Mars Polar lander
 
 

I

Read these texts very carefully and then answer the following questions on them.

Earth to Mars Polar Lander*: Phone Home!

(*Mars Polar Lander is part of a series of missions in a long- term program of Mars exploration managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.)

As of mid-afternoon, Pacific Time, on Dec. 3, 1999 Mars Mission Control is awaiting a signal from the Mars Polar Lander to indicate that it has landed safely on the red planet. No signal was received from the spacecraft on the first opportunity, but engineers continue to search the electromagnetic spectrum for a sign that all is well. This was not totally unexpected. The spacecraft could be in safe mode, or the antenna may not be aimed in exactly the right direction. If no signal is received on subsequent opportunities, engineers will send a "find Earth" command to the spacecraft, in effect, asking it to phone home.

Another Mars Lander Contact Attempt Set for Early Dec. 7, 1999.

The Mars mission control team has been unable to contact the Mars Polar Lander and the Deep Space 2 microprobes thus far. The team is proceeding through its contingency checklist in continuing attempts to communicate with the spacecraft. If no contact is made after Tuesday's post-midnight attempt, the probability of making contact in the future will be considerably reduced.
 

Mars, Water and Life

Why Explore Mars?  What Are We Looking For?

After Earth, Mars is the planet with the most hospitable climate in the solar system. So hospitable that it may once have harbored primitive, bacteria-like life. Outflow channels and other geologic features provide ample evidence that billions of years ago liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars. Although liquid water may still exist deep below the surface of Mars, currently the temperature is too low and the atmosphere too thin for liquid water to exist at the surface.
What caused the change in Mars' climate? Were the conditions necessary for life to originate ever present on Mars? Could there be bacteria in the subsurface alive today? These are the questions that lead us to explore Mars. The climate of Mars has obviously cooled dramatically. By studying the reasons for climate change on Mars, which lacks the complications of oceans, a biosphere, and industrial contaminants, we may begin to understand the forces driving climate change on Earth. As we begin to explore the universe and search for planets in other solar systems, we must first ask the question 'Did life occur on another planet in our own solar system?' and 'What are the minimal conditions necessary for the formation of life?'
The key to understanding whether life could have evolved on Mars, many scientists believe, is understanding the history of water on the planet.
In the 1980s and 1990s, biologists found that microbial life has an amazing flexibility for surviving in extreme environments - niches that by turn are extraordinarily hot, or cold, or dry, or under immense pressures - that would be completely inhospitable to humans or complex animals. Some scientists even concluded that life may have begun on Earth in heat vents far under the ocean's surface.
This in turn had its effect on how scientists thought about Mars. Life might not be so widespread that it would be found at the foot of a lander spacecraft, but it may have thrived billions of years ago in an underground thermal spring. Or it might still exist in some form in niches below the frigid, dry, windswept surface wherever there might be liquid water.
That scenario, however, is just a theory. Regardless of the history and fate of the atmosphere, scientists also do not understand what happened to Mars' water.
 
 

A.- What do these words refer to in the text ‘Mars, water and Life’?

1. “it” ( line 01) –
2. “which” ( line 07) –
3. “it” ( line 20) –

B.- Say whether these statements are TRUE or FALSE according to the texts. Justify all:

1. No signal was received from the spacecraft on the first opportunity, but later they made contact.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

2. There are no reasons why the spacecraft should not send a signal.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. The Mars mission control team will go on trying to contact the Mars Polar Lander until they get an answer.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C.- Please answer these questions, using your own words as far as possible.

1. Why do we continue to explore Mars? How can it be to any interest to us?
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 

2. “(...) biologists found that microbial life has an amazing flexibility for surviving in extreme environments – niches ( line 16)”. Do you believe that LIFE may exist somewhere out there? State your reasons.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 

D.- Rephrase the following sentences, starting them as suggested. Do not change their meaning.

1. The Mars mission team hasn’t yet contacted the Mars Polar Lander and the Deep space 2 microprobes.
The Mars Polar Lander ________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________

2. Maybe the Polar Lander is in safe mode. So, contact is still possible.
If _________________________________________________________________________________

3. NASA’s Office for Space Science has spent huge sums of money with this project, but they will stop further attempts to hear signals from the Mars Polar Lander after today ( Dec. 7, 1999).
In spite of __________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
 

        Nice work!!       Your teacher,
           Dina.
 

Teen Curfew

I

Read the following text very carefully and answer the exercises on it.

TEEN CURFEW

It is 11 p.m. Where are you? If you’re a teenager in the United States, the answer had better be ‘home’, or you run the risk of violating curfew law. Once only used in extreme emergencies, curfew laws have, during the past five years, been passed all over the country as cities and towns try to deal with what they see as an increasing threat of teenage violence.
Although curfew laws vary from city to city, most follow the same basic pattern. Teenagers are forbidden to be on the streets after a certain hour (usually 10 p.m. on school nights and 11 p.m. on weekends, although some cities impose a curfew of 9 p.m. every night of the week); and they are not allowed back onto public property again until morning. The only exceptions to the rules may be if you are travelling to or from a school – or church-sponsored event, if you are running an errand for your parents, or if you are travelling to or from work. In all other circumstances, whether you are on the street, at a mall or movie theatre, attending a football game, or even driving your own car, the police may arrest you as a curfew violator.
Seventy per cent of US cities and towns now have teen curfew laws on the books. Some cities, such as San Diego, have even extended the curfew to daytime during school hours, leaving only a small window of time in the afternoons during which teens are allowed to be in public.
Many politicians praise the laws as a way of protecting teens and preventing violence. Many people still question the laws, asking, “Are they fair?” and “Are they effective in combating teen violence?”

Current, 1998

1 – Text comprehension: Match the sentences and link them using one of the connectors given.
 

 

2 – Complete according to the text:

a. To prevent criminality _______________________
b. American teenagers must obey the rules, otherwise _________________________
c. Parents praise these measures because ____________________________
d. If a young girl or boy is caught by the police outside at night, _______________________
e. Teenagers can no longer go out to an evening football match or to a late movie as _______________

3 – Answer these questions on the text.

a. Do you really think that such curfew laws prevent teen violence and protect teenagers? Justify.
b. Do you have a curfew? What time and why? Do you consider it fair? State your opinion.

II

One of the other topics - besides ‘living together’-you had to study for this test paper was ‘mobility’. About this topic I want you to answer these multiple choice exercises:

A – Choose the most appropriate ( a, b, c or d ) to fill in the gaps.

1.- India is _______________ supplier of immigrants to Britain.
   a)  the most big         b) the bigger               c) bigger than                     d) the biggest

2.- Once immigrants get to a foreign country, they have to rely on their _______________ .
 a) determiner              b) determined             c) determination                  d) determine

3.- Most immigrants wish to succeed _______________ a foreign country.
 a) at                             b) in                             c) for                                     d) on

4.- Immigrants are often _______________ by the local communities.
 a) misunderstanding    b) misunderstanded    c) misunderstood                 d) misunderstooded

5.- Unless these misunderstandings stop, social relationships _______________ rapidly.
 a) would deteriorate    b) likely deteriorate     c) will deteriorate               d) will not deteriorate

6.- Immigrants’ children are _______________ differently according to another set of values.
 a) bring up                  b) bring down                c) brought down                  d) brought up

7.- Asian children _______________ new attitudes and tastes since they arrived to Britain.
 a) developed              b) been developed         c) are developing                d) have developed

8.- Most immigrants can’t stand _______________ segregated because of their roots.
 a) to be                       b) being                        c) been                                  d) to being

9.- The kids will have to learn to accept both cultures, _______________ they will be very unhappy.
 a) otherwise                b) in spite of                c) unless                                d) although

10.-Local authorities tend to behave _______________ towards immigrants.
 a) aggressiveness       b) aggressiving           c) aggressively                    d) aggressive

11.- 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     d) struggle

12.- A black boy from South Africa, _______________ has sacrificed his education to fight for his freedom,
        can’t find a job now.
 a) whose                       b) which                    c) who                                  d) whom

13.- _______________ everybody has the same rights, discrimination is still a reality.
 a) in spite of                 b) although                c) despite                             d) so

14.- Most white people live in _______________ , while most of the blacks live in  old matchbox houses.
 a) big, nice houses       b) nice, big houses    c) houses nice and big         d)houses nices and bigs

15.- Many Asian immigrants wish now that they _______________ to Britain.
 a) never got                  b) had never got       c) were never getting          d) had never been
                                                                                                                         getting
 

B - Rephrase the following sentences with the words given. Do not change their meaning.

1. “Are curfew laws fair? Are they effective in combating teen violence?”, many people ask.
 Many people ask, _________________________________________________________________
2. Teen violence in the USA is extremely high. Curfew laws were imposed to help prevent it.
 If teen __________________________________________________________________________
3. Many politicians and parents praise the laws as a way of protecting teens and preventing violence.
 The laws ________________________________________________________________________
 

III

1. I’m sure you’ ve read the short story by Maya Angelou, called NAMES. Please write a sum-up of this story.
2. Comment on the following statement:

“All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
 

 Good Luck!!
 

Future career

I

Read this text very carefully:

These are the profiles of three school-leavers from Newcastle, an industrial city in the North-East of England with high unemployment figures.

Tessa is seventeen, a tall striking girl with blue eyes, crinkly hair, five O-levels, two A-levels and not a clue what she wants to do. What she needs is several temporary jobs to help her work it out. Eventually, she thinks she may settle down to nursing, but in the meantime she does not dare wait around. So on leaving school she put in for “Assistant Scientific Officer” with the Civil Service – in real language a laboratory bottle washer. She does not particularly want the job, but stands a good chance of getting it.
Ian, aged sixteen, is short, dark, anxious, keen. When he left school he had taken three CSEs but “knows” he failed two. Ian could do with a job as a lab bottle washer but has little hope.
He left school before the end of the term and has been without a job for nine weeks now and is sick and tired, he says, of acting as skivvy for the whole family. The rest of the time he sits glued to the telly.
What he would really like is one of those coveted craft apprenticeships at Parsons or Vickers. But failed CSE is not good enough. The lads starting at Vickery have O-levels, the real O-levels – maths, physics, chemistry – in many cases taken on the insistence of fathers who are themselves skilled engineers. The union calls it nepotism.
In the meantime Ian knows as well as anyone that with every day that passes he gets less employable. He is just beginning to notice the difference in questions at interviews: “Have you done a job?” is becoming “Why have you not got a job?”
John, meanwhile, is unlikely in the foreseeable future to get any job at all. He is just sixteen and says he has more qualifications in theft than anything else.
John’s appearance – single ear-ring, tee-shirt in tatters, jeans at half mast, dyed red hair – is not calculated to inspire confidence in the mind of an employer. He would have liked to be a garage mechanic (would have, he already uses the past tense about his aspirations). But, he says, a typical interview goes like this: “You go in. Say have you any jobs. No they say. Write your name down. Then you go out. It gets you down, man.”
 
 

A – Say whether these sentences are true(T) or false(F).

1. Tessa knows exactly what she wants to be in the future.
2. Being an ‘Assistant Scientific Officer’ is like being a highly qualified engineer.
3. Ian is a very good student.
4. He has good chances of getting to work at Parsons or Vickers.
5. John has bad chances of getting a job.
6. His appearance is not important in getting a job.

B – What do the following words refer to:

1. ‘it’ (line 4)
2. ‘two’ (line9)
3. ‘they’ (line24)

C- Answer these sentences. Use your own words. Write complete sentences.

1. Why does John use the past tense when he speaks about his job preferences ?
2. Do you think appearance is very important in life? Justify.

II

A- Choose the right item among those given below.

1. He admits _______________ the exams.
 a) to fail                                  b)  failing                                c) have failed

2. Does Ian enjoy _______________ television?
 a) watch                                  b) of watching                         c) watching

3. John _______________ a job before.
 a) never had                            b) has never had                    c) hadn’t got

4. Tessa has got _______________ hair.
 a) nice, long, brown, crinkly   b) long, nice, crinkly brown   c) nice, brown, long, crinkly

5. If John’s appearance were better, he _______________ a job easier.
 a) may get                              b) will get                                  c) might get

6. For most of Britain’s population the problems of unemployment _______________ years ago.
 a) have began                        b) began                                    c) had begun

7. Ian _______________ two CSEs.
 a) can´t have failed                 b) mustn’t have failed              c)shouldn’t have failed

8. After John _______________ to an interview, he felt very disappointed.
 a) was                                     b) had been                              c) has been

9. Tessa spends a _______________ time with her friends before starting to work.
 a) delighted                            b) delighting                            c)delightful

10.  Looking for jobs can be a very _______________ activity.
 a) tired                                    b) tiring                                    c) tire
 

B- Rephrase the following sentences beginning them as suggested below.

1. They don’t reach high levels of education because they have no real interest in learning.
If they ______________________________________________________________________________

2. “ Why have you not got a job?”
Ian was asked ________________________________________________________________________

3. Tessa does not particularly want the job as a lab bottle washer.
The job _____________________________________________________________________________
 
 

III

Please answer only ONE of the following topics ( write about 80 – 100 words on it).

A- I’m sure, you still remember the short-story: “Dip in the pool”; there was a bet... tell me about it.

B- Comment on this sentence:
“ If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.”    Katharine Hepburn (b. 1909 – American actress)

C- What does  ‘Liberty / Freedom’ mean  to you?