Download Billionaire wants to send spacecraft to nearest star

Monday 25 April 2016
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Billionaire wants to send spacecraft to nearest star
Robot explorer will be as small as a computer chip
R
USSIAN (俄羅斯的) billionaire Yuri
Milner recently announced a plan
to send a spacecraft to the star
system Alpha Centauri (南門二), about 4.37 light years
away from us. That is much farther than Neptune (海王星),
the planet farthest from the sun.
Scientists thought that this was impossible, because
sending a spacecraft would take too much time and
energy. Milner and his team has decided instead to
make the spacecraft very small – as small as a computer
chip! Its speed will be about 20 percent the speed of
▲Yuri Milner (L) and cosmologist Stephen Hawking (C)
pose with the prototype ‘Star Chip’ spacecraft. (Xinhua)
SKS
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e
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Do you want to travel to Alpha Centauri?
light. This way, it can arrive at Alpha Centauri in 30 years
rather than the old estimated time of 30,000 years!
G
Comprehension
Circle the correct answer.
1. Alpha Centauri is …
A. a spacecraft
B. a planet
C. a star system
2. The spacecraft will be as small as …
A. a computer chip
B. a ship
C. a football
3. How long will it take for the new spacecraft
to travel to Alpha Centauri?
A. 30 years
B. 300 years
C. 30,000 years
Vocabulary
billionaire (n) 億萬富豪
recently (adv) 最近
announce (v) 宣布
spacecraft (n) 太空船
G08-09
Siu fung
• Photos: Xinhua
GFUN
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satellite
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nebula
(星雲)
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GPLus
English Corner
The comparative and superlative of ‘far’ is ‘farther’ and ‘farthest’ respectively
when we are talking about distance.
- That is much farther away than Neptune ( 海王星), the
planet farthest from the sun.
More to Know
‘Light year’ is a unit that does
not measure time, but distance.
A light year is the distance light
travels in a year, which is equal
to about 9,000,000,000,000
kilometres.
But when ‘far’ means something we cannot see, the comparative is ‘further’
and ‘furthest’ respectively.
- Do you have any further questions?
- The novel explores the furthest extremes of human emotions.
But ‘furthest’ can also be used when we talk about distance.
- That is the furthest I could see without glasses.
light year (n phr) 光年
planet (n) 行星
energy (n) 能量
estimated (adj) 估計的
Challenge