At this point we will deal with an obvious objection Can we be sure that the velocity of light is a limiting factor? So many 'impassable' barriers have been broken in the past; perhaps this may go the way of all the others.

Scientists believe that light can never be outraced. by any form of radiation of any material object. Let us assume the contrary and see where it gets us. We will even take the most optimistic case, and imagine that the speed of transportation may eventually become infinite.

Picture a time when, by the development of techniques as far beyond our present engineering as a transistor is beyond a stone axe, we can reach anywhere we please instantaneously, with no more effort than dialling a number. This would indeed cut the Universe down, and reduce its physical immensity to nothingness What would be left?

Everything that really matters. For the Universe has two aspects -its scale, and its breathtaking complexity. Having abolished the first, we are now face-to-face with the second.

What we must now try to visualize is not size, but quantity. The directories for such cities as London and New York are already getting somewhat out of hand, but they list only about a million -106- numbers- The Cosmic Directory would be 1014 time bigger to hold its 1020 numbers.

To continue our fantasy a little further, here is another consequence of 20-digit telephone number. Think of the possibility of cosmic chaos if dialling just a wrong digit in 27945015423811986385 could put you at the wrong end of the universe. And it is still possible that this is not enough and we may need bigger numbers to keep score of the stars, and even more to number their planets.

Before such numbers, even spirits brave enough to face the challenge of the light-years must quail. The detailed examination of all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world is a far smaller task than the exploration of the universe.

(From Profiles of the Future by Arthur C. Clarke. Adapted)

PART ONE: READING COMPREHENSION

1. Answer the following questions according to the information in the text.

1. What are the main space-travellin problems?

2. Does Arthur Clarke consider the speed of light impossible to overcome? Copy a sentence that expresses his point of view.

3. What could lead to chaos?

4. Which of the following sentences summarises the text best?

a) Space conquest will go through stages. First, we will create a powerful means of driving spaceships to break all speed barriers. Then, we will bring order into the chaos in the Universe -some kind of numerical system to be able to calculate distances and communicate by phone.

b) In time, efficient spaceship engines will allow us to travel from our Solar System towards the limits of our galaxy. Then, some unthinkable things may start to happen. These go from instant transportation in the Universe, no matter its scale, to dealing with its vast complexity.

c) The future will bring an efficient means of propelling our spaceships and breaking the speed of light without radiation of space objects. Then, our engineers will create transistors for instant transportation beyond our galaxy and order to communicate with distant stars

  PART TWO: WRITING
Choose ONE. Write about either 1 or 2.

Option A: Write an essay. Imagine you are in the future -in the year 3000. Describe lifestyle and technological advances -for example: Where and how do people live? How do they travel through space? How do they communicate? What other things do they do differently from todav?

Option B: Write a dialogue between two or more people. They are discussing the importance of space discovery and its cost. They express reasons for and against it.

3. Vocabulary

Explain next words in English, write the phonetics and also an example: to outrace, to picture, to dial, breathtaking, challenge, to quail.