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Who Owns the Moon?
Within the next ten years, the US, China, Israel, and a crowd of private companies plan to set up camp on the moon. So if and when they plant a flag, does that give them property rights?
A NASA working group hosted a discussion this week to ask: Who owns the moon? The answer, of course, is no use. The Outer Space Treaty, the international law signed by more than 100 countries, states that the moon and other celestial bodies(天体) are the province of all mankind. No doubt that would annoy all of the people throughout the ages, like monks from the Middle Ages, who have tried to claim the moon was theirs.
But ownership is different from property rights. People who rent apartments, for example, don’t own where they live, but they still hold rights. So with all of the upcoming missions(派遣团) to visit the moon and beyond, space industry thought leaders are seriously asking themselves how to deal with a potential land rush.
“This is a very relevant discussion right now. We’ve got this wave of new lunar missions from around the world,” said William Marshall, a scientist in the small-spacecraft office at NASA, but who spoke this week at an event hosted by NASA’s Co Lab, a collaborative(协力的) public-private working group. He was peaking from his personal interest and not on behalf of the agency.
To be sure, the United States aims to send astronauts back to the moon by as early as 2015, in a mission that would include a long-term settlement. China and Israel, among others, are also working on lunar projects. And for the first time, several private groups are building spacecraft to land on the moon in an attempt to win millions of dollars in the Google Lunar X Prize. Some participants say that they plan to gain some property rights in the mission.
1.In the passage the writer seems to be worrying that .
A. the US will live on the moon forever
B. the moon will not be able to hold all mankind
C. the potential land rush will become more and more frequent
D. no one can answer the question “Who owns the moon?”
2.The “Google Lunar X Prize” aims to .
A. encourage private groups to land on the moon
B. help NASA host a discussion about land rush on the moon
C. help some developing countries complete their lunar projects
D. reward some countries or private groups which haven’t stepped on the moon
3.The underlined word “that” in the first paragraph refers to .
A. the Outer Space Treaty B. if and when they plant a flag
C. the NASA working group D. monks from the Middle Ages
4.What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
A. The US astronauts will live on the moon for a longer time.
B. Many countries and private groups plan to go to the moon.
C. Why some private groups wish to land on the moon.
D. It is easy to gain some property rights on the moon.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.
It quickly attracted famous names such as Alec Guinness, Richard Button, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Marlene Dietrich as well as the big symphony orchestras(交响乐团). It became fixed event every August and now attracts 400,000 people yearly.
At the Same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in1947, in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house disused for years.
Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.
Today the “Fringe”, once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959, with only 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.
A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.
1.What was the purpose of Edinburgh Festival at the beginning?
A. To bring Europe together again.
B. To honor heroes of World War II.
C. To introduce young theatre groups.
D. To attract great artists from Europe.
2.Why did some uninvited theatre groups come to Edinburgh in 1947?
A. They owned a public house there.
B. They came to take up a challenge.
C. They thought they were also famous.
D. They wanted to take part in the festival.
3.Who joined the “Fringe” after it appeared?
A. Popular writers.
B. University students.
C. Artists from around the world.
D. Performers of music and dance.
4.We may learn from the text that Edinburgh Festival .
A. has become a non-official event
B. has gone beyond an art festival
C. gives shows all year round
D. keeps growing rapidly
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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The flying car has been talked about for many years, but now it appears to become a reality.
An international company has built a two-seater plane that, at the touch of a button, transforms into a car perfectly suitable for driving on public roads. It takes 15 seconds to switch between flying and driving. With its wings fully open and the propeller(螺旋桨) spinning, it can take off from any airfield.
Flying cars are quicker than traditional ones, and they can run on ordinary fuel. Another big advantage is that they are cool, like something you would see in an action film. At the moment, however, the flying car’s wheels are illegal to leave the ground. That is not because of technical reasons or problems with the design. It is because the various road and aircraft authorities simply cannot agree on whether it is a car or a plane.
Nevertheless the company hopes to produce and deliver its first flying car soon. The company already has orders for 40 of them. The majority potential customers are older and some are retired. There have even been orders from some people who have no pilot’s license.
The flying car will cost around $ 200,000. “For an airplane, that’s a very reasonable price, but for a car, it’s quite expensive,” explains Alan. “But it just is not possible to make a $ 10,000 flying car yet.”
This latest means of transport will not become a mass-market item in the near future, but in the long term it has the potential to change the way you travel. It will become no more expensive than driving your car on the motorway. Travel time could be reduced by more than half.
So the next time you are told to fasten your seat belt, it may be to prepare for take-off.
1.We know from the passage that the flying car .
A. has to run on special fuel
B. will replace traditional planes
C. is popular with the rich
D. can shift between two forms
2.The flying car is presently forbidden to take off because .
A. many people think driving is not very safe
B. it’s hard to decide whether it’s a car or a plane
C. the government and the authorities accept it
D. there are still some technical problems to be solved
3.According to the passage, we can learn .
A. in the future few people will be able to afford a flying ear
B. owning two kinds of driving licenses is of great importance
C. because of the appearance of the flying car, traffic jams will disappear
D. flying cars may share the market in the future
4.What’s the best title of the passage?
A. Your Car Is Ready for Take-off
B. Flying Car Will Be the Leading Means of Transportation
C. Affording a Flying Car Is a Necessity
D. The Advantages of Flying Cars
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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It’s such a happy-looking library, painted yellow, decorated with palm-tree stickers and sheltered from the Florida sun by its own roof. About the size of a microwave oven, it’s pedestrian-friendly, too, waiting for book lovers next to a sidewalk in Palm Beach Country Estates, along the northern boundary of Palm Beach Gardens.
It’s a library built with love.
A year ago, shortly after, Janey Henriksen saw a Brian Williams report about the Little Free. Library organization, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that aims to promote literacy and build a sense of community in a neighborhood by making，books freely available, she announced to her family of four, “That’s what we’re going to do for our spring break!”
Son Austin, now a 10th-grader, didn’t see the point of building a library that resembles a mailbos. But Janey insisted, and husband Peter unwillingly got to work. The 51-year-old owner of a ship supply company modified a small wooden house that he’d built years earlier for daughter Abbie’s toy horses, and made a door of glass.
After adding the library’s final touches(装点), the family hung a signboard on the front, instructing users to “take a book, return a book,” and making the Henriksen library, now one of several hundred like it nationwide and among more than 2,500 in the world, the only Little Free Library in Palm Beach county.
They stocked it with 20 or so books they’d already read, a mix of science fiction, reference titles, novels and kids’ favorites. “I told them, keep in mind that you might not see it again,” said Janey s stay-at-home mom.
Since then, the collection keeps replenishing(补充) itself, thanks to ongoing donations from borrowers. The library now gets an average of five visits a day.
The project’s best payoff, says Peter, are the thank-you notes left behind. “We had no idea in the beginning that it would be so popular.”
1.In what way is the library “pedestrian—friendly”?
A. It owns a yellow roof.
B. It stands near a sidewalk.
C. It protects book lovers from the sun.
D. It uses palm-tree stickers as decorations.
2.Janey got the idea to build a library from .
A. a visit to Brian Williams
B. a spring break with her family
C. a book sent by one of her neighbors
D. a report on a Wisconsin-based organization
3.What can we infer about the signboard?
A. It Was made by a user of the library.
B. It marked a final touch to the library.
C. It aimed at making the library last long.
D. It indicated the library was a family property.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析