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Technical English :  

Holidays in Space...

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         It's a long time since men last went to the Moon; but  there are now people living all the time in the International Space Station . Today, space is just for astronauts: but soon ordinary people ( well.. ordinary millionnaires) will be able to enjoy the experience.... if they can afford it.

    When you're 50, what sort of holiday will you want to take?
 
Hotel in space
   If you're under 30 today, perhaps you'll be able to take a holiday in space.... if you hav a lot of money!
    A Japanese company, Shimizu, plans to open the first hotel in space within 15 years.
    They want to offer 3-day holidays in a space station, which will be bigger than the International Space Station. However, holidays in space will be very expensive! About 90,000 dollars for three days! Shimizu believe that there are enough people who will be ready to pay the price.
    Other firms, in Japan and the USA, want to open hotels on the moon! Trips to the moon will be even more expensive!
    The Japanese firm is quite serious; but they cannot yet start building their orbiting hotel.
    First they will have to buy a commercial re-usable shuttle. Today there are no shuttles. The old American shuttles, such as Atlantis and Columbia, were very expensive to launch. They had to be launched into orbit with a big rocket which cannot be re-used. Tomorrow's shuttles will take off and land on their own,probably like aeroplanes. They will therefore be much more economical.
    Such shuttles do not yet exist; and although Elon Musk, Virgin and Boeing are working on them, they will not be ready to act as re-usable space taxis for several years.
    However, there are other big difficulties too. How will ordinary people react to life in space? Today's astronauts spend months training before going into space. They have to be in top form too.
    Holidays in space will not be for tomorrow, that is certain; but they will come. That is virtually certain too!
..


Word guide
WORDS
within: in no more than - firms: companies - trip: voyage - shuttle: a vehicle that goes into space then comes back again - launch: send into space - take off: leave the earth - land: return to earth - on their own: without any assistance, by themselves - such shuttles: shuttles like this - react to: respond to - .


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Student Worksheet

Holidays in Space

Article or no article? Put back the articles (the, a or an) into this extract from the article when they are necessary.  Be careful; sometimes no article is possible, but when?  If no article is needed, use -

     They want to offer 3-day holidays in space station, which will be bigger than  International Space Station. However, holidays in space will be very expensive! About 90,000 dollars for three days! Shimizu believe that there are enough people who will be ready to pay    price.
    Other firms, in Japan and  USA, want to open hotels on    moon! Trips to  moon will be even more expensive!
     Japanese firm is quite serious; but they cannot yet start building their orbiting hotel.
    First they will have to buy commercial re-usable shuttle. Today there are no shuttles.  old American shuttles, such as Atlantis and Columbia, were very expensive to launch. They had to be launched into orbit with big rocket which cannot be re-used. Tomorrow's shuttles will take off and land on their own, probably like aeroplanes.

   

Ideas for teachers

Student worksheet exercise: articles.
It may be useful to remind students first when articles are required in English, and when they should not be used.  Check usage in the Linguapress Descriptive Grammar of English

Expression:
Have pupils write a couple of sentences on the subject; Why I would/would not like to take a holiday in Space.
    Then write up on the board all the advantages and all the disadvantages of taking a holiday in Space.




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Revised 2020 . Originally published in Freeway, the intermediate level English newsmagazine.
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A Linguapress.com
Intermediate level EFL resource
Level : Intermediate.
CEFR  LEVEL :  B1
IELTS level: 4-5
Flesch-Kincaid  scores
Reading ease level:
70.2 - Fairly easy
 
Grade level: 6.4
(Flesch-Kincaid scores may overestimate the difficulty of technical texts for  non-native speakers)

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The story of the jet plane
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The short story of English


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Originally published in Freeway magazine.




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