Mary’s uncle Ted was an engineer. He told her great stories about the rockets he helped design, and he often brought Mary science books. He also taught her some knowledge about space. Mary loved technology and science, and she was also adventurous (爱冒险的). For those reasons, Mary’s family kept telling her she should be an astronaut when she grew up, but she just wasn’t sure.
One Saturday, Mary and Uncle Ted went to visit the Science Museum. They watched a show on space travel. Uncle Ted told her something interesting about spaceships and space suits. But she was most interested in two model robot arms and tried operating (操作) them. She stayed there all day and felt very excited.
By the time they got on the bus to return home, Mary was very tired. Closing her eyes, she was thinking about what it would be like to fly into space. As she nearly fell asleep, Mary started to feel the weightlessness that astronauts must feel when they are in zero gravity (重力). The next thing she knew, she was looking out the window not of a bus but of a spaceship. Mary was operating a huge robot arm outside the spaceship. She felt nervous. But she kept at it. Soon she succeeded. She felt proud of herself.
Just then, Mary heard Uncle Ted’s voice. “Wake up, my dear! We’re back home now.” When she opened her eyes, she realized she had been dreaming, but she knew this for sure—she wanted to be an astronaut one day and couldn’t wait for her first trip into space.