Section 7: Additional texts

Text 1

China's first manned space mission

Half an hour after the spacecraft blasted off, China state television showed footage of the launch, the rocket climbing slowly into the clear blue sky. Although it was filmed from a distance, the roar as it thrust upwards was clearly audible. A plume of white smoke marked the falling away of the rocket's first stage. The launch initially had been expected to be shown live. But the government's cautious media management seems to have dictated that that would have been too risky. Provided the mission concludes successfully though, the state media are likely to fuel a surge of triumphant patriotism. It'll be a far cry from the legendary Ming dynasty official hundreds of years ago who's believed to have tried to propel himself into space using gunpowder rockets and a couple of kites with disastrous results: and many Chinese will feel their country has taken a proud step towards modernity. That's despite the fact that on the internet bulletin boards in recent days, a small but vocal minority from the cyber chattering classes have criticised the venture as a waste of money that could have been better spent on the poor.

Francis Marcus, BBC, Beijing

Vocabulary:

blasted off

left the ground to begin its journey into space

footage filmed pictures

A plume

something that’s described as a plume is shaped like a feather

to fuel a surge of

if you fuel a surge of something, you help to create a sudden increase of it

a far cry from

one thing that is very different from another is a far cry from it

propel

push

modernity

a more modern way of life

the cyber chattering classes

people who often share their views by using chat rooms on the internet

Text 2

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Launching	\|	China's space plans

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