Exercises

Vocabulary

1. Transcribe the words:

Cosmonaut, fighter, arduous, spherical, curvature, horizon, surfaces, distinguishable, sphere, unique

2. Explain in English and then translate the following words and expressions into Russian:

pilot training school, applying to join a group of cosmonauts, was put before a medical board, cosmodrome, launch site, manned spaceship, launch site

3. Complete the text with the words from the box

system cabin floated horizon task stars sky space voice flight difficulty weightlessness sensation jets

Gagarin accustomed himself to (1). He wrote notes on a pad, and when he finished, it (2) free and lodged under the seat. An hour into the (3) and he was over Cape Horn, South America. Night fell:

I have never forgotten it. The (4) were so clearly visible—blindingly bright and full-bodied. The (5) was blacker than it ever appears on earth, with the real slate blackness of (6).

The automatic guidance (7) locked on. Gagarin’s next (8) was to test the ability of a man to eat and drink in space. He took away some tubes from their racks, squeezed them and found no (9). Little water droplets floated around the (10). Vostok flashed into daylight and the Sun marched over the eastern (11). Gas (12) hissed in the vacuum. Vostok turned around to prepare for retrofire. All this time Gagarin reported back his every move, his every (13). His (14) came through the mushy crackly short wave.

4. Translate into Russian

manned flight; manned space flight; manned space vehicle; manned spaceship;

manned orbiting spacecraft; manned space program = manned man-in-space program; manned satellite; manned artificial satellite; manned space exploration

manned program; manned space activities; manned space complex

5. Translate the following text into English:

В декабре 1959 года Юрий Гагарин написал заявление с просьбой зачислить его в группу кандидатов в космонавты. Через неделю его вызвали в Москву для прохождения медицинского обследования. В начале следующего года последовала ещё одна специальная медкомиссия, которая признала Гагарина годным для космических полётов. В марте 1960 года Гагарин был зачислен в группу кандидатов в космонавты. Он вместе с семьёй выехал к новому месту работы. С 25 марта начались регулярные занятия по программе подготовки космонавтов.

12 апреля 1961 года с космодрома Байконур впервые в мире стартовал космический корабль «Восток» с пилотом-космонавтом Юрием Алексеевичем Гагариным на борту. За этот полёт ему было присвоено звание Героя Советского Союза и воинское звание майора. Начиная с 12 апреля 1962 года, день полёта Гагарина в космос был объявлен праздником — Днём космонавтики.

6. Complete each sentence (1-10) with one of the endings (a-j)

1	When a space rocket blasts off,	A	in orbit around a small star.
2	In 1957 the Soviet Union launched	B	has people in it who are operating its controls.
3	The planet is probably	C	a large building in which aircraft are kept.
4	The satellite was called Sputnik,	D	six manned Soviet orbiting spacecraft, the first of which, launched in April 1961, carried the first man in space.
5	A manned vehicle such as a spacecraft	E	between Mercury and the earth at an average distance of 108 million km from the sun.
6	A hangar is	F	the first satellite to orbit the earth.
7	Vostok is a series of	G	and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honour.
8	Unmanned vehicles such as spacecraft	H	it leaves the ground at the start of its journey.
9	Venus orbits	I	the Russian word for ‘companion’.
10	Yuri Gagarin became an international celebrity,	J	do not have any people in them and operate automatically or are controlled from a distance.