正文文本:

As of Sunday, there were more than 14 million people in the U.S. state of Texas who still didn't have reliable running water.

Authorities were able to get electricity running again for many of them though, tens of thousands were still in the dark and the cold over the weekend. And outside thermometers finally climbed back up to the 60's and 70's on Sunday following a week of record cold temperatures and record amounts of snow.

That led to recording breaking demand for electricity in the state and that coincided with several major sources of power breaking down. Water pipes froze and burst in unheated homes. Water pipes froze and burst in hundreds of water systems.

Problems were reported in more than 1,300 public systems last week. That effected 4/5 of all the counties in Texas and roughly half the state's population. Many people were put under boil water advisories . That means that even if their water was running, it might not have been safe to drink.

So residents were advised either to use bottled water or to boil for one minute any tap water they planned to use for drinking, preparing food, brushing teeth or even giving to pets. There have been some uplifting stories that have come out of Texas' hardships.

Volunteers have been giving away hot meals and warm clothing to those in need. A furniture store owner opened his business to thousands of people who came in for warmth and he allowed hundreds to sleep on his new mattresses which he'll later sell at a discount. Many other Texans who've been hunkered down without somewhere else to go have been using snow to keep systems running in their homes.

The first pictures have come in from NASA's latest mission to Mars. Last Thursday, the $2.7 billion Perseverance mission logged the ninth successful Mars landing by the United States. That's significant in part because roughly half the missions to the red planet have failed.

The Perseverance rover has been going through a series of checks after arriving on Mars' surface sending back these images, one of the first things it's done. Perseverance landed in a crater where scientists think a lake might have been billions of years ago. So over the course of its two year mission, Perseverance is set to travel 15 miles investigating the crater and it's rocks.

参考译文:

  截至周日，美国得克萨斯州仍有1400多万人没有可靠的自来水源。

  尽管有关部门为该州大多数人恢复了供电，但上周末仍有数万人在黑暗和寒冷中度过。在经历了一周创纪录的低温和降雪之后，室外温度计终于在周日回升到60到70华氏度。

  寒潮导致该州的电力需求创历史峰值，同时还造成多个主要电力来源几个主要的电力来源出现故障。在没有暖气的房屋里，水管被冻裂。数百个供水系统的水管都出现冻裂现象。

  上周，有1300多个公共系统报告了问题。这影响了得州五分之四的地区和大约一半的人口。许多人收到用水要先煮沸的建议。这意味着即使他们的水是流动的，也可能不适合安全饮用。

   因此，居民被建议要么使用瓶装水，要么将计划用于饮用、准备食物、刷牙甚至喂给宠物的自来水煮一分钟。在得克萨斯州的苦难中，也有一些振奋人心的故事。

  志愿者一直在向需要帮助的人分发热食和保暖衣物。某家具店老板向数千名需要取暖的人敞开大门，还允许数百人睡在自己的新床垫上，之后再打折出售。许多其他得州人因为无处可去只能待在家中，他们一直在用积雪维持家中系统的运行。

   美国国家航空航天局（简称NASA）最新的火星任务传回了首批照片。上周四，耗资27亿美元的“毅力”号任务达成了美国第九次成功登陆火星的记录。这在一定程度上意义重大，因为前往这颗红色星球（指火星）的任务中，大约有一半都以失败告终。

  “毅力”号火星车在抵达火星表面并传回这些图像后，开始进行一系列检查，这是它最先完成的工作之一。“毅力”号降落在一个陨石坑，科学家认为那里在数十亿年前可能有个湖。因此，在为期两年的任务中，“毅力”号将行驶15英里，调查这个陨石坑及以其岩石。

重点讲解：

1. break down （讨论、关系或系统）失败，破裂，失灵；

The machine broke down.

机器发生故障。

2. give away 赠送；捐赠；

Give away any food you have on hand, or lock it up and give the key to the neighbours.

把手头的所有食物都送给别人，或者把食物藏好锁起，然后将钥匙交给邻居。

3. in need 贫困的；困难中的；

Some people volunteer to help people in need.

有些人自愿帮助有需要的人。

4. hunker down 准备长期待在某处；

We were just hunkered down in our tents at camp three.

我们只是困守在三号营的帐篷里。