{{B}}Tests Show Women Suited for Space Travel{{/B}}
Between 1977 and 1981, three groups of American women, numbering 27 in all, between the age of 35 and 65, were given month-long tests for space travel purposes.{{U}} (1) {{/U}}
Those women were carefully selected from among many applicants.{{U}} (2) {{/U}}They were not allowed to smoke or drink alcohol during the tests, and they were expected to tolerate each other's company at close quarters for the entire period. Among others things they had to stand pressure three times the force of gravity and carry out both physical and mental tasks while exhausted from strenuous physical exercise.{{U}} (3) {{/U}}During that time they suffered backaches and other discomforts.{{U}} (4) {{/U}}
Resuks of the tests suggest that wmen will have significant advantage over men in space.{{U}} (5) {{/U}}Men's advantages in terms of strength and stamina, meanwhile, are virtually wiped: out by the zero gravity condition in space.
A. At the end of ten years, they had to spend a further twenty days absolutely confined to bed.
B. They were volunteers and were paid barely above the minimum wage.
C. These tests were conducted to determine how they would respond to conditions resembling those abroad the space shuttle.
D. They need less food and less oxygen and they stand up to radiation better.
E. Some of them were over 65.
F. When they were finally allowed up, the more physical active women were specially stibject to pains due to a slight calcium (钙) loss.