【明報專訊】ＫOBE BRYANT, a legendary NBA player playing for the Lakers throughout his career, left all of us in late January at the age of only 41. Heading towards a basketball academy, nine people, including Kobe and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, perished in a fire after a helicopter crash. He had inspired cohorts of players such as LeBron James, who honoured Kobe with a new tattoo saying ''Mamba 4 Life''. Kobe was nicknamed ''Black Mamba'', a kind of big poisonous snake, for his extraordinary skills.

A ''boring'' machine?

THE Civil Engineering and Development Department (土木工程拓展署) introduced a rectangular boring machine (鑽挖機), the first of its kind in the city. Traditional boring machines are often circular and still require manual labour. This new one might be boring since it bores through rock automatically, which makes workers safer and construction costs lower. It is a great help to constructing a pedestrian tunnel between Choi Hung and Kai Tak. (photo.2)

A cure-all wonder cell?

AGROUP OF scientists discovered a kind of T-cell that can recognise and kill multiple kinds of cancer. Currently different patients need different T-cells, meaning that doctors have to personalise the cells before putting them into the patient's body. Hopefully the breakthrough could lead to a cure-all wonder therapy.

■Gear up

According to this page, answer the following questions.

(1) Kobe didn't play for teams other than the Lakers. ( True / False )

(2) The new boring machine is so named because it is dull. ( True / False )

(3) According to the passage, the new kind of T-cells can cure all diseases. ( True / False )

(Answers on next text)

■Glossary

perish (v) 喪生

manual (adj) 體力的

personalise (v) 度身訂做

cure-all (n) 萬靈藥

[Smarties' Power English 第269期]