(1)NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of a galaxy’s spiral pattern.A joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency, the Hubble telescope(1)____________ (capture) a host of beautiful images since its launch in 1990. In its “its age of the day” on Friday, NASA highlighted an image of galaxy NGC 5468 that was caught by Hubble.The galaxy has been home to a number of explosions (2)____________ occur when stars die.“Despite being just over 130 million light-years away, the orientation of the galaxy with respect to us makes (3)_______easier to spot these new ‘stars’ as they appear; we see NGC 5468 face on, meaning that we can see the galaxy’s loose, open spiral pattern (4) _______beautiful detail in images such as this one from t he NASA/ ESA Hubble Space Telescope,” said the ESA, in a statement (5)______ (post) on NASA’S website. (6)________ light-year, which measures distance in space, equals 6 trillion miles.Last year, NASA showed off a remarkable image of a “ghost nebula” capt ured by the Hubble Space Telescope.The Hubble Space Telescope was launched abroad the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990. NASA notes that the orbiting telescope was required (7)________ (last) 15 years, but has been in operation for more than 29 years. The Advanced Camera for Surveys was installed in 2002 but experienced a power supply failure in 2007. It was repaired by astronauts during a maintenance mission in 2009.Earlier this year, the telescope (8)_______ (suffer) a camera fault after software was incorrectly loaded onto one of its key instruments.NASA partners (9)_______the European Space Agency on the telescope, which(10)________(manage) from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.(2)A baby giraffe named Jazz that became unlikely best friends with a dog after(1)____ (abandon) in the wild has died, the “heartbroken”Rhino Orphanage announced Friday on Facebook.Jazz collapsed on Thursday at the South African animal orphanage from hyphema coupled with brain hemorrhaging due to either a genetic defect (2)_____an under-developed valve system, the orphanage said.“He couldn’t regulate blood pressure to his brain and therefore bleeding between the ventricles (心室) (3)_______(occur), the orphanage wrote. All our efforts were in vain.”In this Friday file photo, Hunter, a young Belgian Malinois (马伦牧羊犬), keeps an eye on Jazz, a nine-day-old giraffe at the Rhino orphanage. (4)_______ Jazz arrived at the orphanage at just three days old, it befriended Hunter, who started looking after the newcomer.“Just when we thought it couldn’t get any (5)_______(sweet) and more heart-warming, this happened,” the video caption read. “The bond and understanding between Jazz the giraffe and Hunter is astonishing.”As Jazz’s health began to worsen, Hunter knew (6)________was wrong. He suddenly stayed by the giraffe’s side, not going outside. Jazz took his last breath (7)________Hunter and all his human mommies by his side. Over the past couple of weeks, the orphanage had continued to give progress udpates on Jazz. A final photo after Jazz’s passing showed Hunter in front of the closed door of the room (8)_______they used to play.It received thousands of views and hundreds of comments expressing sadness for the giraffe’s passing and concern for (9)_______ Hunter would handle the loss of his friend.In its post, the orphanage praised Hunter’s loyalty.“ He stayed (10)______the end and said his goodbyes,” it said. “Such a good boy,” adding that Hunter was doing well and would continue training to be a tracking dog.(3)Nearly 42,000 years ago, massive animals such as 6-foot-tall birds and 23-foot-long lizards could be seen wandering in the countryside. But a recent study(1)________(find) that these megafauna (巨型动物) became extinct because of human intervention and climate change.The researchers, led by Dr. Frederik Saltre of Flinders University, used a variety of techniques to find human migration patterns in Australia.“We developed a complex mathematical technique (2)_______(solve) the problems of averaging timeli nes over landscapes,” he told Fox News. “Our approach extends the information (3)________(provide) by fossils from the extinct species themselves, and archaeological evidence from early aboriginal(土著的) people, and in this way we can create unbiased (无偏见的) maps’of both the timings of megafauna extinctions and human arrival across the landscape.”Based on these new maps, the team of researchers was able to estimate the regions (4)________humans and megafauna coexisted. With most of Australia being dry, freshwater was a high priority for megafuna and humans, with its availability being one of the main reasons (5)________ people’s migration patterns.Humans and megafauna would inevitably interact at watering holes, leaving the giant animals vulnerable to hunting, further (6) ______(reduce) their numbers.In regions like Tasmania and south of South Australia and Victoria, humans never coexisted with megafauna because they migrated across these areas (7)________ the megafauna had already gone extinct. This rules humans out as the likely driver of megafauna extinction in those regions only, but a closer look at climate change during this extinction event in these areas showed that megafauna species might have suffered from a (8)________ (short) of food in the form of plants---most of the species that went extinct were plant-eaters.However, there are so few fossilized animal samples in Australia due to the continent’s harsh conditions (9)_____ reliable data is scarce. Some studies have been restricted to making conclusions at the scale of single paleontological(古生物学的) sites, (10)_____other studies have taken the opposite approach by including from across the entire continent.(4)During the holiday season, hackers are after just one thing: your account credentials (证明书).According to a year end report from cybersecurity giant McAfee, not only does it give criminals access to a variety of consumer accounts, (1)______it also gives bad guys the opportunity to trade personal information on the dark web, McAfee said.“In their eyes, it’s the gift that keeps on giving,”McAfee said in a statement sent to Fox News. “Consumers’account credentials (2)_____(trade) and sold among cybercriminals in the underground like baseball cards,” the cybersecurity company added.This happened early this year after a holiday haul of credentials. McAfe’s Advanced Threat Research team found that more than 2.2 billion (3)______(steal) account credentials were made available on the cybercriminal underground in the first quarter of 2019.“This growing trend of personal online accounts for retailers (4)______(make) available on the underground and increasingly complicated threats (5)_________(mean) that the 2019 Holidays could be the most dangerous yet for consumers,” McAfee said.The likelihood (6)_______ the scams (欺诈) will succeed is still too high. 37 percent of American respondents to a McAfee survey admit that they don’t check an email sender or retailer’s website for truth.That increases the chance of getting scammed (7)_______scammers hid behind authentic-looking shopping sites and fake emails.The scams work: 30 percent of (8)________ surveyed by McAfee have lost more than $500(9)_____ online scams this year. Earlier this year, McAfee identified a credential-stealing scheme,(10)_____was targeted at Amazon users asking them to click on a link claiming to fix an issue with the user’s account.(5)That cup of coffee in the morning may improve long term memory, according to a new study.The study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, found that participants who (1)_______ (give) caffeine pills had better memory recall. Scientists studied 160 participants aged 18 to 30, and showed them various photos of items at the beginning, (2)_______(ask) study subjects to classify the items as “indoor” or “outdoor.” Half the participants were given a caffeine pill after that classification, the other half a placebo (安慰剂). One day later, all the participants were shown the same pictures (3)____some they hadn’t seen before. They were asked(4)________each photo was new, old or similar to the originals.(5)____both groups were able to distinguish between old and new pictures, the researchers discovered that the participants who took the caffeine pills were(6)_______(good) at determining which pictures were similar to the first round. There searchers remain uncertain about how caffeine may influence memory, (7)_____ they concluded that it could interfere with hormones related to memory making.The study needs (8)_________(test) before any solid conclusions can be made, but it’s not the first to find benefits in caffeine intake. In fact, similar findings were made in a population of honeybees. Bees that were trained to visit flowers with traces of caffeine returned to those specific flowers three times more often than bees visiting non-caffeinated flowers, (9)_______leads researchers to believe that the caffeine played a role in improving recall.Still, highly caffeinated products have been linked to negative events like poor sleep. In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it (10)_______(look) into the safety of energy drinks after receiving several reports of illness and even deaths after consuming 5- Hour Energy or Monster Energy drinks.(6)It is well-known that in Rome, priceless undiscovered treasures and antiques may lie a mere30 feet below the surface of the ground. Therefore, underground subway in the city of Rome is no easy work.The dilemma is how to build one(1)________disturbing any artifact(古器物) that may lie buried and (2) ____________(discover) below its roads and streets.Compared to other European capitals, Rome’s subway is far(3)_________(developed). For years, Rome’s 2.8 million citizens relied only on two subway lines(4)________fell short of meeting the peoples transportation needs. Being one of the oldest cities in the world, it faces some problems in constructing a new subway line, such as the shortage of money, but especially(5)________ (protect) the underground treasures.During the construction of the first two subway lines in the 1950s, each dig exposed archaeological remains and the construction had to be stopped to allow the local archaeologists to check them to see(6)______the discovery proved valuable to the history of the Romans.After years of debate, the construction of (7) _______ third subway line was agreed on. Now that the third subway line is under construction, it has been marked as an “archaeological survey”from the very beginning and great care(8)________(take). This new line will run through the very heart of the ancient city. It will be 24 kilometers in length and 25 to 30 meters below ground.Archaeologists are working together with construction workers to dig beneath Romes center. Almost immediately, dig revealed some amazing finds. Just below the surface, digs discovered building remains that(9)_________(tear) down in the late 19th century. They dug one layer deeper, which exposed a 10th century’s road that once crossed the city, and one lay er below it, they discovered a sidewalk from the 8th century. Near the ancient Forum, workers discovered a 6th-century copper factory.The early factory(10)______(consist) of six small ovens used to work on copper articles. Small copper masses discovered at the scene were sent for analysis.(7)Writing in Wired Magazine, Jon Katz, a media critic, summarizes the dilemma (1)______(face) newspaper publishers: “So far, online papers don’t work commercially. The newspaper needs to reinvent itself. The object is not to replace, or put into a different format, but (2)_______(gain) a toehold (立足点) in cyberspace and even absorb some of its values.”Reinventing itself is a tall order for an industry that works under a constant deadline to produce a new product each day. How can the industry begin to construct a new model that takes advantage of the most advanced technology in the world? Actually, the answer comes from reflecting (3)______ the past.“The challenge for you will be perhaps the greatest ever. As a producer of newspapers, what you must do first is determine how you see yourself. Are you an organization that supplies newspapers or are you an organization that supplies information? This self- analysis is being conducted in storming times (4)_______ conflicting forces threaten to pull the industry apart. Reading a daily newspaper is a habit of millions of middle-age and older Americans. However, today’s young people often prefer more sophisticated media(5)_______the daily routine of the morning newspaper.We are also experiencing (6)_____some call an information explosion that threatens to bury even the most earnest readers. Ironically, it is the oversupply of information (7)______holds the key to the survival of the newspaper industry. The digitizing of information (8)____(create) a vast expansion in the amount of information that is readily available to audiences. Today, books and manuscripts that previously consumed libraries and other physical spaces (9)_____(contain) indigital bytes that can move with great speed over vast distances. Quite simply, more information is available to more people more quickly than ever before.Mass media evolved (10)_____people from all walks of life needed help to understand the world around them. Throughout history, newspapers have excelled at collecting, recording and distributing information at many different levels. As they evolve in light of technological change, newspapers need to embrace that mission again.(8)Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can disappear (1)______you learn that a colleague has been given a bigger one. Such behavior is regarded as “all too human,” with the underlying assumption (2)_______ other animals would not be capable of this. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, (3)______has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well.The researchers studied the behavior of female brown monkeys. They look cute. They are good-natured, cooperative creatures, and they share their food readily. Above all, like their female human counterparts, they tend (4)________ (pay) much closer attention to the value of “good s and services” than males.Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan’s and Dr.de Waal’s study. The researchers spent two years (5)_____(teach) their monkeys to exchange tokens (代币) for food, Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate but adjoining (毗连的) chambers, (6)______ each could observe what the other was getting in return for its rock, their behaviorbecame obviously different.In the world of monkeys, grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token,the second was reluctant (7)_______(hand) hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher, (8)______ refused to accept the slice of cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber was enough to cause annoyance in a female.The researchers suggest that monkeys, like humans,(9)_____ (guide)by social emotions. In the wild, they are a cooperative group-living species. Such cooperation is likely to be stable only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of just annoyance, (10)_____seems, are not the preserve of people alone.(9)Imagine going to your doctor with a complaint of frequent headaches. Your doctor takes a prescription pad and writes a word on it. The word isn’t “aspirin,” it’s Mozart.The idea isn’t so far-fetched, In China, instead of pills, doctors often recommend musical albums with names like Insomnia or Heart,Liver and Lungs, and Chinese people “take”these musical pieces as (1) ____________ (prescribe). In fact, in China music is prescribed as often as medicine to help people with common everyday problems or（2）____________（strength) organs like the liver or the kidneys.Using music as therapy isn’t new. It (3)_______(date) back to the beginning of civilization, (4)______ people got together to play music on primitive drums and rattles. Music plays a part in every ritual and important life event. There is even evidence(5) _______music was our first language. Scientists found that two-thirds of the tiny hairs inside the human ear respond only to the higher frequencies of music, which shows that people probably sang (6)_______ they talked.Many kinds of music can stir the imagination and produce strong feelings. For some people, romantic composers such as Chopin and Tchaikovsky enhance feelings of love and sympathy. Religious and spiritual music can help some people feel peace or lessen their pain.Many amazing cases have been documented (7)______(use) Mozart as a healing aid. For example, a tiny premature baby named Krissy, (8)_______weighed just 1.5 pounds at birth, was on total life support. Doctors thought she had little chance of survival. Her mother insisted on playing Mozart for Krissy, (9)______(believe) it would save her daughter’s life. Krissy lived, but she was very small for her age and slower than the average child. At the age of four, she showed an interest in music and her parents gave her violin lessons. To their astonishment, Krissy was able to play musical pieces from memory that were far beyond the ability of an average four-year-old. Playing music helped her (10)_____(improve) in all areas of her life.(10)One picture in the Wonder Book of Knowledge I had as a little boy showed a man reading a book while (1)_____ (float) in the Dead Sea. What a miracle! How would it feel to lie back in water so thick with salt that (2)_____ was impossible to sink?Fed by the Jordan River and smaller streams, the Dead Sea, (3)_____ water is ten times saltier than the Mediterranean, is the lowest point on the earth’s surface.Earlier this year, I drove down the long, steep hill to realize my dream. The shoreline was a broad area of bare salt-mud, but the water edge was far out of sight. Eli Dior, an Israeli official, explained the problem: “The Dead Sea (4)______(dry) up. Every year, the surface drops by about one meter, and (5)_____the water level falls, shadow area s are left high and dry.”Over the last half-century, the five (6)_________(neighbor)countries collectively have distracted nearly all the water flowing into the Dead Sea to meet human and agriculture needs. The result: the Dead Sea is being emptied.With population in the region set to double at least in the next 50 years, there is little hope of restoring the water being distracted for human consumption. No country has a drop (7)________(spare) for the Dead Sea, where they know it will just evaporate. To dream of opening the dams and restoring natural balance is plainly unrealistic.Yet one ambitious high-tech dream may turn out to be not only the salvation（救星）of the Dead Sea but also a ticket to peace around its shores. The “Red-Dead” is a (8)______ (propose) $5 billion project to bring sea water some 240 kilometers by pipe line and canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The Red-Dead may be the only solution, but（9）_______ the project is carried out successfully, the Dead Sea will be 10 to 20 meters lower than now and two-thirds of its current size.(10)_______the future holds, the Dead Sea’s magical mix of sun, mud, sea and salt will surely survive. Many might complain that the Dead Sea is half empty ---but for me the Dead Sea will always be half full.(11)Is growth good for biodiversity? To answer the question, it is critical to define (1)_____ we mean by growth. Is growth gross domestic product(GDP)? Or does it mean (2)_____ (improve) the human standard of living? Today, when people say growth, they mean GDP, (3)_____measure that is over 70 years old. Actually GDP demonstrates negative implications for biodiversity, as this “growth” measures only money inflows. (4)______biodiversity delivers no cash, it has no place in GDP system, but biodiversity provides the wealth side of the balance sheet, such as forests, rivers, wetlands and animals-- the list goes on.It is argued that growth is good for biodiversity in the long run as there is an environmental Kuznets curve (5)______environmental conditions get worse in the early stages of modern economic growth, but improve once a growth level has been reached. According to some people, once GDP has been high, more resources are to be invested in conservation, and new technologies are used (6)______(protect) nature. They said people would have more interest in protecting the environment, and some of the forests started to recover and many pollutants were almost get rid of.At first sight there appears to be a logic. Today the US GDP is increasing while many precious species populations are also recovering. Such conditions, according to some people, can be explained by greater efficiency in cars or (7)_____(efficient) agricultural production. But in fact, the majority of the negative impacts simply(8)_____(export). The high-polluting industries have been outsourced to developing nations. Therefore the bitterest punishments are largely felt (9)_____borders while we Americans are enjoying high GDP and selfish biodiversity at the same time.It is self-evident that growth, as currently defined, has a major negative impact upon biodiversity. Organizations and world community should work on creating new vision or reform (10)_____will help ensure a real balance between an improving standard of human life and a thriving bio-diverse landscape.(12)Poet William Stafford once said that we are defined more by the detours ( 绕行路) in life than by the narrow road toward goals. I like this image. But it was quite by accident (1)_____ I discovered the deep meaning of his words.For years we made the long drive from our home in Seattle to my parents’ home in Boise (2)____nine hours. We traveled the way most people do the fastest, shortest and easiest road, especially when I was alone with four noisy, restless kids(3)______hate confinement (限制) and have strong opinions about everything. Road trips felt risky, so I would drive fast, stopping only (4)_____ I had to.We would stick to the freeways and arrive tired. But then Banner, our lamb was born. He was rejected by his mama days before our planned trip to Boise. I had two choices: leave Banner with my husband, or take him with me. My husband made the decision for me.That is (5)______I found myself on the road with four kids, a baby lamb and nothing but my everlasting optimism to see me through. We took the country roads out of necessity. We (6)_____ _____stop every hour, let Banner shake out his legs and feed him. The kids chased him and one another. They’d get back in the car (7)_________(breath) and energized, smelling fresh from thecold air.We explored side roads, catching grasshoppers in waist-high grass. (8)______we simply looked out of the car windows at baby pigs following their mother, or fish (9)____ (leap) out of the water, it was better than the best ride down the freeway. Here was life. And new horizons. We eventually arrived at my parents’ doorstep astonishingly fresh and full of stories.Some road trips are by necessity fast and straight. But that trip with Banner opened our eyes to a world available to anyone adventurous enough (10)______(wander) around and made me realize that a detour may uncover the best part of a journey---and the best part of yourself.(13)Once upon a time there was a soldier in the Mongolian army named Khokhoo Namjil. He was sent to guard the border of the country. He lived there for many years working with his soldier colleagues (1)_____(guard) the borders. When not on duty, each would take turns taking care of the camp’s horses, making sure they found plenty of green grass to eat. Namjil liked his work, but he was very homesick and looked forward to the day when he could return home (2)_____his beloved wife.One day it was Namjil’s turn to watch over the horses. He led the horses to a distant mountain valley. As his horses were peacefully eating grass, he lost (3)_____in the beauty of nature. He couldn’t help singing songs to show his admiration for the mountain valley. But more than anything else, he sang about the woman he(4)__________（long) to be with. As he sang one day, a mountain spirit suddenly appeared before him. She told Namjil that he had so greatly moved her with the strength of his voice, and the depth of his longing, (5)______she wanted to honor him with the gift of a magical horse. So powerful was this horse that in one day it could travel the distance of four. As the sun (6)______(set) every day, Namjil rode to spend the night in the arms of his wife. Every morning before the sun rose, he rushed back to watch his horses. Happy (7)_____his wife was to have Namjil back in her life, she didn’t want him to leave her every morning. Therefore, when she found a pair of wings (8)_____(fold) on each side of Namjil’s mysterious horse one day, she took a pair of scissors and shortened these magical wings. The next morning, however, she awoke to find that Namjil had again ridden off and left her alone. While crossing the great desert that morning, Namjil found his horse (9)______ (grow) weaker and weaker with its wounded wings until finally it crashed to the ground and died. Namjil was very sad, so he made a musical instrument from its bones, and carved the likeness of his horse’s head onto his violin.In the following year, he traveled throughout the countryside, singing songs about his beloved wife. His fame spread widely and people traveled great distances to hear him sing and play his strange violin. Many copied his instrument, and this was (10)______ the horse-head violin became the most important instrument among the Mongolian people.(14)Champagne is a sparkling wine produced from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France (1)______(follow) rules that demand secondary fermentation (发酵)of the wine in the bottle. Some use“Champagne” as a general term for sparkling wine, but it is illegal to officiallylabel any product Champagne (2)_____ it both comes from the Champagne region and is produced under the rules of the title.In France the first sparkling Champagne was created accidentally. Contrary to legend and popular belief, Dom Pérignon did not invent sparkling wine. The oldest(3)_________(record) sparkling wine is Blanquette de Limoux, (4), ____was apparently invented by Benedictine Monks in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire in 1531. Over a century later, the English scientist and physician Christopher Merret documented the addition of sugar (5)_______a finished wine to create a second fermentation.The pressure in the Champagne bottle led it to be called “the devil’s wine,” as bottles exploded or corks popped. Even when it was deliberately produced as a sparkling wine, Champagne was for a very long time made by the-méthode rurale, where the wine was bottled before the initial fermentation had finished. Champagne did not use the méthode champenoise (6)_____the 19th century, about 200 years after Merret documented the process. Méthode Champenoise is the traditional method by which Champagne is produced. After primary fermentation and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation (7)______(occur) in the bottle. This second fermentation is caused by adding several grams of sugar to the bottle----although each brand has (8)____own secret recipe. Usually a minimum of 1.5 years is required to completely develop the full flavor.The 19th century (9)_____(see) a fast growth in Champagne production, going from a regional production of 300,000 bottles a year in 1800 to 20 million bottles in 1850. In 2007, Champagne sales hit (10)_____all-time record of 338.7 million bottles.(15)McDonald’s restaurants stand among American capitalism’s greatest success stories. Starting out with just one burger stall in 1948, the fast-food chain’s emphasis on quick service and a(1)_____ (standardize) menu has helped it to grow to more than 35,000 outlets across the world. It has been profitable in the past few decades. But now its global sales (2)_______(decline) since at least last July. When the company announces its annual results on January 23, analysts think it will reveal its first full-year fall in profit since 2002. People are wondering (3)_____ has gone wrong?Some of McDonald’s problems come from operational mistakes across the world. Particularly, its business in Asia, (4) _____it makes nearly a quarter of its global profits, has been hit by several health scares. Sales in China fell sharply(5)_______one of its suppliers was discovered last July to be using polluted chicken and beef. More recently, several Japanese customers have reported finding bits of plastic and even a tooth in their food.But McDonald’s also has problems at home. It faces competition (6) __________other fast- food chains such as Burger King, which has been gaining market share with a simpler and cheaper version of the McDonald’s menu. And it (7)__________(squeeze) by more upmarket “fast-casual”restaurants such as Shake Shack and Chipotle Mexican Grill, which are rapidly growing. They have been attracting customers, particularly younger (8)_______ away from McDonald’s chicken nuggets(块）and chips by offering slightly (9)________(good) quality food, a high level of customization (such as the option to choose the ingredients in a burger) and some table service.McDonald’s seems to have two options: to imitate the likes of Burger King and go back to。
