Humans may not have landed on Mars (火星) just yet, but that isn’t stopping a European company from devising a plan to send four people to the Red Planet within the next few years. This project, called Mars One, aims to send a small group of people to Mars in 2022 and eventually establish a permanent colony on the planet.

“Everything we need to go to Mars exists,” said Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp in March 2014. “We have the rockets to send people to Mars, the equipment to land on Mars, the robots to prepare the settlement for humans. For a one-way mission, all the technology exists.” Yet the four astronauts chosen for the trip will be stuck on Mars—forever. And despite Mars One’s thorough planning, there are a number of challenges that may prevent the mission from ever taking place. The biggest road block could be the mission's huge cost ($6 billion). However, Lansdorp is confident that Mars One will be able to fund the project by selling the broadcast rights for the mission and subsequent experiences living on the planet.

Those broadcast rights will also play a part in helping to select the people who will be sent to Mars. Lansdorp said the company will hold a selection process similar to a reality show. Lansdorp is expecting at least 1 million applications from people around the world. In addition to the cost, several other potential problems could inhibit (阻止) the mission to Mars.

“It’s even more challenging to send people there with life support, with food, with air, with all the other things like books, entertainment, means of communication and of providing for their own resources for a long stay on Mars,” said Adam Baker, senior lecturer in space engineering at Kingston University in London. “The size of the rockets you’d need to do this would be absolutely colossal.

1.According to Project Mars One, humans could send four people to Mars within the next ________years.

A.seven B.eight C.ten D.six

2.According to Bas Lansdorp, which of the following is NOT TRUE?

A.Robots are prepared for the settlement for humans.

B.He could not come up with the fund for Mars One.

C.We humans have the rockets to send people to Mars.

D.The equipment is ready for humans to land on Mars.

3.The word “colossal” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ___________.

A.very large B.very small

C.medium D.average

4.Which of the following is an appropriate title for this passage?

A.Ready for a Round Trip to Mars

B.Ready for a Short Visit to Mars

C.Ready for a One-way Trip to Mars

D.Ready for a Walk on Mars

An electric signal can trick a monkey’s brain into believing the animal’s finger has been touched.

Touch something, and your brain knows. The hand sends signals to the brain to announce contact was made. But that feeling of touch may not require making actual contact, tests on monkeys now show. Zapping brain cells can fool the animal into thinking its finger has touched something.

A person who has lost a limb or become paralyzed may need an artificial limb to complete everyday tasks. But such patients may not truly feel any objects they hold. The new findings point toward one day creating a sense of touch in those who use such artificial limbs. Psychologist Sliman Bensmaia of University of Chicago worked on the new tests. His team’s findings appeared on October 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

The sense of touch is crucial to everyday tasks: People without it may have difficulty cracking an egg, lifting a cup or even turning a doorknob. That’s why restoring it is a major goal for designers of artificial limbs.

In their new study, Bensmaia and his co-workers worked with rhesus monkeys (恒河猴). The scientists implanted electrodes (电极)--- small devices that can detect and relay an electrical signal—into the animals’ brains. The scientists used the electrode data to identify which neurons had become active. Then the scientists used the implanted electrodes to zap those same neurons. And the monkeys reacted as though their fingers had been touched. In fact, they hadn’t.

The monkeys couldn’t use words to tell the scientists what they had felt. Instead, they communicated by looking in a particular direction—just as when they had really been touched.

The new findings show how touch-sensitive devices could be built. The new study also offers “ a nice clear pathway” for figuring out how to restore a sense of touch to an amputee(被截肢者) or someone with a injury of spinal cord.

The study shows how artificial limbs might be connected to the brain so that a person can “feel” with such a prosthesis (假肢). But such a supersensory device doesn’t exist yet and scientists have a lot of work to do before people will benefit from it. Researchers must first figure out whether the electrodes would work in people in the same way they do in monkeys.

“ I think the foundation is laid for human trials,” Bensmaia said.

1.What does the underlined word “it” refer to ?

A. The sense of touch.

B. An artificial limb.

C. The turning of a doorknob.

D. The lifting of a cup

2.Bensmania tested monkeys to prove that the feeling of touch_________.

A. is important to everyday tasks

B. may not require making actual contact

C. is a problem of life and death

D. may be a challenge for designers of artificial limbs.

3.Monkeys tell researchers their sense of touch by _______.

A. putting up one of their fingers

B. making their brain cells active

C. looking in a particular direction

D. mimicking natural signals in the brain

4.The last sentence of the text suggests humans _________.

A. will use touch-sensitive devices

B. will test monkeys soon

C. lay foundations for monkey trials

D. will be tested on the electrodes

5.The passage is mainly about ________.

A. restoring a sense of touch

B. fooling a clever monkey

C. making new artificial limbs

D. sending a signal with a touch

完形填空

阅读下面短文,从短文后各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

In an early stage,in Americans’eyes,Ebola was only a disease characterized by fever in Africa. then a man from west Africa died from Ebola at a hospital in Dallas,Texas.And two nurses for him became infected with the virus,which made the US government issue new guidelines(指南)to health workers.

Top American have repeatedly said that most people have little chance of being infected.Experts have that Ebola can only be spread through with an infected person’s body fluid-like blood.But it many Americans are what they have heard.

A recent survey found more than 80 percent of Americans believe that Ebola can be spread in many ,including air forced through the nose or mouth.The Harvard School of Public Health the findings.The study also showed that most adults fear there will be a(n) of Ebola in the United States soon.

survey found that more than 70 percent of Americans would support calls to travel to and from Ebola-affected parts of Africa.

Thomas Frieden heads the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.When asked whether officials had considered a travel ban,Mr.Frieden had to say:“We won’t be able to check travelers for when they leave or when they arrive. We won’t be able , as we do ,to take a detailed history to see if they were when they arrive. When they arrive, we wouldn’t be able to impose quarantine(强加隔离)as we now can if they have contact.”

Last week , President Barack Obama urged Americans not to what he called “ panic or fear “.

This week,the administration announced that all travelers arriving in the United States from some African nations are required to pass through one of five airports.

1.A.Just B.So C.But D.even

2.A.arranging B.standing C.searching D.caring

3.A.protect B.attend C.inspect D.accompany

4.A.physicists B.doctors C.officials D.officers

5.A.stated B.suggested C.considered D.regretted

6.A.stay B.contact C.communication D.struggle

7.A.proves B.happens C.says D.appears

8.A.studying B.discussing C.questioning D.determining

9.A.ways B.areas C.organs D.bodies

10.A.released B.received C.admitted D.rejected

11.A.set B.income C.decrease D.outbreak

12.A.The other B.Another C.One D.The same

13.A.forbid B.expect C.require D.allow

14.A.foreign B.royal C.African D.federal

15.A.that B.this C.nothing D.those

16.A.change B.money C.fever D.crime

17.A.immediately B.occasionally C.presently D.regularly

18.A.examined B.searched C.explored D.exposed

19.A.distant B.high-risk C.common D.slight

20.A.look forward to B.pay attention to C.give in to D.add up to

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