English with Jo

Space and The Universe

This is the preparation material for an English conversation lesson about space and the universe. Watch a video about the size of the universe; learn some key vocabulary and discover how to answer conversation questions  about this fascinating subject.

A video about the universe

• What was the most amazing fact you learned about the universe?
• Why do you find it amazing?

Vocabulary 

• Unfathomable: too strange or mysterious to be understood
• Constellation: A group of stars that can be seen as a pattern from Earth. 
• Black Hole: an area in outer space into which everything near it, including light, is pulled in
• Asteroid: Small, rocky object orbiting the Sun.
• Meteoroid: A small chunk of rock from an asteroid which orbits the Sun.
• Solar eclipse: When the moon's orbit comes between the earth and the sun and it looks like the sun is blacked out.
• Lunar eclipse: When the earth prevents sunlight from reaching the moon. 

Idioms  

•  The sky is the limit – When people say that the sky is the limit, they think that there are no limits to the possibilities something could have.  

Conversation Questions 

• Are you interested in the universe?
• What are some of the mysteries of the universe that you would like to know about?
• Why are scientists so interested in finding out about the universe?
• Would you like to go to the moon or travel into space?
• Would you be afraid to travel into space?
• Would you like to experience the feeling of being without gravity?
• What do you think would be the most exciting aspect of space travel?
• Do you think astronauts have a difficult job?
• Do you think it would get boring in space?
• Do you agree with government’s spending billions of dollars on space exploration?
• Do you think space tourism could become the next big industry?
• Do you think that eventually earth will become uninhabitable and human beings will be forced to populate another planet?
• Do you think the universe has an end?
• When do you think people will visit Mars?
• Do you think it is possible that humans could ever live on Mars?
• Have you ever been to an observatory? What did you see?
• Do you think life exists on other planets?
• Do you think earth is visited by extra-terrestrials in UFOs?
• Do you think there is risk of planet earth being hit by asteroid?
• Do you think NASA knows more than they tell us?
• Do you think that many people have a fear of our inability to control factors in the universe?
• Have you ever seen a solar eclipse?