX Pro is a pocket-size device that allows you to take ultimate（终极）selfies from crazy angles! This idea came up to two German engineers who love drones（无人机）but got fed up with carrying heavy ones. They wanted to create a device withoutditchingthe most valuable features of high-quality drones and that's how DroneX Pro was born! It is the same size as your smartphone yet provides you with the opportunity to achieve similar results as those bird's eye view shots taken with any professional drone!
DroneX Pro is easy to use, and takes no special knowledge to set up! All you have to do is charge the battery, install the app and in less than 10 seconds you'll be ready to go! Flying the drone is even easier! Smooth controls make it feel very natural-even kids are able to figure it out in no time!
Convenience, price, HD camera and controls designed to perfection make DroneX Pro most trustful. It ensures high-quality pictures, videos, and even the opportunity to live stream your adventures! You can completely forget the technical details of the flight and fully concentrate on the important things. It takes your pictures to the whole new level without difficulties and at the lowest expense! This new device is completely changing the way people take selfies.
1. Why are selfie developing quickly?| A．Technology develops fast. |
| B．More people like to take photos. |
| C．More people are addicted to showing off. |
| D．People want to record their valuable moments. |
| A．Losing. | B．Adding. | C．Carrying. | D．Getting. |
| A．It is quite cheap. | B．It is of high quality. |
| C．It is easy to handle. | D．It can be a toy for kids. |
| A．A diary. | B．A notebook. | C．A magazine. | D．A novel. |
【推荐2】A team of machine learning developers has created a system for making caricatures (人物漫画) of people’s faces.
In a caricature, the artist creates a drawing of a face, with different parts of it greatly enlarged or exaggerated (夸大). The pictures or images are usually made to make the person look funny.Such drawings can be difficult for machines to produce. This is because the human face is made up of complex shapes with a lot of extremely small details. Generally, good caricatures require skilled artists who can effectively exaggerate faces, while still staying true to life.
Kaidi Cao, leading the research, said that other machine systems for creating caricatures depended on a series of rules, which were based on how people would draw. However, his team’s system used machine learning to create the caricatures from thousands of examples made by experienced artists. In addition, the system gave users more ability to change results in both shape and appearance exaggerations.
The team tested how recognizable its caricatures were to human test subjects. People were shown caricatures and then asked to choose the correct one from a group of images with faces that looked very similar. Test results showed that in many cases, people had difficulty choosing the correct images when the caricatures were created with the older methods. The researchers said that it was because such systems often created caricatures that were far too exaggerated or unclear. Not surprisingly, the most easily recognized caricatures in the experiment were made by humans. But the researchers said that their system performed better in tests with human subjects than the older methods.
To date, the team has mostly worked on developing caricatures of people’s faces, but they plan to expand on this in the future to include full bodies and other objects. They also plan to explore turning the current model around to permit caricature-to-photo translation. The team said that they believed this might be useful for facial recognition of caricatures.
1. Why is it hard for machines to draw a caricature of a person’s face?| A．It offers too few examples. | B．It has too many different expressions. |
| C．It has various shapes with small details. | D．It fails to attract the machines' attention. |
| A．It knows clearly how people draw. | B．It strictly observes a series of rules. |
| C．It’s controlled by experienced artists. | D．It enables users to change their works. |
| A．Create more caricatures of people’s faces. |
| B．Make their caricatures easy to recognize. |
| C．Develop more systems for making caricatures. |
| D．Make their system translate caricatures into pictures. |
| A．Ways to create caricatures of people’s faces. |
| B．New machine systems for making caricature faces. |
| C．A research on how people would draw caricatures. |
| D．A team of machine learning developers’ new plans. |
【推荐3】Back in 1912, a man named Carl Fisher had an ambitious dream of creating a roadway that would cross the United States. He wanted the road to be in good condition and to handle the traffic. Eventually, his efforts led to the Lincoln Highway. It runs through 13 states. Originally, the surface of the highway was small stones, but over time, the project began to add new materials. Since then, people have made progress in creating more durable (耐用的) mixtures of road surfacing.
However, basically, highway technology hasn’t changed a lot since the early 20th century. But that doesn’t mean we’ll be driving on the same type of highways by 2050. Numerous companies are working on creating smart highways using sensors that will help observe and redesign traffic. More importantly, it’s not hard to imagine some parts of cars working along with the sensors in the highways. For example, safety measures in the highways will help prevent crashes by observing the position and speed of the cars. When conditions change suddenly on the road, the system will override a car’s control system, which leads to fewer accidents and traffic jams.
Perhaps we’ll even reach a point where our cars will connect with the highways so that we can renounce driving completely if we choose. Just imagine the day when we just tell our car where we want to go and then let it do all the work for us.
What’s more, research into self-repairing materials may lead to lower repair costs. And scientists are working on photoelectric panels (光电面板) that can support highway traffic. Our future highways will become large generators (发电机), collecting energy from the sun to be changed into electricity. We may be able to create a transportation system that provides its own power.
Solar panels in the road can have other parts as well. Imagine fixing LEDs into the panels, allowing transportation officials to display warning signs or other information on the road. Or they could include a heating element in the panels that allows the highway to increase its temperature, melting ice and snow. In this way, many accidents on icy roads can be prevented. And drivers can keep their car in a stable running condition.
1. What may be the key design for future smart highway systems?| A．The use of sensors to collect traffic information. |
| B．The functional combination of roads and cars. |
| C．The timely settlement of car crashes. |
| D．The strict control of cars’ speed. |
| A．Pick up. | B．Speed up. | C．Give up. | D．Keep up. |
| A．Durable and practical. | B．Flexible and moneymaking. |
| C．Convenient and time-saving. | D．Economical and environmentally friendly. |
| A．Improving cars’ efficiency. | B．Making traffic conditions safer. |
| C．Showing traffic signs more clearly. | D．Keeping drivers in good physical condition. |
【推荐1】Singapore uses about 430 million gallons of water every day—a number it expects could double in the next four decades. That kind of consumption is piling pressure on the Asian city state to address growing concerns about global water shortage. But it has no natural water sources of its own, instead relying heavily on recycled water and imports from its neighbors. It imports approximately 40% of its water today. And with climate change, that water has become far less dependable. So it’s building new technology to prepare itself for a future where obtaining clean water will be even more difficult.
“What we have become used to as reliable water, may quickly change—so we have to be prepared, we have to be thinking about the basic need in advance,” Snyder said. “There’s a big drive to become water independent, which is largely dependent on the technologies we’re developing.”
WateRoam, is already taking innovation from Singapore to the rest of the region. Founded in 2014, WateRoam says it has developed a lightweight, portable filtration (过滤) device that they say has already provided clean drinking water to more than 75,000 people across Southeast Asia.
“We’re going with a plain approach because we’re looking at water as a basic problem and a basic need and as a result, we needs basic technology to solve this problem,” Pong said. “We want people who are ordinary—not specialists or engineers—to be able to pick up this product and know how to use it.”
The water filtration device is no bigger than a bicycle pump, yet it can provide clean water to villages of 100 people for up to two years, according to the company.
1. How will Singapore deal with the water shortage?| A．Detect more natural water resources. | B．Import more water from its neighbors. |
| C．Make full use of the climate change. | D．Develop new technology to reuse the water. |
| A．An invented device. | B．A newly-founded organization. |
| C．A water-related company. | D．A reliable product of Singapore. |
| A．Water is absolutely one of the solved problems. | B．The new product should be easy-to-handle. |
| C．Specialists or engineers are badly in need. | D．Ordinary people can also help in dealing with water. |
| A．Effective but money-wasting. | B．Energy-saving and simple to produce. |
| C．Time-consuming but dependable. | D．Rewarding and easy to carry. |
【推荐2】It’s not great when a person breathes in all the oxygen out of a room. When a battery does it to a tumor (肿瘤), though, it could be a good thing.
Scientists have developed a new type of battery that can be implanted (植入) directly into tumors to deliver a steady stream of electricity. The battery is made from salt water and can be recharged by the body’s own heat. It works by splitting (使分离) salt water into hydrogen and oxygen gas. The hydrogen gas is then used to generate electricity, which can be used to kill cancer cells. The oxygen gas is released harmlessly into the body.
The new battery has several advantages over traditional cancer treatment. First, it is more targeted, meaning that it can deliver the electricity directly to the tumor cells, while sparing healthy cells. This can reduce the side effects of treatment. Second, the battery is self-charging, which means that it does not require surgery to remove or replace. This can make treatment more convenient and less expensive for patients. Third, the battery is small and lightweight, and it can be implanted directly into tumors. This means that patients will not have to need surgery to remove the battery, which can reduce the risk of complications.
The battery has been tested in animal studies, and it has been shown to be effective in killing cancer cells. The scientists who developed the battery are now planning to begin clinical trials in humans. They are thinking about how the battery might have to be made more flexible and more powerful to work on human-sized tumors. If the trials are successful, the battery could become a new standard of cancer treatment. It is a more targeted, convenient, and affordable way to deliver electricity to tumors. This could lead to more effective ways to treat cancer in humans.
1. What does paragraph 3 mainly tell us about the new battery?| A．Its benefits. | B．Its side effects. | C．Its weight. | D．Its working process. |
| A．Test the treatment in humans. | B．Reduce the cost of surgery. |
| C．Implant the battery into animals. | D．Make the battery affordable. |
| A．Negative. | B．Uncaring. | C．Optimistic. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Business. | B．Science. | C．Education. | D．Sports. |
【推荐3】I told my husband the topic of this essay and asked him, “As a British person, why do the British like tea?”His answer was, “Tea fixes everything."
For the British, tea is a substitute for emotions. The money that an American would dedicate to counseling or therapy to deal with childhood trauma (创伤），the British instead spend on tea bags, tea pots, tea cups and tea towels.
Tea is the only outlet that the British have for strong emotion, outside of football teams and alcohol. If your co-workers annoy you, you can't very well get drunk to cope with it, so tea is the substitute. The ceremony of boiling water and adding sugar and milk in a specific order based on religiously-held personal preferences is calming and allows the type of repetitive action that comforts the British mind and helps them to suppress their feelings. Calmly sipping a cup of hot tea is a proper therapeutic and British way of dealing with emotion. If someone starts to get angry at you or if they express sadness or another emotion that is uncomfortable to deal with, rather than talking about it, a British person will put the kettle on. It is a convenient way of changing the subject to one that all British people can agree on: tea.
I am married to a British man, and we have never had an argument that didn't end in him offering to make a cup of tea. I've never entered a British house without receiving an offer of tea. Tea is social bonding. If you reject tea, you are rejecting Britain. For the British, the idea of not wanting tea is nearly incomprehensible. For the British, if you don't want tea, you don't want life. They really believe that tea fixes everything.
1. What will he do if a British man gets angry?| A．He will drown his anger in tea. |
| B．He will keep his anger in mind. |
| C．He will go to the pub for a drink. |
| D．He will express his anger directly. |
| A．They like the taste of it. |
| B．It's a way of killing time. |
| C．It helps them to calm down. |
| D．The tea boiling ceremony is a pleasure. |
| A．Tea helps the British to socialize. |
| B．Tea costs the British too much time. |
| C．You can reject the offered tea in Britain. |
| D．The author never argued with her husband. |
| A．Her family life in Britain. |
| B．Why the British like tea. |
| C．How the British drink tea. |
| D．Her husband's love for tea. |
【推荐1】Flight disruptions have periodically made it difficult for people to reach their destinations. Here are three of the biggest potential flight disruptors and what you can do about them:
★ How could the weather disrupt flights this summer?
Wild weather can hinder air travel, whether it’s an Arizona monsoon storm or a hurricane over the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. That can affect whether your flight is delayed or canceled.
▶ Tip: If bad weather is expected, monitor the conditions in your flight path and take advantage of airline offers to reschedule without change fees. Download your airline’s app and enable notifications.
★ Is a pilot strike likely this summer?
In May, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines pilots’ unions voted to authorize strikes. While it appears unlikely that pilots will strike at either airline, a work stoppage could be a problem. The votes by the American and Southwest pilots’ unions to authorize a strike don’t necessarily mean a strike will happen.
▶Tip: There is no reason to panic. If a strike appears likely, travelers can monitor the situation and consider switching to another airline.
★ What if my airline has a computer meltdown?
Southwest Airlines experienced two nationwide computer outages last year.
▶ Tip: When issues emerge at the airport, technological and otherwise, the best thing people can do is to be patient. Read your airline’s policy on compensation for canceled flights.
| A．And don’t forget to advocate for yourself. |
| B．In that way you don’t miss updates and offers. |
| C．But technology hasn’t always been up to the task. |
| D．And that can determine how smooth your plane ride is. |
| E．The votes are routine steps in their contract negotiations. |
| F．They can get overloaded because of helping to ease people’s stress. |
| G．That was a symptom of operating on outdated computer infrastructures. |
【推荐2】Traveling to Mars is usually a lonely business with a single spacecraft taking off to the Red Planet. That appeared to be the case again on July 30, when NASA’s Perseverance rover (火星车) roared at Cape Canaveral. But this time the ship will have plenty of company. On July 19, the United Arab Emirates joined the Mars game, launching Hope spacecraft to orbit Mars. Four days later, China launched its Tianwen-1 spacecraft. And a fourth mission, a joint Russian-European project, ExoMars, was also planned for this summer.
So why all the interest in Mars — and why right now? The timing issue has everything to do with planetary mechanics (行星力学). As they fly their differing solar orbits — Earth on the inner track, Mars on the outer — the distance between the two worlds is forever changing. At their greatest remove, when they are on opposite sides of the sun, they are up to 250 million miles apart.
But once every two years, they line up on the same side of the sun, with just 35 million miles separating them. This summer just such an alignment (排成直线) is taking place, reducing planetary travel time to seven- month. So that explains the when question.
The why part is because of Mars’ potentially biological history. The surface of the planet is covered with dry riverbeds, ancient sea basins, and deep depressions that could only indicate long-vanished water.
Previous rover analyses in similar locations have discovered chemicals that form only in water, proving that Mars was once extremely wet. Now the mission is to look for fossilized organisms or signs of microbial life. Perseverance will collect Martian soil samples, awaiting another spacecraft that could leave Earth as early as 2026, collect the samples and fly them home for analysis.
Finding life on Mars would be a highly significant discovery. The bragging (吹嘘) rights that go with being first to make the find is part of what makes the planet the hot new destination it’s become.
1. What does the underlined word “the case” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．The Mars game. | B．Traveling to Mars alone. |
| C．Having plenty of company. | D．A single spacecraft. |
| A．Earth and Mars fly similar solar orbits. |
| B．Earth travels on the outer track and Mars the inner. |
| C．Every three years Earth and Mars sit at the same side of the sun. |
| D．The distance between the two worlds varies constantly. |
| A．the surface of Mars is full of microbial life | B．Perseverance is going to finish its task |
| C．there may exist life on Mars | D．Martian soil samples are easy to get |
| A．Traveling to Mars is becoming hugely easy. | B．Finding life on Mars is around the corner. |
| C．Many nations are going to Mars this summer. | D．Living on Mars appeals to people |
【推荐3】Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) will soon test a new oven for making chocolate chip cookies. A spaceship carrying the cooking equipment and other supplies was launched on Saturday from the Wallops Flight Facility in the United States. The shipment, weighing 3,700 kilograms, reached the space station on Monday. The goal is to explore the possibility of making freshly baked cookies for space travelers.
American company Nanoracks designed and built the oven and helped with organizing the flight to the space station. Hilton Double Tree hotels supplied the cookie dough (生面团) the astronauts will use.
In the past, space station crews have created their own pizzas using a thin, fiat piece of bread known as flatbread. Astronauts have tried other creative ways to make food, such as creating salads from vegetables grown in the space station. Results have been mixed.
The cookie baking will be a slow process. The oven can heat just one cookie at a time. The test could take weeks before the astronauts have chance to try out freshly baked cookies.
Five unbaked cookies have been in a space station freezer for several weeks. Each is in its own individual clear bag made out of silicone. The oven can heat foods to temperatures as high as 177°C. That is twice the temperature of the U.S. and Russian food warmers on the space station. The oven uses electric heating elements.
Mary Murphy is with Nanoracks. Murphy says she expects a baking time of 15 to 20 minutes for each cookie when the oven is heated to about 163°C. She adds that the smell of baking cookies should fill the space station each time a cookie comes out of the oven.
The oven’s first use will be the real test. Without the force of gravity, the astronauts do not know exactly how the cookie will look. Three of the space-baked cookies are to be returned to Earth for testing.
1. Why were the cooking equipment and other supplies sent to ISS?| A．To promote the products from Hilton Double Tree hotels. |
| B．To find possible ways to make freshly baked cookies there. |
| C．To test the equipment’s cooking efficiency for of baking cookies. |
| D．To discover the potential of making bread by using a special dough. |
| A．They must be heated to over 177℃. |
| B．They were no different from those on the earth. |
| C．All the foods were brought with them from the earth. |
| D．Not all the planting experiments on ISS were successful. |
| A．Environmental-friendly. | B．Energy-efficient. |
| C．Far-reaching. | D．Time-consuming. |
| A．A newly-invented cooker is widely used on ISS. |
| B．A new oven is to be tested to make cookies on ISS. |
| C．Dessert-lovers will soon enjoy cookies coming from ISS. |
| D．Astronauts have found creative ways to make food on ISS. |
