单选题 From cyborg housemaids and water-powered cars to dog translators, and rocket boots, Japanese boffins have racked up plenty of near-misses in the quest to turn science fiction into reality. Now the finest scientific minds of Japan are devoting themselves to cracking the greatest sci-fi vision of all: the space elevator. Man has so far conquered space by painfully and inefficiently blasting himself out of the atmosphere but the 21st century should bring a more leisurely ride to the final frontier.
For chemists, physicists, material scientists, astronauts and dreamers across the globe, the space elevator represents the most tantalizing of concepts: cables stronger and lighter than any fibre yet woven, tethered to the ground and disappearing beyond the atmosphere to a satellite docking station in geosynchronous orbit above Earth.
Up and down the 22,000 mile-long (36,000km) cables-or flat ribbons-will run the elevator carriages, themselves requiring huge breakthroughs in engineering to which the biggest Japanese companies and universities have turned their collective attention.
In the carriages, the scientists behind the idea told The Times , could be any number of cargoes. A space elevator could carry people, huge solar-powered generators or even casks of radioactive waste. The point is that breaking free of Earth-s gravity will no longer require so much energy- perhaps 100 times less than launching the space shuttle. "Just like traveling abroad, anyone will be able to ride the elevator into space," Shuichi Ono, chairman of the Japan Space Elevator Association, said
The vision has inspired scientists around the world and government organizations, including Nasa. Several competing space elevator projects are gathering pace as various groups vie to build practical carriages, tethers and the hundreds of other parts required to carry out the plan. There are prizes offered by space elevator-related scientific organizations for breakthroughs and competitions for the best and fastest design of carriage.
First envisioned by the celebrated master of science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke, in his 1979 work The Fountains o f Paradise, the concept has all the best qualities of great science fiction: it is bold, it is a leap of imagination and it would change life as we know it. Unlike the warp drives in Star Trek, or H. G. Wells's The Time Machine, the idea of the space elevator does not mess with the laws of science; it just presents a series of very, very complex engineering problems.
Japan is increasingly confident that its sprawling academic and industrial base can solve those issues, and has even put the astonishingly low price tag of a trillion yen (￡5 billion) on building the elevator. Japan is renowned as a global leader in the precision engineering and high-quality material production without which the idea could never be possible.
The biggest obstacle lies in the cables. To extend the elevator to a stationary satellite from the Earth's surface world require twice that length of cable to reach a counterweight, ensuring that the cable maintains its tension. The cable must be exceptionally light, staggeringly strong and able to withstand all projectiles thrown at it inside and outside the atmosphere. The answer, according to the groups working on designs, will lie in carbon nanotubes-microscopic particles that can be formed into fibres and whose mass production is now a focus of Japan's big textile companies.
According to Yoshio Aoki, a professor of precision machinery engineering at Nihon University and a director of the Japan Space Elevator Association, the cable would need to be about four times stronger than what is currently the strongest carbon nanotube fibre, or about 180 times stronger than steel. Pioneering work on carbon nanotubes in Cambridge has produced a strength improvement of about 100 times over the past five years.
Equally, there is the issue of powering the carriages as they climb into space. "We are thinking of using the technology employed in our bullet trains," Professor Aoki said. "Carbon nanotubes are good conductors of electricity, so we are thinking of having a second cable to provide power all along the route. " Japan is hosting an international conference in November to draw up a timetable for the machine.

单选题 Cyborg housemaids, water-powered cars, dog translators and rocket boots are______.
A. some of the illusory imaginations of Japanese scientists and technologists
B. the inventions Japanses scientists are still making on the basis of science fiction
C. some of the examples of inventions created in science fiction
D. a few examples which will lead to the invention of the space elevator

单选题 All of the following would be the features of the cables of the future space elevator EXCEPT that they would be______.
A. 22,000 miles long
B. exceptionally light
C. 180 times stronger than steel
D. made of fibres currently available

单选题 According to the passage, the idea of the space elevator______.
A. was first suggested by H. G. Wells in his The Time Machine
B. was based on the warp drives from Star Trek by Arthur C. Clarke
C. was first proposed by Arthur C. Clarks in his The Fountains o f Paradise
D. was the imagination of scientists from the Japan Space Elevator Association

单选题 According to the passage, how is the idea of the space elevator different from some other imaginations in science fiction?
A. It is in agreement with the laws of science.
B. It is less functional but more expensive.
C. It is easier to launch than other space vehicles.
D. It is more essential for the space elevator to break free of Earth's gravity.

单选题 If can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A. science fiction stimulates the development of space science
B. science fiction usually does not follow the laws of science
C. science fiction has greatly changed life as we know it
D. science fiction will never equal the research of space exploration