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CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Today`s edition of CNN 10 gets off the ground with four proposed space missions and they go well beyond the moon and

Mars. I`m Carl Azuz at the CNN Center. Thank you for taking the time to watch our show. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration,

has four ideas it`s looking at as possible future missions.

Two of them would focus on Venus. One of them would explore Jupiter`s moon Io and one of them would fly by Neptune`s moon Triton. I keep saying would
 

Venus [ˋvinəs] n.【天】金星

Jupiter [ˋdʒupətɚ] n.【天】木星

Neptune [ˋnɛptjun] n.【天】海王星

because these are just ideas at this point. They`ll each be researched by a team over a period of nine months and when the final proposals are made

NASA will then decide whether to turn them into actual missions.

So what would scientists hope to learn from all this? As far as Venus goes, one thing they`re interested in is its atmosphere which is toxic another is

the planet`s surface which is hot enough to melt lead. Venus` scorching rocky landscape could be mapped.

Jupiter`s moon Io is believed to be the most volcanically active place in our solar system so NASA would like to find out more about the eruptions

that happen there. And Triton, a moon that orbits Neptune could also be mapped and studied to see if there are signs of an ocean beneath the moon`s

surface.

None of these missions would involve astronauts. Robotic spacecraft would be doing the traveling and of course all of them would come at a cost. In

fact, the teams that are assigned these subjects will each receive $3 million just to come up with their proposals.

If any of those are approved for missions, space.com says each one would be limited to a price of $500 million but that doesn`t include the costs of

launching the spacecraft and supporting it while it`s in space. And for reference, the Juno mission alone from developing the spacecraft to getting

it off the ground to processing all of its information was more than $1 billion. NASA could choose to give two of these new missions the green

light.

10 Second Trivia. The northern and southern kingdoms of what nation were unified in 3100 B.C.? India, Egypt, Persia or Japan. Events around the year

3100 B.C. resulted in the unification of ancient Egypt.

One thing you might notice when looking at many statues from ancient Egypt is that they`re missing their noses. Of course these artifacts are

thousands of years old. Someone might think the noses would be the first things to fall or break off but a museum curator in New York City was asked
 

curator [kjʊˋretɚ] n. 馆长；管理者

the question so many times that he started researching why the noses were missing, and he found out that the faces were defaced on purpose.
 

deface [dɪˋfes] v. 毁坏……的外貌

The reasons are complicated. Power struggles between rulers. Changes in or disagreements over religion, political division, personal grudges. All of
 

grudge [grʌdʒ] n. 怨恨；嫌隙；妒忌

these are likely reasons for the damage, the criminal acts, the vandalism.
 

vandalism [ˋvændlɪzəm] n. 故意破坏公物（或文化、艺术）的行为

But why specifically the noses? The curators suggest that because the nose allows someone to breathe, removing it would make that impossible and

effectively kill the statue that represents somebody. There are many other ways including natural ones. These relics decay or become damaged over the

millennia and ahead of its opening this year, the Grand Egyptian Museum hired a number of experts to bring artifacts back to nearly original

condition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a labor of love. An army of conservationists and archeologists are delicately and skillfully restoring the treasure trove
 

labor of love 为爱好而做的工作

that`s over 3,500 years old. It belongs to Egypt`s Pharaoh Tutankhamun, better known as King Tut. This facility`s 17 laboratories are being used to
 

Pharaoh [ˋfɛro]n. 法老（古埃及国王）；暴君

restore up to 50,000 artifacts of this nation`s most precious relics. Up to 40 Japanese experts are overseeing this vast conservation project from
 

oversee [ˋovɚˋsi] v. 监视；监督；管理

training local personnel to using their own high tech equipment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The technology we brought for this project, is like x-ray radiography, and 3D scanning and also high speed digital microscope which can do the
 

radiography [͵redɪˋɑgrəfɪ] n. X光照相术

investigation without distraction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The glass (ph) over here is fantastic because the visitor walks in the galleries can see the face of the statue of Ramses II.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt`s treasures are being restored for their new home next door a $1 billion museum at the edge of the ancient Pyramids of Giza.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Grand Egyptian Museum will show more than 20,000 artifacts that have never been on display before. They were hidden in store

rooms, in magazines of the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, from in storage facilities all over Egypt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than 7,000 construction workers are building this massive museum thanks to a loan of $750 million from the Japanese

government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It includes a conference center which can house up to 1,000 participants of a conference. It has a cinema theater which can have

up to 500 visitors and it has about 28 shops and more than 10 restaurants.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has really a potential of being the resource for more tourism after the conservation work. It will attract more people to the

museum and I think I will - - we will contribute to this industry, tourism industry in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Business news. Some American retail companies are just now reporting what their sales were like for the 2019 holiday shopping season and at

least for brick and mortar retailers. Companies with physical stores, it wasn`t great.

Wal-Mart is the biggest retail company in America. It says in the few weeks before Christmas there was quote "softness" in sales of toys, video games
 

softness [ˋsɔftnɪs] n. 软弱

and clothing. It did see growth at its stores and websites that had been open for at least a year but the increase wasn`t as big as investors

expected.

Part of the reason for this, Thanksgiving fell later in November than usual. There were six fewer days between that holiday and Christmas. That

gave Americans less time to spend money and Wal-Mart`s not alone. Target, Kohl’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, they all struggled last season. We told you

yesterday how Macys plans to close 125 stores in the three years ahead. There were exceptions though. Costco did well. TJ Maxx had good sales and

Amazon what one business writer described as a blow-out holiday stretch.
 

blowout (指油井或气井)井喷

stretch [strɛtʃ] n. 一段; the last stage of an event, period, or process

Despite it`s disappointing Christmas sales, Wal-Mart said its largest business, groceries is doing well and the company expects a strong year

ahead. It`s been able to survive and thrive in the age of Amazon and it`s made a number of changes to do it. Online grocery pick-up and delivery is

part of that. There are also changes taking place in Wal-Mart stores themselves but it`s hard to say what the overall impact of robots will be.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Our last story this Thursday is about a match made in heaven, dog heaven. Honey and Duke are the names of the dogs. They`re rescue mutts in South Carolina
 

mutt [mʌt] n. 杂种狗；笨蛋

and apparently they`ve got a lot in common. They both love treats and they`re both dogs. So with costumes custom-tailor for the

occasion and a ceremony attended by close human family and friends, Honey and Duke were officially united as dog and wife and the dessert truly took

the cake.

To "heel" and to hold. From this "dog" forward. For "barker" or worse. Guess you could call that "howling" matrimony. They might have a leg up on
 

matrimony [ˋmætrə͵monɪ] n. 婚姻；夫妇关系；婚姻生活

have a leg up on 优于（某人），比（某人）有优势

human weddings unless they needed a "prepuptual" agreement but we wonder what the groom will do when he sees his first "Honey Duke" list.

Listen it`s time for us to scoot but not before we mention Monticello High School. It`s in Monticello, Wisconsin. Thank you for subscribing and
 

scoot [skut] v. 飞奔；走开

commenting on yesterday`s show on You Tube. In fact, that`s the only way to get a mention on our show. We thank all of you for watching CNN 10. I`m

Carl Azuz.