The strangeness of life in space never quite goes away. Here are some examples.
First consider something as simple as sleep. If you leave your arms out, they float free in zero gravity, often giving a sleeping astronaut the look of a funny dancer. “I’m an inside guy,” Mike Hopkins says, who returned from a six-month tour on the International Space Station. “I like to be covered up.”
On the station, the ordinary becomes strange. The exercise bike for the American astronauts has no handlebars (把手). It also has no seat. With no gravity, it’s just as easy to ride violently. You can watch a movie while you ride by floating a microcomputer anywhere you want. But people in the station have to be careful about staying in one place too long. Without gravity to help air to move, the carbon dioxide you breathe in may form a cloud around you head. You can end up with a carbon- dioxide headache.
Leroy Chiao, 54, an American retired astronaut after four flights, describes what happens even before you float out of your seat, “Your inner ear thinks you’re falling. Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you’re standing straight. That can be annoying－that’s why some people feel sick.” Within a couple days－truly terrible days for some people－astronauts’ brains learn to ignore the signals from the inner ear, and space sickness disappears.
Space travel can be so delightful but at the same time dangerous. For instance, astronauts lose bone mass. That’s why exercise is considered so important that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) puts it on the workday schedule. The focus on fitness is not only about science and the future. They should make sure that any astronaut can return home, and, more importantly, the astronauts keep strong and fit for the two and a half years or more that it would take to make a round-trip to Mars.
【小题1】What is the major difficulty to astronauts when they sleep in space?| A．Choosing a comfortable sleeping bag. |
| B．Deciding on a proper sleep position. |
| C．Seeking a way to fall asleep quickly. |
| D．Finding a right time to go to sleep. |
| A．they circle around on their bikes. |
| B．they watch a movie while pedaling. |
| C．they use microcomputers without a stop. |
| D．they exercise in one place for a long time. |
| A．how much exercise they do on the station |
| B．whether they can recover after returning home |
| C．how they can remain healthy for long in space |
| D．whether they are able to go back to the station |
| A．Strange | B．Funny | C．Violent | D．Unhealthy |
Does the amount of education you’ve completed impact the money you earn during your working years? The short answer is yes. Study after study shows that the more education, the higher your salary. But there’s more to the story. Let’s take a deeper look into how education affects income, job security, benefits, and retirement.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics recently published data about education levels and income. Unsurprisingly, individuals without a high school diploma earn the lowest annual salary (about $31,000), and have the greatest risk of being unemployed. But if they went on to obtain their high school diploma, they’d have the potential to earn close to $8,000 more per year.
What comes as a surprise is that having completed some college course work is better than having no college credits at all. With some college but no degree, one can increase his annual earnings by $5,000 over having a high school diploma alone, and see his job security increase a bit. But the biggest jump in annual salary potential, as expected, comes when someone goes from having a high school diploma to earning a bachelor’s degree, which is about a $26,000 increase annually.
There are several other benefits to obtaining a college degree. The Lumina Foundation reports that employees with bachelor’s degrees are 47% more likely to get health insurance coverage. Also, CBS News finds that those with bachelor’s degrees are more likely to work past the typical retirement age and retire later.
Those who work past age 65 have more opportunity to save for retirement, and increase their eventual Social Security benefits. In addition, working past the typical retirement age keeps them intellectually challenged, engaged with the world and connected to friends and coworkers.
The bottom line is that education does have an impact on your potential earnings. But that’s just one part of the story. More education may also lead to increased job security, better access to health care, increased security in retirement, and even a more fulfilling life.
【小题1】What is the average yearly income of people with bachelor’s degrees?| A．About $70,000. | B．About $65,000. |
| C．About $44,000. | D．About $39,000. |
| A．No high school diploma. | B．A high school diploma. |
| C．Some college but no degree. | D．A bachelor’s degree. |
| A．We’ll live a more fulfilling life. | B．We’ll reduce our living expenses. |
| C．We’ll enjoy increased job security. | D．We’ll invest our savings more wisely. |
| A．To stress the benefits of secure jobs. |
| B．To promote awareness of income gaps. |
| C．To illustrate the importance of education. |
| D．To introduce the impacts of school systems. |
In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at a typewriter. “You’ve got to want to write,” I say to them, “not want to be a writer.”
The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune there are thousands more whose longing is never rewarded. When I left a 20-year career in the U.S. Coast Guard to become a freelance writer (自由撰稿者), I had not prospects at all. What I did have was a friend who found me my room in a New York apartment building. It didn't even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom. I immediately bought a used manual typewriter and felt like a genuine writer. After a year or so, however, I still hadn’t gotten a break and began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that barely made enough to eat. But I knew I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years. I wasn’t going to be one of those people who die wondering. What if? I would keep putting my dream to the test even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the Shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.
【小题1】The passage is meant to ________.
| A．warn young people of the hardships that a successful writer has to experience |
| B．advise young people to give up their idea of becoming a professional writer |
| C．show young people it's unrealistic for a writer to pursue wealth and fame |
| D．encourage young people to pursue a writing career |
| A．Genuine writers often find their work interesting and rewarding. |
| B．A writer’s success depends on luck rather than on effort. |
| C．Famous writers usually live in poverty and isolation. |
| D．The chances for a writer to become successful are small. |
| A．who think too much of the dark side of life |
| B．who regret giving up their career halfway |
| C．who think a lot without making a decision |
| D．who are full of imagination even upon death |
| A．the wonderland one often dreams about |
| B．the bright future that one is looking forward to |
| C．the state of uncertainty before one’s final goal is reached |
| D．a world that exists only in one's imagination |
| A．Take a personality test. |
| B．Consider what delights you. |
| C．Think about what makes you happy and then analyze why. |
| D．Finding a job that suits your personality is very easy and interesting. |
| E．Ask your friends and family what sort of job they think would suit you best. |
| F．Sometimes, it isn’t immediately obvious what a job will involve until you start it. |
| G．More importantly, think about how they would affect your ability to do particular jobs. |
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