There is no doubt that humankind dreams of making Mars our second home. However, sending people there will require all the skills, courage and 【小题1】 (intelligent) of the human race. While the Moon can be reached within days, it would take months to reach Mars, 【小题2】 (travel) through dangerous solar radiation. And even if the first settlers do reach Mars safely, staying alive will be 【小题3】daily challenge, but as proved by the Biosphere experiment, not impossible.

As early as the 1980s, scientists were building Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert. It consisted of a closed space【小题4】 people, animals and plants could live together. The “closed” concept meant that the space was designed 【小题5】 (function) with its own oxygen, food and water, needing nothing from the outside world. 【小题6】 the two-year experiment was not a success, it did provide us with a better understanding of how humans might be able to live on another planet. More recently, scientists 【小题7】 (succeed) in growing a variety of plants in an environment similar to that on Mars. That 【小题8】 (definite) is a big step forward.

Cars of tomorrow

Since 2008, when General Motors’ then boss delivered a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas 【小题1】 (offer) a glimpse of car making’s digital future. This year nearly 200 automotive firms signed up 【小题2】 the online event, which got cracking on January 5th. GM’s current chief, Mary Barra, addressed a speech that day. 【小题3】 other big carmakers, GM did not show up in person. But GM’s virtual show signaled how rapidly cars are evolving from oil—filled lumps of metal into devices stuffed with silicon.

Ms. Barra talked about GM’s transformation from automaker to platform innovator, celebrated its advances in commercial electric vehicles and autonomous driving, and 【小题4】 (release) a battery-powered version of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup. Rival firms raced to appear even more innovative. BMW demonstrated a system that changes a car’s paint colour at the press of a button. Mercedes-Benz went so far as 【小题5】 (claim) that its Vision eqxx concept, with interior materials fashioned from bamboo, cactus and mushroom, and a battery—powered range of 1,000km, was “reinventing the car”. Not 【小题6】 (overtake), consumer-electronics giants showed off their automotive stuff. Sony, a Japanese one, surprised many attendees 【小题7】 it announced a possible raid into car-making.

Other announcements were 【小题8】 (fancy) but more telling when it comes to the digitization of car-making. Mobil eye, the self-driving arm of Intel, which supplies chips to many big car firms, announced expanded deals with Ford, Geely and Volkswagen. Qualcomm, another chip-maker, inked new 【小题9】 with Volvo, Honda and Renault.

The courtship between carmakers and chip firms will only intensify. The worldwide chip shortage that knocked nearly 8m units off global car output is thankfully easing and annualized global car production could return to pre-pandemic levels by the second half of 2022, according to an investment bank. Still, car bosses are desperate to avoid a repeat. Many look enviously at Tesla, 【小题10】 own intimate rapport with semiconductor suppliers celebrated its full-year output for 2021 to a total of 930,000 vehicles.

Can you imagine waking up each day in a house that is 【小题1】 (gentle) rocked by the movement of water? Well, for some people this vision of the future may become a reality.

It is a commonly accepted fact that   【小题2】 the Earth’s temperature rises, the ice caps at the North and South Poles will melt, 【小题3】 (cause) the sea level to rise.

So, where does this leave the many countries in the world   【小题4】have large sections of their populations living in areas which lie at or below sea level? The Netherlands, for example, is one of   【小题5】 most highly populated, low-lying countries and   【小题6】 (battle) with the problem of flooding for years. Further rises in the sea level would result in much of the country disappearing under water.

Inventive architects may have come up with a   【小题7】 (solve) to the problem: a house actually built on the water. The basic idea is that houses will have a base   【小题8】 (fill) with air and a way of anchoring(使固定) them to the ground. This will allow the house   【小题9】 (move) upwards whenever the sea level rises and sink back down when the sea level drops. So, will   【小题10】 (float) houses be the homes of the future? For some people there may be no alternative.