Lesson 4. Space X Wants to Send You to Mars!
Speaking activity
Exercise 1Take it in turns to talk with your partner about space travelling.Give yourself
two minutes to prepare your answer.Think about the following questions:
1. Is traveling in space safe or dangerous? Why? / Why not?
2. Would you like to live on Mars? Why? / Why not?
3. What are three good things about space travel?
4. What are three bad things about space travel?
5. How is the earth different from Mars?
6. Should governments spend more money on space travel?
Reading comprehension
Space X Wants to Send You to Mars!
For several years, many people have talked about the possibility of flying to Mars.
One of the problems with such a trip, however, has been the cost: US 10 billion dollars
(US$10,000,000,000) to send one person to the red planet. Elon Musk, a billionaire
businessman, recently announced his plans to change this. He is the CEO of Space X, a
company that he created, and he hopes to change the world by selling tickets to Mars for
only US$200,000. How can he do this? The answer is technology. With new technology, he
believes, his company will be able to make the long trip to Mars affordable. He plans to
send the first human to Mars by 2025, and after that his company wants to send one million
people to Mars in the next 40 to 100 years. To do this, Space X needs to build about 1,000
space ships. Will his company be successful? “I think he will be able to put humans on Mars
because he wants to do it,” says Robert Zubrin, the president of the Mars Society. “Right
nowNASA can’t do it because they don’t want to.”
Exercise 4How Much Do You Understand?
According to the text, write ‘T’ (True) or ‘F’ (False) next to each statement.
1.
_______ People have already been traveling to Mars for several years.
2.
_______ It costs a lot of money, now, to send people to Mars.
3.
_______ Elon Musk bought Space X for only US$200,000.
4.
_______ Space X wants to send the first person to Mars within the next 10 years.
5.
_______ Space X wants to send people to Mars who are between 40 and 100 years old.
6.
_______ NASA doesn’t seem very interested in sending people to Mars.
Pre-Listening Vocabulary
CEO: Chief Executive Officer
co-founder: a person who starts a company with another person
launch: to send into space; to start for the first time
dummy: a fake person
orbit: the continual revolution around an object
payload: things and passengers carried in a vehicle
booster: a rocket that helps with take-off
simultaneously: at the same time
Listening
Exercise 6Listen and fill the gaps.
SpaceX CEO Sends Personal Car Into Orbit
Elon Musk the CEO of SpaceX and co-founder of … has successfully launched a test … of
his new, powerful rocket Falcon Heavy. The reusable … launched from the …….. …….. …
in Florida with Musk’s personal sports car onboard. Musk’s goal was to send “Starman,” a
dummy dressed in a spacesuit and his car into orbit in hopes of getting close to …. . The
CEO announced …….. after launch that the upper section …… released its ………. (the
car), though it went further than planned. The car is now expected to orbit around the
……….belt between Mars and Jupiter. Falcon Heavy’s two side ………. returned to earth
as planned, landing ………. on their landing pads. The central core missed its ……………
and crash landed in the ocean.
Grammar Focus
Exercise 7Prepositions
Directions: For each sentence choose the correct preposition from the choices listed. Note
that not all prepositions listed are in the article.
Prepositions: in, for, of, with, by, on, at, to, as, into, across, around, over, through,
from, during, up, off
___Thursday weather permitted SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket___safely lift___.
A little___10 minutes___ the flight, the Dragon separated___the Falcon 9’s second stage.
___Monday the spacecraft will dock at the space station’s Harmony module.
Hans Koenigsmann, vice president ___flight reusability___SpaceX, said “We are
hoping ___stay___ this rate ____the rest ___the year.
Writing
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Exercise 8Choose one of the above discussion questions. Write a paragraph to answer it.
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