Word Pairs

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  • Type the correct word in the boxes from the pairs of words [in brackets].
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Words
Five [major / majority] planets in our solar system lined up [in / on] a row over the weekend in a [celestial / cerebral] event called a conjunction. In many parts of the world, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn could be [seeing / seen] with the naked eye (without the [need / neediness] for a telescope). The rare planetary [preposition / conjunction] was visible in clear skies before dawn. The AccuWeather website said the best time to view this event was about an hour before [sunrise / sunset] . Astronomer Professor Lucie Green described the event as being, "like a string of pearls spread out from close to the [horizon / horizontal] ". Professor Green was particularly happy at seeing Mercury, which is usually [hardly / hard] to spot. She said: "It is very satisfying [to] see this [faint / feint] twinkling planet."

AccuWeather said a conjunction in this [disorder / order] would not be visible from Earth again for [another / further] 20 years. The next [time / dimension] it will happen will be August 2040. It said this [plantation / planetary] event was special because the planets appeared in [an / the] order they are positioned from the sun, with Saturn being [the / a] farthest away and Mercury the nearest. Another astronomer, Dr Diana Hannikainen, said the conjunction was noteworthy on Friday morning [has / as] a crescent moon accompanied the five planets. She said the alignment was a "delightful [sight / site] ". The conjunction is [rare / rarified] because the five planets all have different orbits [of / at] the sun. Mercury takes 88 days to orbit the sun, while Saturn takes 29 years.

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