The first flights of the new airlines that will take tourists into space are ready to take off in 2012, and getting a seat on one is not all that different from booking a trip someplace on Earth. You can sign up on the website of, say, Virgin Galactic，the most wellknown of the new space tourism companies, or go to an approved travel agency and put down a large deposit. Soon you will be able to buy travel insurance，just as you can for any other vacation.
Until now，space tourism has been limited to the ultrawealthy. Just seven people have paid tens of millions of dollars each for a trip to the International Space Station aboard a Russian rocket.
But that could change this year, when Virgin Galactic intends to start offering flights just beyond the space barrier on a rocket ship it has built, featuring five minutes of weightlessness during a twoandahalfhour tour. At $ 200,000 a seat, this will open the final frontier to far more people.
At least two other specialty airlines have jumped in as well, taking reservations and deposits for future space flights.Allianz, the big insurer, will introduce an insurance product in 2012, lending space tourism the trappings of the regular travel industry.
“Just to be able to sell space travel as a regular part of your business, really, just how cool is that？” said Lynda Turley Garrett, president of Alpine Travel of Saratoga, Calif.，who is one of 58 accredited space agents for Virgin Galactic in the United States.
In five years，Ms.Garrett has sold three seats. But she expects that to change once passengers start going up and coming down to tell their friends. “By 2017，it'll be just like scheduling a flight to L．A.，” Ms.Garrett predicted.
小题1:If you want to book a flight to space in 2012, you can________.
A．go to any travel agency
B．telephone Virgin Galactic
C．pay a visit to Allianz
D．sign up on the website of Virgin Galactic小题2:From Paragraph 2 we can know that ________.
A．only the extremely rich people can afford the space trip
B．seven people have paid tens of millions of dollars for a space trip
C．Russia is the first country to build the space station
D．ordinary people are not allowed to take space tour小题3:Which of the following is true of Virgin Galactic?
A．It is one of the approved space agencies.
B．It is a famous space tourism company.
C．It sells insurance products to space tourists.
D．Its rocket has carried space passengers successfully.小题4:What does the underlined word “trappings” in Paragraph 4 probably refer to?
A．Standard uniforms.
B．Traditional decorations.
C．Symbolic signs.
D．Personal belongings.小题5:What does Ms. Garrett think of the future space travel?
A．Common.
B．Changeable.
C．Flexible.
D．Reasonable.
