The Reading / Listening - Asteroids - Level 0

Hollywood makes movies about asteroids destroying Earth. NASA may soon be able to protect Earth. Its new spacecraft (DART) could change an asteroid's direction so that it doesn't hit Earth. DART crashed into the centre of the asteroid at 24,000 kph. We will find out in a few weeks if the asteroid's direction changed.

DART is the first of many "planetary protection missions". NASA joked about the death of the dinosaurs. It wants "a better chance than the dinosaurs had 65 million years ago". All the dinosaurs could do was to "look up and say, 'Oh asteroid'". NASA said we could protect ourselves from a dangerous asteroid.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Asteroids - Level 1 Asteroids - Level 2   or  Asteroids - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/26/nasa-spacecraft-asteroid-crash-planetary-defense-test
  • https://www.fox13now.com/news/national/nasa-ready-to-see-if-crashing-a-spacecraft-can-alter-asteroids-path
  • https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nasa-successfully-smacked-its-dart-impactor-spacecraft-into-an-asteroid-231706710.html


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. Hollywood
  2. asteroids destroying
  3. NASA may soon be able
  4. change an asteroid's
  5. DART crashed
  6. at 24,000
  7. We will find out in
  8. the asteroid's direction
  1. to protect Earth
  2. changed
  3. into the centre
  4. Earth
  5. a few weeks
  6. direction
  7. makes movies
  8. kph

Paragraph 2

  1. DART is the first of
  2. planetary protection
  3. the death
  4. It wants a better
  5. 65 million
  6. All the dinosaurs could do was
  7. we could protect
  8. a dangerous
  1. of the dinosaurs
  2. ourselves
  3. to look up
  4. asteroid
  5. missions
  6. years ago
  7. many
  8. chance

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

Hollywood (1) ___________________ asteroids destroying Earth. NASA (2) ___________________ able to protect Earth. Its new spacecraft (DART) (3) ___________________ asteroid's direction so that it (4) ___________________. DART crashed into the centre of (5) ___________________ 24,000 kph. We will find out in a (6) ___________________ the asteroid's direction changed.

DART is the (7) ___________________ "planetary protection missions". (8) ___________________ the death of the dinosaurs. It wants "(9) ___________________ than the dinosaurs had 65 (10) ___________________ ". All the dinosaurs could do was to "look (11) ___________________, 'Oh asteroid'". NASA said we could protect (12) ___________________ dangerous asteroid.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

HollywoodmakesmoviesaboutasteroidsdestroyingEarth.NASAmays
oonbeabletoprotectEarth.Itsnewspacecraft(DART)couldchangeana
steroid'sdirectionsothatitdoesn'thitEarth.DARTcrashedintothecentr
eoftheasteroidat24,000kph.Wewillfindoutinafewweeksiftheasteroid
'sdirectionchanged.DARTisthefirstofmany"planetaryprotectionmiss
ions".NASAjokedaboutthedeathofthedinosaurs.Itwants"abettercha
ncethanthedinosaurshad65millionyearsago".Allthedinosaurscouldd
owasto"lookupandsay,'Ohasteroid'".NASAsaidwecouldprotectours
elvesfromadangerousasteroid.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

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Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

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