【明報專訊】Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa (前澤友作) will be the first private passenger to go around the Moon, by flying in a rocket developed by business magnate Elon Musk (馬斯克)'s company SpaceX. The mission is planned for 2023, and would be the first lunar journey by humans since 1972.

'Ever since I was a kid, I have loved the Moon,' said Maezawa. He has purchased all the seats on the rocket. He will invite six to eight artists from around the world to join him on the trip. "They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth. These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us."

The journey to the Moon will take roughly a week, and Maezawa is believed to have paid millions for that. Maezawa's other hobby is amassing valuable works of modern art. He dominated international news in 2017 when he paid around HK$860 million for a painting by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

(sources: Ming Pao, BBC,The Washington Post)

■English highway﹕Late (of a person)

Late (of a person) = no longer alive

e.g. She keeps all her late husband's personal belongings in a box.

■Quiz

Answer the following questions.

1. Fill in the blanks with the correct names from the passage.

a) ______________________________

is an entrepreneur and art collector.

b) _____________________________ is the CEO of SpaceX.

c) __________________ was a painter.

2. Rewrite the highlighted sentence in paragraph two in reported speech.

Maezawa said that ____________________________.

■Game

MoMo found that Eason's SpaceE is a fraud, and it won't be able to produce the above vehicle. Connect the dots and find out what it is.

(Answers on next text)

■Glossary

tycoon, magnate (n) 巨頭

roughly (adv) 大致

amass (v) 蒐集

dominate (v) 在……中成為焦點

[Smarties' Power English 第224期]