NASA’s twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been exploring the Red Planet since 2004. But a little more than a year ago, NASA lost contact with Spirit. The space agency has tried several ways to make contact with the rover, but Spirit has not sent back any signals.
Spirit landed on Mars on January 4, 2004. Three weeks later, Opportunity arrived. Soon after, the rovers went to the opposite side of Mars. Spirit’s original mission was only designed to last for three months, but Spirit has worked for more than five years doing additional missions. Both rovers have made important discoveries about ancient Mars. They have taken thousands of images and found evidence in the rocks of a water, warmer past in Mars’ history.
Spirit is solar-powered. It got stuck in a sand trap in April 2009, trapped deep into the soil and with its wheels turning around and around but not able to move forwards or backwards. Spirit had to agree that there is nothing that can be done to change the situation—it’s never going to move again. However, even if it is a not moving station, it can still study the planet’s atmosphere and deep interior.
NASA has been concentrating on trying to position its solar panels to get as much energy from the sun as
possible, or to get the rover leaning in a manner that will allow the most amount of sunlight falling on its solar panels, in order to keep it alive during the coming winter months. Engineers have planned to rock the vehicle back and forth to acquire a more favorable position. However, no matter how many efforts have been made, Spirit still could not get out of the soft soil and could not lean itself toward the sun as the Martian winter approached. Without enough
energy reaching its solar panels and with so little energy in its batteries, it went into hibernation, just like a polar bear, and has not communicated with Earth since March 22, 2010.
Whatever the future holds for Spirit, its mission has been an outstanding success. When it landed on the Red Planet in January 2004, no one was really sure how long it would continue working in the cold and dusty environment. As a matter of fact, three months was its original goal.
After so many fruitless efforts, NASA scientists are losing hope of ever reconnecting with Spirit, but they will give it one more try. Ground controllers are contacting Spirit over a range of frequencies and at different times during the day in case its internal clock stopped working and it lost track of time. They also are commanding the rover to turn on its backup radio transmitter in case the main one is dead.
If this final effort to connect isn’t successful, NASA will shift the focus to its twin robot, Opportunity, which is in a different part of Mars. Opportunity is still on the move and continues to travel freely to this day. It has traveled 16.6 miles so far, and is currently rolling towards another crater it has yet to explore.
NASA has spent more than $900 million on the project but shows no sign of giving up on these determined and hard-working robots. The rovers are, though, experiencing gradual wear and tear, the expected damage to something caused by using it repeatedly over a period of time. Even before Spirit got trapped, one of its wheels had failed. And NASA says it’s just a matter of time before both robots break down completely.According to the passage, what can we know about Spirit?
| A．It had explored Mars several times. |
B．Its original mission was to work for five years. |
| C．It landed on Mars three weeks later than Opportunity. |
| D． It discovered that Mars was once a warm and wetter place. |
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT what NASA did?
| A．Try to lean Spirit to make it get as much sunlight as possible. |
| B．Rock Spirit back and forth to make it acquire a more favorable position. |
| C．Make efforts to help Spirit get out of the soft soil where it is stuck. |
| D．Contact and order Spirit to turn on its backup radio transmitter. |
The reason why Spirit failed to communicate with the Earth is that ________.
| A．it didn’t have enough energy | B．it had finished its task |
| C．something was wrong with its wheels | D．it met an unidentified creature |
By saying “NASA will shift the focus” in Paragraph 7, the author means that ______.
| A．NASA will move the center of Spirit out of the sand |
| B．NASA will depend on Opportunity to do the exploration |
| C．NASA will do nothing but wait for some opportunity |
| D．NASA will make opportunity help Spirit |
The last paragraph mainly informs us that _______.
| A．NASA has planned to spend more money on Spirit |
| B．Spirit will be brought back to Earth |
| C．Spirit will stop operating totally in the future |
| D．Spirit will cause damage to Mars |
What’s the text mainly about?
| A．NASA makes the last effort to contact Spirit. |
| B．Spirit has made many important discoveries on Mars. |
| C．How Spirit got stuck and couldn’t move on Mars. |
| D．Why NASA tried many ways to contact Spirit. |
The Enigma (谜）of Beauty
The search for beauty spans centuries and continents. Paintings of Egyptians dating back over 4,000 years show both men and women painting their nails and wearing makeup. In 18th-century France, wealthy noblemen wore large wigs (假发）of long, white hair to make themselves attractive. Today, people continue to devote a lot of time and money to their appearance.
There is at least one good reason for the desire to be attractive：beauty is power. Studies suggest that good-looking people make more money, get called on more often in class, and are regarded as friendlier.
But what exactly is beauty? It's difficult to describe it clearly, and yet we know it when we see it. And our awareness of it may start at a very early age. In one set of studies, six-month-old babies were shown a series of photographs. The faces on the pictures had been rated for attractiveness by a group of college students. In the studies, the babies spent more time looking at the attractive faces than the unattractive ones.
The idea that even babies can judge appearance makes perfect sense to many researchers. In studies by psychologists, men consistently showed a preference for women with larger eyes, fuller lips, and a smaller nose and chin while women prefer men with large shoulders and a narrow waist. According to scientists, the mind unconsciously tells men and women that these traits —the full lips, clear skin, strong shoulders —equal health and genetic well-being.
Not everyone thinks the same way, however. " Our hardwiredness can be changed by all sorts of expectations —mostly cultural, " says C. Loring Brace, an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. What is considered attractive in one culture might not be in another. Look at most Western fashion magazines：the women on the pages are thin. But is this "perfect" body type for women worldwide? Scientists' answer is no; what is considered beautiful is subjective and varies around the world. They found native peoples in southeast Peru preferred shapes regarded overweight in Western cultures.
For better or worse, beauty plays a role in our lives. But it is extremely difficult to describe exactly what makes one person attractive to another. Although there do seem to be certain physical traits considered universally appealing, it is also true that beauty does not always keep to a single, uniform standard. Beauty really is, as the saying goes, in the eye of the beholder.People's ideas about beauty ________.
| A．have existed since ancient times |
| B．can be easily described |
| C．have little influence on a person's success |
| D．are based upon strict criteria |
In Paragraph 3, the babies in the study ________.
| A．were rated for their appearance |
| B．were entered in a beauty contest |
| C．were shown photos of a group of college students |
| D．were able to tell attractive faces from unattractive ones |
The underlined word “traits” in Paragraph 4 probably means ________.
| A．qualities | B．measurements |
| C．judgments | D．standards |
We can learn from the passage that ________.
| A．the ideas of beauty vary as people grow up |
| B．the search for beauty is rooted in lack of confidence |
| C．the standards for beauty are based on scientific researches |
| D．the understanding of beauty depends on cultural backgrounds |
In order to help customers find what they want quickly, it’s important to keep the thousands of titles in the Main Street Movies store organized properly. This section of the Employee Handbook will tell you how to organize videos.
Each Main street Movies store has three main sections:
1. New Releases Wall.
2. Film library.
3. Video Games.
New Releases Wall. Almost 70 percent of movie rentals are new releases, and that is the first place where most customers go when they enter the store. The center section of shelves on this wall holds Hottest Hits. When new titles come into the store, place them on this wall in alphabetical order. The shelves beside Hottest Hits are called Recent Releases. The New Releases Wall, including the Hottest Hits and Recent Releases shelves, holds about 350 titles.
Film Library. The thousands of titles in the Film Library are organized into categories. The films within each category are displayed alphabetically. Here are the categories and their two-letter computer codes:
| AC |
Action |
DR |
Drama |
HO |
Horror |
| CH |
Children |
FA |
Family |
MU |
Music |
| CO |
Comedy |
FL |
Foreign Language |
SC |
SCIENCE Fiction |
Foreign Language titles include films that were originally made in a foreign language and films with foreign language subtitles. A sticker on the back of each box tells which type of film it is.
Video Game. All the video games in Main street Movies are arranged in alphabetical order. Although video games represent only a small percentage of our inventory(库存), they are stolen more often than any other type of goods in our store. Therefore, video games are never displayed on the shelves. Shelves in the Video Game section hold cardboard with pictures and information about each game. When a customer wants to rent a particular game, you then find the game from the locked case behind the counter.Whom do you think this passage is most probably addressed to?
| A．The readers in the store. |
| B．The manager of the store. |
| C．The customers in the store. |
| D．The salespersons of the store. |
In which order are the new movies moved in the store?
| A．From Hottest Hits to Film Library to Recent Releases. |
| B．From Film Library to Hottest Hits to Recent Releases. |
| C．From Recent Releases to Film Library to Hottest Hits. |
| D．From Hottest Hits to Recent Releases to Film Library. |
Why can’t video games be seen on the shelves?
| A．Because they’ve been sold out. |
| B．Because they’re in the storehouse. |
| C．Because they’re in a locked case behind the counter. |
| D．Because they represent a small percentage of the inventory. |
How can a customer find a film with foreign language subtitles?
| A．Check the computer. |
| B．Look at the back of the box. |
| C．Check the center section. |
| D．Watch a few minutes of the film. |
The famous director of a big and expensive movie planned to film a beautiful sunset over the ocean, so that the audiences could see his hero and heroine in front of it at the end of the film as they said goodbye to each other forever. He sent his camera crew out one evening to film the sunset for him.
The next morning he said to the men, “Have you provided me with that sunset?”
“No, sir,” the men answered.
The director was angry. “Why not?” he asked.
“Well, sir,” one of the men answered, “we’re on the east coast here, and the sun sets in the west. We can get you a sunrise over the sea, if necessary, but not a sunset.”
“But I want a sunset!” the director shouted. “Go to the airport, take the next flight to the west coast, and get one.”
But then a young secretary had an idea. “Why don’t you photograph a sunrise,” she suggested, “and then play it backwards? Then it’ll look like a sunset.”
“That’s a very good idea!” the director said. Then he turned to the camera crew and said, “Tomorrow morning I want you to get me a beautiful sunrise over the sea.”
The camera crew went out early the next morning and filmed a bright sunrise over the beach in the middle of a beautiful bay. Then at nine o’clock they took it to the director. “Here it is, sir,” they said, and gave it to him. He was very pleased.
They all went into the studio. “All right,” the director explained, “now our hero and heroine are going to say goodbye. Run the film backwards so that we can see the ‘sunset’ behind them.”
The “sunset” began, but after a quarter of a minute, the director suddenly put his face in his hands and shouted to the camera crew to stop.
The birds in the film were flying backwards, and the waves on the sea were going away from the beach.One evening, the director sent his camera crew out ________.
| A．to film a scene on the sea |
| B．to find an actor and an actress |
| C．to watch a beautiful sunset |
| D．to meet the audience |
Why did the director want to send his crew to the west coast?
| A．Because he changed his mind about getting a sunset. |
| B．Because he was angry with his crew. |
| C．Because he wanted to get a scene of sunset. |
| D．Because it was his secretary’s suggestion. |
The director wanted to film a sunset over the ocean because ________.
| A．it went well with the separation of the hero and heroine |
| B．when they arrived at the beach it was already in the evening |
| C．it was more moving than a sunrise |
| D．the ocean looked more beautiful at sunset |
After the “sunset” began, the director suddenly put his face in his hands ________.
| A．because he was moved to tears |
| B．as he saw everything in the film moving backwards |
| C．as the sunrise did not look as beautiful as he had imagined |
| D．because he was disappointed with the performance of the hero and heroine |
Summer Holiday Fun 2015!
The summer holidays are upon us again. Here is our guide to summer holiday fun in Peterborough!
Peterborough Museum
The Age of the Dinosaurs is the museum's main attraction this summer. Get up close to prehistoric creatures via some great hands-on exhibits！Watch out for monsters lurking around every ember！The museum is open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Saturday，and from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Sundays in August.
Call 01733 864663 for details.
School holiday fun：Young people aged 13—19 will be able to produce their own music，compete in sports activities，or try their hand at cooking at Saxon Youth Club，Saxon Community Centre，Norman Road，Peterborough every Monday and Wednesday from 3:00 pm. PLUS an aero ball tournament will take place on Thursday,12th August between 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm.
Call 01353 720274 for details.
Houghton Mill
Through the Looking Glass—a new production of the family favorite on Monday 30th，August. Bring rugs or chairs to sit on and a picnic if you wish to eat during the play. Gates open 5:30 pm，performance 6:30 pm—8:30 pm. Tea room will be open until the end of the interval. Adult ￡ 10. Child ￡7. Family ￡20.
Booking advisable on 0845 4505157.
Farmland Museum and Denny Abbey
Farmland Games：From Wellie Wanging to Pretend Ploughing matches，come and join the Farmland Team. Collect your sporting stickers and create a colorful rosette that is fit for a winner！No need to book，just turn up between 12:00 pm and 4:00 pm on Thursday,19th August. Suitable for children aged four and above，each child should be accompanied by an adult and all activities are included in the normal admission price. Tickets Cost：￡ 7 per child.
For further information，call 01223 810080.If you are interested in cooking，you can go to ________.
| A．Peterborough Museum | B．Houghton Mill |
| C．Saxon Youth Club | D．Farmland Museum |
You want to watch the new play with your parents，so it will cost you ________.
| A．￡ 7 | B．￡ 17 | C．￡ 27 | D．￡ 20 |
Which of the following activities needs parents' company?
| A．Playing farmland games. |
| B．Watching the new play. |
| C．Competing in sports activities. |
| D．Visiting the dinosaur exhibition. |
Why are so many people so afraid of failure? Quite simply because no one tells us how to fail so that failure becomes an experience that will lead to growth. We forget that failure is part of the human condition and that every person has the right to fail.
Most parents work hard at either preventing failure or protecting their children from the knowledge that they have failed. One way is to lower standards. A mother describes her child’s hasty-made table as “Perfect!” even though it doesn’t stand still. Another way is to shift blame. If John fails science, his teacher is unfair or stupid.
The trouble with failure-prevention devices is that they leave a child unequipped for life in the real world. The young need to learn that no one can be best at everything, no one can win all the time--- and that it’s possible to enjoy a game even when we don’t win. A child who’s not invited to a birthday party, who doesn’t make the honor roll on the baseball team, feels terrible, of course. But parents should not offer a quick consolation, prize or say, “It doesn’t matter.” because it does. The young should be allowed to experience disappointment—and be helped to master it.
Failure is never pleasurable. It hurts grown-ups and children alike. But it can make a positive contribution to your life once you learn to use it. Step one is to ask “Why did I fail?”
Don’t blame someone else. Ask yourself what you did wrong, how you can improve. If someone else can help, don’t be shy about inquiring. Success, which encourages repetition of old behavior, is not nearly as good a teacher as failure. You can learn from a bad party how to give a good one, from an ill-chosen first house what to look for in a second. Even a failure that seems definitive can prompt fresh thinking, a change of direction. After 12 years of studying ballet, a friend of mine auditioned for a professional company. She was turned down. “ Would further training help?” she asked. The ballet master shook his head. “ You will never be a dancer”, he said, “You haven’t the body for it.”
In such cases, the way to use failure is to take stock(估量) of the situation bravely asking, “What have I left? What else can I do?” My friend put away her shoes and moved into dance treatment center, a field where she’s both able and useful. Failure frees one to take risks because there’s less to lose. Often there is recovery of energy—a way to find new possibilities.The second paragraph tells us ___________
| A．how a mother praised her children |
| B．parents should blame their children at the proper time. |
| C．how to shift blame |
| D．two ways of failure prevention most parents use when their children fail |
According to the author, what should a child know in the real world?
| A．No one can be best all the time at everything. |
| B．He should be equipped for life. |
| C．No parents should offer quick consolations. |
| D．He can get pleasure from failure as well as success. |
The underlined word “prompt” in the fifth paragraph can be best replaced by “_________.”
| A．prevent | B．cause | C．continue | D．exchange |
From the passage we know that ______________.
| A．success lies in hard work |
| B．never be disappointed to life |
| C．failure can affect one’s life greatly once he learns to use it. |
| D．everyone had his own value |