Before the mid-20th century, most people felt travelling into space was an     1     dream. However, some scientists were determined to help     2     realise their dream to explore space. After many     3    , they succeeded in making rockets that could     4     Earth’s gravity. On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR and successfully orbited around Earth.    5    , the USSR focused on sending people into space, and on 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the     6     person in the world to go into space. Over eight years later, on 20 July 1969, American     7    Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon,     8     saying, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant     9     for mankind.” Following this, many more goals were achieved. For example, America’s NASA space agency launched Voyager 1 on 5 September 1977 to study deep space, and it still transmits     10     today.

There’s no electricity or water and even no textbooks either! I’m still trying to     1     to these conditions. However, one thing is for sure, I’ve become more imaginative in my teaching. Science is my most     2     subject as my students have no     3     of doing experiments. In fact there is no     4     , and if I need     5     I have to carry it from my house in a bucket! The other day I was showing the boys the     6     chemistry experiment when, before I knew it, the     7     was     8     over everywhere! The boys who had never come     9     anything like this before started jumping out of the     10     . Sometimes I wonder how     11     chemistry is to these students, most of whom will be going     12     to their villages after Year 8 anyway. To be     13     , I doubt     14     I’m making any     15     to these boys’ lives at all.

Imagine having the o    1     to sing together with hundreds of other people while you are at home alone. You can do this in a virtual choir. Virtual choir members record themselves while they p    2     alone on video. These videos are uploaded o    3     the Internet, and then they are put together into the video that you can see online—a virtual choir. Anyone can take part in a virtual choir from anywhere—all you need is a video camera and an Internet c    4    . You do not even need a s    5    . A virtual choir helps connect o    6     people together. Many people do not have close friends or contacts who have the same interest in m    7    . Many others do not have the chance to join a local choir. A virtual choir e    8     them to add their voices to those of other individuals and become part of the global community. It has p    9     to be a positive influence on the lives of many people. A    10     one virtual choir member said, “Music helps me to forget my problems. With music, I become someone else.”

Have you ever faced a time when things looked dark and you had no hope at all? Two years ago, I was told I had a serious     1     which was difficult to cure. My body     2     all the time and thus I thought I didn’t have much longer to     3    . I was very afraid and I felt so alone and discouraged. Then one day, I had to go through a two-hour medical     4    . The doctor wanted me to     5    , so he had me listen to some music, and one of the songs was “Happy”. The song made me feel so much better that from then on I began to listen to music all the time. John A. Logan said, “Music is the medicine of the     6    .” And it’s-true. Music helped me recover.

Music gave me happiness. When I listened to music, it made my     7     fly like a kite in the wind. Music gave me     8     and brought me relief. It was the rock I leant on to become strong and to get through those hard times. Moreover, music gave me hope and a sense of     9    . It became my best friends. It spoke words of encouragement to the deepest part of my     10    .