3. Fill in the blanks with the most suitable words (articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, etc). Text 1

One hot summer’s day, Mr and Mrs X, from San Francisco, were travelling 1____ home 2____ Arizona where they had visited Mrs X’s grandmother. During the visit they decided that 3____ old lady would live with them for 4____ while. So they were bringing her home 5____ them to San Francisco. They were driving 6 ____ the desert, quite happily, the old woman was sitting on 7_____ back seat, the couple was chatting in the front. Some time later they realized that the old woman wasn’t talking. 8_____ wife turned round to ask her if she was okay, as, earlier on, she had complained 9____ the terrible heat. However, she didn’t reply, there was 10____ silence.

They stopped 11____ car and rushed round 12____ the back seat, to find that, unfortunately, the old woman had died. She was 13____ big woman, so they decided to put her 14____ the roof of the car in a sack.

After they had been driving across the desert for some time, they came across a petrol station and decided to stop and phone the rest 15____ the family with the dreadful news. But, as they came out of the petrol station, to their horror, they saw their car disappearing into the distance; the old lady’s body was still lying on the roof. While they were phoning someone had stolen their car!

Text 2

Ancient astronomers observed the movements of _1_ moon and the planets across the sky very carefully. In _2_ 17th century the English scientist and mathematician Isaac Newton wondered why the moon and the planets didn't simply fly off into outer space but always moved in a curve _3_ the Earth and the sun. He found _4_ that the same force that pulled _5_ apple back to the ground also kept the moon moving around the Earth.

He discovered that the moon's orbit is the result of _6_ two different movements. The first motion makes the moon fly _7_ a straight line in space. A planet will always follow such _8_ line if nothing else changes its direction or speed. _9_ second force pulls the moon towards the Earth. If you put both movements together you get a curved path around the Earth.

Newton also found out that every body or object has a force _10_ gravity, and that every body pulls other bodies towards it. He also explained that gravity depends _11_ the mass of an object or the amount _12_ material that it has. Therefore the sun, which has very large mass, has a greater force of gravity than the Earth, so the Earth moves around _13_ sun. The moon goes around the Earth because _14_ Earth's gravity is larger than the moon's.

The force of gravity also depends on the distance _15_ two objects. If they are close together gravity between them is greater.

Text 3

Hurricanes are gigantic tropical storms that can be hundreds of kilometres wide. They bring along very strong winds and a lot _1_ rainfall. They often cause flooding _2_ the coasts and sea levels rise.

Hurricanes occur in many parts of _3_ world. In _4_ Pacific Ocean they are called typhoons and in _5_ Australia they are willy-willies. In the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea they are called hurricanes. Hurricanes are born _6_ tropical oceans, usually during late summer and early autumn. They need two things to get them started: heat and moist air. During the summer the ocean surface heats _7_ and warm moist air starts to rise. Cool air sinks down to replace it. This creates _8_ area of low pressure.

The rotation of the earth creates winds around the centre of such a low pressure area. In the northern hemisphere _9_ air moves counterclockwise, in the southern part clockwise. Such a system is called _10_ cyclone.

When warm air rises it cools and creates clouds. Soon, thunderstorms form and it starts to rain. All hurricanes begin as cyclones but not all cyclones become storms or hurricanes. Some die out a few days _11_ they start. They don’t have enough energy to become a hurricane. When winds are stronger than 119km an hour a storm officially becomes a hurricane.

When a tropical storm forms over the Caribbean Sea it gets a name. _12_ every year the first storm of the season is given a name that starts _13_ the letter A, the second storm gets a name starting with B and so on. Years ago only women's names were used _14_ tropical storms. Today male and female names alternate – for example, the first storm is named _15_ Alexandra, the second one Billy, and then Catherine etc. Each year new names are used so that you can connect a storm to a certain year.

Text 4

Stars are _1_ most fascinating objects _2_ the sky. They are gigantic balls of gas that people have been interested in throughout history. Although they are so big they look small because they are so far _3_. Humans always told stories about stars, gave them names and saw patterns in them.

The most important star is the sun. Planets revolve _4_ the centre of _5_ solar system. Our sun is a medium sun, about the same size as most of the other stars in _6_ universe. It consists _7_ hydrogen and helium, which combine to produce energy. This reaction, that makes stars shine so brightly, is called fusion. The temperature _8_ the surface of the sun is about 10,000° C, while the core is thousands of times hotter.

Stars are organized in clusters called galaxies. Our sun, together _9_ the solar system is a part of our galaxy, _10_ Milky Way. It is only one of billions of other galaxies in the universe.

Stars often look so small because they are so far away. _11_ nearest star is Alpha Centauri. It takes light from this star about 4.5 years to reach the earth.

The billions of stars in our universe have different sizes and colors. Some shine yellow like the sun, others are red, white or blue. The color of _12_ star tells us how hot it is. Blue stars are the hottest and red ones the coldest ones. As for size, astronomers speak of giants and dwarfs.

The dimmest stars in the universe are the red dwarfs. They are very small and only have a surface temperature about 3,000° C. Proxima Centauri is such _13_ red dwarf. Although it is as far away as Alpha Centauri we can only see it_14_a telescope.

The biggest stars in our universe are the blue supergiants. They shine a million times brighter than _15_ our sun and have a surface temperature of up to 60,000° C. Because they shine so brightly we can see those that are very far away.

Text 5

_1_ Nobel Prizes are awards that are given each year _2_ special things that people or groups _3_ people have achieved. They are awarded _4_ six areas: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics.

The prizes come _5_ a fund that was created _6_ the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. He wanted to use some of his money to help make _7_ world a better place to live.

Many organizations, chosen by Alfred Nobel himself, determine who receives the prizes. Each award consists of a gold medal, a diploma and a lot of money. Prizes can only be given _8_ individuals of all races, countries and religions. Only the Peace Prize can also be given to a group.

The first Nobel Prizes were handed out on _9_ December 10, 1901 - five years after Alfred Nobel's death. Nobel was a chemist, engineer and inventor whose most famous invention, dynamite, made him _10_ rich man. Although he gave the world such a deadly weapon, Nobel was always _11_ wars and violence. He therefore left a lot of money that was to go to those who did a lot for _12_ mankind.

Officials _13_ first handed out only five prizes _14_ year. The prize for economics was first awarded in 1969. In some years prizes have not been awarded because there were no worthy candidates. All prizes are presented _15_ Stockholm, Sweden, only the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway.