填空题A Strong Reactions B Anxiety about the Future of Cloning C The Right to Choose D What is Cloning? E Arguments in Favor of Cloning F A Common Sight

填空题Flying into History When you turn on the television or read a magazine, celebrities (名人) are everywhere. Although fame and the media play such major roles in our lives today, it has not always been that way. 1 Many historians agree that Charles Lindbergh was one of the first major celebrities, or superstars. Lindbergh was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1902, but he grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota. As a child, he was very interested in how things worked, so when he reached college, he pursued a degree in engineering. At the age of 20, however, the allure(诱惑) of flying captured Lindbergh"s imagination. 2 Soon alter, Lindbergh bought his own plane and traveled across the nation performing aerial stunts(空中特技). In 1924, Lindbergh became more serious about flying. He joined the United States military and graduated first in his pilot class. 3 During the same time, a wealthy hotel owner named Raymond Orteig was offering a generous award to the first pilot who could fly nonstop from New York City to Paris, France. The Orteig Prize was worth $ 25,000—a large amount even by today"s standards. Lindbergh knew he had the skills to complete the flight, but not just any plane was capable of flying that far for that long. 4 On May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in New York City and arrived the next day at an airstrip(简易机场) outside Paris. Named in honor of the sponsor, The Spirit of St. Louis carried Lindbergh across the Atlantic Ocean and into the record books. He became a national hero and a huge celebrity. When he returned to the United States, Lindbergh rode in a ticker-tape (热烈的) parade held to celebrate his accomplishment. 5 A very popular dance was even named for Charles Lindbergh—the Lindy Hop. Today, The Spirit of St. Louis is kept at the Smithsonian Institute"s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. A. Eighty years ago, radio and movies were just beginning to have that kind of effect on Americans. B. Working with an aviation company from San Diego, California, and with financial help from the city of St. Louis, Lindbergh got a customized (定制的) airplane that could make the journey. C. He also received a Medal of Honor, the highest United States military decoration. D. He quit school and moved to Nebraska where he learned to be a pilot. E. His childhood was not full of fond memories. F. Lindbergh used this additional training to get a job as an airmail pilot, flying out of St. Louis, Missouri.

填空题Women's rights moment started in the ______

填空题阅读下面的短文，文章中有5处空白，文章后面有6组文字，请根据文章的内容选择5组文字，将其分别放回文章原有位置，以恢复文章原貌。 {{B}} Every Dog Has Its Say{{/B}} Kimiko Fukuda, a Japanese girl, always wondered What her dog was trying to say. Whenever she put on makeup, it would pull at her sleeve. {{U}}(46) {{/U}} When the dog barks, she glances at a small electronic gadget (装置). The following "human" translation appears on its screen: "Please take me with you." "I realized that's how he was feeling," said Fukuda. The gadget is called Bowlingual, and it translates dog barks into feelings. People laughed when the Japanese toymaker Takara Company made the world's first dog-human translation machine in 2002. But 300,000 Japanese dog owners bought it. {{U}}(47) {{/U}} "Nobody else had thought about it," said Masahiko Kajita, who works for Takara. "We spend so much time training dogs to understand our orders; what would it be like if we could understand dogs?" Bowtingual has two parts. {{U}}(48) {{/U}} The translation is done in the gadget using a database (资料库) containing every kind of bark. Based on animal behaviour research, these noises are divided into six categories: happiness, sadness, frustration, anger, declaration and desire. {{U}}(49) {{/U}} In this way, the database scientifically matches a bark to an emotion, which is then translated into one of 200 phrases. When a visitor went to Fukuda's house recently, the dog barked a loud "bow wow". This is translated as "Don't come this way". {{U}}(50) {{/U}} The product will be available in US pet stores this summer for about US$120. It can store up to 100 barks, even recording the dog's emotions when the owner is away.A A wireless microphone is attached to the dog's collar, which sends information to the gadget held by the owner.B Nobody really knows how a dog feels.C It was followed by "I’m stronger than you" as the dog growled (嗥叫) and sniffed (嗅) at the visitor.D More customers are expected when the English version is launched this summer.E Now, the Japanese girl thinks she knows.F Each one of these emotions is then linked to a phrase like "Let's play", "Look at me", or "Spend more time with me".

填空题The Value of Motherhood In shopping malls, the assistants try to push you into buying "a gift to thank her for her unselfish love". When you log onto website, a small pop-up invites you to book a bouquet for her. Commercial warmth and gratitude are the atmosphere being spread around for this special Sunday in May. (46) The popularity of Mother's Day around the world suggests that Jarvis got all she wanted. In fact, she got more--enough to make her horrified. (47) They buy, among other things, 132 million cards. Mother's Day is the No. 1 holiday for flower purchases. Then there are the various commodities, ranging from jewelry and clothes to cosmetics and washing powder, that take advantage of the promotion opportunities. Because of this, Jarvis spent the last 40 years of her life trying to stop Mother's Day. One protest against the commercialization Mother's Day even got her arrested—for disturbing the peace, interestingly. (48) As Ralph Fevre, a reporter at the UK newspaper "The Guardian", observes, traditionally "motherhood is something that we do because we think it's right." But in the logic of commercialism, people need something in exchange for their time and energy. A career serves this purpose better. (49) So they work hard and play hard. Becoming a mother, however, inevitably handicaps career anticipation. (50) According to "The Guardian" , there are twice as many child-free young women as there were a generation ago. Or, they put off the responsibility of parenting until later in their lives. So, Fevre writes that the meaning of celebrating Mother's Day needs to be updated: "It is to persuade people that parenting is a good idea and to honor people for their attempt to be good people. " A. Commercial warmth and gratitude are the atmosphere being spread as early as 1905, by Anna Jarvis, as a way of recognizing the real value of motherhood. B. But what's more, commercialism changes young people's attitude towards motherhood. C. Obviously, the best girl will be a phone call or a visit. D. According to a research by the US card company Hallmark, 96 percent of American consumers celebrate the holiday. E. As a result, motherhood has suffered a huge drop in status since the 1950s. F. In addition, women are being encouraged to pursue any career they desire.

填空题Why do People Shrink? Did you ever see the movie "Honey", I shrunk the kids? It's about a wacky (乖僻的) dad (who's also a scientist) who accidentally (偶然的) shrinks his kids with his homemade miniaturizing (使小型化) invention. Oops! The kids spend the rest of the movie as tiny people who are barely visible while trying to get back to their normal size. (46) It takes place over years and may add up to only one inch or so off of their adult height (maybe a little more, maybe less), and this kind of shrinking can't be magically reversed, although there are things that can be done to stop it or slow it down. But why does shrinking happen at all? (47) As people get older, they generally lose some muscle and fat from their bodies as part of the natural aging process. Gravity (the force that keeps your feet on the ground) take hold, and the bones in the spine, called vertebrae (椎骨), may break down or degenerate, and start to collapse into one another. (48) But perhaps the most common reason why some older people shrink is because of osteoporosis (骨质疏松症). Osteoporosis occurs when too much spongy (海绵) bone tissue (which is found inside of most bones) is broken down and not enough new bone material is made. (49) Bones become smaller and weaker and can easily break if someone with osteoporosis is injured. Older people—especially women, who generally have smaller and lighter bones to begin with—are more likely to develop osteoporosis. As years go by, a person with osteoporosis shrinks a little bit. Did you know that every day you do a shrinking act? You aren't as tall at the end of the day as you are at the beginning. (50) Don't worry, though. Once you get a good night's rest, your body recovers, and the next morning, you're standing tall again. A. They end up pressing closer together, which makes a person lose a little height and become shorter. B. That's because as the day goes on, water in the disks of the spine gets compressed (squeezed) due to gravity, making you just a tiny bit shorter. C. Over time, bone is said to be lost because it's not being replaced. D. Luckily, there are things that people can do to prevent shrinking. E. For older people, shrinking isn't that dramatic or sudden at all. F. There are a few reasons.

填空题Acts of Congress gave women the rights of ______

填空题 A. electromagnetic energy B. electromagnetic energy travels through space C. came from the sun D. when a change in the nucleus of an atom takes place E. when the sunrays are fierce F. chemical energy is generated

填空题Looking to the Future When a magazine for high-school students asked its readers what life would be like in twenty years,they said: Machines would be run by solar power. Buildings would rotate so they could follow the sun to take maximum advantage of its light and heat. Walls would "radiate light" and "change color with the push of a button. "Food would be replaced by pills. School would be taught "by electrical impulse while we sleep. "Cars would have radar. Does this sound like the year 2000? Actually, (46) and the question was, "what will life be like in 1978?" The future is much too important to simply guess about, the way the high school students did, so experts are regularly asked to predict accurately. By carefully studying the present skilled businessmen, scientists, and politicians are supposedly able to figure out in advance what will happen. But can they? One expert on cities wrote. (47) , but would have space for farms and fields. People would travel to work in "airbuses", large all-weather helicopters carrying up to 200 passengers. When a person left the airbus station he could drive a coin-opera-ted car equipped with radar. The radar equipment of cars would make traffic accidents "almost unheard of". Does that sound familiar? If the expert had been accurate it would, because he was writing in 1957. His subject was "The city of 1982. " If the professionals sometimes sound like high-school students, it's probably because (48) . But economic forecasting, or predicting what the economy will do, has been around for a long time. It should be accurate, and generally it is. But there have been some big mistakes in this field, too. In early 1929, most forecasters saw an excellent future for the stock market. In October of that year, (49) , ruining thousands of investors who had put their faith in financial foreseers. One forecaster knew that predictions about the future would always be subject to significant errors. In 1957, H. J. Rand of the Rand Corporation was asked about the year 2000, "Only one thing is certain, "he answered. "Children born today (50) . "A. the stock market had its worst losses everB. will have reached the age of 43C. the article was written in 1958D. Cities of the future would not be crowdedE. the prediction of the future is generally accurateF. future study is still a new field

填空题 下面的短文有5处空白，短文后有6个句子，其中5个取自短文，请根据短文内容将其分别放回原位置，以恢复文章原貌 Stonehenge Stonehenge (英格兰南部的巨石阵), the mysterious ring of ancient monoliths (独块石) from the dawn of Britain's proud civilization, could be the work of a central European immigrant, archaeologists said not long ago in a shock statement(令人震惊的声明). An early Bronze(青铜)Age(青铜时代) archer(射手), whose grave was discovered near the stone circle last year may have helped build the monument. {{U}}(46) {{/U}} Or he might have been brought up in a region neighboring Switzerland (瑞士) , such as southern Germany or western Austria. The archer "would have been a very important person in the Stonehenge area. " said Andrew Fitzpatrick, Wessex Archaeology's project manager. "It is fascinating to think that someone from abroad could have played an important part in the construction of Britain's most famous archaeological site". The 4000-year-old man was identified as an archer because of the flint(遂石) arrowheads(箭头) found by his body, along with other artifacts(史前古器物)belonging to the beaker Culture ( 青铜时代宽口陶器人文化) in the Alpsa (阿尔卑斯上) during the Bronze age. {{U}}(47) {{/U}} Though it could be coincidence that the man lived close to Stonehenge at about the time the great stones were put in place, archaeologists suspect that he was involved in constructing the monument. The archer, dubbed(被称为)"The King of Stonehenge" by the British press, lived around 2300 BC, about the time the great stone circle was formed in Amesbury, 120 kilometers southwest of London. The splendid artifacts found in his grave indicated he was a man of wealth, leading archaeologists to speculate he was an important dignitary(高贵人物) involved in the monument's creation. Stonehenge was built about the time the rich Breaker Culture came to Britain. {{U}}(48) {{/U}} {{U}} (49) {{/U}} He was strongly built but suffered an accident a few years before his death that severed(截断、切断) his left kneecap. Truman said the cause of death was not known, but it could have been a bone infection caused by his leg injury. Archaeologists also found the grave of a younger man, aged 20 to 25, nearby. {{U}}(50) {{/U}} This indicated they were related and were possibly father and son. Tests on the younger man's tooth enamel(珐琅) showed that he grew up in Britain. The archaeologists thus speculated the archer lived in Britain for many years and had a family, and was not just passing through. A. And tests on the chemical components of his tooth enamel showed he grew up in the region that is now known as Switzerland. B. He and the archer shared an unusual bone structure in their feet. C. Stonehenge will remain mysterious for many centuries to come. D. The artifacts found in his rich grave, discovered about 5 kilometers from Stonehenge, and indicated he was obviously a very prominent man. E. The archer was between 35 and 45 years old when he died. F. And people of that time would have been able to communicate in early Celtic tongue.

填空题They were about five miles from their destination when the music on the radio was interrupted by a news announcement: "The Cheshire police have issued a serious warning after a man escaped from Colford Mental Hospital earlier this evening. ______ He is described as large, very strong and extremely dangerous. People in the Cheshire area are warned to keep their doors and windows locked, and to call the police immediately if they see anyone acting strangely." Marie shivered. "A crazy killer. And he's out there somewhere. That's scary."A. At last! Someone had come!B. He quickly disappeared into the blackness.C. The man, John Downey, is a murderer who killed six people before he was captured two years ago.D. This car is losing power for some reason—it must be that old problem with the carburetor (汽化器).E. Marie quickly locked the doors and settled down under the blanket in the back for a long wait.F. As they drove, they listened to the local radio station, which was playing classical musi

填空题A in the development of air transportation B the earliest passenger flights were successfully operated C to make travel easy and pleasant for the passengers D to provide different services E the shortage of qualified pilots F traveling by air was very cheap

填空题下面的短文有5处空白，短文后有6个句子，其中5个取自短文，请根据短文内容将其分别放回原有位置，以恢复文章原貌。 Virtual Driver Driving involves sharp eyes and keen ears, analyzing with a brain, and coordination between hands, feet and brain. A man has sharp eyes and keen ears, analyzes through his brain, and maintains coordination between his hands and brains. He can control a fast-moving car with different parts of his body. {{U}}(46) {{/U}} . Apparently there isn't anyone in the driver's cab, but there is in fact a virtual driver. This virtual driver has eyes, brains, hands and feet too. The minicameras on each side of the car are its eyes and are responsible for observing the road conditions ahead of it as well as the traffic to its left and right. If you open the boot, you can see the most important part of the automatic driving system: a buit-in computer. {{U}}(47) {{/U}} . The brain is responsible for calculating the speeds objects surrounding the car are moving at, analyzing their position on the road, choosing the right path, and giving orders to the wheel and the control system. In comparison with the human brain, the virtual driver's best advantage is that it reacts quickly. {{U}}(48) {{/U}}. However, it takes the world's best racecar driver at least one second to react, and this doesn't include the time he needs to take action. With its rapid reaction and accurate control, the virtual driver can reduce the accident rate on expressways considerably. In this case, is it possible for us to let it have the wheel at any time and in any place? {{U}}(49) {{/U}}. With its limited ability to recognize things, the car can now only travel on expressways. The intelligent car determines its direction by the clear lines that mark the lanes clearly and recognizes vehicles according to their regular shapes. {{U}}(50) {{/U}}. This being the case, people still have high hopes about driverless cars, and think highly intelligent cars are what the cars of the future should be like. A. Experts say that we cannot do that just yet. B. In the near future, intelligent cars will be put into commercial operation. C. This is the brain of the car. D. But how does an intelligent car control itself? E. It completes the processing of the images sent by the cameras within 100 milliseconds. F. However, it cannot recognize moving people and bicycles on ordinary roads that have no clear markings on them.

填空题阅读下面的短文，文章中有5处空白，文章后有6组文字，请根据文章的内容选择5组文字，将其分别放回文章原有位置，以恢复文章原貌。 How to Jump Queue Fury If you find yourself waiting in a long queue at an airport or bus terminus this holiday, will you try to analyze what it is about queuing that makes you angry? Or will you just get angry with the nearest official? Professor Richard Larson, an electrical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hates queuing but rather than tear his hair out, he decided to study the subject. {{U}}(46) {{/U}}. He cites an experiment at Houston airport where passengers had to walk for one minute from the plane to the baggage reclaim and then wait a further seven minutes to collect their luggage. Complaints were frequent, especially from those who had spent seven minutes watching passengers with just hand baggage get out immediately. The airport authorities decided to lengthen the walk from the aircraft, so that instead of a oneminute fast walk, the passengers spent six minutes walking{{U}} (47) {{/U}}.The extra walk extended the delay by five minutes for those carrying only hand baggage, but passenger complaints dropped almost to zero. The reason? Larson suggests that it all has to do with what he calls "social justice". If people see others taking a short cut, they will find the wait unbearable.48{{U}} (48) {{/U}}. Another aspect Larson studied was the observation that people get more fed up if they are not told what is going on.{{U}} (49) {{/U}}. But even knowing how long we have to wait isn't the whole answer. We must also believe that everything is being clone to minimize our delay. Larson cites the example of two neighboring American banks. One was highly computerized and served a customer, on average, every 30 seconds.{{U}} (50) {{/U}}. But because the tellers at the second bank looked extremely busy, customers believed the service was {aster and many transferred their accounts to the slower bank. Ultimately, the latter had to introduce timewasting ways of appearing more dynamic. A．So in the case of the airport, it was preferable to delay everyone. B．The other bank was less automated and took twice as long. C．When they finally arrived at the baggage reclaim, the delay was then only two minutes. D．His first finding, which backs up earlier work at the US National Science Foundation, was that the degree of annoyance was not directly related to the time. E．It's unbearable for the airport to delay everyone. F．Passengers told that there will be a halfhour delay are less unhappy than those left waiting even twenty minutes without an explanation.

填空题Breaking the News about Your Diagnosis 1. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer nearly a year ago, I found myself at a loss for words at first. Over time, however, I developed some pointers (点子), which I hope will help others. 2. During the first few weeks of emotional "aftershocks" (余悸) from the diagnosis, I found myself unable to utter the word "cancer". Still, I wanted to share the news with my relatives and friends who already knew that I"d had a biopsy (活检) and were anxiously awaiting my telephone call. I did the best I could, which is all anyone can do in this situation. When I called them, I said," What we feared has happened." They immediately knew what I meant. 3. Nearly a year after my diagnosis, I find myself more comfortable telling people "I was diagnosed with cancer" instead of saying "I have cancer". On some deep level, I don"t want to "own" this illness. Choose language that suits you when you share your news. And keep in mind that there is no one "right" way of doing this. 4. Most people, after hearing your announcement, will be curious about the next step. They may wonder if you will be undergoing radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy (化疗). They may wonder where and when you will have surgery. Answer their questions as best as you can, but keep in mind that "I don"t know right now" or "I"m still in too much shock to think about that" are good answers. 5. Wait until the initial wave of strong emotions has passed before telling the children in your life. Don"t overwhelm (使不知所措) very young children with too much information. Assure them that, even if you will be in the hospital for a while, they will see you every day and they will be cared for. Older children may already fear the word "cancer", so be prepared to reassure them. Emphasize the positive steps that doctors will be taking to treat your illness.

填空题 A. industrially polluted soils B. rock and soil chemistry C. naturally polluted soils D. the pathways of metals into the food E. the element of iodine F. the persistence of heavy metals

填空题Development in Newspaper Organization One of the most important developments in newspaper organization during the first part of the twentieth century (46) , which are known as wire services. Wire-service companies employed reporters, who covered stories all over the world. Their news reports were sent to papers throughout the country by telegraph. The papers paid an annual fee for this service. Wire services continue (47) Today the major wire services are the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI). You will frequently find AP or UPI at the beginning of a news story. Newspaper chains and mergers began to appear in the early 1900s. A chain consists of two or more newspapers (48) . A merger involves combining two or more papers into one. During the nineteenth century many cities had more than one competitive independent paper. Today in most cities there are only one or two newspapers, and (49) . Often newspapers in several cities belong to one chain. Papers have combined (50) Chains and mergers have cut down production costs and brought the advantages of big-business methods to the newspaper industry.A. to play an important role in newspaper operationsB. was the growth of telegraph servicesC. and they usually enjoy great prestigeD. they are usually operated by a single ownerE. in order to survive under the pressure of rising costsF. owned by a single person or organization

填空题Memory Test 1．"I am going to give you five techniques that will enable you to remember anything you need to know at school," promised lecturer lan Robinson to a hundred schoolchildren. He slapped his hand down on the table. "When I've finished in two hours' time, your work will be far more effective and productive. Anyone not interested, leave now." The entire room sat still. 2．Robinson calls himself the Mind Magician (魔术师). He specializes in doing magic tricks that look totally impossible, and then he reveals that they involve nothing more mysterious than good old-fashioned trickery (骗术). "I have always been interested in tricks involving memory-being able to reel off (一口气说出) the order of cards in a pack, that sort of thing," he explains. 3．Robinson was already lecturing to schools on his magic techniques when it struck him that students might find memory techniques even more valuable. "It wasn't a difficult area to move into, as the stuff's all there in books. " So he summarized everything to make a two- hour lecture about five techniques. 4．"You want to learn a list of a hundred things? A thousand? No problem," says Robinson. The scandal is that every child is not taught the techniques from the beginning of their school life. The schoolchildren who were watching him thought it was brilliant. "I wish I'd been told this earlier, " commented Mark, after Robinson had shown them how to construct "mental journeys". 5．Essentially, you visualize (想象) a walk down a street, or a trip round a room, and pick the points where you will put the things you want to remember—the lamppost, the fruit bowl. Then in each location you put a visual representation of your list—phrasal verbs, historical dates, whatever—making them as strange as possible. It is that simple, and it works. 6．The reaction of schools has been uniformly enthusiastic. "The pupils benefited enormously from lan's presentation," says Dr Johnston, head of the school where Robinson was speaking. "Ideally we should run a regular class in memory techniques so pupils can pick it up gradually. /

填空题 阅读下面的短文，文章中有5处空白，文章后面有6组文字，请根据文章的内容选择5组文字，将其分别放回文章原有位置，以恢复文章原貌。 {{B}} Information{{/B}} Information-processed by human brainwork into knowledge and integrated and intuited into wisdom-has quite suddenly become the world's most important resources. As far as what will happen in the future as we can see, information will be playing the leading role in world history that physical labor, stone, bronze, land, minerals, metals, and energy once played. {{U}} (46) {{/U}}. We must burn into our consciousness how very different sort of informastion comes from all of its predecessors as civilization's dominant resources. Information expends as it is used. Information is less hungry for other resources. The higher the tech, the less energy and raw materials are needed{{U}} (47) {{/U}}. Information is readily transportable. Information is shared, not exchanged; it gives rise to sharing transactions (交易, 处理) ,not to exchange transactions. {{U}} (48) {{/U}}:Why, in our communities and our world, nobody can possibly be in general charge. Why more and more diversity had better be the law of life on this Planet. Why people have to find ways to be different together, in Bosnia and Rwanda and Cambodia and the Middle East, but also in New York and California and Minesota{{U}} (49) {{/U}}. Why, since information can't really be owned, the phrase "intellectual property" is an oxymoron (予盾修饰法). Why the new fairness revolutions, claims by ever-smarter disadvantage majorities around the world, cannot much longer be denied or ignored. Why, more and more, the followers so often get to the policy answers before their leaders catch on. We're living at a very special moment in humankind's long ascent toward civilized behavior {{U}}(50) {{/U}}, sparked by information science and information technology, which have now made the human species, for the first time, the lead actor in its own evolution.A These simple, pregnant propositions provide new answers to some of the biggest "why" questions of the exciting times just ahead of usB It is the consequence of the enormous advantages of science and technologyC Why we will have to change our ways of thinking about work, and possibly even chop away the linkage between working and making a livingD Information can, and increasingly does, replace land, labor, and capitalE To manage future complexities, we certainly can't keep using the concepts that served us so well in the industrial eraF Important information can get buried in a sea of trivialities

填空题The Mir Space Station The Russian 'Mir Space Station, which came down in 2001 at last after 15 years of pioneering the concept of long-term human space flight, is remembered for its accomplishments in the human space flight history. It can be credited with many firsts in space. During Mir's lifetime, Russia spent about USS 4.2 billion to build and maintain the station. The Soviet Union launched Mir, which was designed to last from three to five years, on February 20, 1986, and housed 104 astronauts over 12 years and seven months, most of whorh were not Russian. In fact, it became the first international space station by playing host to 62 people from 11 countries. From 1995 through 1998, seven astronauts from the United States took turns living on Mir for up to six months each. They were among the 37 Americans who visited the station during nine stopovers by space shuttles. The more than 400 million the United States provided Russian for the visits not only kept Mir operating, but also gave the Americans and their partners in the international station project valuable experience in long-term flight and multinational operations. A debate continues over Mir's contributions to science. During its existence, Mir was the laboratory for 23,000 experiments and carded scientific equipment, estimated to be worth $ 80 million, from many nations. Experiments on Mir are credited with a range of findings, from the first solid measurement of the ration of heavy helium atoms in space to how to grow wheat in space. But for those favoring human space exploration, Mir showed that people could live and work in space long enough for a trip to Mars. The longest single stay in space is the 437.7 days that Russian astronaut Valery Polyakov spent on Mir from 1994 to 1995. And Sergie Avdeyev accumulated 747.6 days in space in three trips to the space station. The longest American stay was that of Shannon Lucid, who spent 188 days aboard Mir in 1996. Despite the many firsts Mir accomplished, 1997 was a bad year out of 15 for Mir. In 1997, an oxygen generator caught fire. Later, the main computer system broke down, causing the station to drift several times and there were power failures. Most of these problems were repaired, with American help and suppliers, but Mir's reputation as a space station was mined. Mir's setbacks are nothing, though, when we compare them with its accomplishments. Mir was a tremendous success, which will be remembered as a milestone in space exploration and the space station that showed long4erm human habitation in space was possible. But it's time to move on to the next generation. The International Space Station being built will be better, but it owes a great debt to Mir.