问答题Space Tourism
Make your reservations now. The space tourism industry is officially open for business, and tickets are going for a mere $20 million for a one-week stay in space. Despite reluctance from National Air and Space Administration (NASA) , Russia made American businessman Dennis Tito the world’’s first space tourist. Tito flew into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket that arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on April 30, 2001. The second space tourist, South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth, took off aboard the Russian Soyuz on April 25,2002, also bound for the ISS.
Lance Bass of N Sync was supposed to be the third to make the $20 million trip, but he did not join the three-man crew as they blasted off on October 30,2002, due to lack of payment. Probably the most incredible aspect of this proposed space tour was that NASA approved of it.
These trips are the beginning of what could be a profitable 21st century industry. There are already several space tourism companies planning to build suborbital vehicles and orbital cities within the next two decades. These companies have invested millions, believing that the space tourism industry is on the verge of taking off.
In 1997, NASA published a report concluding that selling trips into space to private citizens could be worth billions of dollars. A Japanese report supports these findings, and projects that space tourism could be a $10 billion per year industry within the next two decades. The only obstacles to opening up space to tourists are the space agencies, who are concerned with safety and the development of a reliable, reusable launch vehicle.
Space Accommodations
Russia’’s Mir space station was supposed to be the first destination for space tourists. But in March 2001, the Russian Aerospace Agency brought Mir down into the Pacific Ocean. As it turned out, bringing down Mir only temporarily delayed the first tourist trip into space.
The Mir crash did cancel plans for a new reality-based game show from NBC, which was going to be called Destination Mir. The Survivor-like TV show was scheduled to air in fall 2001. Participants on the show were to go through training at Russia’’s cosmonaut (宇航员) training center, Star City. Each week, one of the participants would be eliminated from the show, with the winner receiving a trip to the Mir space station. The Mir crash has ruled out NBC’’s space plans for now. NASA is against beginning space tourism until the International Space Station is completed in 2006.
Russia is not alone in its interest in space tourism. There are several projects underway to commercialize space travel. Here are a few of the groups that might take tourists to space:
-Space Island Group is going to build a ring-shaped, rotating "commercial space infrastructure (基础结构)" that will resemble the Discovery spacecraft in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey. "Space Island says it will build its space city out of empty NASA space-shuttle fuel tanks (to start, it should take around 12 or so) , and place it about 400 miles above Earth. The space city will rotate once per minute to create a gravitational pull one-third as strong as Earth’’s.
-According to their vision statement, Space Adventures plans to "fly tens of thousands of people in space over the next 10-15 years and beyond, around the moon, and back, from spaceports both on Earth and in space, to and from private space stations, and aboard dozens of different vehicles..."
-Even Hilton Hotels has shown interest in the space tourism industry and the possibility of building or co-funding a space hotel. However, the company did say that it believes such a space hotel is 15 to 20 years away.
Initially, space tourism will offer simple accommodations at best. For instance, if the International Space Station is used as a tourist attraction, guests won’’t find the luxurious surroundings of a hotel room on Earth. It has been designed for conducting research, not entertainment. However, the first generation of space hotels should offer tourists a much more comfortable experience. In regard to a concept for a space hotel initially planned by Space Island, such a hotel could offer guests every convenience they might find at a hotel on Earth, and some they might not. The small gravitational pull created by the rotating space city would allow space-tourists and residents to walk around and function normally within the structure. Everything from running water to a recycling plant to medical facilities would be possible. Additionally, space tourists would even be able to take space walks.
Many of these companies believe that they have to offer an extremely enjoyable experience in order for passengers to pay thousands, if not millions, of dollars to ride into space. So will space create another separation between the haves and have-nots
The Most Expensive Vacation
Will space be an exotic retreat reserved for only the wealthy Or will middle-class folks have a chance to take their families to space Make no mistake about it, going to space will be the most expensive vacation you ever take. Prices right now are in the tens of millions of the dollars. Currently, the only vehicles that can take you into space are the space shuttle and the Russian Soyuz, both of which are terribly inefficient. Each spacecraft requires millions of pounds of fuel to take off into space, which makes them expensive to launch. One pound of payload (有效载重) costs about $10,000 to put into Earth’’s orbit.
NASA and Lockheed Martin are currently developing a single-stage-to-orbit launch space plane, called the Venture-Star, that could be launched for about a tenth of what the space shuttle costs to launch. If the Venture-Star takes off, the number of people who could afford to take a trip into space would move into the millions.
In 1998, a joint report from NASA and the Space Transportation Association stated that improvements in technology could push fares for space travel as low as $50,000, and possibly down to $20,000 or $10,000 a decade later. The report concluded that at a ticket price of $50,000, there could be 500,000 passengers flying into space each year. While still leaving out many people, these prices would open up space to a tremendous amount of traffic.
Since the beginning of the space race, the general public has said, "Isn’’t that great — when do I get to go" Well, our chance might be closer than ever. Within the next 20 years, space planes could be taking off for the Moon at the same frequency as airplanes flying between New York and Los Angeles.
Hilton Hotels believes it won’’t be long before it is possible to build a________.
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1.单项选择题The age at which young children begin to make moral discriminations about harmful actions committed against themselves or others has been the focus of recent research into the moral development of children. Until recently, child psychologists supported pioneer developmentalist Jean Piaget in his hypothesis that because of their immaturity, children under age seven do not take into account the intentions of a person committing accidental or deliberate harm, but rather simply assign punishment for transgressions on the basis of the magnitude of the negative con sequences caused. According to Piaget, children under age seven occupy the first stage of moral development, which is characterized by moral absolutism (rules made by authorities must be obeyed and imminent justice (if rules are broken, punishment will be meted out). Until young children mature, their moral judgments are based entirely on the effect rather than the cause of a transgression. However, in recent research, Keasey found that six-year-old children not only distinguish between accidental and intentional harm, but also judge intentional harm as naughtier, regardless of the amount of damage produced. Both of these findings seem to indicate that children, at an earlier age than Piaget claimed, advance into the second stage of moral development, moral autonomy, in which they accept social rules but view them as more arbitrary than do children in the first stage.
Keasey’’s research raises two key questions for developmental psychologists about children under age seven: do they recognize justifications for harmful actions, and do they make distinctions between harmful acts that are preventable and those acts that have unforeseen harmful consequences Studies indicate that justifications excusing harmful actions might include public duty, self-defense, and provocation. For example, Nesdale and Rule concluded that children were capable of considering whether or not an aggressor’’s action was justified by public duty: five year olds reacted very differently to "Bonnie wrecks Ann’’s pretend house" depending on whether Bonnie did it "so somebody won’’t fall over it" or because Bonnie wanted "to make Ann feel bad". Thus, a child of five begins to understand that certain harmful actions, though intentional, can be justified; the constraints of moral absolutism no longer solely guide their judgments.
Psychologists have determined that during kindergarten children learn to make subtle distinctions involving harm. Darley observed that among acts involving unintentional harm, six year-old children just entering kindergarten could not differentiate between foreseeable, and thus preventable harm and unforeseeable harm for which the perpetrator cannot be blamed. Seven months later, however. Darley found that these same children could make both distinctions, thus demonstrating that they become morally autonomous.
According to the passage, Keasey’’s findings support which of the following conclusions about six-year-old childrenA．Justifying harmful actions that result from provocation.
B．Differentiating between foreseeable and unforeseeable harm.
C．Recognizing the difference between moral absolutism and moral autonomy.
D．Evaluating the magnitude of negative consequences resulting from the breaking of rules.
2.填空题It is often claimed that nuclear energy is something we cannot do without. We live in a consumer society where there is an enormous demand for commercial products of all kinds. (36)_________, an increase in industrial production is considered to be one solution to the problem of (37)_________ unemployment. Such an increase (38)_________ an abundant and cheap energy supply. Many people believe that nuclear energy provides an (39)_________and economical source of power and that it is (40) _________essential for an industrially developing society. There are a number of other advantages in the use of nuclear energy. Firstly, nuclear power, except for accidents, is clean. A further advantage is that a nuclear power station can be run and (41)_________by relatively few technical and administrative staff. The nuclear reactor (42)_________an enormous step in our scientific evolution and, whatever the anti-nuclear group says, it is wrong to expect a return to more (43)_________sources of fuel. However, (44)_________________________.
Furthermore, it is questionable whether ultimately nuclear power is a cheap source of energy. There have, for example, been very costly accidents in America, in Britain and, of course, in Russia. The possibility of increases in the cost of uranium in addition to the cost of greater safety provisions could price nuclear power out of the market. (45) _________________________. Thus, if we wish to survive, we cannot afford nuclear energy. In spite of the case against nuclear energy outlined above, nuclear energy programmes are expanding. (46) _________________________. However, it is doubtful whether this growth will or can continue. Having weighed up the arguments on both sides, it seems there are good economic and ecological reasons for sources of energy other than nuclear power.
3.单项选择题A．She didn’’t go to work this morning.
B．She was injured and had to go to the hospital
C．She talked with the boss in the morning.
D．The traffic delayed her.
4.单项选择题To emphasize the stagnation (死气沉沉) and the narrowness of the society depicted in Jane Austin’’s novels is to take a narrow and mechanical view of them. Emma is not a period piece, nor is what is sometimes called a "comedy of manners". We read it to illuminate not only, the past but also the present. And we must face here in both its crudity and its important a question. Exactly what relevance and helpfulness does Emma have for us today
In what sense does a novel dealing skillfully and realistically with a society and its standards, which are dead and gone forever, have value in our very different world today Stated in such term, the question itself is unsatisfactory. If Emma today captures our imagination and engages our sympathies (as, in fact, it does), then either it has some genuine value for us, or else there is something wrong with the way we give our sympathy and our values are pretty useless.
Put this way, it is clear that anyone who enjoys Emma and then remarks "but of course it has no relevance today" is, in fact, debasing the novel, looking at it not as living, enjoyable work of art but as a mere dead picture of a past society. Such an attitude is fatal both to art and to life. It can be assumed that Emma has relevance. The helpful approach is to ask why this novel still has the power to move us today.
What gives Emma its power to move us is the realism and depth of feeling behind Jane Austin’’s attitudes. She examines with a scrupulous (小心谨慎的) yet passionate and critical precision the actual problems of her world. That this world is narrow cannot be denied, but the value of a work of art rests on the depth and truth of the experience it communicates, and such qualities cannot be identified with the breath of the work’’s panorama (概观). A conversation between two people in a grocery store may tell us more about a world war than a volume of dispatches from the front. The stilliest of all criticism of Jane Austen is the one that blames of the news papers she read. She wrote about what she genuinely understood, and artist can do more.
The author’’s attitude toward someone who "enjoys Emma and then remarks ‘but of course it has no relevance today’’" can best be described as one of ________.A．amusement
B．astonishment
C．disapproval
D．resignation
5.填空题One summer night, on my way home from work I decided to see a movie. I knew the theatre would be air-conditioned and I couldn’t tolerate my (B1) apartment.
Sitting in the theatre I had to look through the (B2) between the two tall heads in front of me. I had to keep changing the (B3) every time she leaned over to talk to him, (B4) he leaned over to kiss her. Why do Americans display such (B5) in a public place
I thought the movie would be good for my English, but (B6) it turned out, it was an Italian movie. (B7) about an hour I decided to give up on the movie and (B8) on my popcorn. I’ve never understood why they give you so much popcorn! It tasted pretty good, (B9) . After a while I heard (B10) more of the romantic-sounding Italians. I just heard the (B11) of the pop- corn crunching between my teeth. My thought started to (B12) I remembered when I was in South Korea, I (B13) to watch Kojak on TV frequently. He spoke perfect Korean--I was really amazed, lie seemed like a good friend to me, (B14) I ,saw him again in New York speaking (B15) English instead of perfect Korean. He didn’’t even have a Korean accent and I (B16) like I had been betrayed.
When our family moved to the United States six years ago, none of us spoke any English. (B17) we had begun to learn a few words, my mother suggested that we all should speak English at home. Everyone agreed, but our house became very (B18) and we all seemed to avoid each other. We sat at the dinner table in silence, preferring that to (B19) in a difficult language. Mother tried to say something in English but it (B20) out all wrong and we all burst into laughter and decided to forget it! We’’ve been speaking Korean at home ever since.
A．warm
B．hot
C．heated
D．cool
6.问答题The attitude of some top management used to be "The machine belongs to the company; the worker is made for the machine; or, the worker belongs to the company and exists to satisfy its needs." Entertaining such a perspective today would border on lunacy (精神错乱), although managers can be found who act as though they still prescribe to it. The simple fact is that no employee works primarily to satisfy the needs of any organization. He labors first and foremost to meet his concern for the welfare of the firm. Additionally, the leader soon learns to accept his people as he finds them rather than as he would like them to be. Even if he is unhappy with their performance, he knows that the only possible starting point, for improvement, is where they are and as they are at a given time.
Five facts are at the heart of any mutual perception process. First, initial impressions tend to be lasting as well as erroneous, it is necessary not only that the manage-leader perceive his people accurately but that he make it easy for them to see him as he is without sham or flimflam (欺诈).
Second, a person perceives what he looks for and very little else. This means that the manager should emphasize the positive in sizing up his people. If he is aware of their limitations, he is also conscious of the fact that he will not make much progress with them by focusing on deficiencies. Far too much time is wasted in most organizations on attempts to eradicate defects. It would be wiser to concentrate on capitalizing on assets and building strengths.
Third, needs govern perceptions. At the outset of any relationship, there is bound to be some uncertainty on both sides. If he is an unframed picture to his subordinates, the manager realizes that they are not sure just how to go about relating to him. His responsibility is to be authentic in his dealings with them and open to interaction with them. Authenticity and openness in dealing with his subordinates ’’will help them satisfy their need to know where they stand, how they should relate to him, what kind of person he is, and how he intends to manage. Then they will get a true picture of him and how he operates without wasting time second-guessing and playing games with him.
The fourth fact is that attitudes govern perceptions. A positive, supportive attitude is readily sensed by employees, who, even if they are school-dull, are generally life-bright. Finally, perceptions are really transactions between the people involved. As the leader must allow his people opportunities to interact with him, so he must also interact with them. In this way, both will make the getting-to-know-you process efficient and rapid.
According to the passage, a worker primarily works for_______________________. 参考答案：meeting his needs，wants and desires 7.单项选择题A．No one knows how Mary gets to work.
B．She doesn’’t think the record player works.
C．She throws the old record away.
D．It’’s surprising that Mary could repair the record player.
8.单项选择题The age at which young children begin to make moral discriminations about harmful actions committed against themselves or others has been the focus of recent research into the moral development of children. Until recently, child psychologists supported pioneer developmentalist Jean Piaget in his hypothesis that because of their immaturity, children under age seven do not take into account the intentions of a person committing accidental or deliberate harm, but rather simply assign punishment for transgressions on the basis of the magnitude of the negative con sequences caused. According to Piaget, children under age seven occupy the first stage of moral development, which is characterized by moral absolutism (rules made by authorities must be obeyed and imminent justice (if rules are broken, punishment will be meted out). Until young children mature, their moral judgments are based entirely on the effect rather than the cause of a transgression. However, in recent research, Keasey found that six-year-old children not only distinguish between accidental and intentional harm, but also judge intentional harm as naughtier, regardless of the amount of damage produced. Both of these findings seem to indicate that children, at an earlier age than Piaget claimed, advance into the second stage of moral development, moral autonomy, in which they accept social rules but view them as more arbitrary than do children in the first stage.
Keasey’’s research raises two key questions for developmental psychologists about children under age seven: do they recognize justifications for harmful actions, and do they make distinctions between harmful acts that are preventable and those acts that have unforeseen harmful consequences Studies indicate that justifications excusing harmful actions might include public duty, self-defense, and provocation. For example, Nesdale and Rule concluded that children were capable of considering whether or not an aggressor’’s action was justified by public duty: five year olds reacted very differently to "Bonnie wrecks Ann’’s pretend house" depending on whether Bonnie did it "so somebody won’’t fall over it" or because Bonnie wanted "to make Ann feel bad". Thus, a child of five begins to understand that certain harmful actions, though intentional, can be justified; the constraints of moral absolutism no longer solely guide their judgments.
Psychologists have determined that during kindergarten children learn to make subtle distinctions involving harm. Darley observed that among acts involving unintentional harm, six year-old children just entering kindergarten could not differentiate between foreseeable, and thus preventable harm and unforeseeable harm for which the perpetrator cannot be blamed. Seven months later, however. Darley found that these same children could make both distinctions, thus demonstrating that they become morally autonomous.
Which of the following best describes the passage as a wholeA．An outline for future research.
B．An analysis of a dispute between two theorists.
C．A discussion of research findings in an ongoing inquiry.
D．An expanded definition of commonly misunderstood terms.
9.单项选择题A．Pollution of the environment.
B．Over-killing by hunters.
C．Destruction of their natural homes.
D．A new generation of pest killers.
10.单项选择题A．The high temperatures required for its use.
B．The high cost of materials used in its production.
C．The lack of trained environmental engineers.
D．The opposition of automobile manufacturers.