II. Skylab

Skylab is a US space station, launched on May 14, 1973, made from the adapted up (9) stage of Saturn -5. At 82,5 tons, it was the most bulk (10) object ever put into space, and was 25,6 m long. Skylab contained a workshop for carrying out experiments in weight (11), an observatory for monitoring the sun, and cameras for photographing the earth’s surface. Having suffered

consider (12) damage during the launch, it had to be repaired by the first crew of astronauts. Three crews occupied Skylab for up to 84 days, a record achieve (13) at that time. Skylab finally fell to earth on July 11, 1979, dropping debris on western Australia.

4. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.

Challenger disaster

When the space shuttle Challenger explosion (1) in the blue Florida sky, killing all seven crew members, it underscored not only the fragile (2) of human life but also the vulnerable (3) of human technology.

While the nation paid tribute to the Challenger astronauts, the officials in the NASA pursued their investigate (4) into the cause of the nation's disaster. Policy-makers in Washington were engaged in careful assess (5) of the nation's total depend (6) on the shuttle for access to space.

Obviously, the most urgent prior (7) was to find out what happened. The previously unreleased photographs revealed the normal (8) white spot of light appearing on the right-hand solid booster ten seconds before the explode (9).

These new images lent credit (10) to the theory that the booster casing somehow ruptured at one of the join (11) and squirted flame onto the side of the external tank thereby ignition (12) the liquid hydrogen inside. This led to the detonate (13) which consumed both Challenger and its crew.

5. Выберите подходящее слово из предложенных двух вариантов.

Weightless and heavenly happy

One afternoon in the summer of 1989 a 27-year-old technologist/technique (1) Helen Sharman was listening to the radio. She heard an unusual vacancy/vacation (2) being advertised “Astronaut wanted. No previous/preceding (3) experience necessary”. Sharman was one of the 13,000 applicants/applicators (4) who had to take tough psychological and physical test to take part in the joint/joined (5) Russian-British scientific program Juno. To her surprise, her application/appliance (6) was successful and six months later she found herself at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut center.

One of the most interesting parts/particles (7) of her preparation was a set of tests which simulated/stimulated (8) weightlessness. The nearest opportunity/probability (9) to get to these conditions is in a plane flying in enormous loops. They used a huge freight aircraft and each experiment/experience (10) lasted only 23 seconds, but once she was aboard the space shuttle, Sharman found it easy to adapt/adopt (11) to weightlessness, despite a little initial/initiative (12) discomfort.

According to Sharman, living in space was not as frightening /

frightened (13) as it sounds. Curiously, the onboard lavatory was a piece of environmentally correct technique/technology (14), with an amazing proportion of the waste recycled.

In space she performed/produced (15) experiments with various materials to be possibly used for new drugs and electronics. At present, she works

part-time/half-time (16) as a consultant for a company making satellites. The rest of her time she spends trying to persuade/pursue (17) schoolchildren to take up a career in science and technology.

6. Образуйте соответствующее однокоренное слово.