Several days ago, a letter attracted a lot of attention on the Internet. It was written to NASA by 9-year-old Jack Davis {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(ask) to be considered for a job working with astronauts. He wrote to apply {#blank#}2{#/blank#} a planetary protection officer position at NASA. Despite his young age, he thought he would be fit for the job {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (perfect).

    With a pencil, he wrote: “I may be nine, but I think I would be {#blank#}4{#/blank#} good fit. My sister says I am an alien. Also, I.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (see) all the space and alien movies in the past years.” Jack ended the letter stating the other {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (factor) that would make him perfect for the position, such as his great video game skills and his youth,{#blank#}7{#/blank#} would make it easy to learn to think like an alien. He then signed the letter, “Jack, Guardian of the Galaxy.”

    The position of planetary protection officer is well-paid every year. The job, however, is more about science and biology and {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (little) about fighting aliens. The officer must make sure that no new species or plants {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (bring) to other planets, and doesn't return from trips to space with anything that might harm Earth. The recent announcement of the position created in the 1960s has caused a lot of {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (excite) in the public, according to a NASA's statement.

    On May 18, it was announced that China had achieved success in drilling fire ice, a frozen {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(mix) of water and natural gas, from the South China Sea. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(official) known as methane hydrates(甲烷水合物), fire ice produces a high amount of energy when {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(burn) and its chemical reaction produces nothing but dioxide and water.

    Fire ice, both clean and energy-intensive, {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(consider) the fuel of the future. Many countries, including the United States and Japan, have long been conducting research on fire ice, but extracting（提取）it from the bottom of the sea has been a common problem {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(trouble) all of them. But, the Chinese team succeeded in drilling fire ice for nearly eight successive days, {#blank#}6{#/blank#}is a big breakthrough.

    However, it is too early {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(say) a new energy source has been found. The world's total fire ice reserve is about 21,000 trillion cubic meters, which, if extracted, could meet the world's energy need

    {#blank#}8{#/blank#}1,000 years. But the successful test drilling of fire ice does not mean it can be extracted for {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(industry) use. China has to solve many problems before it can use fire ice as a source of energy.

    It's thought that only by 2025 at{#blank#}10{#/blank#} earliest might people be able to look at realistic commercial options.

    Just How Buggy is Your Phone?

    What item in your home crawls with the most germs? If you say {#blank#}1{#/blank#} toilet seat, you're wrong. Kitchen sponges top the list. But cell phones are pretty dirty too. They contain around 10 times as many germs as toilet seats. People touch their phones, laptops, and other digital devices all day long, yet rarely clean them.

    In one incident, a thief paid a terrible price for stealing a germy cell phone. He stole it from a hospital in Uganda during a widespread of the deadly disease Ebola. The phone's owner reported the theft before {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(die)from the disease. Soon, the thief began showing symptoms and finally {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(confess)to the crime.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} in that unusual case a cell phone carried dangerous bacteria, not all germs are bad. Most cause no harm. In fact, they could provide helpful information. Look at the surface of your phone carefully. Do you see some dirty mars? “That's all you,” says microbial ecologist Jarrad Hampton-Marcell. “That's biological information.”

    It turns out that the types of germs that you apply all over your phone or tablet are different from {#blank#}5{#/blank#} of your friends and family. They're like a fingerprint that could identify you. Some day in the future, investigators may use these microbial fingerprints to solve crimes. Phones and digital devices may be one of the best places to look for buggy clues.

    In a 2017 study, researchers sampled a range of surfaces in 22 participants' homes, {#blank#}6{#/blank#} countertops and floors to computer keyboards and mice. Then they tried to match the microbial fingerprints on each object to its owner. The office equipment was easiest to match to its owner. In an {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(early)study, a different group of researchers found that they could use microbial fingerprints to identify the person who {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(use)a computer keyboard even after the keyboard sat untouched for two weeks at room temperature.

    One day, microbial signatures might show {#blank#}9{#/blank#} people have gone and what they have touched. They could prove {#blank#}10{#/blank#} an unmarked device is yours. So, sure, your phone is pretty germy. Does that inspire you, or does it just bother you?

    He's an old cobbler (修鞋匠) with a shop in a historic area in Paris. When I took him my shoes, he told me, "I haven't time. Take them to {#blank#}1{#/blank#} other fellow on the main street.

    Just looking at his bench {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(load) with tools and pieces of leather, I knew the craftsman (手艺人) was rather {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(skill). "No," I replied, "the other fellow can't do it well."

    "The fellow he mentioned" is one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys without knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(careless), and when they have finished sewing back a sandal strap (鞋带), you might as well just throw away the pair. The reason {#blank#}5{#/blank#} I wanted to have my shoes repaired in the shop is that the man works very carefully.

    The man {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(have) me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk and said, "Come back tomorrow."

    I was about to leave {#blank#}7{#/blank#} he took a pair of soft leather {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(boot) off a shelf.

    "See what I can do?" he said with pride. "Only three {#blank#}9{#/blank#} us in Paris can do this kind of work."

    The cobbler was something out of an ancient legend, this old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his very strange, dusty hat, his funny accent and, above all, his pride in his craft.

    In such a period it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(satisfy) from pride in a job well done.

    There are four ways {#blank#}1{#/blank#}which British and American English differ from each other. The first and most obvious way is in the vocabulary. There are a few {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(differ) in grammar, too. The British say Have you got…? {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Americans prefer Do you have…? The British use prepositions {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Americans sometimes omit them. The other two areas in which the two varieties are different are spelling and {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(pronounce). However, with communications {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(develop) {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(steady) for over a century, some experts believe that the two varieties {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(move) closer together due to satellite TV and the Internet. English {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(speak) with different accents; in the future, there are going to be many "Englishes". In spite of this, users of English will have no difficulty {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(understand) each other.

    Your next car could have two seats, three wheels — two in front and one in the back and a top speed of more than 100 miles per hour. Elio Motors plans to make such a tiny car{#blank#}1{#/blank#} (name) the Elio. Its two seats sit front and back instead of side {#blank#}2{#/blank#} side. The driver is positioned in the center with the passenger directly behind.

    The starting price for the car {#blank#}3{#/blank#}  (be) just $6,800. It has only one door, on the left side, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} cuts a few hundred dollars off the manufacturing costs. Having three wheels also makes it {#blank#}5{#/blank#}  (cheap). It has air conditioning, power windows and door locks and {#blank#}6{#/blank#} AM/FM radio. More features can be ordered through Elio's long list of suppliers. Elio will also sell the cars directly through its own stores and not through franchised dealers (特约经销商).

    Paul Elio dreamed as a kid that one day he {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (own) a car company called Elio Motors. In 2008, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (tire) of high gas prices, he started working on a car that burns gas in a more effective way. Equally important to him was creating U.S. manufacturing jobs and making the car inexpensive enough{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (attract) buyers who might otherwise be stuck in their old, unreliable cars. "Whatever matters to you, this can make a {#blank#}10{#/blank#}  (different) to it," he said.