When you think about it, food is an important part of our lives. Family gatherings center around food and the celebration of major life events and milestones involves food in one way or another. The same holds true for us here on the Space Station. Food is important and ends up usually being a topic of discussion for almost every crew.
The food that we have here on ISS has to meet many different requirements. What about variety? How do you meet all of the peculiarities of the people that you come across, especially when they are from different cultures? What about the logistics(物流)of getting the right food here at the right time? So there are a couple of different questions you have to consider when you talk about food and long-duration space flight.
On the U.S. side we have gone to a standard menu, meaning that every 16 days you start over with the same menu. To compensate the crews, we are allowed to pick one“preference”container which consists of our pick of anything on the U. S. menu list. This allows us some variety in our menu, with the choices up to us. One of the desirable options for any crew is to make sure that enough tortillas(墨西哥玉米粉薄饼) get on board. You can do so much with a tortilla; it becomes the vehicle with which to eat almost anything.
Our food also comes packaged in many ways. But no matter what the form of the food though, you still have the same problem eating it- - you do not want it flying away from you and making a mess when you open it up. In this case a little bit of extra water is extremely helpful. It keeps the food kind of sticking together and to the package and to your spoon. Small things do escape from time to time, but we really try hard to minimize the random flying food problem. That is enough for now! Next time I will write about how to cook in space.
1. Where is the text most probably taken from?| A．A food magazine. | B．An astronaut’s journal. |
| C．A sci-fi handbook. | D．A space history website. |
| A．Ambitious targets. | B．Similar requests. |
| C．Unusual habits. | D．Harsh conditions. |
| A．To illustrate the preference container. | B．To give an example of standard menu. |
| C．To advocate tortillas to the readers. | D．To show the variety of food options. |
| A．Food packaging is optional. | B．Sufficient water helps transport food. |
| C．Flying food problem is unavoidable. | D．Eating in space is easier than most imagine. |
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【推荐1】Tansel Ali used to curse his terrible memory. He struggled to remember phone numbers. But now he has won the Australian Memory Championships four times and has represented Australia at the World Memory Championships, where he was able to memorise 80 words in 15 minutes and 41 names and faces in five minutes.
So how did Tansel's memory improve so much? The key, he says, is in encoding information into an image. Tansel also creates images when remembering numbers. That involves a lot of "pre-work", he explains. “I've got images already pre-memorised from 0 to 99. So, for example, 17 is a dog and 71 is a cat, so if I get the number 1771, I'm going to picture a dog chasing a cat.” And it works.
“If you want to strengthen your own recall skills, Tansel suggests reading something incredibly dry and boring, such as a “terms and conditions” page. While doing so, create a story in your mind. If you can make a story out of what you're trying to remember, you car essentially memorise anything.”
Psychologist Sharon Draper says there are other ways to boost your memory, including doing brain challenges such as puzzles, crosswords and Sudoku at least once a day. "Being physically active, avoiding smoking, reducing alcohol intake and aiming for a solid night's sleep can also help protect your memory from going through the sieve", Draper adds. And dietitian Kathryn Hawkins notes that sticking to a well-balanced diet—with plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and fish high in omega-3 fatty acids—will promote brain health and thus memory.
There's no denying that Tansel now has a great memory. But it's not the only thing to improve since he started training his brain: his confidence and self-esteem have skyrocketed, and his stress levels have fallen dramatically as a result. “The better you become at sharpening your memory”, Tansel has learnt, “the easier life becomes.”
1. Which of the following was adopted by Tansel to improve his memory?| A．Eating a balanced diet. | B．Doing brain challenges. |
| C．Creating a story in his mind | D．Guaranteeing a good night's sleep. |
| A．To share more techniques of living an easy life. |
| B．To introduce more benefits of training our brain. |
| C．To illustrate the importance of having a good memory. |
| D．To show the relationship between confidence and self-esteem. |
| A．The Legend of Tansel | B．The Secret of Tansel |
| C．The Power of Memory. | D．The Improvement of Memory |
【推荐2】Are some people born clever, and others born stupid? Or is intelligence developed by our environment and our experiences? Strangely enough, the answer to both these questions is yes. To some extent our intelligence is given to us at birth, and no amount of special education can make a genius out of a child born with low intelligence. On the other hand, a child who lives in a boring environment will develop his intelligence less than one who lives in rich and varied surroundings. Thus the limits of a person's intelligence are fixed at birth, but whether or not he reaches those limits will depend on his environment. This view, now held by most experts, can be supported in a number of ways.
It is easy to show that intelligence is to some extent something we are born with. The closer the blood relationship between two people, the closer they are likely to be in intelligence. Thus if we take two unrelated people at random (随机地) from the population, it is likely that their degrees of intelligence will be completely different. If on the other hand we take two identical (完全相同的) twins they will very likely be as intelligent as each other. Relations like brothers and sisters, parents and children, usually have similar intelligence, and this clearly suggests that intelligence depends on birth.
Imagine now that we take two identical twins and put them in different environments. We might send one, for example, to a university and the other to a factory where the work is boring. We would soon find differences in intelligence developing, and this indicates that environment as well as birth plays a part. This conclusion is also suggested by the fact that people who live in close contact with each other, but who are not related at all, are likely to have similar degrees of intelligence.
1. Which of these sentences best describes the writer's point in Para. 1?| A．To some extent, intelligence is given at birth. |
| B．Intelligence is developed by the environment. |
| C．Some people are born clever and others born stupid. |
| D．Intelligence is fixed at birth, but is developed by the environment. |
| A．unrelated people are not likely to have different intelligence |
| B．close relations usually have similar intelligence |
| C．the closer the blood relationship between people, the more different they are likely to be in intelligence |
| D．people who live in close contact with each other are not likely to have similar degrees of intelligence |
| A．intelligence | B．life |
| C．environments | D．housing |
| A．On Intelligence |
| B．What Intelligence Means |
| C．We are Born with Intelligence |
| D．Environment Plays a Part in Developing Intelligence |
【推荐3】If we continue at our current production rate, the World Economic Forum predicts that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. Today, there is a garbage island three times the size of France floating in the Pacific Ocean. However, in her presentation last week, Alexandra Cousteau, a world-renowned environmental advocate, offered a small sign of hope.
Cousteau’s talk, titled “Telling the Story of Our Water Planet: Innovation in Filmmaking and Social Media to Effect Environmental Change”, focused on using innovation and technology to create environmental solutions with a focus on restoration rather than preservation. She described our current approach to conservation as a “zero-sum game” between environmentalists and economists. An endangered species habitat can either be protected or developed; a polluted stream can either be cleaned or left to deteriorate (恶化). Both teams are on the defensive, yet playing a losing game.
In the 1970s, the environmentalist movement focused on conservation efforts. Cousteau said, “It was an effective tool then when plastics were young. But we have lost 50 % of our oceanic ecosystems since 1950. Conservation is no longer enough. “Cousteau urges us to create biological richness for the creatures still living in the sea.
Throughout her speech, Cousteau discussed the challenges facing our oceans and the solutions lying at our fingertips. She explained the power of seaweed farming to sequester (隔离) carbon. She talked of 3 D printing coral reefs rather than painstakingly growing. Most of all, she focused on the youths and our amazing power for driving practical change.
Cousteau said, however, there are challenges in the mission. Ocean conservation has inequalities (不平等) in its approach and implementation. Though the science exists, lawmakers need to employ these solutions efficiently and equitably, which is far easier said than done. Despite these obstacles, Cousteau’s message gave hope.
Modern environmentalism is no longer the work of a few, but the work of many dedicated individuals with a common vision for change. Together, we can regain hope and rebuild our oceans.
1. Why is the World Economic Forum’s prediction mentioned?| A．To share environmental solutions. |
| B．To tell the content of Cousteau’s talk. |
| C．To show the serious result of oceanic garbage. |
| D．To show our current dangerous living condition. |
| A．The failure of protecting the environment. |
| B．People’s awareness of protecting the Earth. |
| C．The success of the environmentalist movement. |
| D．People’s creative solution to protecting the Earth. |
| A．It should be continued. |
| B．It should be prevented now. |
| C．It was useful for biological richness. |
| D．It was good but then had little effect. |
| A．Her goal is difficult to achieve. |
| B．Her focus on the youths’ efforts is wrong. |
| C．She will rebuild the ocean by herself in the future. |
| D．She believes in the present ways to protect the ocean. |
【推荐1】Something’s happening at the lowest point on our planet.
The Dead Sea, a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west, is shrinking at an alarming rate - about 3. 3 feet per year, according to the environmentalist group Eco Peace Middle East. And human actions are largely to blame.
"It's not just like one country is punishing the Dead Sea: it's more like the whole area,” said photographer Moritz Kustner, who visited the area in February to work on his series "The Dying Dead Sea”.
The Dead Sea needs water from the other natural sources surrounding it, such as the Jordan River basin. But around the 1960s, some of the water sources it relied upon were diverted. Israel, for instance, built a pipeline during that time so it could supply water throughout the country.
Mineral extraction industries are another main reason the water levels are falling, experts say. The Dead Sea's minerals have been used as medicine and can often be found in cosmetics and other consumer products.
And then, of course, there's the Middle East's hot, dry climate, which makes it difficult for the lake to replenish itself. Last year, Israel and Jordan signed a $900 million deal in an effort to keep the Dead Sea's water levels stable. It includes building a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea which would be able to not only supply water to Israel and Jordan but also to pump water into the Dead Sea.
But for now, Kustner shows us that the Dead Sea remains very much a place of interest, with people from all over the world going there to swim in its salty waters
The Dead Sea, known as the Salt Sea in the language of Hebrew, is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world. And because of what has been happening over the years, the salt is only getting saltier.
1. How many reasons for the Dead Seas shrinking does the author mention in the text?| A．One | B．Two |
| C．Three | D．Four |
| A．They have practical value. |
| B．They are controlled by Israel. |
| C．They can be extracted very easily. |
| D．They are mainly used in heavy industry. |
| A．To clean something. | B．To improve something. |
| C．To fill something again. | D．To find something again. |
| A．What we should do to save the Dead Sea. | B．More people travel to the Dead Sea. |
| C．Why the Dead Sea is salty. | D．The Dead Sea is drying out. |
【推荐2】Earth’s second-longest man-made structure, though, is not a wall, but a fence. It spreads about 5,614 km across eastern Australia and is intended to stop the country’s dingoes (野犬) from hunting sheep, which are farmed mainly to the south.
Australia’s dingo fence does not stand alone. There are millions of kilometres of fences in the world. Some are aimed to limit the movement of animals, some the movement of people, and some only to mark the boundary (界限).
Recently things have been changed by a report from Professor Alex Mclnturff. One discovery he has made is that more than half of the fence research studies focus on just five countries-America, Australia, Botswana, China and South Africa. A second is that only a third of those examined the impact of fences on target species involved, meaning the animals purposely intended to be kept in or out.
In fact, Australian fences intended to keep out dingoes are also barriers (障碍) to long-necked turtles, which travel great distances over land when moving between nesting sites. In Botswana fences built to prevent cattle from wildlife-borne disease influence the migration routes of wildebeest.
Fences are not so bad for every creature. Hawks in Montana gladly sit on newly built fences to hunt small animals, while fence-based spiders in South Africa achieve better results than their tree-based cousins when it comes to catching insects.
Often, though, the winners are creatures that cause trouble for ecological environment. Keeping dingoes out of large parts of Australia has allowed red foxes to increase greatly. Native rodents (啮齿类动物) have suffered as a result. Some have been brought to the edge of extinction.
1. Which is the purpose of building fences in Australia?| A．To lengthen the boundary. | B．To help people move around freely. |
| C．To protect farm animals. | D．To stop wild animals from being hunted. |
| A．Fence research studies. | B．The five countries. |
| C．Target species. | D．The impact of fences. |
| A．Long-necked turtles in Australia. | B．Cattle in Botswana. |
| C．Tree-based spiders in South Africa. | D．Red foxes in Australia. |
| A．The Report by Alex Mclnturff |
| B．Fences-Barriers to Wildlife |
| C．Earth’s Longest Man-made Structure |
| D．Rodents-in Danger of Extinction |
【推荐3】The Most Populous Cities in the World
The cities listed below are the most populous (人口稠密的) in the world, according to a 2018 U. N. report.
Tokyo, Japan
Population in Urban Area: 37,340,000
Population in City Area: 13,960,000
Tokyo is the most populated city in the world and the largest “Megacity” in the world.
The city called the “Capital of the East” is located on the eastern coast of the Japanese main island of Honshu.
Delhi, India
Population in Urban Area: 31,181,000
Population in City Area: 20,591,874
Delhi, also known as the National Capital Territory of India is the largest city in the country. According to a U. N. report, the Indian capital is expected to be the spot of the world’s second most populous city through at least 2030.
Shanghai, China
Population in Urban Area: 27,796,000
Population in City Area: 22,315,474
This is China’s most populated and also wealthiest city. Situated in the Yangtze River Delta, in eastern China, it has a huge business district, two large airports (Pudong and Hongqiao) and the world’s fastest train (the Shanghai Maglev).
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Population in Urban Area: 22,043,028
Population in City Area: 10,021,295
This busy metropolis (大都市) in southeast Brazil, is the largest city of the Southern Hemisphere (半球) and the largest Portuguese-speaking city in the world.
1. How many people are there in City Area of Delhi?| A．10,021,295. | B．20,591,874. | C．22,315,474. | D．13,960,000. |
| A．Tokyo, Japan. | B．Delhi, India. | C．Shanghai, China. | D．Sao Paulo, Brazil. |
| A．They belong to the same hemisphere. |
| B．They are the largest cities in their countries. |
| C．They all have a larger population in their countries. |
| D．They are all the richest in their own countries. |
【推荐1】A laser-powered robotic climber has won $900,000 in a competition designed to stimulate technology for a future elevator to space.
Building a space elevator would require fixing a cable on the ground near Earth’s equator and deploying (部署) the other end thousands of kilometers into space. The centrifugal (离心的) force due to Earth’s spin would keep the cable tight so that a robot could climb it and release payloads into orbit.
Building a space elevator would make for cheaper trips into space than is possible using rockets. To achieve that end, NASA offered $2 million in prize money in a competition called the Power Beaming Challenge, in which robotic climbers, powered wirelessly from the ground, attempt to climb up a cable as fast as possible.
Now, a robotic climber has made a prize-winning ascent worth $900,000, making it the first to win money in the competition, which has occurred annually since 2005. The winning climber was built by a team called Laser Motive, based in Seattle, Washington. Like the other two vehicles in the competition, it used solar cells to absorb energy from a ground-based infrared (红外的) laser.
On Wednesday, Laser Motive fired up its laser, powering the climber to climb 900 meters up a cable. The climber reached the top in just over 4 minutes, for an average speed of 3.7meters per second. The team’s climber repeated the achievement at a slightly higher speed of 3.9 meters per second on Thursday. On Friday, two other teams failed in their final attempted climbs. That means Laser Motive will receive the entire $900,000 NASA set aside for climbers that could make the climb faster than 2 meters per second. The remaining $1.1million in NASA prize money was reserved for climbs faster than 5 meters per second, which none of the competitors was able to achieve.
Though a space elevator remains a distant prospect, NASA is thrilled about its technological advances. It is now interested in wireless power transmission for other applications, like sending power to lunar rovers travelling in shadowed craters (阴影环形山), where solar energy is unavailable.
1. What do we know about the Power Beaming Challenge?| A．It offered prize money to support NASA. |
| B．It was powered wirelessly from the ground. |
| C．It was a competition first launched in 2005. |
| D．It was the first to win money in the competition. |
| A．3.7 meters per second. | B．3.9 meters per second. |
| C．2 meters per second. | D．5 meters per second. |
| A．Because it may stimulate unexpected applications. |
| B．Because it demonstrates the possibility of space traveling. |
| C．Because it can send lunar rovers to travel in shadowed craters. |
| D．Because it can generate power when solar energy is unavailable. |
| A．“Space Elevator” Wins $900,000 NASA Prize |
| B．Laser Motive Unveils Its Secret Technology |
| C．A Robotic Climber Rides an Elevator to Space |
| D．Space Elevator Stimulates the Advance of Technology |
【推荐2】Around the country and around the world, there is no shortage of human suffering. Poverty, disease, violence, hurricanes, wildfire and more are constantly troubling humanity, and even our best efforts thus far can’t address all of everybody’s needs. Many are looking for places to cut funding, and one of the first places that comes up in conversation is excessive spending on space exploration. What good is it to conduct microgravity experiments repeatedly when children are starving? Why launch so many space-related projects when nuclear war threatens our planet?
This is a line of thinking that has been coming up throughout history. Yes, it’s short-sighted, in that it fails to recognize that our greatest problems require long-term investment, and that society’s greatest advances come about through hard work, research, development of decades after that is made. Investing in science is investing in the betterment of humanity.
Over these years, much of the results of the space research have been adapted to be applicable to our daily lives. For example, NASA’s advancements in the areas of robotics have given manufacturers an additional basis for the development of more advanced artificial limbs. Additionally, certain nutritional enrichment ingredients (成分) that were developed by NASA have been integrated into baby food formula.
Space technology has also helped improve economies. Within the next three years, the space exploration and space tourism industry are expected to be valued at 3 trillion USD. It is true that for every dollar we spend on the space program, the US economy receives about $8 of economic benefit. Space exploration can also serve as a motivation for children to enter the fields of science and engineering.
To many people, the idea of space travel may still seem far from practical. However, I believe that it is important that we keep going forward or we’ll risk delaying further discoveries and technological advancements that will be beneficial for us.
1. According to paragraph 1, what do some people think of space exploration?| A．Useless. | B．Wasteful. | C．Beneficial. | D．Harmful. |
| A．The advance. | B．The development. |
| C．The investment. | D．The problem. |
| A．By providing a foundation. |
| B．By adding certain materials. |
| C．By acting as a driving force. |
| D．By helping realize the mass production. |
| A．Space programs are of great benefit to us. |
| B．Space travel appears to be within people’s reach. |
| C．More and more children are interested in science. |
| D．New technological discoveries have been delayed. |
【推荐3】Fifty years ago, astronauts traveled to space in rockets designed, built, and maintained by NASA and paid for by government funding. Today, the astronauts are often billionaires enjoying a journey into low orbit on a rocket they paid for from their billion-dollar bank accounts.
The change feels like a giant leap, but it makes sense, says Laura Seward Forczyk, founder of Astralytical a space consulting company. “More and more of modern civilization relies on space,” she says.
Huge numbers of satellites orbit the planet connecting us to everything from cell phones to GPS to Netflix and there is big money in maintaining those systems. “This doesn’t get a lot of headlines typically, but there are profit reasons why private companies want to go into space,” says Forczyk.
And 85 private companies learn more about putting rockets and satellites into space, they’re able to help the likes of NASA on their missions. That’s important because NASA itself has become financially constrained from its 1966 peak, where spending on the space race took up 4.4 percent of the federal budget, that spending is now less than 0.5 percent of the country’s total budget.
“NASA using commercial companies to build a lot of the hardware to do a lot of those services of taking scientific payloads to the surface of the moon,” says Forczyk. The hope is that people will follow — possibly by 2025, but more realistically, says Forczyk, by 2030. If you’re wondering why we’re going back to the moon since mankind has already walked its surface, the answer is that we explored only part of it.
“We know a lot more, but we also know so very little,” says Forczyk. “So we want to go back with people to learn more, but more importantly, we want to go back to live and work there.”
Some even see the moon as an eventual staging area for human exploration of deep space. Mars is seen as the next stepping-off point toward the final frontier — though whether we’ll get there in our lifetimes is another question.
1. What change has taken place in space travel nowadays?| A．The moon is the final frontier, |
| B．Those who pay for the rocket can enjoy the journey. |
| C．The federal government gives NASA more financial support. |
| D．Rockets are designed, built, and maintained by private companies. |
| A．Mankind can live on Mars by 2030. | B．We have explored most part of the moon. |
| C．Space travel relies on modern civilization. | D．NASA cooperates with private companies on the missions. |
| A．Who can go to space? | B．What’s next in space travel? |
| C．What’s NASA’s future mission? | D．Why do private companies want to go into space? |
