CAE Reading and Use of English Part 5
You are going to read an article about tiny rocks from outer space. For questions 31-36 choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.
Space dust
A Norwegian musician who looks for micrometeorites – tiny rocks from outer space.
Every day, millions of tiny rocks from space, no bigger than specks of dust, reach our planet. Known as micrometeorites, they are billions of years old, and were once part of the oldest rocks in our solar system. According to experts, about 12 micrometeorites now land on every square metre of our planet every year. This might not sound much, but in total it comes to 100 tonnes a day. 12 tonnes of that mass consists of water molecules. Furthermore, the micrometeorites also contain complex organic molecules of the sort required, for instance, for DNA. So this abundant rain of particles contains, as well as water, the stuff of life itself.
However, every day, other tiny particles also land, but they’re not from outer space: things like dust from construction, exhaust fumes and sand. These terrestrial particles outnumber the micrometeorites by a billion to one. So when Jon Larsen, a Norwegian jazz musician, became fascinated by micrometeorites and began looking for them, he thought he would probably be unsuccessful. The experts he contacted were certain he would be. Until then, the only micrometeorites ever identified had been found in the Antarctic. Since falling to Earth billions of years ago, these had mostly been locked into rock and ice. Scientists knew how important it is to study micrometeorites, and were tantalised by the prospect that they might contain hints as to how life started on Earth. Yet no one had ever found recently arrived examples. In fact, so extremely unlikely was it, that they hadn’t even tried.
What intrigued Larsen was that, if micrometeorites were regularly falling to Earth in such numbers, where were they? ‘It was a very obvious contradiction,’ he says. ‘Most scientists agreed that they might be everywhere, but it simply wasn’t possible to find them. I had to try.’ He turned to Matthew Genge, a senior lecturer at Imperial College London. ‘For years we’d seen amateurs posting online about collecting micrometeorites,’ says Genge. ‘When they contact us we tell them it’s not possible.’ That’s what he told Larsen. ‘But he was persistent and kept emailing me photos of possible particles.’ Larsen, to be fair, was far from starry-eyed. He had a humble, but also in some ways grand, vision for his project. His idea was to make a start, and perhaps devise a system that would eventually be perfected.
His technique was actually to look not for micrometeorites, but for the things that weren’t, and like a detective, eliminate them from his enquiries. Finally, after six years, he found something he couldn’t classify: it was smooth, dark, shiny, egg-shaped, and almost translucent. Larsen showed it to Genge. He looked at it and said, ‘Yes, that’s it.’
Genge’s is a rarefied discipline. ‘With micrometeorites you can start making predictions about the universe,’ says Genge. ‘They’re not unique to our solar system and if they fall elsewhere, then they’ll also be carrying water and complex organic molecules there. And if that’s the case, the implications are very exciting. You can say that planets that have these bombardments are more likely to have life.’ Scientists couldn’t investigate this, however, until they had Larsen’s examples to study.
Finally, Larsen showed me a micrometeorite. There under the microscope, it looked so unexpected, so odd – surely something like that would quickly catch the searcher’s eye. But when I moved away from the lens, I got a sense of why it had taken so long for Larsen to get that far. Without the magic of magnification it was a boring grey speck again.
31 What point is highlighted in the first paragraph about micrometeorites on Earth?
A how much we depend on them for our existence
B how significant the quantities of them are
C how uneven the distribution of them is
D how limited our awareness of them is
32 In the second paragraph, the writer says the experts
A thought micrometeorites were too complex for a non-scientist to understand.
B were embarrassed at their lack of progress in the search for micrometeorites.
C felt the difficulties involved in hunting for micrometeorites were overwhelming.
D doubted the value of analysing micrometeorites found in a particular location.
33 What is stated about Larsen in the third paragraph?
A He was confused by conflicting opinions.
B He felt motivated by the efforts of others.
C He misunderstood what scientists required.
D He had a realistic attitude towards his search.
34 The writer compares Larsen to a detective because
A he used a systematic method.
B his intuition helped him in his work.
C his approach was slow to yield results.
D he was unsure precisely what to look for.
35 What point is made in the fifth paragraph?
A Speculation about micrometeorites only began recently.
B A great deal of potential information is contained in micrometeorites.
C Despite the need for more research, few people want to study micrometeorites.
D Before Larsen found micrometeorites, scientists were unsure of their significance.
36 How did the writer feel after looking at the micrometeorite through a microscope?
A privileged to be able to see something so unusual
B amazed that anyone would bother to look for it
C puzzled that it had been so difficult to find
D surprised at how large it seemed to be
For this task: Answers with explanations :: Vocabulary