(
课件网) Unit 4 Space Exploration 教材习题精讲 Reading and Thinking 01 03 04 02 Discovering Useful Structures Reading for Writing Assessing Your Progress Part 01 Reading and Thinking SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER “Are we alone What’s out there ” Looking up at the stars, people have always wanted to learn more about space, and scientists work hard to find answers. They make vehicles to carry brave people into space to find out the secrets of the universe. _____ Before the mid-20th century, most people felt travelling into space was an impossible dream. However, some scientists were determined to help humans realise their dream to explore space. _____ On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR and successfully orbited around Earth. Afterwards, the USSR focused on sending people into space, and on 12 April 1961, 【课文】 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. _____ All the astronauts on the USSR’s Soyuz 11 and America’s Challenger died during their missions. 【课文】 These disasters made everyone sad and disappointed, but the desire to explore the universe never died. This is because people believe in the importance of carrying on space exploration despite the huge risks. An example of this ongoing work is 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 programme started later than those of Russia and the US, but it has made great progress in a short time. China became the third 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 【课文】 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 4 to explore the surface of the far side of the moon to make measurements and observations. _____ Europe, the US, and China all have plans to further study and explore planets like Mars and Jupiter. Despite the difficulties, scientists hope future discoveries will not only enable us to understand how the universe began, but also help us survive well into the future. 【课文】 (1) Before you read, look at the title and the photos. Discuss these questions in ... ...
