The home of the future won't be
Space holidays will develop in the future, but these holidays won't be for everyone because they are
According to the laws of physics, the earth is going to
2 . After decades of playing catch-up with the U.S. and Russian space programs, China did something neither nation nor any other had done this December: land a spaceship on the dark side of the moon.
Strictly speaking, of course, the moon has no dark side. But because of the way it orbits Earth, our natural satellite shows us only one side － the other is hidden from our view. No one even saw the far side until 1959, when the Soviet Luna 3 spaceship flew around for a look and sent back photos. No astronaut or spaceship went there until this December, when the China National Space Agency (CNSA) launched a 2,500-pound lander called Chang’e-4 to the southern end of the lunar far side.
Chang’e-4 operated a small rover (探测车) to survey the geography there for the first time ever. By examining the geography of its landing area, Chang’e-4 could solve longstanding puzzles about the moon, including how it formed 4.5 billion years ago. Chang’e-4 also carried a very small ―lunar biosphere (生态圈) ‖ containing silkworm eggs and a tiny greenhouse designed to grow potatoes in order to study the growth of the seeds on the moon.
Besides Chang’e-4, China plans to launch Chang’e-5 in 2019. Its mission will be to gather moon rocks using an orbiter, a lander or collector, an ascent stage (上升器) and a capsule that will separate from the orbiter and return the rocks to the earth. ―With these missions, the Chinese will have shown complete mastery of flight in the space between the earth and the moon,‖ said Paul Spudis, an experienced lunar researcher based in Houston.
CNSA has already outlined ideas for Chinese astronauts to follow the robots to the moon. Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of CNSA’s Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center, told that China plans a permanent robotic lunar station in about 10 years and suggested a human presence on the moon another decade or so after that. Spudis said China’s ambitious Chang’e-4 and Chang’e-5 missions should send human’s plans for lunar return into rapid development.
1. What do we know about the dark side of the moon from the first two paragraphs?| A．Two western countries have taken its photos. |
| B．It is hidden from people’s view due to the earth’s orbit. |
| C．China is the first country to land a spaceship there. |
| D．It exists because the sun never shines there. |
| A．To study the geography of the lunar dark side. |
| B．To grow potatoes on the moon. |
| C．To examine the growth of eggs and seeds. |
| D．To survey the lunar biosphere. |
| A．The lander. | B．The collector. |
| C．The ascent stage. | D．The capsule. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Disapproving. |
| C．Ambiguous. | D．Favorable. |
3 . Think of the empty cities in zombie(僵尸)movies. The streets, the shops and the schools still there just like they would be on a normal day, except there are no people to be seen. It is the emptiness that scares you.
Now a real-life "ghost city" is being built in the US. But fortunately, it has nothing to do with zombies - it is going to be a place to test the technology of the future
Called CITE - the Center for Innovation(创新), Testing and Evaluation(测评) - the city is the idea of technology company Pegasus Global Holdings. Covering an area of 15 square miles (39 square kilometers), it is the size of a small US city and sits in the middle of the New Mexico desert.
But why do we need an empty city that nobody will call home?
The reason is that we can't afford to test the latest technologies in the cities that we live in - they might not be ready and could cause problems and danger in our everyday lives.
"It will be a true laboratory without the problems and safety issues that come with people living there. Here you can break things and run into things, and get used to how they work, before taking them out into the market, Pegasus managing director Robert Brumley told technology magazine Wired.
In fact, without worrying about hurting people, anybody with a new idea can ask to test it in this city. Just think about the possibilities- driverless cars can move freely on the streets, homes with robots can be designed and energy sources like nuclear power can also be put to the test.
As good as the idea may seem, however, there are still doubts about CITE. "One of the most difficult things to do when developing these new technologies is to have them safely move around people, who can suddenly jump out in front of something," Reese Jones, a founder of Singularity University, US, told Fortune magazine.
Jones is worried that, even if a technology works perfectly well in CITE, introducing it to a real city will still be a whole different story because there will be people living in the city.
But no matter what, perhaps we should wait until CITE is finished in 2018. Maybe it will turn out to work just fine.
1. The empty city is being built_____.| A．so people can experience the technology of the future |
| B．to try driverless cars and robots in |
| C．to test new technology in |
| D．as a place full of the latest technology |
| A．It is located beside the New Mexico desert. |
| B．It was started by Singularity University. |
| C．Things in the city can easily be broken down and built again. |
| D．Anyone can ask to try out their new designs there. |
| A．CITE offers great possibilities for future technology |
| B．new technologies will work perfectly well with the help of CITE |
| C．settings in CITE should be real in order to create the best results |
| D．testing results in CITE may not prove to work in a real city |
| A．To explain why CITE could be very helpful. |
| B．To show that CITE has a bright future. |
| C．To explain CITE and problems it may have. |
| D．To offer a good solution that will help to develop future technologies. |
