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3. Why do you think the moon exploration program was
named the “Apollo” program?
4. What great technical achievement made possible for the
people go round the globe to see the lunar mission?
Text 3
SPACE AGE BEGAN
I.
First thoughts:
Read the following words:
a. orbit, sputnik, globe, artificial
b. spaceship, Yuri Gagarin, Vostok I, April 12, 1961
What associations do these words call to mind?
II. Study the words. Make sure you know them.
satellite, mile, circle, orbit, altitude
III. Read the text for obtaining information.
SPACE AGE BEGAN
October 4, 1957, the world awoke to a new sound. A very
weak "beep " coming from outer space. People everywhere
tuned their radios to listen to the first man-made artificial earth
satellite - Sputnik. The Soviet Union had beaten the United
States to space.
It was 500 miles up, traveling at 18,000 miles an hour; and it
circled the globe every 96 minutes and it flew over the United
States seven times a day. The sound of its incessant beeping
fascinated and disturbed the nation.
FIRST MAN IN SPACE
The Space Age began or October 4, 1957, when the Soviet
Union launched the first Earth-orbiting satellite -Sputnik. It
weighed 184 pounds (83.6 kilograms). The highest extent of
its orbit was 584 miles (942 kilometers). It circled the Earth
every 96 minutes and remained in orbit until early 1958, when
it fell back into the atmosphere and burned.
The effect of Sputnik on an unsuspecting world was
electrifying. The United States was especially surprised and
embarrassed. The public's attention was immediately directed
to the failure of the schools to teach mathematics and science
adequately. Although this failure was not fully remedied, the
United Stales did put its first satellite into orbit on January 31,
1958. The space race had begun.
Just as the Soviet Union beat the United States into space
with Sputnik in 1957, so it was first to send an astronaut into
space in 1961. The Soviet cosmonaut's name was Yuri
Gagarin, who graduated from the Air Force school at
Orenburg in 1958. Gagarin went aloft in the spaceship
Vostok 1 on April 12,1961, at 9:07 a.m. He orbited the Earth
once in one hour and 29 minutes, reaching a maximum altitude
of 187 miles (301 kilometers). The ship landed the same day at
10:55 a.m. It was Gagarin's only space flight.
IV. Comprehension check.
1. Match the words and their meanings by placing a proper
letter on each blank.
__1. artificial a. to cause mental discomfort;
__2. space b. send into outer space;
__3. circle c. the boundless expanse in which all
objects exist and move;
__4. launch d. not natural or real; made by the art of
man;
__5. embrace e. send forth with some force;
__6. orbit f. path followed by one heavenly body
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