Before the mid-20th century, most people felt travelling into space was an     1     dream. However, some scientists were determined to help     2     realise their dream to explore space. After many     3    , they succeeded in making rockets that could     4     Earth’s gravity. On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR and successfully orbited around Earth.    5    , the USSR focused on sending people into space, and on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the     6     person in the world to go into space. Over eight years later, on 20 July 1969, American     7    Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon,     8     saying, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant     9     for mankind.” Following this, many more goals were achieved. For example, America’s NASA space agency launched Voyager 1 on 5 September 1977 to study deep space, and it still transmits     10     today.

At the basic level,     1     intelligence is a branch of computer science that aims to develop intelligent machines. One of the essential aims of AI is to develop computer intelligence     2     of learning from experience, adjusting to new inputs and performing tasks like humans. To achieve this aim, many     3     to creating true AI have been put forward, including “deep learning”, which     4     a machine to improve its own performance by learning from the results of its previous actions. Deep-learning AI has the     5     to analyse massive amounts of data through multiple layers, imitating the complex networks of the human brain.

China’s space programme started later than those of Russia and the US, but it has made great     1     in a short time. China became the third country in the world to     2     send humans into space in 2003, when Yang Liwei successfully     3     Earth in the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. Then Shenzhou 6 and 7 completed     4     second manned orbit and the first Chinese spacewalk,     5     by the vehicle Jade Rabbit being sent to the moon to study its surface. After that, China     6     the Tiangong 2 space lab into space and Tianzhou1 to dock     7     it. This     8     one step further in China’s plan to     9     a space station in the future. More recently, China has sent Chang’e 4 to explore the surface of the far side of the moon to make     10     and observations.

10 . Eileen Collins

Although she’s never walked on a runway with models in a fancy dress, Eileen Collins is referred to by many as “Miss Universe”. That’s because Collins (1956—   ) is an a    1     and NASA’s first female shuttle pilot and mission commander.

Until quite recently, this profession was one you’d only find men in. There seemed to be little p    2     of entry for females. For them, therefore, Collins is a pioneer(先锋).

In 1995, she piloted the Discovery shuttle during flight t    3     the Russian Space Station. Four years later, she headed a shuttle mission aboard Columbia.

Collins’ achievement is not something that happens o    4    . It takes years, even decades, of preparation. But to understand the roots of Collins’ love of piloting, we have to go back to her c    5    . Collins knew from a very young age that she belonged to the skies. She grew up in Elmira in New York State, a town with a significant flight history. The first US National Gliding Contest was h    6     there in 1930.

Collins’ passion was also helped by books on the Wright brothers. Starting at age 16, Collins took on small jobs and three years later, she had s    7     enough money to accomplish her dream of learning to fly. S    8     when the US Air Force opened its doors to female pilots in 1978, the young woman applied and started her t    9     as a military pilot. Her team described her as humble (谦卑的) despite all her achievements.

Her parents agree. “She is very down-to-earth. N    10     handed her anything. Everything she has today, she’s earned,” her mother said.