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

Complete the text with the words from the box

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.