US private rocket company SpaceX has announced that two private citizens have paid to be sent around the Moon. The mission (任务) is planned for late 2018. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, "This presents an opportunity for humans to return to deep space for the first time in 45 years."

The two unnamed people will fly aboard a spaceship which is set for its first unmanned test flight later this year. The co-operation of America's NASA space agency had made the plan possible. Mr. Musk said, "The two passengers will travel faster and further into the solar system than any before them." Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.

"We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. The first mission would be unmanned, and the next one―with crew―was expected in the second quarter of 2018," the rich businessman and inventor said, "The first passengers are entering this with their eyes open, knowing that there is some risk here. They're certainly not childish, and we'll do everything we can to reduce that risk, but it's not zero."

The space tourists would make a circle around the Moon, scanning the lunar surface and then going well beyond. However, the mission will not involve a lunar landing. "If NASA decided to take part in a lunar fly-by mission, then the agency would have privilege," Mr. Musk said. The US has not sent astronauts to the Moon since the early 1970s.

—个英文网站面向中学生征稿请你写一篇英语稿件，介绍“中秋节”及这个节日里的主要活动。

写作要点：

(1).它是中国的传统节日之一； 

(2). 家人团聚； 

(3). 赏月、吃月饼； 

(4). 还有旅游、访友等其他活动。 

要求行文连贯，逻辑合理，字数100字左右。      

参考词汇：中秋节  the Mid-Autumn Festival      农历 lunar calendar       赏月  enjoy the full moon          月饼 moon cake 

The Mid-Autumn Festival

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China’s online retailers(零售商)are busy preparing for what has become the country’s annual online shopping festival on November 11.

November 11 is a date made up of four ones, and“double eleven”has always been considered a special day for single men and women in China. Five years ago the Internet retailer Alibaba began promoting it as a shopping festival, and it has now turned to be the country’s busiest day for online retailers and millions of shopping lovers.

JD. com is trying to attract more retailers by offering them free delivery service for a month. Alibaba itself has invited some 30, 000 offline stores to participate in the online shopping party. More than 20, 000 vendors on Alibaba’s sites——Tmall and Taobao are promising 50 percent discounts on the day. Shanghai- based Yhd. com, also called Yihaodian, a Chinese e-commerce company that is majority-owned by Wal-Mart Stores, is setting up a special sale of imported foods.

Last year Alibaba earned 19. 1 billionyuan in sales during the double eleven promotions. And a 100 billion yuanlogistics(物流)network was set up by Alibaba this May that aims to make 24-hour deliveries possible.

The major logistics player Shentong shipped more than 8 million items during“double eleven. ”Shentong has more than 150, 000 staff, and expects things to be even busier this year. Yang Jinghai, director of Human Resources of Shentong Express, says, “We have hired 30 percent more staff for double eleven, and we have couriers’(快递员)bonuses ready. ”

On double eleven China’s e-commerce sites receive more visits than the entire population of Brazil. It is believed that China will replace the US as the world’s top e-commerce market this year.

B

    Laughter Yoga(大笑瑜伽) is one form of yoga. Madan Kataria, a doctor in Mumbai, India invented it. He believed that people had forgotten how to really laugh. Through his research he made an interesting discovery. The human mind does not know the difference between forced laughter and real laughter. Forced laughter can also lead to a feeling of happiness.

And then Kataria had the idea for a group of people who would laugh together. He gathered(聚集) a few of his friends together. They met in a public park in Mumbai. That small group grew and grew! And this is how people began to do Laughter Yoga. People doing Laughter Yoga usually meet together in a Laughter Club. Kataria’s friends formed the first Laughter Club in 1995.

Today, there’s over 5,000 Laughter Clubs in 53 countries. But what exactly do people do in a Laughter Club? People in Laughter Yoga meetings usually do a series of exercises include body movement, correct breathing, and of course, laughter!At the beginning of the meeting, people may have to force themselves to laugh. But by the end, everyone is usually laughing in a real way! Each meeting is a little different. But there are common exercises groups may do.

Experts say that the exercises help blood move around the body faster. They also say that Laughter Yoga helps people deal with the bad things in their lives. They say that a person may go into a Laughter Club meeting feeling sad, angry, or worried. But then, people act happy. After a time, forced laughter becomes real laughter. This is one reason why people may enjoy Laughter Yoga so much!

Next time you raise an eyebrow at the views of your friend, brother, sister or colleague, remember they could be helping to make you smarter. New research shows that intelligence is not fixed but can be improved throughout adulthood by family members, bright mates and intellectually challenging careers. The study challenges the commonly held belief that intelligence is fixed by the age of about 18.

    Scientific consensus (共识) suggests intelligence is controlled by genes, with environmental factors such as schooling and nutrition playing a part up to this age. After this point, IQ scores become steady. But James Flynn, professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, argues that people can "upgrade" their intelligence throughout their lives. He believes intellectual stimulation (刺激) from other people is important as the "brain seems to be rather like a muscle—the more you use it, the stronger it gets". However, the opposite is also true—so people who share a home or workplace with the intellectually challenged risk seeing their IQ levels nosedive as a result.

    Professor Flynn analyzed US intelligence tests from the last 65 years and created new IQ "age tables". He found a bright ten-year-old with brothers and sisters of average intelligence will suffer a five to ten point IQ disadvantage compared to a similar child with equally bright brothers and sisters. However, children with a low IQ could gain six to eight points by having brighter brothers and sisters and special educational treatment to help pull them up.

    Professor Flynn concluded that although genetics and early life experiences determine about 80% of intelligence, the remaining 20% is linked to lifestyle. This means people can raise their IQ, or allow it to fall, by ten points or more. He suggests the best way to improve IQ levels is to socialize with bright friends, and find an intellectually challenging job.

  The world welcomes 2017! From New Zealand to New York, the world eagerly celebrated the New Year, hoping for a better future after a year of diseases, struggles and disasters.

    The islands of Samoa mid Tokelau in the Pacific Ocean and places located near the International Date Line mark the dawn of the New Year. As celebrations spread westward, fireworks lit up the night sky in towns and cities around the world, as celebrators partied on the streets.

    In some parts of the world, the New Year’s celebrations were, let’s say, rather unusual. In many European countries as well as in Coney Island, New York, swimmers braved freezing water temperatures for a dip in the ocean or lake on January 1. In Rome, Italy, divers jumped off the 59-foot-high Cavour bridge into the Tiber River. Londoners rang in the New Year with a massive fireworks display with dozens of rockets lighting up the night sky. The Scots’celebration of New Year is also called “Hogmanay”. A torchlight procession led by men dressed as Vikings kicks off four days of Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh, Scotland. The procession ends with the burning of a Viking long ship. Hogmanay is the Scottish word for the last day of the year. Street festivals are held on each day culminating in a fireworks display.

    In New York, hundreds of thousands gathered to witness a huge ball with more than 30,000 lights descend at midnight. This tradition was adopted by the New York Times（after whom the square is named）in 1908 to attract crowds to celebrate the paper’s new headquarters. The ball has dropped every year since then except during the wartime years of 1942 and 1943. The first ball was made of iron, but now 2,688 crystal（水晶）triangles decorate this lighted ball.

Are you the kind of person who likes staying in unusual places? If the answer is "yes", then try the world's coldest hotel in Jukkasjarvi in the north of Sweden. But go in winter or all you'll find is a pool of water, because the hotel melts every spring!

The man who runs the Aortic Hall Hotel is Nils Yngve Bergqvist. He is also the man whose idea it was. He built his first hotel for an art show in 1991 and he designed the present hotel---over 200 square metres ---himself. It took workmen about two months to put 1,000 tons of snow onto a wooden board. As the weather got colder, the snow froze and then they removed the board. The whole building and everything in it is made of snow---except for the wooden front door. There's a theatre, a jazz club, a radio station and a large ice bar. As you can imagine, hot drinks are popular with the guests! The rooms have no doors, there is no furniture, no heating and everyone sleeps on ice beds. But the 800 people who have stayed at the hotel this winter seem to like it. If you want to stay in one of the ten ice rooms, it will cost you about ￡30 a night. You won't be very comfortable, but you will receive a survival certificate (生存能力证书) from the manager!

When the winter is over, Nils holds his competition every year to predict the day that the hotel will fall. The person that guessed the day correctly last year received a large painting from an Aortic Hall show. Bergqvist's ice hotels are becoming world-famous and he loves his work. He's already excited about his next project---an ice hotel that will be bigger and better, he says.

Many of us mistakenly believe that it’s wrong to think we have many good qualities. We may spend a lot of time blaming ourselves for our negative qualities, thinking that self-criticism is the key to improving our performance. However, a constant focus on our supposed shortcomings can stop our efforts to make friends with other people. How can we believe that others could like us if we believe our inner being is flawed(有缺点的)?

If someone seems to dislike you, the reason for that dislike might have little or nothing to do with you. The person who doesn’t like you might be fearful, shallow, busy or shy. Perhaps you and that person are simply a mismatch for each other at this particular time.

Don’t take yourself out of the game by deciding that your flaws are bigger than your good qualities. In fact, some of the very qualities you consider to be flaws may be irresistible to someone else. For all the factors that might cause one person to reject you, there are at least as many factors that will work in your favor with someone else.

You might be thirty pounds over your ideal weight, but you may have a wonderful laugh and a real enthusiasm for life. There are many people who don’t mind your extra pounds. You may drive a shabby car, but you might be a great dancer and a loyal friend. There are people looking for loyalty, fun, sweetness, or wisdom, and the package it comes in is not important. If you are worried that you are not beautiful enough to attract friends, keep in mind that not everyone is looking for physical beauty in their friends. You can decide to feel inferior because you don’t have much money or you don’t drive a nice car. You can believe that this is the reason that you don’t have many friends in your life. On the other hand, if you are very wealthy you may be suspicious that everyone is after your money and that nobody really likes you as a person.

The point is that you can focus on anything and believe it’s the reason you do not have friends and cannot make any.

A technology company is developing a lie detector app for smart phones that could be used by parents, teachers—and even Internet daters.   The app measures blood flow in the face to assess whether or not you are telling the truth. Its developers say that it could be used for daters wanting to see if somebody really is interested in them. Parents could use it on their children to see if they are lying and teachers could work out which of their pupils are honest.   The app is being developed by Toronto startup NuraLogix and the software is called Transdermal Optical Imaging. The idea is that different human emotions create different facial blood flow patterns that we have no control over. These patterns change if we are telling the truth or telling a lie.

     Using the footage(拍摄的片段)from the smart phone camera, the software will see the changes in skin colors and compare them to standardized results. A study from last year found that anger was associated with more blood flow and redness while sadness was associated with less of both.

     Developmental neuroscientist (神经病学家) Kang Lee, who has been researching the field for 20 years, said. "It could be very useful, for example, for teachers. A lot of our students have math anxiety but they do not want to tell us. because thatˈs embarrassing." Lee remarked that the technology would not replace lie detectors used in a court of law. He said, "They want the accuracy to be extremely high, like genetic tests, so a one-in-a-million error rate. Our technique wonˈt be able to achieve an extremely high accuracy level, so because of that I donˈt think itˈs useful for the courts." He added that it would be a few years before the app is available to consumers.