4 READING / Read and write True or False. The planet Pluto was opened in 1930. It was named by an 11-year old girl from England. Since then many people grew up thinking that Pluto was the ninth planet of the Solar System. Its diameter is only 2,372 km. It is so far from earth that the most powerful telescopes could only show Pluto as a grey image in the Kuiper belt. The Kuiper belt is home to hundreds of thousands of icy, rocky objects, many bigger than 100 km across and over 1 trillion or more comets. Since 2006, little Pluto is no longer a main planet but a dwarf planet because of its size. Pluto is the largest dwarf planet discovered so far.
Pluto is smaller than our moon and it is a strange world that has valleys, plains, mountains, and possibly ice. It has five moons and the biggest moon is Charon, which is almost half the size of Pluto. The temperature on its surface is -229 degrees C. It is thanks to the New Horizon spaceship that we have learned so much about Pluto and its hard area. New Horizon also showed that Pluto’s area has mountains as tall as 3,500 m which are close to the size of Earth’s Rocky Mountains in the USA.
One day on Pluto takes about 153 hours. For Pluto it takes 246 earth days to make a full orbit of the sun. Sunlight on Pluto looks like moonlight on Earth.
1) Pluto was known by the scientists before 1930.
2) Pluto was a girl’s name.
3) Pluto’s diameter is more than 2000 km.
4) The Kuiper belt consists of rocks, comets and planets.
5) After 2006 Pluto has been called a dwarf planet.
6) The moon is bigger than Pluto.
7) The New Horizon spaceship discovered Pluto’s area.
8) The sunlight is very bright on Pluto.
Marat Bisengaliev is a violinist. He has had an interesting life so far. Look quickly through the chart of events in his life. What are some of the things he has done?
Life event Age: Born 1962, in Almaty
9 - Made a startling debut
19-22 - Studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow
26 - Won a prize at the Leipzig International Bach Competition
27 - Founded the Kazakh Chamber Orchestra with whom he toured as a soloist throughout Europe
Studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow
29 - Won first prize at the International Nicanor Zabaleta Competition in Spain Settled in England
Played the Beethoven concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
37 - Was nominated for the 1999 “ Gramophone Award” Was awarded Gold Disk from Sony BMG
38 - Received the 1st Independent “Platinum Tarlan” Award and the Government “ Medal of Honour” in Kazakhstan Became a Professor of Birmingham Conservatory
41 - Founded the West Kazakhstan Philharmonic Orchestra
44 - Became Artistic Director of the Symphony of India (Mumbai), the first professional full time Symphony Orchestra in India
46-47 - Gave concerts In New Zealand, USA, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Russia and the UK Knowledge level
1). between 1981 and 1984
2). in 2003
3). while he was living in England
4). when he was nine
5). after winning Gold Disk
6). when he was 38
7). age of 26
8). at the age of 27