The motivation for exploring and settling space mirrors the spirit
that has compelled explorers through the ages.
NASA's mission to explore continues as we build a foundation of
technology, experience, and scientific knowledge. During the first decades
of the 21st Century, explorers from Earth could set foot on the Moon and
Mars and expand the human frontier.
Human exploration beyond low–Earth orbit will not occur until after
the International Space Station has been assembled and become operational.
Until then NASA engineers and scientists continue to develop and test technologies
that will be critical for long–duration journeys to the Moon, Mars and
beyond.
Station in excellent conditions:
Operations continue to run smoothly for the International Space Station as it enters the 14th month on orbit. The International Space Station continues to operate in excellent shape as it orbits the Earth at an altitude of 247 by 231 statute miles.
Space science program:
The International Space Station will offer vantage points and unique capabilities from which research in space science can be conducted. Research accommodations on externally attached exposed sites provide exposure and viewing in virtually all directions. The space station will provide researchers with resources required to increase our understanding of the Solar and space environment and their effects on the health and future of our home planet.
TransHab Concept:
The TransHab, a design concept, could provide a large volume habitation
module for the International Space Station (ISS).
The TransHab inflatable module is a new concept that has been proposed
as a crew quarters for the International Space Station that could replace
the current design planned as the station's United States crew quarters,
a traditional aluminium module. The concept for TransHab originated at
NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Centre, Houston, in 1997 as a possible design
for inflatable living quarters on future Mars-bound spacecraft. The TransHab,
a design concept, could provide a large volume habitation module for the
International Space Station while demonstrating its use for future transit
spacecraft. The TransHab would be an inflatable living quarters as opposed
to the more conventional space cylinder originally planned for the habitation
module. If TransHab were approved as an official station component, it
would be the last scheduled element (Flight 16A), completing the station
in late 2004.
www.NASA.com (adapted and abridged)
A. What do the following words refer to?
1. “it” – line 12
2. “their” – line 18
3. “ its” – line 30
B. Say whether these statements are TRUE or FALSE. Underline the justification in the text. Don’t forget to mention the number of this exercise.
1. Explorers felt almost obligated to explore space.
2. A lot has already been done in our Century in what concerns Space
exploration.
3. NASA has stopped trying to explore Space beyond Mars.
4. An International Space Station will only be built in the next
Century.
C. Please answer the questions, using your own words as far as possible.
1. What can be the reasons to motivate explorers, engineers and scientists
to continue to develop technologies to explore
Space?
2. What’s the use of having an International Space Station?
3. Would you like to be a member of a Space Station? Why / Why not?
II
A. Rephrase the following sentences:
1. “ (...) We build a foundation of technology, experience, and scientific
knowledge.”
A foundation __________________________________________________________________________
2. “ (...) NASA engineers and scientists continue to develop
and test technologies (...).”
Technologies ______________________________________________________________________
3. The International Space Station offers vantage points and
unique capabilities. Due to this, research in Space science can be conducted.
If it _______________________________________________________________________________
4. TransHab isn’t approved as an official station component. So,
it is not the latest scheduled element completing the station.
If _________________________________________________________________________________
B. Remeber the verb-tense exercises I’ve given you? Here are some of them for you to complete.
Andy, Sue, Jenny and Gabriel are concerned about Bob. They are astronauts
in a Space Station. Complete.
Andy - __________________________ (you / to see) Bob, Sue?
Sue - No, I ____________________ . Why?
Andy - Well, no one ___________________ (to see) him this evening.
He ____________________ (to disappear) completely.
Sue - Bob’s the one who ___________________ (always / to be) tired,
isn’t he? Perhaps he __________________ (to go) to bed early.
Andy - No, he __________________ . I ___________________ (already
/ to look) in his crew quarter and he _________________ (not / to be) there
five minutes ago.
Sue - Here’s Jenny. You _____________________ (not / to see) Bob,
have you, Jenny?
Jenny - Yes, I ________________ (to have).
Andy - When _______________________ (you / to see) him?
Jenny - I __________________ (to see) him before dinner, about two
hours ago. He ____________ (to be) by the artificial lake.
Andy - Oh, no! I hope he ________________________ (not / to fall)
in. Quick! Let’s go and see.
Gabriel - Andy! I _________________________ (to find) him.
Andy - Oh, thank goodness. ________________________ (he / to be)
all right, Gabriel?
Gabriel- Yes, but he’s a bit wet.
Andy - Oh, dear! _________________________ ( he / not / to be) in
the lake, was he?
Gabriel- In the lake? No, he _________________ (to be) asleep in
the bath!
III
In the introduction it says:
Comment on these sentences, relating them to the short story.
In this test paper you may use your exercise books as previously spoken about.
Read through the passage below and answer the questions that follow on it.
The Legacy of Apartheid
Mduduza Vilacase is a typical Sowetan boy living
at his parents’ home in Soweto. When the riots began in the school just
around the corner from his house, he was only eight. From that moment on
his education effectively stopped - he went out onto the streets to throw
stones uselessly at the armoured personnel carriers, while the army occupied
his classrooms. By the time he was fifteen he was being regularly picked
up and beaten by the police. At eighteen he made a run for it and disappeared
into exile.
If anyone should reap the rewards of change
in South Africa it should be families like the Vilacases. They and hundreds
of others like them fought to maintain their dignity as human beings throughout
the years of humiliation that apartheid heaped on blacks - when they were
strip-searched, when they had to step off the pavement to make way for
white. Families like them hid the picture of Mandela behind a calendar
on the kitchen wall and dreamed about a better future.
But now that future is here they are discovering
that nothing has really changed. They live in the same matchbox house they
have been in since 1941, with eight people and one outside toilet. Mduduza
spends every day in front of the TV because there are no jobs. He sacrificed
his education to fight for his freedom, and has returned to find unemployment
in Soweto running at 40 per cent.
You can feel the anger beginning to rise in
him again. Every day he is reminded that it is the white who have the automatic
cars, the houses with swimming pools, the jobs in the city. No one has
taken any of that away from them - all that has happened is that a few
of the luckier blacks have moved out of Soweto to join the white in their
leafy crime-free suburbs. The deepest scars of apartheid are those, which
no one can see. Apartheid has stripped South African blacks of virtually
any sense of self-worth; it was designed so that blacks depended on whites
for everything, especially work.
I look at Mduduza - a boy easily bright enough
to have gone to university if he had ever had a chance to do so - and can
see the anger consuming him inside. He feels humiliated that he cannot
find a job to help his parents.
As South Africa emerges blinking into the normal
world after forty years trapped inside this deranged system, there are
many good things to look forward to. For the first time youths like Mduduza
will have a say in their county’s destiny. But if anyone tells you apartheid
is over, they are wrong. The legacy of this barbaric social experiment
will haunt the majority of South Africa’s population for years to come.
in “ The best of From our own correspondent” , BBC, 1994 ( slightly abridged )
A. - What do the following words refer to?
1.- they ( line 8 )
2.- them ( line 17)
3.- their ( line 26)
B. Say whether the following statements are true or false according to the text you have just read. Justify your choice with sentences from the text.
1. When he was fifteen he left school.
2. Families like the Vilacases fought
to maintain the apartheid ‘regime’.
3. Families like Mduduza’s hid Mandela’s
picture because they loved him and his ideas / ideals.
4. Mduduza returned from exile to find
employment in Soweto.
5. Apartheid gave black people a sense
of self-worth.
6. The legacy of Apartheid will haunt
many black people from Africa for many more years.
C. Answer these questions on the text. Use your own words as much as possible.
1. Which aspects of people’s lives are
described in paragraphs three (3) and four (4)? What picture of today’s
South Africa is conveyed here?
2. How does the author himself feel about
the future of South Africa’s black population?
II
A. Choose the most appropriate word ( a, b or c ) to complete the gaps.
1. Black people ____________ for equal rights
for many years and will continue to do so for many years more.
a) struggled
b) have been struggling
c) are struggling
2. Mduduza , ____________ has sacrificed his
education to fight for his freedom, can’t find a job now.
a) whose
b) whom
c) who
3. ____________ everybody has the same rights,
discrimination is still a reality.
a) in spite of
b) although
c) despite
4. Some of the blacks were ____________ than
others.
a) luckiest
b) lucky
c) luckier
5. There are many forms of ____________: Racism
is one.
a) discriminate
b) discrime
c) discrimination
B. Rewrite the sentences below starting them as suggested. Do not change the meaning.
1. Families like them hid the picture
of Mandela behind the calendar on the kitchen wall.
The picture of ________________________________________________________________________
2. “ Mduduza was a bright enough boy to
have gone to university if he had ever had a chance to do so”, the author
said.
The author __________________________________________________________________________
3. Mduduza spends every day in front of
the TV because there are no jobs.
If __________________________________________________________________________________
4. The legacy of this barbaric social
experiment will haunt the majority of South Africa’s population for years
to come.
The majority __________________________________________________________________________
C. Rewrite the following sentences inserting the adequate Modal verb in the place of the underlined phrase and make the necessary transformations:
1. Blacks were prohibited from using buildings
in the ‘White Area’.
____________________________________________________________________________________
2. There was a possibility of Blacks reaching
Freedom soon.
____________________________________________________________________________________
III
Write 100 - 150 words on ONE of the following topics, either A or B .
I have a dream that my four little children
will one day live in a nation where they
will not be judged by the color of their
skin but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Washington 1963
Do you think Luther King’s dream will ever come true? State your reasons
B. Refer to situations around you in which
you think basic human rights and freedoms are not being sufficiently promoted
or protected. Describe one in detail.
Have a nice work!
Your teacher Dina
In this test paper you may use your exercise books as previously spoken about.
I
A – Read this extract from a novel based on the true story of the friendship between anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko and Donald Woods, a white South African journalist:
Text: Cry Freedom
Mapetia began it with a marvellous description of the white man’s
coming to Africa. “First,” he said, “this white guy comes and says, “Do
you mind if I pass through here?” And we say, “Hell no, man – the land
belongs to God.” Then he comes back and says, “Do you mind if I bring my
wife and kids along?” and we say, “Of course not, there’s lots of land,
we’ll just go hunting over the hill there for a couple of days – may God
help you on your journey.” Then the white man finds a spot and builds a
fence around it and says, “I’m going to settle here and farm this land.”
And we shrug our shoulders and say, “Okay. We’ll just move around you,
friend.” Then the white man extends his fences and says, “Look here, every
time you go by, it disturbs my cattle. Would you mind not coming this way?”
And we shrug and move off a little and then the white man gets his gun
and says, “Listen, we can’t have people wandering all over the place like
this, you’re going to have a pass, so we can keep track of who’s coming
and going.” And all the time his ministers are preaching to us about brotherly
love. So in the end, what we’ve got is brotherly love and they’ve got all
the land!”
Woods had to smile at the truth in that just as the others did,
but it only reinforced his own position. “Come on, I’m not defending the
past, or even what’s going on here now, but you have to recognize the value
of change, of what an industrial society produces.”
“For us ?!” Mapetia said incredulously.
“Okay, not for you now,” Woods answered and pointed to Biko who
was sprawled on the floor whittling a piece of hard wood. “But if you’d
stop listening to Steve Biko and let us ‘liberals’integrate you into our
society, then-”
“We don’t want to be ‘put’ into your society,” Biko said. His smile
became less ‘amused’, more challenging. “I am going to be me – as I am
– and you can jail me, or even kill me, but I’m not going to be what you
want me to be.” And by now there was no smile at all and Woods could feel
the frisson of tension that had built up between them.
“It’s not what we want you to be,” he replied, trying to defuse
the hostility. “But you have to admit there are some advantages in our
kind of society, like fewer white babies die in infancy than black babies,
and we have more - ”
“Guns and bombs and ulcers and suicides,” Biko interrupted. “As
well as your swimming-pools and Mercedes. Your priorities have produced
a world where you can blow up the whole planet if one guy makes a mistake.”
“Okay,” Woods conceded, “so some bad, but a lot of good, and - ”
“Ours is only bad ?” Biko cut in sharply.
“No, I’m not saying that,” Woods asserted.
Tenjy intervened. With the two other women she was hanging out their
“good” clothes to dry on a line suspended above the stove. “We know the
great white powers have done wonders in giving the world industry and arms
and medicines,” she said, “but maybe our culture has something to give
in teaching people how to live together.”
“She’s right,” her uncle broke in. “This is an African country –
first let us have our place, in our way, then we will come together with
our white brothers and sisters and find a way to live in peace. It cannot
be just their way.”
“That sounds fair,” Woods answered, “but it can’t be done in a vacuum
either. You can’t go back – the twentieth century is marching on for all
of us.”
“But it doesn’t have to march only to your time,” Mapetla declared.
“The best you want for us is to be allowed to sit at your table, with your
silver and china, and if we can learn to do it like you do it, you’ll kindly
let us stay. We want to wipe the table clean. It’s an African table. We’ll
sit at it in our own right.”
John Briley, CRY FREEDOM, 1987 (abridged)
A– Say what these words refer to in the text.
1.- here (line 2)
2.- it (line 5)
3.- that (line 12)
4.- them ( line 21)
B– Say whether these statements are true or false. Justify with sentences from the text.
1.- Mapetia is a white man.
2.- According to Mapetia, black people opposed to the colonization
of white people.
3.- White people started to discriminate black people.
4.- Biko wanted to be like white people .
5.- There are more advantages in the white society , according
to Biko.
6.- Tenjy thinks that her society may teach better people
how to live together.
C– Answer these questions as far as possible in your own words.
Think of the arguments put forward by the other two characters.
1. -What, according to Woods, are the benefits of “an industrial
society”?
2. - How do Biko, Tenji, and her uncle contradict him?
II
A– Supply the spaces with the correct Relative Pronoun.
1.- Biko,__________ the newspapers have spoken a lot, was one
of the most successful anti-apartheid fighters.
2.- The film “Cry Freedom”,___________ you’ve seen in class,
is very famous.
3.- Donald Woods, ___________ friend was Steve Biko,
was a very important journalist.
B- Rewrite the sentences below starting them as suggested. Do not change the meaning.
1. The White man’s ministers are preaching to us about brotherly
love.
We ________________________________________________________________________________
2. “ I’m not defending the past, or even what’s going on here now,
but you have to recognize the value of change, of what an industrial society
produces.”
Woods said he _____________________________________________________________________
3. Because of the White’s society fewer babies die in infancy.
If it _____________________________________________________________________________
C- Choose the most appropriate word (a, b or c) to complete the gaps.
1. Black people ____________ for equal rights for many years and
will continue to do so for many years more.
a) struggled
b) have been struggling
c) are struggling
2. Black people, ____________ have sacrificed their education to
fight for their freedom, can’t find a job now.
a) whose
b) whom
c) who
3. ____________ everybody has the same rights, discrimination is
still a reality.
a) in spite of
b) although
c) despite
4. There are many forms of ____________: Racism is one.
a) discriminate
b) discrime
c) discrimination
5. Some of the blacks were ____________ than others.
a) luckiest
b) lucky
c) luckier
III
Write 100 - 150 words on ONE of the following topics, either A or B .
A.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live
in a nation where they
will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the
content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Washington 1963
Do you think Luther King’s dream will ever come true? State your reasons
B. Refer to situations around you in which you think basic human rights and freedoms are not being sufficiently promoted or protected. Describe one in detail.
Have a nice work!
Your teacher
Dina
