There’s no pizza on Mars, but scientists have found a solution to this problem for hungry astronauts: a pizza printer! NASA, the American space agency, has developed a machine that “prints” food. They showed a model of the printer in Austin, Texas last month.

How does it work? Cartridges(墨盒) filled with powdered dough(面粉团), cheese, sauce, water and oil put the ingredients layer(层)by layer onto a printer bed. The printer bed, which gets hot from below, cooks the food as it’s being printed.

Since most of the ingredients are powdered, they can be sent into space and stored for many years without going bad. Water makes food go sour, so the food powders are mixed with water and oil only when they are being printed.

“Long-distance space travel requires more than 15 years of shelf life for food.” says Anjan Contractor, whose company developing the printer. “ We take water out, and in that form, food will last maybe 30 years.”

In outer space, there are far fewer choices for astronauts for dinner. Most of their foods—even things like beef or shrimp—are eaten from bags as powders(粉末). Scientists hope the new food printer can be used to make more delicious food in outer space, keeping astronauts healthier and happier.

But the printer is not limited to use in outer space. Scientists think it could be useful on Earth, too. It could allow personal meals to be made at the dinner table, according to each person’s different needs.

“Let’s say someone is an athlete in the family, and he needs more protein(蛋白质),” says Anjan Contractor, founder of Systems and Materials Research Corp, the company developing the printer. “We can design recipes for him and print out more protein-nutritious food for him.”

1.In outer space, food can be stored for many years without going bad_______.

A.when it’s mixed with water

B.when it’s mixed with oil

C.when it’s powdered

D.when it’s put in the fridge

2.Which of the following is TRUE? ______

A.Astronauts eat beef powder in outer space.

B.A model of the food printer was shown in New York last month.

C.Only astronauts and athletes can eat the food from the printer.

D.The printer can only be used in outer space.

3.What is the best title for this passage? _______

A.Astronauts’ Life in Outer Space

B.Hungry? Just Print!

C.How to Make Pizza

D.Long Lasting Food

阅读短文,根据短文内容回答问题。

On June 26th, 2000, two scientists, called Francis Collins and Craig Venter, told the world that they could now read the whole “map” of the human body: DNA. DNA is something that all humans have, and it tells the body what to do. DNA is the reason that we look like our mother and father, because we get some of their DNA to make our own. Now we can read some of this “map”, and so we can find out more about how our bodies work.

People have been trying to understand the human body for a long time. In 1860, Gregory Mendel discovered that there is a special reason why we look the same as other people in our family. It is because of small things called “genes” that we have in our body. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick made another discovery and found out that those small parts are really messages written in the DNA with a special language.

In 1961, Marshall Nirenberg and Johann Matthaei found the first “word” that they could understand in that language, showing how DNA tells the cell to build its parts. This meant that one day we would be able to read all the messages that a human body gets from its parents’ bodies. Scientists have now found all the words in DNA map, but we still do not understand what they all do. By understanding what just one “word” means, we can help save people from several diseases. So the more we understand, the more doctors will be able to do.

Most people hope that this will help to make better medicine and help people who are very ill. Other people worry about that when we learn more words and find out lots of other information, we still use it in the wrong way, just to make people more attractive, or stop sick people getting jobs.

1.Could Francis and Craig read the “map” of DNA in 2000?

2.Why do we look like our parents?

3.When was the first “word” of DNA discovered?

4.What can the doctors do if we understand some messages in DNA?

5.What does the writer tell us in the last paragraph?

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网