Listening script
8th grade
8th grade
Unit 4. Science ane technology
No. 22. Exercise 53. Listen to the text “Is There Life in Space?” and do
tasks B and C in your Student’s Book.
Is There Life in Space?
On a clear night you can see many stars in the sky. Some of them can
be seen with a naked eye, to see others you require special equipment. A
modern telescope can give you the advantage of seeing stars that are millions
of miles away. Scientists want to know what the stars are like. Are they
balls of fire? Do they have rocks or sands, like our moon? Besides, there is
another question they cannot answer. Are there living things on any of the
stars? And if there are, do they have intellect?
This question has always bothered people. But it was not possible to find
the answer before now. Now scientists know more about space than ever
before. Because now they have a variety of machines helping them to look
for the answer.
Unfortunately people can’t go to the stars and satisfy their desire for
knowledge: the stars are much too far away. In case a person flew to the nearest
star in a spaceship, it would take him hundreds of years. So scientists are
sending out radio signals and carefully recording all the information they get.
The radio signals go through space at the speed of light. At that speed,
it will take 25 years for radio signals to reach the nearest star. Scientists
predict that living things in space must have machines to hear the signals.
We will not get an answer to our signals for more than 50 years. But
scientists are already listening. They think someone from space may be trying
to send signals to us. And, who knows, maybe in the near future we will see
the so-called extraterrestrial “in flesh and blood” as the expression goes.
Scientists also have sent large telescopes into space. The telescopes are
looking out into space supplying us with scientific information. And above
all, they are looking for life in other worlds, the problem that can leave no
one indifferent.
