Humanity's fascination with Mars

“WE CHOOSE TO GO TO THE Moon”

1. Before listening, find the opposites of:

fear ≠ confidence

knowledge ≠ ignorance

easy ≠ difficult

the worst ≠ the best

incompetence ≠ ability

refuse ≠ accept

lose ≠ win

2. Listen to the first part of President Kennedy’s speech. Focus on the words President

Kennedy opposes, circle the words you can hear.

change • children • challenge • laissez-faire • hope • fear • knowledge • presence •

ignorance

3. Choose the right explanation.

□ Scientists know more and more about the universe.

□ Scientists’ discoveries do not help to understand everything about the universe.

□ Scientists are not interested in discovering the universe.

4. Make a sentence about scientists using three words you have circled.

The many scientifics discoveries that are made in the second half of the 20th century

change the way we perceive the world, and our relation to our environment : as our

knowledge grows, and we discover more and more about the universe, we are confronted to

our ignorance and we more and more grey areas, more and more interrogation appears.

The more we know, the more we realize how much we still have left to explore and to

discover.

5. Complete these three adjectives starting with UN-:

“The unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished”

6. Use these adjectives to guess what President Kennedy refers to.

President Kennedy refers to… the fact that we don’t know much about the universe as a

whole, or about the planets that surround us and the solar system which we are a part of.

7. Listen to the second part. JFK compared going to the Moon to two other amazing

challenges:

a. “climbing the highest mountain”, the conquest of the Everest

b. fly over the Atlantic

8. Listen to the third part. In the following list, circle the two words that are repeated:

thanks • Earth • Moon • Sun • fly • danger • because • without

9. Determine the reason why these two words are repeated and their effect on the crowd.

The repétition creates an effect of necessity, of emergency. It also underlines the utopic and ambitious

aspect

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