It looked to all the world like something that might have graced the cover of a 1950s comic book. On September 28th, on a warm Texas evening, Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, a rocketry firm, introduced his company's newest machine, Starship Mkl. It stands 50 metres tall and is made from shiny plates of stainless steel. Despite its name, it is not in fact an interstellar （恒星之间的） spacecraft. But it is a prototype （雏形）of an interplanetary one. Mr Musk hopes, one day, to use its successors to ferry passengers to the Moon or to Mars — or perhaps even, according to one piece of SpaceX concept art, all the way to Saturn （土星）.
In the 17 years since its founding, SpaceX’s cheap, reusable machines have revolutionised the rocket business. The firm's ukra-low prices have seen it seized a dominant share of the commercial satellite-launching market. Along with Boeing, an American aerospace giant, SpaceX is responsible for ferrying supplies to the International Space Station, It may soon fly astronauts there as well. But all of this commercial success is merely a necessary first step in Mr Musk’ bigger plan, which is to make humanity into a "niultiplanetary species" by establishing colonies in the universe.
That is where the Starship comes in. The prototype on display in Texas is only one half of an enormous rocket stack designed with planetary colonisation in mind. When paired with a Falcon Super Heavy booster （助推火箭），which is also being developed, the result should be able of lifting around 150 tonnes into orbit. That would make it the most powerful rocket ever built, superior to the Saturn V, which sent astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s. And unlike the Saturn V, whose three stages were abandoned to the sea or to space as their fuel was used up, the Starship and its booster will be reusable which should keep costs down.
It is a bold plan. Mr Musk's shorter-term plans are bold too. Besides designing a new spaceship and booster, SpaceX engineers are busy working on a new. more efficient engine to power them. Called Raptor, it is designed to bum super-cold methane rather than the kerosene that fuels the company's current Merlin engines. The Starship will sport six Raptor engines. But each Super Heavy booster will need somewhere between 24 and 37. The result will be a repairman's nightmare.
Mr Musk has said, perhaps optimistically, that a Starship prototype might be ready for a test flight all the way to orbit (although without its booster stage) within six months. That would be of a piece with its crazy development schedule. The traditional rocket-building industry is used to generous government contracts that are about job creation as much as rocket creation. However, SpaceX has adopted a different approach, closer to the rapid-fire development practices of the software industry.
The Starship prototype, for instance, was put together in a matter of months. It was built out in the open, rather than in a carefully controlled factory environment. The firm has two teams competing against each other to produce the best design,
1.What is the passage mainly about?
A.Starship Mkl VS Satum V
B.Development of space travel
C.A promising company in the rocket business
D.Starship Mk 1, a new kind of rocket in a sense
2.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A.Starship Mkl was designed to beat Boeing and dominate the market.
B.SpaceX aims to realize interplanetary travel and set up space colonies.
C.SpaceX is not dependent on the government's contracts to expand its business.
D.Starship Mkl beats Satum V in that it is recyclable, cost-saving and more powerful.
3.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A.Repairmen hate working with a powerful rocket.
B.The special fuel is in great demand and not always available.
C.Ifs no easy job to equip the rocket with the engines needed.
D.Too many engines may bring about great trouble once going wrong.
Growing Green Thumbs
Callie’s Kids by Calloway Nursery
Denton, 940/591-8865;
Flower Mound, 972/691-2650;
Lewisville, 972/315-3133.
www. mytexasgarden. com
LEARN: Kids ages 5-12 can explore and plant in the Calloway gardens with a parent/ caregiver^ supervision at 9:30 am on the first or third Wednesdays from June to August. A garden expert will share tips and advice for the best gardening practices during the 45-minute session (beginning on June 2). Preregistration online is required.
COST: Free
Denton Children's Community Garden
2200 Bowling Green Ave., Denton, 940/349-2883.
www.dcmga.com
LEARN: Join the weekend work at the community garden, where caregivers, parents and master gardeners help children of all ages plant new vegetables, water the plants, harvest from the gardens and more. The instructors also lead games about nutrition, good and bad insects and more. 10 am-5 pm on Saturdays.
COST: Free
Coppell Community Gardens
255 Parkway Blvd., Coppell.
www.copp11communitygarden.org
LEARN: Kids of all ages (with a parent? caregiver) can volunteer at either the Helping Hands Garden (255 Parkway Blvd.) or Ground Delivery Garden (450 S. Denton Tap Road). Children will have the opportunity to ill (耕)the ground, plant vegetables, harvest from the garden and more. Master gardeners are available on site; all harvested foods are either sold at the community's farmers5 market or donated to the area food bank. Work begins every Saturday at about 9am.
COST: Free
1.If a child wants to plant in the Calloway gardens, he / she ,
A.must be under fourteen years old
B.can visit www.dcmga.com for more information
C.should work there every Wednesday morning,
D.needs to register online before going there
2.What do Denton Children's Community Garden and Coppell Community Gardens have in common?
A.Both hold activities on Saturdays.
B.Both offer students games about farming.
C.Both donate their harvest to a food bank.
D.Both have an age limit for children.
A funny story happened last week in Brazil. After delivering a program there my wife and I were catching the plane back to our home in Portugal. We entered the_______. passed security and reached the boarding zone... and then discovered that flight had been_______.
I_______ the airline and they told us that the only flight back would be today, four days after the _______flight. I felt my stomach tightening, my hands sweating, and my thoughts _______about our cats, all the professional commitments I had already _______ in Portugal, etc.
I decided to take a___________ and as we were speaking with a security officer to get more _______, I decided, instead of _______, to act with__________ and to ask about his____________.
The security officer's name was Raul, he wasn't__________ his country and this ________and his dream was to become a radio sports anchor, moving to another country. He told us those things in a humorous way__________ guiding us back for several minutes to the check-in desk of the airport. We__________ together, and in the end, I wished him well, and to have strength and luck, etc.
When the security officer left us at our airline desk where a lady was ________ — the flight cancellation complaint, our eyes were shining, and our spirits were________Maybe that was the trigger that allowed us to have __________for the lady at the desk and talk nicely to her, while all the other customers were complaining and screaming; and maybe that was also the trigger that allowed us to get a special ________ back home,________the big majority of customers stayed in Brazil.
1.A.station B.airport C.harbor D.border
2.A.changed B.missed C.booked D.cancelled
3.A.called B.announced C.requested D.checked
4.A.original B.final C.return D.delayed
5.A.flowing B.rushing C.jogging D.floating
6.A.delivered B.transferred C.scheduled D.performed
7.A.breath B.turn C.look D.seat
8.A.permission B.knowledge C.confirmation D.information
9.A.questioning B.panicking C.managing D.struggling
10.A.dignity B.confidence C.kindness D.determination
11.A.holiday B.belief C.story D.trouble
12.A.curious about B.happy with C.Sorry for D.tired of
13.A.house B.friends C.job D.families
14.A.if B.since C.though D.while
15.A.laughed B.searched C.played D.left
16.A.taking care of B.making use of C.going in for D.getting rid of
17.A.broken B.displayed C.lifted D.developed
18.A.affection B.enthusiasm C.suspicion D.sympathy
19.A.present B.connection C.surprise D.experience
20.A.unless B.although C.whereas D.until
— Many thanks for your selfless help.
—_________________
A.You don’t say B.Never mind C.Think nothing of it D.You're too polite
Judging from what he said, he must have witnessed the incident last week, ______?
A.hasn't he B.didn't he C.mustn't he D.wasn't he
Much disappointed as he is in the job interview, he still keeps his confidence.
A.to have failed B.failed
C.having failed D.failing
