Challenger/ Kennedy Space Centre/ UPI/ NASA
main idea/ word study/ useful expressions/ sentence paraphrase

About the author
William Harwood, a newspaper reporter, worked as Cape
Canaveral bureau chief of the United Press International when he wrote about his experience as a witness to the tragic explosion.

Warm-up questions
• What is a space shuttle?
• Do you know Challenger? Can you give some information about it?
• There are some abbreviations in the text, please give out their full names and remember them.

Background information
A space shuttle, was made in USA and launched from the Kennedy Space Center in
Jan.28, 1986. It cost ﹩ 1~2 billion. Two minutes after it was launched, it exploded, killing all the members of the crew. It was the greatest space travel tragedy ever recorded.

Background information
Located in Cape Canaveral, Florida, it is the launch site of U.S. space flights,
Crew members of which witnessed the launching of the first U.S. manned space flight in 1961, the first lunar-landing in 1969 and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

Background
United Press International
合众国际社
It is a major news agency in the United States.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 国家航空
和宇宙航行局
It is an independent US government agency based in
Kennedy Space Center in Florida and was established in 1958 for space exploration.

About the
This article is in the nature of reportage, written by a newspaper reporter of UPI who witnessed the disastrous launch of the space shuttle challenger. It was 25th shuttle launch in USA. It was originally scheduled for 9:38 a.m., Jan.28,
1986 at Kennedy Space Center, but the cold weather delayed fueling and launch for two hours. At 11:38 a.m., the spacecraft was launched and exploded about two minutes later, killing all the members of the crew. The following research showed that the cause of this disaster was fuel release from one of the boosters.

About the text
Word Study
• alert: v. to make sb. notice sth. important or dangerous
---The radio alerted the citizens to prepare for the hurricane.
adj. attentive or quick to think or act
---to be alert to possible dangers
• arc: v. to move in a curved way
---the stars that arc across the sky n. sth shaped like a curve or an arch
---the vivid arc of a rainbow

About the text
Word Study
• bay: n. a body of water partially enclosed by land but with a wide mouth, affording access to the sea
---the Bay of Biscay n. the position of having been checked or held at a distance
---The hunters brought their quarry to bay.
• corkscrew: v. to move or cause to move in a spiral or winding course
---to corkscrew one’s way through the crowd adj. spiral in shape
---corkscrew curl

About the text
Word Study
• flame: n. hot and bright burning gas
---The sticks burst into flames.
v. to burn brightly; to blaze
---The rising sun flamed the eastern sky.
• ignite: v. to cause or start to burn
---The liquid ignited when somebody dropped a match in it accidentally.
v. to arouse the passions of, to excite
---His speech ignited the crowd greatly.

About the text
Word Study
• lull: n. a short period of time in which there is less activity or noise than usual
---a lull before the storm, in the conversation, during the battle.
v. to cause to sleep or rest; to soothe or calm
---The monotonous voice of the movement of the train lulled me to sleep

About the text
Word Study
• narrative: n. sth. told as a story
---to give a clear narrative of the incident.
adj. consisting of or characterized by the telling of a story
---narrative poem
• puff: n. a sudden small movement of wind, air, or smoke
---A puff of wind blew the papers off the table.
v. to blow in puffs
---He often puffs cigarette smoke in others’ face for fun

About the text
Word Study
• orbit: n.
the path traveled by an object such as a spacecraft which is moving around another much bigger object such as the Earth
---How many satellites have been sent into orbit round the
Earth?
v. to revolve around an orbit
---Our satellite itself will orbit around the moon for a period of two days.

About the text
Word Study
• punch: v. to hit with a sharp blow of the fist
---to punch sb. on the nose.
v. to depress (a key or button, for example) in order to activate a device or perform an operation
---to punch the keys of a typewrite
• shuttle: n. a spacecraft that can fly into space and return to
Earth and can be used more than once v. to cause to move back and forth frequently
---business people who shuttle between European capitals

About the text
Word Study
• thunder: v. to produce thunder or sounds like thunder
---The train thundered through the station.
n. the crashing or booming sound produced by rapidly expanding air along the path of the electrical discharge of lightning
---We haven’t heard much thunder this summer
• twin: adj. being two things closely resembling each other
--- twin cities; twin sisters n. either of a pair of children or young animals born of the same mother at the same time

About the text
Word Study
• wheel: n. disc or circular frame that turns on an axel as on cars, carts, bicycles etc. as part of a machine v. to turn around suddenly
---He wheeled round suddenly.

About the text
Useful Expressions
• the press site (para.1): the place where the press people, the newspaper and TV station reporters who had come to cover the event, worked
• worth staffing (para.2): worth providing workers for the job
• “live” reporting (para.3): reporting while the event is going on
• print journalists (para.3): journalists who work for newspapers and magazines
• let out (para.3): to make known; to reveal
---Who let that story out?
to allow sth. to leave a place (said of gas, air, light, water)
---He let the air out of the tyres

About the text
Useful Expressions
• warm up (para.3): to prepare for an athletic event by exercising, stretching, or practicing for a short time beforehand to make more enthusiastic, excited
---to warm up an audience with a few jokes.
• to be scheduled for (para.3): to plan or appoint for a certain time or date
---The sale is scheduled for tomorrow.
• to keep sth. on track(para.4): to make sure the process is proceeding as planned
---The launch team was struggling to keep the count down on track.
• to build up (para.4): to increase gradually
---to build up one’s strength after an illness

About the text
Useful Expressions
• to call it up (para.4): to make it appear on the computer
• shoot the breeze (para.4): chat
• to thunder to life (para.4): to be ignited with a terrible noise
---Challenger’s three main engines thundered to life on schedule.
• on schedule (para.4): on time
---The task will be finished on schedule if nothing prevents.
• to shoot out sth. (para.4): to move, come, go, send out suddenly and quickly
---He shot out of school when the bell rang

About the text
Useful Expressions
• to clear (para.5): to jump over or leave some place without touching it
• winged away (para.6): was sent quickly
• raw copy (para.7): unpolished copy, giving all unpleasant facts without trying to make them more acceptable
---raw material, raw meat, raw date.
• header material (para.13): the material to be put at the top of a page
• in the event of sth. (para.20): if sth. happens
---In the event of his death, Sheilla will inherit the money.
• to well up (para.21): to flow or rise like water from a well
---Tears welled up in her eyes.

About the text
Useful Expressions
• to hang on (para.13): not to replace the receiver
---The line was engaged and the operator asked if I’d like to hang on.
to grip sth. firmly
---Hang on tight, we’re off.
to depend on
---A great deal hangs on this decision.
• to serve as sth. (para.20): to work for
--served as a gardener and chauffeur to be suitable for; to be used as
---Let this incident serve as a reminder to future generations.

About the text
Sentence Paraphrase
• It was bitterly cold that night. I remember turning on the drafty
UPI trailer’s heaters in a futile attempt to warm up while I started banging out copy. (para.3)
It was extremely cold that night. An icy wind was blowing through the trailer. I remember I turned on the heaters in the trailer to get some warmth while I started working, but it did not help much.

About the text
Sentence Paraphrase
• Off to the side, a brilliant tongue of orange flame periodically flared in the night as excess hydrogen was let out harmlessly in the atmosphere. (para.4)
Some distance away to the side, a bright tongue of orange flame was burning fiercely in the darkness when the unnecessary hydrogen was released into the atmosphere.

About the text
Sentence Paraphrase
• I reminded him not to push the SEND button until I confirmed vertical motion. . .(para.4)
I asked him not to send the news until If made sure that the shuttle was indeed rising upward.

About the text
Sentence Paraphrase
• . . . should disaster strike, the plan went, I would start dictating and Trott would start filling raw copy to the wire. (para.7)
. . .if there were a disaster, we would do as planned: I would tell what was happening orally and Trott would send what I said by the wire without much improvement.

About the text
Sentence Paraphrase
• But the sound quickly faded to a dull rumble as
Challenger wheeled about and arced over behind its booster exhaust plume.
(para.8)
The engine of the booster produced gas, steam and a small cloud.
After that Challenger flew around and moved in a curved shape; the original terrible roar disappeared and a long, deep, rolling sound began to be heard.

About the text
Sentence Paraphrase
• And then, in that pregnant instant before the knowledge that something terrible has happened settled in, a single booster emerged from the cloud, corkscrewing madly through the sky.
(para.10)
And then, in that critical moment of pause and silence, before we knew that something terrible had happened, we could see a single booster coming out from the cloud and flying down in a spiral way through the sky.

About the text
Sentence Paraphrase
• I was flying on some kind of mental autopilot. (para.10)
I was working automatically just like a pilot letting the plane fly on its own.

In-class exercises
Complete the sentences with the expressions listed below in their proper forms.
in the event of on schedule to be scheduled for to build up to serve as to warm up
1) It was getting cold. Luckily I had an old overcoat, which also a blanket at night.
2) The completion of this expressway
3) In the first few years, they were just
January 2005.
reform. The real restructuring started in the year 2000.
for the

In-class exercises
4) They did not complete the project know yet what caused the delay.
5) shelters.
a war, these subways could
6) His knowledge on his subject began to years of doing extensive reading.
. We don’t air-raid after several

Keys