The lunch in the back room of a dull Moscow restaurant consisted of small bites of food and large shots of vodka. Musk had arrived that morning with Adeo Ressi and Jim Cantrell on their search to buy a used Russian rocket for their mission to Mars. After many toasts to friendship, the Russians gave the Americans gifts of vodka bottles with labels that had each person’s image. Musk, who was holding his head up with his hand, passed out, and his head slammed into the table.
That evening, slightly recovered, Musk and his companions met with another group in Moscow selling used missiles. That encounter turned out to be equally odd. The Russian in charge was missing a front tooth, so whenever he spoke loudly, which was often, spit would fly out in Musk’s direction. At one point, when Musk started his talk about the need to make humans multiplanetary (多行星), Cantrell recalls, the Russian spit at them. “Did he just spit on us?” Musk asked, eyes wide open. “Yeah, he did,” Cantrell answered. “I think it’s a sign of disrespect.”
Despite the clown show, Musk and Cantrell decided to return to Russia in early 2002. Ressi didn’t come, but Justine did. This time Musk focused on buying two Dnepr rockets, which were old missiles. The more he negotiated, the higher the price went. He finally thought he had a deal to pay $18 million for two Dneprs. But then they said no, it was $18 million for each. “That’s insane!” he says. The Russians then suggested maybe it would be $21 million each. “They taunted him,” Cantrell recalls. “They said, ‘Oh, little boy, you don’t have the money?’”
It was fortunate that the meetings went badly. It drove Musk to think bigger. Rather than merely using a secondhand rocket to put a demonstration greenhouse on Mars, he would attempt one of the most audacious (大胆的) projects of our times: privately building rockets that could launch satellites and then humans into orbit and eventually send them to Mars and beyond.
1. What happened during the lunch in the Moscow restaurant?| A．Musk got seriously drunk. | B．Musk bought a used rocket. |
| C．Musk was hit on the head. | D．Musk made lots of friends. |
| A．Embarrassed. | B．Shocked. | C．Anxious. | D．Ashamed. |
| A．Try to annoy. | B．Try to inspire. | C．Try to amuse. | D．Try to disappoint. |
| A．Money can’t buy everything. | B．Constant dripping wears away a stone. |
| C．Repetition plays a critical role in success. | D．Frustration can sometimes be a stepping stone. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Eliana Yi dreamed of pursuing piano performance in college, never mind that her fingers could barely reach the length of an octave (八度音阶). Unable to fully play many works by Romantic-era composers, including Beethoven and Brahms, she tried anyway — and in her determination to spend hours practicing one of Chopin’s compositions which is known for being “stretchy”, wound up injuring herself.
“I would just go to pieces,” the Southern Methodist University junior recalled. “There were just too many octaves. I wondered whether I was just going to play Bach and Mozart for the rest of my life.”
The efforts of SMU keyboard studies chair Carol Leone are changing all that. Twenty years ago, the school became the first major university in the U.S. to incorporate smaller keyboards into its music program, leveling the playing field for Yi and other piano majors.
Yi reflected on the first time she tried one of the smaller keyboards: “I remember being really excited because my hands could actually reach and play all the right notes,” she said. Ever since, “I haven’t had a single injury, and I can practice as long as I want.”
For decades, few questioned the size of the conventional piano. If someone’s hand span was less than 8.5 inches — the distance considered ideal to comfortably play an octave — well, that’s just how it was.
Those who attempt “stretchy” passages either get used to omitting notes or risk tendon (腱) injury with repeated play. Leone is familiar with such challenges. Born into a family of jazz musicians, she instead favored classical music and pursued piano despite her small hand span and earned a doctorate in musical arts.
A few years after joining SMU’s music faculty in 1996, the decorated pianist read an article in Piano and Keyboard magazine about the smaller keyboards. As Leone would later write, the discovery would completely renew her life and career.
In 2000, she received a grant to retrofit a department Steinway to accommodate a smaller keyboard, and the benefits were immediate. In addition to relieving injury caused by overextended fingers, she said, it gave those with smaller spans the ability to play classic compositions taken for granted by larger-handed counterparts.
Smaller keyboards instill many with new confidence. It’s not their own limitations that have held them back, they realize; it’s the limitations of the instruments themselves. For those devoted to a life of making music, it’s as if a cloud has suddenly lifted.
1. What is the similarity between Eliana Yi and Carol Leone?| A．Their interest in jazz extended to classical music. |
| B．Short hand span used to restrict their music career. |
| C．They both joined SMU’s music faculty years ago. |
| D．Romantic-era composers’ music was easy for them. |
| A．To reduce the number of octaves. |
| B．To incorporate Bach into its music program. |
| C．To provide fair opportunities for piano majors. |
| D．To encourage pianists to spend more hours practicing. |
| A．Confident. | B．Frustrated. | C．Challenging. | D．Determined. |
| A．Who Qualifies as an Ideal Pianist? |
| B．Traditional or Innovative Piano? |
| C．Hard-working Pianists Pays off |
| D．The Story behind Retrofitted Pianos |
Matt Hirst’s pets were recently caught on camera conspiring to open the kitchen door while the master was away.
According to his post on Reddit, Hirst — who lives in the U.K. — had been arriving home all week to notice one of the doors open, even though he knew he shut it before he left. After the fourth time the door was open he decided to set up a hidden camera.
“The first time, I assumed I just must have left the door open. The second time, I checked the whole house thinking that someone was breaking in (and began to suspect the cat). The third time I figured it must be the cat, and decided to catch him out, so set the camera up and left it going all day,” he wrote.
Just three hours after leaving the house, the cat jumps up onto a scratch tower and starts pawing at the door.
It takes the cat just over a minute to finally break through and then both cat and dog escape to the other side.
1. Which of the following about cats and dogs are true?
| A．Cats and dogs can never work together. |
| B．Cats and dogs can be friends if they work together. |
| C．Cats and dogs can get along well with each other if they live under the same roof. |
| D．Cats and dogs can cooperate with each other in order to finish something. |
| A．Matt Hirst wrote to the newspaper about the story. |
| B．Matt Hirst set up a hidden camera the first time he found the door was open. |
| C．Matt Hirst didn’t see how the cat and the dog open the door in person. |
| D．Matt Hirst was glad that his cat and dog are clever. |
| A．The cat got the key to the door. |
| B．The cat and the dog knocked the door open together. |
| C．The cat opened the door with its paws. |
| D．The cat opened the door with the help of its owner. |
| A．On a website. | B．In a science fiction. |
| C．In a newspaper. | D．In a magazine. |
【推荐3】Trust me — I am expedition doctor
Ever since I was a young child, I’ve had a taste for adventure, but I never imagined I’d be able to satisfy this passion at regular intervals because of my chosen career.
My work as an expedition (探险队) doctor has taken me all over the world. However, my favourite trips, and the ones in which I now specialise, are those involving mountains. Never do I feel more inspired by nature than when I look up at their towering peaks and begin to prepare myself mentally for the challenges ahead.
I trained as a doctor in the UK, but there was little in that training to prepare me for binding up a broken leg during a storm on the side of a mountain! In fact, I’d say that medical skills come some way down the list of job requirements, after endurance, flexibility, problem-solving and communication.
This kind of medicine is a million miles away from the controlled, germ-free environment of a hospital, and your medical kit basically consists of whatever you can carry, so you sometimes have to be prepared to improvise (即兴做). For example, I’ve learned that some drugs can be used for several conditions, and I’ve even had to resort to cutting branches off a small tree to make a stick to support a broken arm.
That isn’t to say that you can’t train to be an expedition doctor; on the contrary, there are some excellent courses available. Not only do they teach medical techniques, but also practical skills such as carrying out risk assessments, crossing rivers safely and using satellite phones. The first course I did included a session on expedition dentistry, though I must admit I still don’t like the idea of pulling out someone’s tooth!
I do most of my work for adventure holiday companies, travelling to remote places. When I started out, these holidays were quite rare, but they have become much more mainstream now that we’ve all seen celebrities climbing Kilimanjaro or watched reality shows about people surviving in jungles.
I do have mixed feelings about all these people with large amounts of disposable income coming to poor areas just for their own enjoyment, so I try to make sure that the companies I work for have high ethical standards and benefit the local communities. And of course, tourism provides employment, and also opens the eyes of rich visitors to the hardship that many people are forced to endure.
I realise that this kind of life isn’t for everyone, but I’d recommend that all doctors try it at least once, if only to make them appreciate the comforts of their usual working environment!
1. The author feels that he has been________.| A．obliged to choose his career | B．lucky with his job |
| C．obsessed with his adventure | D．inspired by his patients |
| A．They are less important than practical skills. |
| B．They are strictly required as the most important. |
| C．They are adequately attained in medical schools. |
| D．They are an underlying part of practical skills. |
| A．They keep their equipment in a backpack. |
| B．Things can happen that they don’t expect. |
| C．They don’t have the resources of a hospital. |
| D．They are required by the patients on the trip. |
| A．they organise expeditions in the remote areas he enjoys visiting |
| B．they appreciate the comforts of the unusual working environments |
| C．he wants to make sure that his clients are safe at all times during the expedition |
| D．he feels uncomfortable about the difference between rich tourists and poor local people |
【推荐1】For years I fought with the bird's nest that sat on top of my head―my Medusa (神话中的蛇发女妖)hair. No matter what I did and how hard I tried, in no way could I make my unruly (乱蓬蓬的) hair to my satisfaction.
Growing up in a Russian-Jewish home with parents who thought North American styling products were something illegal such as drugs, I was never allowed to put them in my hair. “Why buy hair gel? Your hair is so beautiful naturally.” my mother would say. The teens at school did not agree. From boys' not wanting to kiss me when we played spin the bottle in Grade 7 to being called the mop, I suffered from my hair.
If only I could find a way to manage the curls (鬈曲), I told myself, I would feel secure and sex. I tried everything: rollers, hair spray, gels and, at one point, an iron. Then, a miracle happened―I was asked to be a hair model for Japanese hair straightening. With my hair straight and smooth, I was no longer the “mop”. However, there was extreme damage done to my wallet. To keep up the straightening cost 700 every six months.
I couldn't hide from my inner Medusa any longer. It was time to hug her and let her fly. Seeking a choice, I turned to the Internet, Goggle. After hours of searching, I hit upon a “curly haired” salon, a place designed for girls like me. Doubted and uncertain, I finally got there. As my head was in a basin full of freezing-cold water, then covered with a jelly-like jam, I wondered what I had got myself into.
“Do you really think this will work?” I asked the stylist, Jones. “My curls are a disaster.” “No curly hair is hopeless,” she replied. “They just haven't found a way to work with it, that's all.”
After the hour was over, Jones had completed her work. She had styled my hair using only her hands, water and a mixture of organic jam. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in the mirror: a naturally curly, Medusa-free me. You could argue that hair is just hair. Yet, it is just such physical featured that have such a large influence on how we view ourselves.
According to Jones, 75 percent of the population have a wave or curl in their hair and don't know what to do with it. Men cut theirs short. Women flat-iron theirs to death. When I read through a beauty magazine or take the subway to work, it makes me sad to see so many people re pressing their natural beauty.
Since then, my world has changed. These days I seem to be more confident than ever. Besides, friends and co-workers tell me I am looking better than ever, but they don't know the source of the change.
I don't need to tell them. My Medusa hair speaks for herself.
1. What do we know about the writer's hair in the first place?| A．She hated it because she thought it ugly. |
| B．Her parents considered it as a bird's nest. |
| C．then thought it to be unique and natural. |
| D．North American styling products damaged it, |
| A．has got rid of her inner Medusa |
| B．has straightened her curls on her head |
| C．has found a way to style her hair in a salon |
| D．has got respect from her friends and co-workers |
| A．Road to Beauty | B．My Medusa Hair |
| C．A Successful Stylist | D．Accept the Way We Are |
【推荐2】Grace and her family thought they had lost Thor forever when they moved to Windsor, Nova Scotia from British Columbia last August.
“We probably spent seven or eight months looking for Thor,” Grace said. “What made it worse was that there were rumors(谣言) going around that there was dogfighting in our area. We still always hoped that somebody had taken him to be a pet, but you just never knew.”
“It was terrible. My daughter Bronwyn would try to find Thor everywhere, which had been a Christmas present for her. Even while watching TV programmes, she would say, ‘Oh, look! That dog looks like Thor!’” Grace said. Then the family moved, and the hope became impossible.
But one day, the phone rang. It was their former vet in British Columbia, saying Thor was in a rescue shelter(收容所) in High River, Alberta. He had been found at a work camp in the northern part of the place and taken to south by a man planning to keep him. But the man was forced to turn him over to the shelter when he couldn’t keep Thor in his rented home. Luckily, the ring on Thor’s neck gave people some information.
Thor was flown to Nova Scotia last week. The family picked him up at the airport. “Thor was just lying in his box and looking down, and my daughter walked over and said, ‘Hey Thor.’ He immediately stood up, trying to greet my daughter. We let him out and he jumped on her as if he was giving her a big hug and he kissed her face. Then he sat down suddenly at her feet and rolled over for attention. He was cute.” Grace said.
1. Who helped Thor back home?| A．The author. | B．Grace. | C．The former vet. | D．Bronwyn. |
| A．He came back by air. |
| B．He was killed in the dogfighting. |
| C．He was given to Grace by Bronwyn. |
| D．He moved to British Columbia with the family. |
| A．Anxious and shocked. | B．Excited and joyful. |
| C．Confused and annoyed. | D．Hopeful and calm. |
| A．A travel brochure. | B．A news report. |
| C．A geography text book. | D．A health magazine. |
【推荐3】Kayzen Hunter, an eight-year-old second-grader, has breakfast at the local Waffle House with his family every weekend. For about a year, they have requested to sit in the section of their favorite waiter, Devonte Gardner.
“He’s the nicest person ever,” said Kayzen. He gets a high-five from Gardner when they walk into the door, and the two joke around a lot. Kayzen is always impressed when Gardner remembers his order, which is the same every weekend.
A few months ago, Kayzen learned a little more information about Gardner’s life.“Devonte said he wondered if anyone might know where he could buy a cheap car- he’d been having a hard time saving for one,”Kayzen said. He also learned that Gardner had been walking several miles a day to and from work and was living in a small hotel room with his wife and two daughters. About eight months earlier, they had to move out of an apartment that was badly damaged by mice.
On February 18, 2023, with mom’s help, Kayzen set up a GoFundMe page, with the goal of raising $5,000 toward new wheels for Gardner. When a local news station found out, donations began to pour in.and the fund quickly soared to more than $30,000-enough for a car and to pay for an apartment for Gardner’s family for the next year.
Gardner said he was shocked when he learned what his young customer had done. But many of Gardner’s other customers were not as amazed. Instead, they were quick to jump in and help.“This guy is ALWAYS in a good mood and a hard worker!” one man commented. He donated $25.“I’ve experienced what Devonte is experiencing and I love it that he continues to spread joy despite his struggles,” added a woman who donated $20.“This is the definition of community.” one person wrote on the GoFundMe page.
1. What often impresses Kayzen about Gardner?| A．He serves Kayzen’s family. | B．He knows what Kayzen wants. |
| C．He gives Kayzen a high-five. | D．He always plays jokes with Kayzen. |
| A．He was unwilling to save for a car. |
| B．He enjoyed walking to and from work. |
| C．He was struggling to support the family. |
| D．He intended to move back to the apartment. |
| A．Dropped. | B．Jumped. |
| C．Continued. | D．Arrived. |
| A．He has a positive personality. | B．He is always helping others. |
| C．He is an experienced waiter. | D．He is an outgoing and hard worker. |
