Self-Assessment Module 3
Reading
10 You are going to read an article about rockets. For questions (1-5) choose the
correct answer A, B, C or D.
THE HISTORY OF ROCKETRY:
FROM FIREWORKS TO THE MOON
At first glance you might think that there couldn’t possibly be anything in common between a 13th century festival in China and the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. However there is a link and that is that they both relied on the use
of rockets.
The Chinese first developed rockets by filling bamboo tubes with an explosive made from saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur. The sealed tubes would be thrown onto fires during celebrations because it was thought that the loud explosions would protect them. When these tubes were not
perfectly sealed though they would fly out of the fire and could explode some distance away. It wasn’t long before the ancient Chinese realised the military potential of these devices and primitive rockets were used to repel a Mongol
invasion in 1232 AD. Word of these amazing new weapons quickly spread around the world and soon rockets were being used in military operations in North Africa and Europe. During the 15th and 16th centuries they were widely used in naval battles to set fire to enemy ships. Around this time they also started being used for more peaceful purposes again. In 16th and 17th century Europe firework displays using rockets became a very popular form of public entertainment.
In the late 18th century the British army suffered two serious defeats at battles in Seringapatam, in India. The main reason for these defeats was that the Indian prince, Haidar Ali’s army included a corps of rocket throwers. They used very large bamboo rockets which had a range of hundreds of metres. The British were determined to learn from their mistakes and a British officer, William Congrieve, began work on developing even bigger and better rockets. Within a few years Congrieve had developed 14 kg iron rockets that could be fired over 3200m. These rockets were successfully used against Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo and during the US War of Independence.
By the 1880s other applications for rockets were being developed. They were used for signalling, for whaling, and even for rescuing people from sinking ships. If a boat got into trouble near to the shore, a rocket with a thin rope tied to it would be fired out over the boat, survivors in lifeboats could use the ropes to pull themselves ashore. These traditional rockets are still used as distress signals on boats and planes.
However in the 1920s and 30s a great leap forward in the use of rockets took place with the introduction of liquid fuel. This made rockets much more powerful. The new rockets were so impressive that for the first time people began to seriously think about using rockets to take people into space.
It didn’t take long for these dreams to become a reality. In the 1950s the Soviet Union and the USA invested large amounts of money in their new space programmes. This lead to the launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, by the USSR in 1957. Less than a month later they followed this with Sputnik 2 which carried a dog, Laika, into orbit. The USA sent its first satellite, Explorer 1, into space early the next year. The next step, putting a man in space followed in 1961 when Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in Vostok 1. Eight years later Neil Armstrong took those famous first steps on the lunar surface. This was possibly mankind’s greatest scientific achievement and it was all due to rockets whose basic design had been thought up hundreds of years before.
1Why did the Chinese first use rockets?
A They wanted to fire one to the moon.
B They wanted to frighten their enemies.
C They wanted to protect themselves.
D They wanted to make explosives.
52 The ancient Chinese military used rockets
A to defeat an invading army. B in order to invade Mongolia.
C against the North Africans and 10 Europeans.
D to burn enemy boats.
3 William Congrieve designed a new type of rocket
15
A so that the British could capture Seringapatam.
Bwhich was made of bamboo and could travel for hundreds of metres.
20
C with the help of an Indian prince, Haidar Ali.
Dwhich was used in later military campaigns.
4 What does ‘it’ refer to in line 28?
25A a boat B a rocket
C the shore D a survivor
5 Early in the 20th century rockets
30improved greatly because A scientists started
experimenting with new types of fuel.
B people stopped using petrol as
35 |
a fuel. |
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C a number of different |
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countries wanted to send |
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rockets into space. |
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D people began thinking of |
40 |
different uses for rockets. |
(15 marks)
Listen and fill in. Then, listen again and sing.
