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BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 483
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 483 – PASSAGE – 1
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 483
READING PASSAGE – 1
International space station
A. The international Space Station (ISS) is a space station in low Earth orbit. The ISS programme is a cooperative project amid five participating space agencies: NASA (USA), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The possession and use of the space station are recognised by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.
B. The ISS contributes as a microgravity and space atmosphere research laboratory in which crew members run experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields. The station is suitable for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment essential for missions to the Moon and Mars. The ISS withstands a trajectory with an average height of 400 kilometres (250 mi) by means of reboots manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft. It circles the Earth in roughly 92 minutes and finishes 15.5 orbits per day.
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C. The station is alienated into two segments, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS), which is functioned by Russia, and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations. Roscosmos has sanctioned the sustained operation of ISS over 2024 but had formerly proposed using elements of the Russian segment to build a new Russian space station called OPSEK. As of December 2018, the station is likely to function until 2030.
D. The first ISS component was casted in the year 1998, with the first long-standing residents arriving on 2 November 2000. Since then, the station has been endlessly engaged for 19 years and 79 days. This is the longest nonstop human occurrence in low Earth orbit, having beaten the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by Mir. The modern major pressurised module was tailored in 2011, with an experimental expandable space habitat added in 2016.
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Development and assemblage of the station continues, with several major new Russian elements booked for launch starting in 2020. The ISS is the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and can frequently be seen with the bare eye from Earth. The ISS covers of pressurised habitation modules, organizational trusses, solar arrays, radiators, docking ports, experiment bays and robotic arms. Main ISS modules have been hurled by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets and US Space Shuttles.
E. The ISS is the ninth space station to be employed by crews, next to the Soviet and far along Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations as well as Skylab from the US. The station is refurbished by a diversity of visiting spacecraft: the Russian Soyuz and Progress, the US Dragon and Cygnus, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle, and previously the European Automated Transfer Vehicle. The Dragon spacecraft permits the reoccurrence of pressurised cargo to Earth (downmass), which is used for example to repatriate scientific experiments for further study. The Soyuz return capsule has negligible down mass capability next to the astronauts.
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The ISS has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists from 19 diverse nations. As of September 2019, 239 people from 19 countries had visited the space station, several of them numerous times. The United States directed 151 people, Russia sent 47, nine were Japanese, eight Canadian, five Italian, four French, three German, and one each from Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
The ISS was previously likely to be a laboratory, observatory, and factory whereas providing transportation, maintenance, and a low Earth orbit staging base for feasible future missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids. However, not all the uses intended in the initial Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and Roskosmos have come to fruition. In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given further characters of helping commercial, diplomatic and educational purposes.
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F. The ISS supports a platform to conduct scientific research, with power, data, cooling, and crew accessible to support experiments. Small unmanned spacecraft can also provide platforms for experiments, especially those involving zero gravity and exposure to space, but space stations offer an enduring environment where studies can be done potentially for eras, combined with ready access by human researchers.
G. The ISS streamlines individual experiments by permitting groups of experiments to part the same launches and crew time. Research is directed in an extensive diversity of fields, counting astrobiology, astronomy, physical sciences, materials science, space weather, meteorology, and human research including space medicine and the life sciences. Scientists on Earth have timely access to the data and can propose experimental modifications to the crew.
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If follow-on experiments are essential, the routinely scheduled launches of resupply craft allow new hardware to be launched with relative ease. Crews fly excursions of several months’ duration, providing approximately 160 person-hours per week of labour with a crew of 6. However, a substantial amount of crew time is taken up by station maintenance.
H. Practicably the most protuberant ISS experiment is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which is envisioned to sense dark matter and riposte other fundamental questions about our universe and is as significant as the Hubble Space Telescope according to NASA. Presently docked on station, it could not have been easily housed on a free flying satellite platform because of its power and bandwidth requirements.
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On 3 April 2013, scientists stated that hints of dark matter may have been sensed by the AMS. Rendering to the scientists, “The initial results from the space-borne Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer favour an unsolved surplus of high-energy positrons in Earth-bound cosmic rays.”
I. The space environment is antagonistic to life. Defenceless incidence in space is characterised by a penetrating radiation field (containing primarily of protons and other subatomic charged particles from the solar wind, in addition to cosmic rays), high vacuum, modest and forms extreme temperatures, of life microgravity. Some called extremophiles, as well as small invertebrates called tardigrades can live in this environment in an enormously dry state through desiccation.
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Questions 1-8
Which paragraph contains the following information? Write correct letter A-I in your answer sheet
NB you may use any letter more than once
1. The most prominent experiment in ISS.
2. An environment for research in the space.
3. Hostility of space environment to life.
4. Research and experiments in different field of studies.
5. Initial modules of ISS were created.
6. A joint space program.
7. American and Russian collaboration of the station.
8. Different countries sending their astronauts to the ISS.
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Questions 9-14
Match the events with the correct date/year.
Write the correct year in the box.
9.Themodern major pressurized module was tailored.
10. Hints of dark matter may have been sensed by AMS.
11. ISS would help in diplomat and educational matters.
12. Initial component of ISS was casted.
13. The station will stop working.
14. The experimental expandable space habitat was added.
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Options:
2013
1998
2030
2020
2011
2010
2016
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ANSWERS
1. H
2. F
3. I
4. G
5. D
6. A
7. C
8. E
9. 2011
10. 2013
11. 2010
12. 1998
13. 2030
14. 2016
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