Page 149 - Grasp English C1+ (Student Book)
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Stargazing               10
































                                         In april 2019 a team of scientists in the usa was able to capture the first-ever
                                         photograph of a black hole. The team included 29-year-old scientist Dr Katie
                                         Bouman who developed a technique to gather data from telescopes around the
                                         globe and use it to construct an image of a distant object. There are different
                                         types of black holes and scientists believe that some may be minuscule whereas
                                         others are called supermassive black holes. According to NASA there is thought
                                         to be a supermassive black hole in every galaxy. In the milky way it has been
                                         given the name Sagittarius a and is believed to be able to hold the equivalent of
                                         a few million earths inside it. A third type the stellar black hole appears when a
                                         star reaches the end of its life and dies. Because of its tremendous mass, the star
                                         implodes which creates an incredible gravitational force in the space around it.
                                         Due to the fact that a black hole sucks everything in its gravitational field even
                                         light towards itself scientists are able to identify areas where they believe there is
                                         a black hole and can then study the area using telescopic equipment. However
                                         there is much that is still unknown about black holes.




                 D.  Read the essay and answer the questions.   F.  Now write your informative essay (180–220 words).
                                                                   Use the checklist to help you.
                   1.  How long ago was the first photo of a black
                      hole taken?                                  Writing an informative essay
                   2.  How was Dr Bouman involved in the project?  •  write the title
                   3.  How many types of black holes are           •  write a short introduction
                      mentioned in the text?                       •  divide your text into paragraphs
                   4.  What’s the name of the black hole in our    •  write a conclusion
                      galaxy?
                                                                   •  use a variety of linkers
                   5.  When are stellar black holes created?
                                                                   •  avoid using contractions in formal writing
                   6.  Why do black holes appear to be black?
                                                                   •  proofread your essay for grammar and spelling
                                                                     mistakes
                 E.  Choose one of the questions below.
                   • What is astrobiology?
                   • What is astrology?
                   • What is planetary science?

                   • What is the Big Bang Theory?


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