1 . Nothing draws attention to your new product like using it to send fast food into space. In June, Arizona-based World View demonstrated the potential of its pioneering stratollite--a sort of mini satellite that uses a balloon to take goods into the stratosphere (平流层)--by partnering with
KFC to ferry a 5-ounce piece of fried chicken 77,000 feet into the desert sky. “We took a chicken sandwich, launched it into space for 17 hours, and when it came back, it was perfect,” says World View CEO Jane Poynter.
Poynter’s final goal is to send tourists to the edge of space, tied to the company’s balloons, and to make the final frontier more accessible for research. Stratollites are inexpensive, compact, and easy to operate, ideal for monitoring weather patterns and providing military reconnaissance （侦察） or emergency communications during natural disasters. They can also do what traditional satellites can’t: spend months above a specific location without moving.
Though Poynter did not formally train as an engineer, she has spent her career in leading space research. The British native trained her skills as a technical manager while part of Biosphere 2, an Arizona research facility built to test a self-enclosed, self-sufficient ecosystem. Its creators hoped it could one day be adapted for use in space. She spent two years in the early 1990s sealed inside with seven others, experiencing everything from oxygen failures to colleagues’ emotional breakdowns.
Poynter met her future husband, Taber MacCallum, on the project, and afterward, the couple formed Paragon Space Development. They began devising biospheres that could support plant and animal life in orbit （太空轨道）.
“We showed it’s possible for animals to live in an environment they are not used to: microgravity,” Poynter says.
In 2014, Poynter and Maccallum achieved another first. They led the engineering team that helped former Google exec Alan Eustace skydive from the edge of the stratosphere. That’s when it hit them: The balloon-parachute system they designed for Eustace could be modified for tourism and research. So they formed World View, with MacCallum serving as chief technical officer.
The company has a contract with NASA to determine if the system could someday be used to gather data on Mars. “Taking stratollites and flying them on other planets,” Poynter says, “that’s definitely a part of the big dream.”
1. Stratollites are different from traditional satellites in that they can _______.| A．stay motionless in space |
| B．move about in a bigger area |
| C．provide emergency communications |
| D．survive better in a situation without gravity |
| A．It was adapted from a spaceship that used to work in space. |
| B．It was intended to become an ideal place for space research. |
| C．The participants all experienced some kind of emotional breakdown. |
| D．The participants were isolated from the outside world for some time. |
| A．Poynter and Maccallum have helped Alan Eustace to skydive. |
| B．Maccallum will serve as a chief technical officer in World View. |
| C．The system designed for Eustace can be used for more purposes. |
| D．Poynter and Maccallum hope to achieve more firsts in their career. |
| A．Partnering with NASA to do research on other planets. |
| B．Using balloons to send tourists or researchers into space. |
| C．Giving people more opportunities to try extreme sports in space. |
| D．Working with food companies to send food to astronauts in space. |
2 . Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately：the air you breathe.
Previous studies have linked high exposure (暴露) to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problems，but two analyses now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke (中风) within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物) were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)considers to be of “moderate” (良好) quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.
The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.
1. The text mainly discusses the relationship between ________.| A．heart problems and air quality |
| B．heart problems and exercising |
| C．heart problems and smoking |
| D．heart problems and fatty food |
| A．relatively high | B．extremely low |
| C．relatively low | D．extremely high |
| A．Eating fatty food has immediate effects on your heart. |
| B．The EPA conducted many studies on air quality. |
| C．Moderate air quality is more harmful than smoking. |
| D．Stricter regulations on pollutants should be made. |
| A．inform | B．persuade |
| C．describe | D．entertain |
