SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER

“Are we alone? What’s out there?” People have always looked up at the stars and wondered about space. Today, scientists design vehicles to carry astronauts into space to make important discoveries.Space exploration has come a long way, and we now hope to discover other planets that are suitable enough to support life.

Before the mid­20th century, most people felt travelling into space was only a dream that could never come true. However, scientists were determined to realise that dream. After many experiments, they succeeded in making rockets that could escape Earth's gravity. On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR and successfully orbited around Earth. Afterwards, the USSR focused on sending people into space, and on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in the world to enter space. Over eight years later, on 20 July 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, famously saying, “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” Following this, there were many more important space achievements. For example, on 5 September 1977, America’s NASA space agency launched Voyager 1 to study deep space, and it still transmits data to this day. And the International Space Station (1998) has provided a continuous human presence in space, with astronauts from many different countries on board.

Although scientists try to make sure nothing goes wrong, accidents can still happen. For example, all the astronauts on the Soyuz 11, Challenger, and Columbia spacecrafts died during their missions. However, while such disasters brought much sadness and disappointment, the desire to explore the universe did not die. This is because people believe in the importance of carrying on space exploration despite the huge risks.

China’s space programme started later than those of Russia and the US, but it has made great progress in a short time. China became the third country in the world to independently send humans into space in 2003, when Yang Liwei successfully orbited Earth in the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. Then Shenzhou 6 and 7 completed a second manned orbit and the first Chinese spacewalk, followed by the vehicle Jade Rabbit being sent to the moon to study its surface. On 23 July 2020, China sent Tianwen 1 to explore the surface of Mars. It arrived in February 2021 and then sent back lots of valuable information. And from 2021 to 2022, China completed a number of rocket missions to establish its own space station. In 2022, the launch of the Mengtian module signaled the basic completion of the Tiangong Space Station. This modern space station will allow astronauts to conduct many important experiments, greatly furthering our understanding of the universe.

The future of space exploration remains bright. Many countries have plans to further study planets like Mars and Jupiter. Despite the difficulties, scientists hope to make more valuable discoveries that will enable the human race to survive well into the future.

Wednesday, 21 June

Today was my first day back in San Francisco after camping in the Redwood Forest and visiting the wine country of Napa Valley. I have to admit that it definitely feels good to be back in the city again. And what a city—a city that was able to rebuild itself after the earthquake that occurred in 1906. There are so many beautiful old buildings—many siting on top of big hills, offering great views of the city, the ocean, and the Golden Gate Bridge.

My hotel is near downtown, in the Mission District, one of the oldest parts of the city. Many of the people living here are from Mexico or Central America. This district used to be a poor area of town, but is now a centre for art, music, and food. In fact, an art movement called the “Mission School” started here. It’s influenced by graffiti art and comic art. I walked around looking at the street art for a few hours. It was quite modern and lively. Afterwards, I ate some delicious Mexican-Chinese noodles from a food truck. A real mix of cultures here!

In the afternoon, I headed to a local museum that showed the historical changes in California. I learnt that America got California from Mexico in 1848. In the same year, gold was discovered near San Francisco, which started a gold rush. Over 300,000 people came from all over the world to seek their fortune, and San Francisco quickly became a big city. Many Chinese arrived during this period. To earn a living, some opened up shops and restaurants in Chinatown. Many others found jobs on farms, joined the gold rush, or went to build the railway that joined California to the eastern region of the country. The museum did a really good job of showing how America was built by immigrants from different countries and cultures. When these immigrants left their countries, they carried a bit of home in their hearts, and built a new home here.

This evening, I went to Chinatown. There were so many cafés and restaurants to choose from. I selected a Cantonese restaurant that served its food on beautiful china plates. What great food! That’s enough for today. Tomorrow evening, I’m going to a jazz bar in the Richmond Distinct. Can’t wait!

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The Secrets of Your Memory

We remember things     1     have strong connections in our mind,     2     (especial) emotional connections. Childhood memories are often very     3     (emotion). This is    4     when we experience things for the first time, we often have strong feelings of fear or    5     (excite). Also, interesting or funny stories from our childhood are often told again and again. As a result, we remember them much better, as     6     (retell) events helps fix experiences in our memories. What can we learn from all this? When     7     (remember) something new, try to connect it to our emotions. It is important    8     (connect) it with what we already know. Also, we can try to retell     9     we have learnt to a few others.

A person    10     a photographic memory could remember every detail of a picture, a book or an event many years later,     11     no one has proved that there are people who really have photographic memories. Yet, there are some people who do have     12     (amaze) memories. For example, Daniel Tammet can remember the first 22,514 digits of pi (π) and Stephen Wiltshire can draw a     13     (detail) picture of a city from memory after flying    14     it in a helicopter. They are both good at     15     (remember) particular things for a limited time. As most of us do not have amazing memories like them, when memorising detailed learning materials, we     16     (simple) need to focus on the important ideas and be curious    17     what we learn.     18     (ask) questions about what we learn also helps with memorisation. Another     19     (effect) technique to remember things is to group similar ideas or information together so that they can be easily     20     (connect) to things that are already known.

Don’t worry. This is natural for many people. In1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus published a book    22     (call) Memory and presented a famous forgetting curve. According to him, the     23     (sharp) loss of memory occurs during the very early period after learning. This means timely review during this period, with a few revisits to what is learnt, can     24     (significant) help us to remember the information. Therefore, one of the golden     25     (rule) to increase how much we remember is to review the material periodically, especially during the first day after learning. This “spaced review” soon after learning helps build stronger memories and it is     26     (effective) than waiting to review everything before exams.

    27     (definite) not. Our memory reaches     28     (it) full power at the age of 25. At that point, we can remember up to 200 pieces of information     29     a second. After this age, however, the brain starts to get smaller. By the age of 40, we lose 10,000 brain cells every day. By middle age, our memory is significantly     30     (bad) than when we were young. So take it easy. You are at a good age     31     terms of your memory. Make good use     32     it!

The school bus honked from the road.

“Run!” commanded Mrs. Arable,     1    (抓取芬手中的猪并塞了一个甜甜圈到她的手中). Avery grabbed his gun and another doughnut.

The children ran out to the road and climbed into the bus. Fern took no notice of the others in the bus. She just sat and stared out of the window,     2    (想着这是一个多么美好的世界而她是多么幸运地能拥有一只猪). By the time the bus reached school, Fern had named her pet,     3    (选择她能想到的最美丽的名字). “It’s name is Wilbur,” she whispered to herself.

She was still thinking about the pig when the teacher said:“Fern, what is the capital of Pennsylvania?”

“Wilbur,” replied Fern,     4    (像在做梦一样). The pupils giggled. Fern blushed.