A
It’s over 50 years since man first stepped on the moon, and we’re still harboring dreams of escaping life on Earth for the mysteries of space.
Californian company The Gateway Foundation has released plans for the Von Braun Station, a hotel floating among the stars. The aim is to get the hotel off the ground by 2025 and make it fully operational for travel by 2027.
Tim Alatorre, senior design architect at the Gateway Foundation, says the spinning wheel would create a simulated(模拟的) gravity. “The station is designed to rotate, pushing the contents of the station out to the sides of the station, much in the way that you can spin a bucket of water—the water pushes out into the bucket and stays in place, ” he tells CNN Travel.
The Gateway Foundation’s hotel design is named after Wernher von Braun, an aerospace engineer who pioneered rocket technology, first in Germany and later in the United States.
Space tourism is an expensive game—Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic plans to launch passengers into sub-orbital space at the sum of $250, 000 per person, per trip. Meanwhile, Aurora Station says a stay in its space hotel will cost an eyewatering $9. 5 million. Aurora Station aims to sleep just 12, whereas the Von Braun Station will sleep 352 people with a maximum capacity of 450.
“On board, there’ll be warm suites with carpets and stylish monochrome touches and chic bars that wouldn’t look out of place back on Earth, just with star-gazing views. There will also be plenty of fun recreational activities for guest to enjoy, ” says Alatorre.
“But our goal—the main goal of the Gateway Foundation—is to create a starship culture where people are going to space, and living in space, and working in space and they want to be in space. And we believe that there’s a demand for that. ” The Gateway Foundation also intends the space station to be used for research purposes, as well as asteroid mining.
“There’s no amount of water or trash or waste that is going to be discarded, everything will be recycled, reused, stored, converted to some other form. ”
【文章大意】本文为说明文, 讲的是美国一家基金会近日公布了太空旅馆的建设计划, 这个旅馆被设计成轮子形状, 将于2025年建成。
1. What is the passage mainly about?
A. A new wheel-shaped space hotel to be built.
B. The most advanced space hotel in the world.
C. The shape of the new space hotel.
D. The cost of a space trip in the future.
【解析】选A。主旨大意题。纵观全文可知, 本文主要介绍了美国一家基金会将打造一座轮子形状的太空旅馆, 故选A。
2. What can we learn from the passage?
A. The new space hotel will spin under the influence of gravity.
B. The tourists to the space hotel will have few activities to enjoy there.
C. The new space hotel is quite environmentally-friendly.
D. The main aim to build the space hotel is to make money.
【解析】选C。细节理解题。根据第三段第一句话可知A项错误; 根据第六段最后一句话可知B项错误; 根据最后一段可知C项正确; 根据倒数第二段第一句话可知D项错误。故选C。
3. A man’s trip to the new space hotel and a stay in it will cost$ .
A. 250, 000 B. 9. 5 million
C. 9. 25 million D. 9. 75 million
【解析】选D。细节理解题。根据第五段第一句话中的“. . . the sum of $250, 000 per person, per trip”和第二句话中的“. . . a stay in its space hotel will cost an eyewatering $9. 5 million”可知将花费9. 75 million美元, 故选D。
4. What does the underlined word“rotate”in Paragraph 3 mean?
A. spin B. stop C. break D. end
【解析】选A。词义猜测题。根据第三段第一句话中的“the spinning wheel would create a simulated gravity”和第二句话中的“much in the way that you can spin a bucket of water”可知, 画线单词与spin意思一致, 故选A。
