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课件网) Unit 4 Space Exploration Period 2 Reading and Thinking 人教版本 必修三 1. What kind of passage is it Popular science article. (科普文) 2. Where can you find this kind of passage Newspaper or magazine. 3. What do you think are the main reasons for space exploration The main reasons for space exploration are to gather knowledge of the universe. Reading Space: The Final Frontier (1) “Are we alone What’s out there ” looking up at the stars, people have always wanted to learn more about space, and scientist work hard to find answers. They make vehicle to carry brave people into space to find out the secrets of the universe. _____ They also really wish to discover other planets that are suitable enough to support life. Read the text, choose the corrrect sentence to fill each gap. Reading Space: The Final Frontier(2) Before the mid-20th century, most people felt travelling into space was an impossible dream. However, some scientists were determined to help humans relies their dream to explore space._____ _____ On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was lunched by the USSR and successfully orbited around Earth. Afterwards, the USSR focused on sending people into space and on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in the world to go into space. Over eight years later, on 20 July 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, famously saying, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Following this, many more goals were achieved. For example, America’s NASA space agency launched Voyager 1 on 5 September 1977 to study deep space, and it still transmits data today. After many experiments, they succeeded in making rockets that could escape Earth’s gravity. Space: The Final Frontier(3) _____ _ All the astronauts on the USSR’s Soyuz 11 and America’s Challenger died during their missions. These disasters made everyone sad and disappointed, but the desire to explore the universe never lied. This is because people believe in the importance of carrying on space exploration despite huge risks. An example of this ongoing work in the International Space Station. It orbits Earth and has astronauts from different countries on board, providing a continuous human presence in space. China's space program started later than those of Russia and the US, but it has made great progress in a short time. China became the 3rd country in the world to independently send humans into space in 2003, when Yang Liwei successfully orbited Earth in the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft. Then Shenzhou 6 and 7 completed a second manned orbit and the first Chinese spacewalk, followed by the vehicle Jade Rabbit being sent to the moon to study its surface. After that, China launched the Tiangong 2 space lab into space and Tianzhou 1 to dock with it. This signalled one step further in China's plan to establish a space station in the future. More recently, China has sent Chang’e ... ...
