UNIT 10: SPACE TRAVEL

A. PHONETICS
I. Underline the lists of things in the sentences.
1. Michael: What is this video about?
James: You will be taken on a spectacular adventure to the Earth, the Sun and the Moon.
2. Dennis: I think spaceship is not the only spacecraft that can travel in space.
Jonathan: Yes, some types of manned spacecraft capable of travelling in space are
spaceship, space vehicle, and space vessel.
3. Albert: Sky Map! This application has a cool name. What is it for?
Neilson: It is a hand-held planetarium for your smartphone to identify stars, planets,
nebulae and more.
4. Phillip: This article mentions that several countries are planning to build new space stations
for the coming decades including the U.S., Russia, India, and China.
Mandel: There are still some privately funded aerospace manufacturers.
5. Simon: I wish I could visit all planets in the Solar System.
Benedict: You wouldn't be able to walk on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune because they
have no solid surface.
6. Noah: Comets are leftovers from the creation of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago
- they consist of sand, ice and carbon dioxide.
Hudson: Great! You seem to have wide knowledge about space.
7. David: Would you like to be an astronaut?
Carter: Yes. I want to be one of the few people to experience the thrill of liftoff, see the
Earth from above and float in a spacecraft.
8. Olivia: Can you give an example of gravity's impact on our life?
Harper: The gravity from our sun and moon give us the low and high tides of our oceans,
seas, and water.
II. Decide whether the bold words have rising tone (↑) or falling tone (↓).
1. Sophia: Where do most astronauts come from?
Emma: Astronauts come from many different countries in Europe, and may share missions
with astronauts from the USA, ( ____ ) Russia, ( ____ ) and Japan.
2. Robert: How many missions did the space shuttles perform between 1981 and 2011?
Nolan: In this time, the entire fleet of space shuttles included 135 missions by Columbia,
( ____ ) Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. ( ____ )
3. Riley: Scientists are conducting studies on the ISS, and one of the problems being studied is
how our bodies adapt to the weird world of weightlessness.
Stella: They bring hope to people who suffer from weakened bones, ( ____ ) heart and lung
diseases, ( ____ ) and age-related problems.
4. Mr Lincoln: Many space observatories, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, have been
launched to look at the distant Universe, and they have sent back some amazing pictures
taken in visible light.
Mr Cooper: They can also observe stars and galaxies at wavelengths that are invisible to
human eyes such as radio, infrared, ( ____ ) ultraviolet, ( ____ ) X-rays and gamma rays.
5. Mr Colin: Our solar system is made up of the sun, ( ____ ) planets, dwarf planets,
( ____ ) moons, and other objects. ( ____ )
Samuel: What are the other objects, Sir?
6. Ava: We know about the rings of Saturn but there are other planets in our solar system that
have rings, including Jupiter, ( ____ ) Uranus, ( ____ ) and Neptune.
Mia: That's right. Their rings just aren't as big and obvious.
7. Adrian: I always think that I will study business in university and become a businessman.
Conner: I will become one of those people who orbit the Earth in a spacecraft, walk in
space, (____) or visit the Moon. ( ____ )

8. Evan: The reporter says that beyond our Earth, Mars is the one planet that has had the most
spacecraft, research, and exploration. ( ____ )
Ryan: He's right. There have been many missions that have launched to Mars and they
include flybys, probes, ( ____ ) orbiters, and rovers.
B. VOCABULARY
I. Match the words with their meanings.
1. altitude
a.        a piece of rock from outer space that hits the Earth's surface
2.
b.        the scientific study of the sun, moon, stars, planets, etc.
microgravity
c.        a person whose job involves travelling and working in a spacecraft
3. meteorite
d.        a piece of equipment like a tube in shape, containing lenses, that you
4. habitable
look through to make objects that are far away appear larger and nearer
5. spacecraft
e.        suitable for people to live in
6. satellite
f.        a device sent up into space to travel around the earth, used for collecting
7. astronaut
information or communicating by radio, television, etc.
8. universe
g.        the whole of space and everything in it, including the earth, the planets
9. telescope
and the stars
10. astronomy h.        the height above sea level
i.        a vehicle that travels in space
j.        the state of weightlessness or very weak gravity, as in an orbiting
spacecraft
II. Fill in each blank with a word or phrase from the box.

1. On the ISS, astronauts do not shower but rather use liquid soap, water, and ________
shampoo.
2. The effects of microgravity can be seen when astronauts and objects ________ in space.
3. Unlike space shuttle crews of the past, the newest astronauts won't be wearing orange
_______
4. The crew are planning a four-hour ________ to carry out necessary repair work on the
shuttle.
5. The United States' Apollo 11 was the first crewed mission to ________ on the Moon, on 20
July 1969.
6. A human ________ to Mars has been the subject of science fiction, aerospace engineering
and scientific proposals since the 20th century.
7. When a spacecraft is launched into ________ , it should end up spinning around the Earth
quickly enough not to be pulled back in by the Earth's gravity.
8. ________ reproduce gravity-free conditions in an aircraft by alternating upward and
downward arcs.
9. Axiom Space says it plans to ________ multiple commercial modules to the International
Space Station.
10. The space shuttle has carried out numerous important missions, such as the repair and
________ of the Hubble Space Telescope.
III. Choose the best answer to complete the sentences.
1. We know that everything ________ in space because things become weightless in outer
space.
        A. floats        B. flies        C. walks        D. travels
2. The astronauts must have an oxygen tank because they can't breathe normally in space,
which is a(n) ________ vacuum.
        A. weightless         B. airless        C. groundless         D. flightless
3. ________ is a chemist and technologist who became the first British astronaut in space.

        A. Neil Armstrong         B. Helen Sharman         C. Christer Fuglesang         D. Yuri Gagarin
4. The Perseverance rover has a(n) ________ arm designed to collect rock and soil samples
from beneath Mars' surface.
        A. manned        B. unmanned         C. crewed        D. robotic
5. Kepler-452b, whose discovery was announced in 2015, is the most ________ planet found
so far.
        A. earthlings         B. earthing        C. earthly        D. earth-like
6. Have you ever pretended to be an astronaut ________ microgravity for the first time?
        A. exploring        B. discovering        C. experiencing        D. carrying out
7. When meteoroids enter the atmosphere, they become meteors or shooting ________.
        A. stars        B. comets        C. meteorites        D. asteroids
8. - Joe: Calvin said he was ________. Is he going to be an astronaut?
        - Sue: No! It just means he's extremely pleased and happy.
        A. over the moon         B. once in a blue moon         C. out of this world         D. the sky's the
limit
9. The measure of brightness for an ________ object, such as a planet or star, is called
magnitude.
        A. astronomy        B. astronomer        C. astronomically        D. astronomical
10. The night sky is so clear, and you don't even need a ________ to view the constellations.
        A. space station        B. spacecraft        C. telescope        D. satellite
IV. Write the correct form of the word in brackets.
1. Scientists have catalogued almost 700 million ________ objects in the dark sky. (astronomy)
2. The astronauts are conducting a series of experiments to learn more about how the body
adapts to ________. (weightless)
3. The design of the spaceship is ________ integrated into the Star Wars film world. (harmony)
4. The Museum of ________ in Moscow collects, stores and displays items of space
exploration. (Cosmonaut)
5. A ________ sight, commonly called a scope, is an optical sighting device based on a
refracting telescope, (telescope)
6. NASA's ________ mission to Mars could be delayed as experts warn of radiation, health
scares and food shortages. (man)
7. American millionaire Dennis Tito became the first space tourist in 2001 after 900 hours of
________. (train)
8. The ISS, an ________ laboratory above the Earth, provides a unique perspective for Earth
observation and monitoring. (orbit)
9. The measurement of the Earth's ________ temperature over the past few decades indicates
that global warming is continually increasing. (atmosphere)
10. The job of an astronaut is to operate spacecraft and space stations, launch and recapture
satellites, and conduct ________ experiments in space. (science)
C. GRAMMAR
I. Write the correct form of the verbs in the past simple or the past perfect.
1. Forty-two minutes after lift-off, NASA tweeted that the Soyuz capsule ________ (land) on
Earth.
2. By the end of the Apollo 15 mission, the astronauts ________ (collect) more than 170
pounds of lunar samples.
3. By the time the Apollo 11 ________ (land) on the moon, thirty-one American astronauts
________ (fly) into space.
4. The Soviet Union ________ (send) the first human into space just weeks before President
John F. Kennedy ________ (call) for the United States to put a man on the moon.
5. Though other dogs ________ (launch) into space before her, Laika ________ (be) famous for
being the first animal to orbit the Earth.

6. The recovery operations ________ (go) smoothly and within an hour after the astronauts
________ (pick up) by helicopters.
7. When the US's project Mercury ________ (end) in May 1963, a total of six people ________
(send) into space.
8. When the Crew Dragon Endeavour ________ (launch) on May 30, 2020, it was the first time
astronauts ________ (launch) from U.S. soil since the conclusion of the space shuttle program
in 2011.
9. By the time Neil Armstrong ________ (become) an astronaut in 1962, quite a few people
________ (travel) into space but no one ________ (land) on the moon.
10. It has revealed that a few billion years ago, Mars ________ (have) liquid water that
________ (form) lakes and rivers on its surface.
II. Underline the defining relative clause in the following sentences.
1. The planet on which we live is only one of nine planetary bodies revolving around the Sun.
2. Alan Bean who expresses his feelings in space through art is both a brave astronaut and a
painter.
3. Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek and Roman
mythology.
4. The world's first space shuttle that paved the way for America's successful Space Shuttle
Program was Enterprise.
5. The name of an American space mission whose purpose was to land a man on the Moon is
Apollo 11.
6. Mars is the planet from which hostile life comes in almost all science fiction books and
movies.
7. The first U.S. space suit that was developed specifically for use in spacewalks was the Apollo
space suit.
8. Yuri Gagarin who was the first man to travel around the Earth's orbit is a Russian space
traveller.
9. The space mission whose primary purpose is to study the cosmology of the universe is
Euclid.
10. Katherine Bouman is the scientist to whom we owe the first-ever photograph of a black
hole.
III. Combine the pairs of sentences using defining relative clauses and the word in brackets.
1. A spaceship has been designed. It takes passengers on flights to the edge of space. (which)
                
2. A giant planet has just been discovered. Its extreme orbit is truly one of a kind. (whose)
                
3. A spacecraft will soon be made by engineers in the United Kingdom. It can chase comets.
(that)
                
4. We study about a hellish planet. It may have had a perfect habitable environment for two or
three billion years. (which)
                
5. It's at the Kennedy Space Center. Many historic human space flights have originated from
there. (where)
                
6. The young astronauts are impressive. The reporter had the pleasure of meeting them.
(whom)
                
7. This could finally be the year. NASA's astronauts fly to space in commercial crew vehicles in
this year. (when)
                

8. Yuri Gagarin remains forever in the hearts of many people. He made the first flight into
space in 1961. (who)
                
9. Shooting stars are actually small rocks or dust from space. We saw them yesterday. (which)
                
10. A star has a main-sequence lifetime about 20 times shorter than the Sun's. Its mass is 5
times larger than the Sun's and luminosity is 100 times larger than the Sun's. (whose)
                
IV. Choose the best answers to complete the sentences.
1. Uranus has 27 known moons, _______ are named after literary characters.
        A. most of which        B. none of them        C. whom        D. that
2. As you go closer to the poles, you have more and more days _______ the Sun does not set
or rise.
        A. which        B. whose        C. when        D. where
3. By 1930, nine planets _______ in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
        A. had been discovered                B. were discovered
        C. were being discovered                D. have been discovered
4. I am also inspired by my friends _______ ended up turning their childhood dreams into
reality.
        A. whom        B. which        C. whose        D. who
5. By March 17, the comet _______ more than 600 times brighter, far more than researchers
originally _______.
        A. grew - forecast                B. had grown - forecast
        C. grew - had forecast                D. had grown - had forecast
6. SpaceX has finally revealed its first space tourist _______ will circle the moon in the near
future.
        A. whose        B. that        C. whom        D. where
7. Until the twentieth century, only a few hundred meteorite finds _______.
        A. had ever been discovered        B. had ever discovered
        C. had been ever discovered        D. had discovered ever
8. Surrounding the sun was a protoplanetary disk of gas and dust, _______ the planets
formed.
        A. that        B. where        C. out of which        D. which
9. Astronomers _______ the bright Hyakutake comet fresh in their minds at the time as it
_______ Earth in 1996.
        A. had still had - had just passed by        B. still had - had just passed by
        C. still had had - just passed by        D. still had - just passed by
10. The Northern Hemisphere is home to approximately 6.57 billion people, _______ is around
90% of the Earth's total human population.
        A. where        B. of which        C. which        D. from which
V. Choose the word or phrase that needs correction.
1. Scientists have discovered a bizarre hell planet which it rains rocks and oceans are made
                         A                                        B              C                             D
of lava.
2. A terrestrial planet, telluric planet, or rock planet is a planet that is composed primarily
                 A                        B                C                                  D
of silicate rocks or metals.
3. His mother's cousin, that is a chemist and a patent attorney, has provided the astronaut
                 A            B                                C
with great advice.

 D
4. There are two equinoxes every year, March and September, when the Sun shines
         A                                               B                        C
directly on the equator.
           D
5. By 2019, scientists identified about 400 meteorites from the Moon that had landed
                               A                                     B                     C              D
on Earth.
6. It was the first time the same rocket had been propelled into orbit, returned to Earth
                                                     A                        B                 C
and launched again.
          D
7. Virgin Galactic reveals the spaceship cabin where paid customers will experience
                         A                               B                C                  D
spaceflight in style.
8. Natalia looks forward to connect with an astronaut whom she can ask many questions
                                 A                              B                 C
about travelling to space.
                 D
9. The moon also needs to be at the full phase, which happens every 29.5 days when the
                         A                                B                                          C
sun full illuminates the moon.
              D
10. Which scientists had believed was a planet beyond our solar system has now apparently
         A                                 B                                                        C
disappeared from sight, a study says.
                                      D
D. SPEAKING
1.        The spacecraft was launched last night. a.        A camera, a ball, and a book.
2.        When was the first animal launched b.        That's very ambitious, but it costs
into space?
nothing to dream.
3.        It takes 365.256 days for Earth to orbit c.        Impressive!
the Sun.
d.        Whose spacecraft are you talking
about?
4.        Do you like the film Star Warsi
5.        What would you bring if you had a e.        She is over the moon about her trip to
Japan.
holiday on the moon?
f.        Astronomers estimate there are about
6.        Lucy seems extremely happy.
100 thousand million stars in the Milky
7.        I wish I would become an astronaut.
Way alone.
8.        The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.54 million
g.        Really? Isn't it 365 days?
light-years away.
9.        How often do you read about space h.        In 1947. I think so.
i.        Yes. The graphics and sounds are out of
travel?
this world.
10. How many stars are there in the sky?
j.        Once in a blue moon.
II. Write questions for the underlined parts.
1. The Sputnik rocket was launched on 4 October 1957 at 19:28:34 UTC.
                
2. The US's satellite is on top of the launching rocket.
                
3. There have been around 50 spacecraft missions to Mars in total.
                
4. Over the decades, NASA has planned to send people back to the moon.

                
5. A Falcon Heavy rocket launch costs at least $90 million.
                
6. Yes, the John F. Kennedy Space Center is located on Merritt Island, Florida.
                
7. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation still maintains a relationship with universities all over
the world.
                
8. Scientists keep trying to land on Mars maybe because it's close to Earth and we can discover
other forms of life.
                
9. The kids learned outer space objects such as sun, moon, stars and planets with excitement.
                
10. The dataset on this disk contains historical data on all the missions to Mars from 1960 to
2013.
                
E. READING
I. Read the passage and choose the best answers.
The Universe is everything we can touch, feel, sense, measure or detect. It includes living
things, planets, stars, galaxies, dust clouds, light, and even time. Before the birth of the
Universe, time, space and matter did not exist.
The Universe contains billions of galaxies, each containing millions or billions of stars. The
space between the stars and galaxies is largely empty. However, even places far from stars and
planets contain scattered particles of dust or a few hydrogen atoms per cubic centimetre.
Space is also filled with radiation (e.g. light and heat), magnetic fields and high energy particles
(e.g. cosmic rays).
The Universe is incredibly huge. It would take a modern jet fighter more than a million years to
reach the nearest star to the Sun. Travelling at the speed of light (300,000 km per second), it
would take 100,000 years to cross our Milky Way galaxy alone.
No one knows the exact size of the Universe, because we cannot see the edge - if there is one.
All we do know is that the visible Universe is at least 93 billion light years across. (A light year is
the distance light travels in one year - about 9 trillion km.)
The Universe has not always been the same size. Scientists believe it began in a Big Bang,
which took place nearly 14 billion years ago. Since then, the Universe has been expanding
outward at very high speed. So the area of space we now see is billions of times bigger than it
was when the Universe was very young. The galaxies are also moving further apart as the
space between them expands.
1. The word “matter” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.
A. substance                 B. problem                C. issue                D. affair
2. Which of the following did not exist before the birth of the Universe according to the
passage?
A. time                        B. space                C. matter                D. all of the above
3. The Universe is incredibly huge, but scientists believe that ________.
A. its size can be measured by using the speed of light
B. it becomes bigger and bigger
C. it was even bigger at the time it began
D. we can reach its edge with a modern spaceship
4. Which of the following is the longest distance according to the passage?
A. the distance that a modern jet fighter travels in a year
B. the distance that light travels in a year
C. the distance that light crosses our Milky Way galaxy alone

D. the distance of 900,000 billion km
5. As we can learn from the passage, which of the following is the smallest system?
A. the Universe                 B. our Milky Way         C. the Solar System                 D. none of the
above
II. Read the passage and choose the best answers to fill in the blanks.
Before they can fly in space, astronauts have to experience hundreds of hours of training.
The training is divided into three main phases. First, those (1) ________ apply to train as
astronauts have to pass a one-year course of basic training. They learn about space technology
and science, basic medical skills, and how the International Space Station (ISS) works. They
also become familiar with scuba diving. After this first part, they go on to another year of (2)
________. training. They learn in more details about the various spaceship systems of the ISS,
the experiments, the space vehicles, and the involvement of (3) ________. They can then be
assigned to a mission. Working as much as possible with the other members of the (4)
________ , they learn about the special tasks linked with their mission and they get used to
weightlessness by taking (5) ________ flights. Over several years, the astronauts get to know
each other very well as they visit training centres in the USA, Russia, Japan, Canada and
Europe. This may involve learning a (6) ________ language, such as Russian and Chinese
(English is already compulsory), as well as getting to know about the scientific experiments and
special activities on their missions.
1. A. whom        B. who        C. whose        D. for whom
2. A. high        B. advanced        C. intermediate        D. elementary
3. A. ground control         B. land controlling         C. soil controlling        D. surface control
4. A. crew        B. team        C. group        D. troop
5. A. round        B. stopover        C. direct        D. parabolic
6. A. global        B. first        C. foreign        D. national
F. WRITING
I. Write complete sentences using the cues given.
1. Last year,/ astronomers/ find/ 'super Earth' planets/ orbiting/ nearby star/ where/ life/ can
exist
                
2. Many American astronauts/ still/ remember/ day/ when/ spaceship Challenger/ tragically
explode
                
3. Dark matter,/ which/ make up/ about 85%/ mass/ in/ Universe,/ be/ more/ simply dark
                
4. report/ said that/ satellite/ be/ in orbit/ less/ two years/ when/ failure/ occur
                
5. In/ film Ad Astra,/ Brad Pitt/ portray/ astronaut/ who/ travel/ through/ solar system/ find/
his father
                
6. In the past,/ scientists/ think/ that/ Milky Way/ have/ four major “arms”/ that/ stretch out/
around/ galaxy
                
7. Astronomers/ just/ discover/ star/ potentially habitable planet/ that/ be/ strikingly similar/
sun/ Earth
                
8. After/ most/ planets/ Milky Way/ form/ some four/ a half billion years ago,/ volcano/ erupt/
Mars
                
9. speed of light/ in a vacuum/ be/ 299792 kilometres per second,/ and/ theory/ show/
nothing/ can travel/ faster/ light

                
10. Call/ 'The Jewel of the Solar System',/ Saturn/ be/ only planet/ whose/ beautiful rings/
can / see/ Earth/ with/ telescope
                
II. Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first one.
1. They estimate that more than half of the mission to Mars failed.
        It is        
2. “Why don't we stay up late tonight to view the lunar eclipse?” said Naomi.
        Naomi suggested        
3. Passenger ships and aircraft are often equipped with radio telephones.
        They often        
4. The population on Earth hit 7.5 billion on 13th June 2018.
        It was on        
5. It was not until Thomas was fifteen that he began to read about astronomy.
        Thomas didn't        
6. Most of Mars' surface is too cold and dry for Earthly microbes to survive.
        Most of Mars' surface is so        
7. Although space travel costs a lot of money, many countries race to develop it.
        Space travel        
8. The man talking about life on other planets is a former NASA's astronaut.
        The man who        
9. Why satellites have to quickly circle the Earth is still unknown to many people.
        Many people don't        
10. It was Ptolemy, a theorist, who propounded that the Earth was the centre of the universe.
        Ptolemy,