CAMBRIDGE CHECKPOINT ENGLISH, WORK BOOK9, GR.8, U11 • 1 and 3c • A Swiss aviator [and adventurer,] known as Rocket Man [or Jet Man,] has flown for more than 25 kilometres on a 10-minute test flight with a jet-powered wing strapped to his back, and is the first person to do so. • Yves Rossy jumped out of a small plane at an altitude of 2,500 metres above the town of Bex in Switzerland. He reached a speed of 304 kph in a heat-resistant suit [comparable to those worn by racing drivers]. [He steered by shifting his weight or turning his head and upper body.] He deployed two parachutes to land back at the airfield. The wing is two-and-a-half metres wide and powered by four jet engines [modified from aircraft engines]. • The 49-year-old Rossy is an ex-fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force and now a commercial pilot. [He became consumed by the desire to fly like a bird 10 years ago and has transformed the garage of his home in a village near Lake Geneva into a workshop.] • [While experimenting with a previous version of his home-made wing three years ago, he misjudged the angle, lost control and was only 500 metres from the ground when he managed to open his parachute.] • [Rossy’s friend and adviser, Bruno Brokken, a world-champion aeronautic acrobat from Belgium, paid tribute to his persistence. ‘Many people would have given up years ago. I wouldn’t do the things he does.’] • [In May ‘Rossy stages his first public flight, an acrobatic display over the Alps, including a 360-degree roll.] His trials have cost his sponsors more than $200,000 so far. • 2 • aviator, adventurer, kilometre, altitude, resistant, comparable, deployed, parachutes, airfield, aircraft, ex-fighter pilot, commercial, consumed, transformed, experimenting, previous, misjudged, control, metres, adviser, aeronautic, acrobat, persistence, display, including • 3a • statistics, names, places; multiple pre-noun adjectives; short/simple sentences; short paragraphs; starts with recent and dramatic event; witness quotation near the end; looks to the next stage at the end • 3b Example answers: • Rocket Man jets into history; Pilot uses own wings; Swiss passes flight test • 3c • See answer to 1 • 3d • A Swiss pilot is the first person to fly over 25 kilometres using a jet wing. • 3e Example answers • i Yves Rossy; Rocket Man; Jet Man: Known as both Rocket Man and Jet Man, Yves Rossy set a new record. • ii 25 kilometres; 2,500 metres high; 304kph: He flew at a height of 2,500 metres, covering a distance of 25 kilometres and reaching a speed of 304 kph. • iii Swiss aviator; fighter pilot; commercial pilot: No longer a fighter pilot but now a commercial pilot, the Swiss aviator continues to fly. • 4 Example answer • In 2009 Rossy, the Swiss pilot who flew over the Alps with his jet-powered wing the previous year, attempted a crossing from Africa to Europe at Gibraltar that would have set a new record if, at 2,000 metres above Tangier on his way to Spain, weather conditions had not forced him to land in the sea, where he was picked up by helicopter and later found to be uninjured. • 6a • In bad weather motorists drive too fast and too close to each other. Motorway lanes are often misused. Motorists are often distracted or overconfident, and do not always have both hands on the wheel. Lorry drivers do not always have safe vehicles or drive according to the regulations. Road travel is already the most dangerous form of travel and to increase the speed limit, especially for lorries, would make it even more so. • 6b • Do: stay focused; respond to the weather; consider other road users; think of the drivers behind you • Don’t: drive too close to the car in front; stay in the fast lane; drive too fast; drive too slowly; block the middle lane • 6c Example answer: • Lorries – and especially those towing trailers that can skid and twist the lorry – can cause multiple crashes because as well as reducing visibility in the wet with their spray and causing wind effects on cars, they block the fast lane when overtaking and the slow lane when they travel together. • 6d • Lorry drivers should be treated the same as car drivers because generally they have more advanced skills and their speed is mechanically limited, making them more responsible drivers than the many motorists who cause accidents by lane-switching, ignoring ‘Slow’ signs, and losing their temper. • 7 Example answer • Does the government really feel that our country’s roads are so safe, and that there are so few accidents, that they can confidently and responsibly raise the motorway speed limit? Certainly that is not how the traffic police see it. During holiday periods, and at peak times and in bad weather, there are many conditions which put motorists at risk, and even more so if they did not need to watch their speed. Nowadays, there are many distractions within a car to be resisted, and roadworks and traffic jams are an ever-present external nuisance; it’s harder than ever to be a conscientious driver these days and this is not the time to be encouraging faster driving and showing off. • Lorries are the cause of much frustration to motorists, especially in wet and windy weather, and allowing them to exceed their present speed restriction would be a recipe for disaster. It would make it even harder for motorists to be able to use the fast lane if it were always blocked by lorries overtaking other lorries or even cars. Accidents involving lorries are already likely to include fatalities simply because of the size and weight of the vehicles; greater speed would be an aggravating factor. Imagine how much worse the consequences of braking on ice or of a jack-knifing lorry would be, and how many other vehicles would be caught up in the pile-up, if everyone was travelling even faster than at present. • Fatal accidents do not happen only to other people! For the good of all, the speed limit should not be raised!
