Every new year of the last decade I set a personal challenge. My goal was
When I started these challenges, my life was almost all about building the Facebook website. Now there’s so much more to learn. At Facebook, we’re building lots of different apps and technology and we’re handling a lot more social
This decade I’m going to take
2 . The European Space Agency(ESP) wants to build a village on the moon, said Woerner, the head of the agency, in a video interview posted on its website on March 21.
“I would like to build a base station on the moon, meaning that it’s an open station...for different states around the globe,” Woerner said to Euronews. He said the village could replace the International Space Station(ISS) in the future, which will be ended in 2024. In December Nexgen Space, a consultant(咨询) company for NASA, said that a lunar refueling station could “reduce the cost to NASA of sending humans to Mars by as much as $10 billion per year.”
According to the ESA’s plan, starting from the early 2020s, robots will be sent to the moon to begin building different facilities(设备), followed a few years later by the first humans to live there. Instead of bringing expensive resources from Earth, the moon’s natural resources like metal and frozen water could be used to build the village.
Having a lunar base could be challenging because of space radiation(辐射), meteorite(陨石) and extreme temperatures from 123℃ to 153℃, according to CNN. But Woerner said these risks could be made smaller by choosing the right locations on the moon.
“If we go into the shadow on the moon, we’ll have places where we don’t have the radiation... At the South Pole, we can find water,” he said.
Right now, the moon village is just an idea. But as the BBC said, there is a growing interest in returning to the moon and the idea will be taken seriously.
“Inside all of us there is something that goes beyond being practical,” Woerner said. “We like to discover. This is humankind and this is what brings us into the future.”
1. What is most likely to happen after robots finish building different facilities?| A．Humans will be sent to Mars. |
| B．Humans will be sent to live on the Moon. |
| C．Expensive resources will be sent to the moon. |
| D．International Space Station(ISS) will be ended. |
| A．It is too hot to live there. |
| B．There is too much radiation. |
| C．It’s too far away from the earth. |
| D．There may be rocks landing from outer space. |
| A．Humans are very practical. |
| B．Humans want to experience the future. |
| C．Humans don’t like to stay in the same place. |
| D．Humans are nature-born to explore the unknown. |
| A．To inform. | B．To analyze. | C．To persuade. | D．To criticize. |
3 . Humans have been keeping animals as pets for tens of thousands of years, but Dr. Jean-Loup Rault, an animal scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, believes new companions are coming: robot pets.
“Technology is moving very fast,” Rault told ABC News, “The Tamagotchi in the early 1990s was really the first robotic pet, and now Sony and other big companies have improved them a lot.”
This may not sit well with pet lovers. After all, who would choose a plastic toy over a lovely puppy? But Rault argues that the robotic kind has a lot going for it: “You don’t have to feed it, you don’t have to walk it, it won’t make a mess in your house, and you can go on a holiday without feeling guilty.” The technology also benefits those who are allergic to pets, short on space, or fearful of real animals.
It’s not clear whether robot pets can replace real ones. But studies do suggest that we can bond with these smart machines. People give their cars names and kids give their toy animals life stories. It’s the same with robots. When Sony stopped its repair service for its robot dog Aibo in March 2014, owners in Japan held funerals.
As an animal welfare researcher, Rault is concerned about how robotic pets could affect our attitudes towards live animals. “If we become used to a robotic companion that doesn’t need food, water or exercises, perhaps it will change how humans care about other living beings,” he said.
So are dogs and cats a thing of the past, as Rault predicts? For those who grew up with living and breathing pets, the mechanical kind might not do. But for our next generation who are in constant touch with smart technology, a future in which lovely pets needn’t have a heartbeat might not be a far-fetched dream.
1. What does the underlined phrase “sit well with” means?| A．be refused by | B．be beneficial to |
| C．make a difference to | D．receive support from |
a. They are plastic and feel smooth.
b. Owners needn’t worry about them when going out.
c. They can help cure allergies.
d. They save space and costs.
| A．ab. | B．bc. | C．bd. | D．cd. |
| A．the advantages of robot toys | B．the popularity of robot pets |
| C．living pets are dying out | D．robot pets are coming |
