外研版英语选修八module5课文原文

[MODULE】The Conquest of the Universe

【READING AND VOCABULAR Y

Space: the Final Fron tier

[Part 1]

st Ever since Neil Armstro ng first set foot on the Moon back on 21

July, 1969, people have become accustomed to the idea of space

travel. Millions of people watched that first moon landing on television, their

hearts in their mouths, aware of how difficult

and dangerous an adventure it was, and what risks had to be taken. With Armstrong's nowfamous words: “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind ” , a dream was achieved. All three astro nauts made it safely back to Earth, using a spaceship

computer that was much less powerful tha n the ones used by the average

school stude nts today.

There were several more journeys into space over the next few years but

the sin gle spaceships were very expe nsive as they could not take off more

than once. People were no longer so enthusiastic about a peace travel

programme that was costing the United States $10 million a day. That was

until the arrival of the space shuttle a spacecraft that could be used for

several journ eys. The

first shuttle fight into space was the Columbia the Kennedy Space Centre on 12 th April, 1981,. The aim of this

flight was to test the new shuttle system, to go safely up into

orbit and to retu rn to the Earth for a safe landin g. It was a

success and a little more than a decade after Apollo 11's historic voyage, the Columbia made a safe, con trolled, aeropla ne-style landing in

California. This was the start of a new age of space travel.

By the time the Challe nger took off in 1986, the world seemed to

have lost its fear and wonder at the amazing achievement of people going to be a special flight and so milli ons of people turned in to wit ness the take-off on TV. An ordinary teacher, Christa

McAuliffe, 37, who was married with two children, was to be the

first civilian in space. She was going to give two fifteen-minute less ons from space. The first was to show the con trols of the spacecraft and explai n how gravity worked. The sec ond was to describe the aim of the Challenger

space programme. Christa hoped to com muni cate a sense of exciteme nt and create new in terest in the space programme.

Sadly, she never came back to her classroom again, as the shuttle exploded just over a minute after taki ng off in Florida and all seve n astro nauts were killed.

maybe they assumed this space flight

would be no more dan gerous tha n gett ing on an aeropla ne. But how

launched from The world was in shock