Day reading Passage (Australian culture and culture shock)

12 
-bearing (suffix) 
- supporting or holding the stated thing.
Example: mineral-bearing rocks.
13 
To stretch (v) 
(B2) - to cause something to reach, often as far as possible, in a 
particular direction; to go as far as or past the usual limit of something.
Example: She stretched out her hand and helped him from his chair.
Example: We can’t work any harder, Paul. We’re already fully stretched.

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Day 27
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 27-40, which are based on Reading
Passage 3 below.
Life on Mars?
Terraforming may sound like something out o f science fiction, but some believe it is
possible to turn that fiction into fact.
As plans are slowly being drawn up for the first manned mission to Mars, many space 
travel sceptics are asking one vital question: why go there? Mars is a barren, desolate 
planet, and with its thin atmosphere and bitterly cold climate, it would appear to be 
completely unsuitable for human life. Above all, it is a very distant place, and getting there 
would be an enormous challenge. However, the planet might just hold the key to long­
term human survival. With the Earth’s population currently at more than seven billion 
and climbing, we may eventually be forced to look elsewhere in the solar system for 
somewhere to live. It is just possible that, contrary to photographic evidence, Mars may be 
more promising than it appears.
Today, Mars is a viciously cold, dry place. However, it does have some things in common 
with our own planet. For example, it has a daily rotation rate of 24 hours 37 minutes, 
compared with 23 hours 56 minutes on Earth. It also has an axial tilt of 24 degrees, 
which is just half a degree more than Earth’s, and a gravitational pull one third of Earth’s. 
Furthermore, it holds many of the elements that are required to support life, including 
carbon and oxygen (in the form of carbon dioxide), nitrogen, and frozen water at its polar 
ice caps. In fact, if you were to travel back in time several billions years, you would notice 
some remarkable parallels between the atmosphere on Earth then and Mars today. Back 
then, Earth was also a lifeless planet; until photosynthetic bacteria developed and began 
to produce enough oxygen to allow for the development of animal and plant life, our 
atmosphere also consisted entirely of carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
It comes as no surprise to learn, therefore, that some scientists believe the same process 
which turned Earth’s atmosphere from mostly carbon dioxide into breathable air could 
be repeated on Mars, but by using technology rather than by letting nature and evolution 
take its natural course. Terraforming, as this process is known, would initially create a 
greenhouse effect that would heat the planet, which in turn would create other conditions 
necessary to provide a suitable living environment for plants and animals. However, it 
would be a highly challenging undertaking, and the process of terraforming the entire 
planet into an Earth-like habitat could still take many thousands of years.
Three terraforming methods have been suggested, with the first already under 
development, albeit for a different purpose. At present, the American space agency NASA 
is working on a system that will use large mirrors to capture the sun’s radiation. This 
radiation will be used to propel spacecraft through space, removing the need for heavy

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Reading Passage 3
and expensive rocket fuel. With a few changes, it might be possible to use similar mirrors 
to reflect the sun’s radiation and heat the surface of Mars. Aimed at the planet from a 
distance of two hundred thousand miles, these enormous mirrors would raise the surface 
temperature by a few degrees. If they were concentrated on the polar ice caps, they would 
provide enough heat to melt the polar ice caps and release the carbon dioxide that is 
believed to be trapped there. Gradually, as the temperature rose, greenhouse gases would 
be released, and this would create a form of Martian global warming, the first stage in 
making the planet sustainable for life.
The second method would be to set up greenhouse gas ‘factories’ in order to raise the 
temperature of the planet. It is generally accepted that greenhouse gases produced by 
heavy industry are raising the Earth’s temperature. Therefore, by building hundreds of 
greenhouse-gas emitting factories on Mars, a similar effect could be achieved. Carbon 
dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases would be pumped into the Martian 
atmosphere. The same factories would then produce oxygen by mimicking the natural 
process of plant photosynthesis: they would inhale the carbon dioxide they produce, and 
then emit oxygen. The process could be accelerated by ‘sowing the planet’s surface with 
photosynthetic bacteria, which would increase the rate at which oxygen is produced. 
Eventually, there would be enough oxygen on the planet for humans to breathe using only 
special apparatus similar to that used by mountain climbers.
The third, and by far the most extreme, method has been proposed by space scientists 
Robert Zubrin and Christopher McKay. They believe that it would be possible to produce 
greenhouse gases and water by firing large, ammonia-bearing asteroids at the planet.
Each asteroid would weigh about ten billion tons, and would be powered by huge rocket 
engines which would move it towards Mars at over 10,000 miles per hour. At this speed, 
it would take each asteroid about ten years to reach its destination. The energy produced 
by one asteroid slamming into Mars’ surface, say Zubrin and McKay, would raise the 
temperature of the planet by three degrees Celsius and melt about one thousand billion 
tons of ice at the polar caps. They believe it would take many of these asteroids, and 
at least fifty years, in order to create a temperate climate and enough water to cover a 
quarter of the planet’s surface.
Terraforming Mars, if it is ever attempted, will be neither cheap nor easy. And it certainly 
won’t be quick: although optimists like Zubrin and McKay say it could be achieved in five 
or six decades, the reality is that terraforming is more likely to take hundreds or even 
thousands of years. Furthermore, it will stretch human ingenuity to its limits, and will 
require levels of will and commitment that have rarely been seen before. The challenge 
of developing a habitable environment and bringing life to the cold, dry world of Mars is 
fraught with challenges, but it might just be one that saves the human race.

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Day 27
In boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet, write