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THE UNIVERSE

UNIT 8YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Look at the photo and answer the questions.
1 What is the person doing? Would you like to try this work?
Why / Why not?
2 Why do governments send people to space?
3 Would you like to travel to space? Why / Why not?
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WATCH AND LISTENPREPARING TO WATCH
ACTIVATING YOURKNOWLEDGE

USING YOURKNOWLEDGE

1 Work with a partner and answer the questions.
1 How do people usually get to work when they live far fromtheir workplace?
2 Why might people live far from their workplace?
3 What are some unusual offices or workplaces?
2 You are going to watch a video about a woman who travelled to space forwork. Write five adjectives and five nouns to describe a trip to space.
Adjectives:
Nouns:,,,,,,,,GLOSSARY

astronaut (n) someone who travels to and works in space
International Space Station (n) the name of an international spacecraft whereastronauts work on projects
rocket (n) a vehicle for travelling to spacecapsule (n) the part of the rocket where the astronauts arecosmonaut (n) an astronaut from Russia
blast off (phr v) to leave the ground; for example, when a spacecraft or rocket blasts off,
it leaves the ground.

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WHILE WATCHING
3

Watch the video. Answer the questions.
1 What does Sunita Williams do?

UNDERSTANDING
MAIN IDEAS

2 What is the name of her office in space?
3 How did she get there?
4 What was not a problem when she went there?
5 What took longer, her trip to space or her drive to work?
4Watch again. Complete the sentences with the correct numbers.
1 It takes Sunita Williams
minutes to drive to the office.
2 She drives her car
miles to the office in Houston, Texas.
3 She spentmonths in space.
4 The trip to space wasmiles, straight up.
5 The trip took
minutes.

UNDERSTANDING
DETAIL5 Correct the mistakes in the student’s notes. Compare your answers witha partner.

1 The rocket is American.
2 The trip took double the time it takes her to drive to work.
3 She travelled in a big capsule.
4 She went with a Russian cosmonaut and a Korean astronaut.
5 They rode the elevator to the bottom.

DISCUSSION
6 Work with a partner. Discuss the questions. Explain your answers.
1 What are the dangers of travelling to space?
2 What kind of person works in space?
3 What is ‘space tourism’? How do you feel about it?

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READINGREADING 1
PREPARING TO READ
UNDERSTANDING
KEY VOCABULARY

1 Read the sentences (1–7). Write the correct form of the words in boldnext to the definitions (a–g).
1 Mariam loves to explore new places. Her dream is to go into space.
2 There were many advances in science and medicine during the lastcentury. The speed of change was amazing.
3 Astronauts have not set foot beyond the moon, but one day soonthey may go to planets that are farther away.
4 It is important for an entrepreneur to understand that they might lose
all of their money if their business fails.
5 The rocket crashed when it was landing. Luckily, the people insidewere not hurt.
6 Tesla is a private company. The government does not run it.
7 Some people don’t think we should use public money, like taxes,
to pay for space travel. They think companies should pay for it.
abcdefg

USING YOURKNOWLEDGE

172(n) someone who starts their own business(n) progress in the development or improvementof something(adj) related to money or services controlled or supplied
by a person or a company and not by the government(v) to travel to a new place to learn about it(prep) on the farther side of; at a farther distance than(v) to hit something by accident, especially in a vehicle(adj) related to money or services controlled or suppliedby the government and not by a person or a company

2 You are going to read an article about space travel. Before you read,
discuss the questions with a partner.
1 Who pays for space exploration?
2 Do you think people will ever go on holiday in space? Why / Why not?

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NEWSSCIENCEDISCOVERIESTECHNOLOGYE D U C AT I O NBLOGSCOMMUNITY

The rise of commercial 1 space travel

Elon Musk and Dragon

1 In 1957, the Soviet Union sent Sputnik I into space.
It was the first successful spacecraft to orbit2 theEarth, and it started the time period known as theSpace Age. A short time later in the US, the National
Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) successfully
sent another spacecraft, Explorer I, into space. In theyears that followed, incredible advances were made.
Astronauts orbited the Earth and men walked on themoon. The world, it seemed, wanted to learn what wasbeyond Earth.
2 Today, space exploration continues, and governments
still compete with one another to make new discoveries.
In 2012, NASA landed its unmanned3 spacecraft Curiosity
on Mars in order to collect information about the planet.
In 2016, Europe and Russia worked together and sent aspacecraft to Mars. China and India are also working on
similar projects. However, there has been one big change:
private companies, instead of public governmentorganizations, are entering the Space Race4.
3 SpaceX has been very successful in commercial spacetravel. They designed the spacecraft Dragon in order todeliver supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
In 2012, Dragon was the first commercial spacecraft inhistory to do that. Elon Musk, the man who started thecompany, has dreams that go beyond making deliveries.
He hopes that SpaceX will be able to send people toMars by 2025.

4 Another entrepreneur who supportscommercial space travel is Sir Richard Branson.
He started a private company called Virgin
Galactic. Their goal is to open space travel
to everyone. The company has sold almost
700 future trips to space, at the high costof $250,000 per person. Those future space
tourists come from countries all over theworld and are all different ages.
5 Private companies are lucky in one way.
They don’t have to wait for money from thegovernment like NASA does. However, thatdoesn’t mean that setbacks5 and accidents
don’t happen. In 2014, Virgin Galactic’s VSS
Enterprise crashed in the Mojave Desert in
the US during a test flight. The 39-year-oldpilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed. In 2016,a SpaceX spacecraft that was going to theISS exploded on the launch pad in Cape
Canaveral, Florida. No one was hurt, but
important supplies were lost.
6 The race to explore the universe continues
and many private companies are competing.
Some of those companies want to takepeople to the moon and back someday.
Others want to take people to Mars. The
possibilities are endless. Maybe in our lifetime,those dreams will come true.

Sir Richard Branson and a Virgin Galactic spacecraft

1

commercial (adj) with the purpose of making money
orbit (v) to travel around a planet or star3
unmanned (adj) without people to operate something
4
Space Race (n) the competition between countries to make advances in the field of space exploration5
setbacks (n) problems that make something happen later or more slowly than it should

2

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WHILE READING
3 Read the text on page 173 and answer the questions.

READING FOR
MAIN IDEAS

1 What is the Space Age?
2 What are countries competing with one another for?
3 What are some goals of future space travel?
4 What is one difference between public and private companies?

READING FOR DETAIL

4 Read the statements. Write T (true) or F (false). Then correct thefalse statements.
1 NASA sent Sputnik I into space, and it was the first successful
spacecraft to orbit the Earth.
2 Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Sir Richard Branson have to wait
for government money in order to build new spacecraft.
3 In 2016, a SpaceX spacecraft exploded in Cape Canaveral,Florida, and killed its pilot.
4 Virgin Galactic has sold nearly 700 future trips to space.
5 The first commercial spacecraft to deliver goods to theInternational Space Station was called Dragon.

READING BETWEEN THE LINESSKILLS

Identifying the author’s purpose

IDENTIFYINGPURPOSE

174Authors write in order to inform, explain, entertain or persuade readers. The
author’s purpose may be understood by his or her use of key words, tone
and language in the text. Good readers identify why a text was written.
The author’s purpose may be stated clearly in the text, or it may haveto be inferred.
5 Read the text on page 173 again. Circle the correct answers.
1 The purpose of the text is to …
a persuade readers that commercial space travel is necessary.
b inform readers about the advances in commercial space travel.
c entertain readers about the possibility of life on Mars.
2 You could find the text in …
a a magazine.
b a textbook.
c a science fiction novel.
3 The author is …
a analyzing commercial space travel.
b describing commercial space travel.
c questioning the benefits of commercial space travel.

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DISCUSSION
6 Discuss the questions with a partner.
1 Would you pay a lot of money to be a space tourist? Why / Why not?
2 Why might some people want to leave Earth and live on Mars?

READING 2
PREPARING TO READ
1 You are going to read about life on other planets. Before you read,circle the best definition (a or b) for each word in bold.

UNDERSTANDING
KEY VOCABULARY

1 I often wonder if people will travel to Mars one day. Maybe NASA will
send someone there in the next 10 or 15 years.
a think about something and try to understand it
b not believe something
2 My essay is weak because I didn’t support my ideas with expert
opinions. I should find more research to add to my essay.
a think of more topics to write aboutb help show that something is true
3 A lot of evidence shows that Mars once had flowing water.
a opinions that people have about a topic
b something that makes you believe something is true
4 Scientists have been studying space for many years. Some think there islife on other planets, but no one can prove it.
a show that something is trueb ask questions about something
5 Life can’t exist without air and water. For that reason, Earth is theperfect planet for life.
a be real, alive or presentb change and improve
6 Because it was so difficult, Elise thought it was unlikely that she would
pass her Astronomy exam.
a expected to happen; probableb not expected to happen; not probable
7 Astronauts have to train a lot in order to prepare for the conditions
they’ll face in space, such as very hot and very cold temperatures.
a the location of somethingb the situation in which people live, work or do things
8 On particular nights, you can see the brightest planets when you lookat the sky. That only happens when the sky is clear.
a used to talk about one thing or person and not othersb many different things or people, not just one

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SKIMMING

2 Skim the text on page 177. What type of text is it?
a a storyb an essayc a newspaper article

WHILE READINGREADING FOR
MAIN IDEAS

3 Read the text and write the number of the paragraph (1–4) where theauthor mentions each idea (a–d).
a There is not enough evidence to prove that Kepler 22b has life.
Paragraph:b Earth is the only planet with the right conditions for life.
Paragraph:c There are arguments for and against the idea that life exists onother planets. Paragraph:d It is unlikely that there is life on another planet, because theconditions for life to exist are too particular. Paragraph:

READING FOR DETAIL

4 Answer the questions, using the information in the text.
1 How many solar systems are there in the universe?
2 What is the name of the telescope that discovers new planets?
3 What is Kepler 22b?
4 Which university wrote a report saying that it is unlikely that there islife on other planets?
5 What does the report say we need before we can know if there is lifeon other planets?

Kepler 22b176

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Life on other planets
12

3

For many years, people havewondered whether we are the only
living things in the universe. Some
scientists believe that there must belife on other planets because theuniverse is so big. However, it isunlikely that there is life on otherplanets because planets need a very
specific environment for life tostart. In the end, there are no facts
that support the idea of life onother planets.
First of all, it is true that theuniverse is huge. It has billionsof stars and thousands of solar
systems. As of 2016, experts using
the very powerful Kepler telescope1
have found more than 2,300
planets in orbit around stars. A
lot of these planets are similar toEarth. In fact, a number of scientists
believe that one of these planets,
named Kepler 22b, has the rightconditions – the right atmosphere2
and temperature – to support life.
However, there is no evidence that
there is life on Kepler 22b. Experts
with the best technology can see
no signs of life there. Until thereis hard evidence, we cannot use
Kepler 22b to support the idea oflife on other planets.
A planet needs very particularconditions to support life. A planetwith life would need to havewater, the right temperature and4

the right mix of chemicals in theatmosphere. Earth has the perfectconditions for life, and it is very
unlikely that another planet hasexactly the same environmentas Earth. In addition, althoughscientists believe that life might
exist on other planets, they havenever found evidence to prove it.
A recent report from Princeton
University suggests that it is highly
unlikely that there is life on otherplanets. The researchers believe that
we don’t have enough scientificevidence to decide if there is lifeon other planets. They say that justbecause conditions similar to Earthexist on other planets, it doesn’tmean that life exists there.
In conclusion, I do not believethat there is life on other planets.
Although the universe is very big,a planet with life needs very specialconditions. Earth has exactly theright conditions for life. It is not
too hot or too cold. It has water, airand the right chemicals. I do notthink that any other planets could
have exactly the same conditions asEarth. Therefore, I do not think that
there could be life on other planets.

1

telescope (n) a piece of equipment, in theshape of a tube, that makes things that are faraway look bigger or nearer2
atmosphere (n) the layer of gases arounda planet

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READING BETWEEN THE LINES
MAKING INFERENCESDISTINGUISHING
FACT FROMOPINION

IDENTIFYINGPURPOSE

5 Why do you think Kepler 22b was given its name?
6 Read the sentences from the text. Which are facts and which areopinions? Write F (fact) or O (opinion).
1 There must be life on other planets.
2 The universe has billions of stars and thousands of solar systems.
3 It is highly unlikely that there is life on other planets.
4 A planet needs very particular conditions to support life.
7 Read the questions (1–3) and circle the correct answers (a–c).
1 What is the author’s main purpose?
a to entertain readers
b to make readers agree with his or her opinion
c to inform readers
2 What does the author believe?
a The universe is so big that there must be life on other planets.
b Life probably doesn’t exist on other planets.
c Life most likely exists on other planets; we just have to find it.
3 Why does the author include information from a recent reportfrom Princeton University?
a to prove that experts agree with his or her opinionb to show that there are two sides to the argumentc to prove that life exists on other planets

DISCUSSION
8 Space exploration has led to many inventions. With a partner, rankthese inventions in order of importance from 1 (the most important)to 7 (the least important).
a microcomputersb GPS navigationc satellite TV
d weather forecasts
SYNTHESIZINGe electric cars
f robotic armsg freeze-dried food

9 Use information from Reading 1 and Reading 2 to answer the questions.
1 Will private companies make it possible for tourists to go to the moonor to explore planets like Mars or Kepler 22b? Why / Why not?
2 Will private companies help us learn more about other planets andtheir environments? Why / Why not?

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