英语泛读教程_4-Unit_2_Exploration.ppt

Background information With the Mars Express Beagle 2 lander set to touch down on the red planet in a little over a week’s time, Stuart Atkinson writes a letter to the lander that has the potential to change our understanding of Mars and our place in the universe. Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency’s 2003 Mars Express(火星快车） mission. It is not known for certain whether the lander reached the Martian surface; all contact with it was lost upon Beagle its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere. It may have missed Mars altogether, skipped off the atmosphere and entered an orbit around the Sun, or burned up during its descent. If it reached the surface, it may have hit too hard or else failed to contact Earth due to a fault. The Beagle 2 is named after the HMS Beagle which twice carried Charles Darwin during expeditions which would later lead to the theory of evolution. Reading How to scan Scanning is not reading in the ordinary sense. When you scan, you let your eyes run rapidly over several lines of print at a time, looking for a specific fact or idea. Sometimes it can be a difficult task, as when the wording of your information is different from the wording of your question. The important point is that you recognize what you are looking for. Steps for scanning 1. Read carefully the first question on the text.2. Scan, but do not read in the usual way, the paragraphs of the text to find the answer to the question. 3. Mark your answer to question either by circling the letter or by filling in the blank. 4. Go on to the second question immediately, and repeat this process. Complete all the questions on the text.  ◆the first air flight in 1903 Wright Flyer by Wright Brothers ◆the first artificial earth satellite in 1957 by Soviet Union ◆the first manned spaceship in1961Vostok I by Soviet Union ◆the first footprint on the moo