B+ links 23/02/22

Pre-session 1 (Blue)

Pre-session 2 (Blue)

Pre-session 3 (Blue)

Exploring our Solar System

 

Watch the video and answer the questions below. Some are multiple-choice and others are open questions for which you need to write an answer. Do your answers on paper.

1. Where does the name for "the Solar System" come from? ________________

2. How much of the mass in the Solar System is made up by the Sun?

   a. Less than 9% b. Around 90% c. Over 99%

3. How many Earths would fit inside the Sun? ________________

4. What does the Sun give us? __________and__________

5. How many planets can we see from Earth using only our eyes? __________

6. True or false?

   a. Mercury is similar to the Moon. __________

   b. Both Mercury and the moon have lots of volcanoes. __________

   c. Neither Mercury nor the moon have air. __________

7. What is the hottest planet in the Solar System? ________________

8. Why is Earth called the "Goldilocks" planet? __________________________

9. True or false?

   a. Mars contains lots of iron oxide, giving it a green colour. __________

   b. Perhaps Mars's two moons were asteroids in the past. __________

   c. Mars has water ice and maybe humans could live there in the future. __________

10. What is Jupiter mostly made up of? __________________________

11. How many of Jupiter's 67 moons are around the size of Mercury? __________

12. What is the "great red spot"? __________________________

13. Would Saturn float or sink in a gigantic bath? __________________________

14. True or false?

    a. Neptune spins on its side. __________

    b. Uranus has blue clouds made of methane gas. __________

    c. Uranus and Neptune are quite similar. __________

    d. Neptune takes 164 years to go around the Sun. __________

15. What is Pluto classified as?

    a. A planet b. A dwarf planet c. An asteroid d. A moon

Video exercise. The Great Filter

Watch the video and answer the questions below. Do your answers on paper.

1. What anatomical feature allowed humans to reach the step of the staircase we are currently on? 

2. What is the next logical step for a species like our own, after having occupied all the space possible on your planet?

3. Which of the following statements is true?

a. The Milky Way has around 500 billion planets, 10 billion of which are like Earth.

b. The Milky Way has around 500 million planets, 10 million of which are like Earth.

c. The Milky Way has around 500 billion planets, 10 million of which are like Earth.

4. Would it be better for the Great Filter to be ahead of us or behind us? Why?

5. If the filter is ahead of us, what kinds of potential existential dangers are mentioned?

6. If alien life is found to be quite common, is this better or worse for us? Why?

7. What is the Goldilocks zone?

Video exercise. The Space Race

Watch the video and answer the questions below. Some are multiple-choice and others are open questions for which you need to write an answer. Do your answers on paper.

1. What was the name of the competition/conflict between the two Superpowers?

2. What country provided the USA and USSR with many rocket engineers after World War II?

3. Who did Werner von Braun work for after the war?

a. The Americans

b. The Soviets

c. The Germans

d. The Ukranians

4. What did both countries do in 1955?

a. Launch a satellite.

b. Say they wanted to send a man into Space.

c. Say they wanted to launch a satellite.

5. Which of the following statements about the first man in Space is false?

a. The rocket was named Vostok I.

b. The first man in space was a Soviet cosmonaut.

c. The first man in space was an American astronaut.

d. He orbited the Earth.

6. How did the Americans feel at lagging behind the Soviet Union in the Space Race, according to the narrator?

7. What intention did President Kennedy announce to Congress in 1961?

a. That the USA wanted to get to the Moon by the end of the decade.

b. That the USA wanted to get to the Moon by the following year.

c. That the USA wanted to get to Mars by the end of the Century.

d. That the USA wanted to launch a space station by the end of the decade.

8. What was the name of the NASA programme designed to get to the Moon?

a. Explorer

b. Vostok

c. Gemini

d. Apollo

9. Which of these statements is true?

a. The USSR achieved the first docking of two spacecraft.

b. The USSR achieved the first spacewalk.

c. Apollo XIII was the first space flight to reach the Moon.

10. Which country ultimately won the Space Race, and why?

11. What did the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission symbolise?

Cambridge speaking test advice

Watch the video and take notes (on paper) about the advice given by the examiners for the Cambridge speaking tests.

Cambridge Advanced speaking test 3

Part 2 - candidate 1

Part 2 - candidate 2

Part 3 - both candidates

Cambridge Advanced speaking test 2

Part 2 - candidate 1

Part 2 - candidate 2

Part 3 - both candidates