SECTION III: READING

Part 1. Questions 56 – 65

Read the passage below and choose the best answer to each question.

NEW HUNT FOR LIFE IN SPACE

British space scientists are planning to join the American in the race to find evidence of life on (56)_______ planets. Alan Penny and his team at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory have designed a telescope that is 40 times more powerful than Hubble. Known as ‘Darwin’, his telescope could tell if planets 50 (57)_______ years away have any kind of life on them. Two days (58)_______, NASA scientists had shown a proof that one of Jupiter’s moons could support life, Penny announced that his telescope may be included in a European Space Agency mission. The Darwin project, with a (59)_______ of 500 million, is on a short list of two proposals. If approved it will probably be (60)_______ around 2015, its destination somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. The blueprint is actually for five telescopes positioned 50 meters apart in space, slowly circling a (61)_______ processing station. The combined data from these telescopes would build up a full picture of a planet, picking out faint images that have never been seen before. Darwin would not be able to take detailed photographs of the planets it (62)_______, but Penny believes a second- generation telescope could be sent up to do this. He claims it is worthwhile mapping the universe around our (63)_______ galaxy, even though these planets lie (64)_______ our reach for the moment. The European Space Agency will make its decision (65)______ Darwin within three years.

What is the main topic of this conversation? A. computer sales negotiations B. a preliminary interview C. an Internet seminar meeting