1 . Jeff Bezos, the world’s wealthiest person, was just five when American astronauts stepped on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. However, he’s never forgotten the black-and-white footage from the historic moment. Since then, the moon has always been the center of his space dreams which are channeled through his spaceflight company, Blue Origin.
On May 9, 2019, at a meeting held in Washington, DC, Bezos came one step closer to achieving his dream of sending people there, when he presented a model of a lander, Blue Moon, designed to carry both humans and goods to the satellite.
Though details of how Blue Moon will be sent to space remain unclear, Bezos is confident it’ll be ready for its mission (使命) by 2024. He considers it unavoidable to settle in space given our ever-increasing population and fewer resources. Unlike those seeking a home on another planet, Bezos thinks humans will be living in orbital space settlements, which are similar to the International Space Station, except much bigger, each housing millions of people. Space taxis would make it easy for humans to travel between settlements.
But first we need to develop a cheaper way to travel between space and Earth. Bezos may have solved the problem partly by removing the biggest cost of spaceflights—single use rockets—with Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard rocket, which has made several trips to space and back since 2015.
To encourage future space dreamers, the company’s recently built a free online club that will keep members informed of its progress and challenge them to find solutions to help humans and save earth. It invites students of all ages to draw or write how they imagine humans living and working in space on a self-addressed, stamped postcard and send it to the “Club for the Future” by July 20, 2019. The first 10,000 postcards will be sent to space aboard the New Shepard rocket later this year. When it returns to Earth, the postcards, stamped “flown to space,” will be returned to their owners.
1. What does Paragraph 1 mainly talk about?| A．An impressive historic moment. |
| B．The beginning of Bezos’ space dream. |
| C．The exciting news of sending man to space. |
| D．Bezos’ secret of becoming the wealthiest person. |
| A．Overpopulated. | B．Solar-powered. |
| C．Energy-hungry. | D．Conveniently accessible. |
| A．Space taxis. | B．Single use rockets. |
| C．New Shepard rocket. | D．Orbital space settlements. |
| A．To help humans and save earth. |
| B．To challenge students of all ages. |
| C．To build a new way of sending postcards. |
| D．To encourage future space dreamers. |
