In Tom Godwin’s short story

The Nothing Equation,

LITER ATURE – 5A humanity has the technology

to explore the universe and
look outside the solar system.
Observation ‘bubbles’ are
used to study the far distances
of space. For a short time, the
START THINKING … men whose job it is to observe
1 Work in pairs. Discuss the questions: live in these bubbles.
● Do you think intelligent life exists on other planets?
● Could you imagine spending six months completely alone?
● How would you explain the size of the universe to a young child?

THE NOTHING EQUATION

(1957) Tom Godwin
The cruiser vanished into hyperspace and Green was alone in the
observation bubble, ten thousand light-years beyond the galaxy’s
outermost sun. He looked out the windows at the gigantic sea of emptiness
around him and wondered again what danger had so terrified the men
5 before him.
Of one thing he was already certain; he would find that nothing was waiting outside the bubble to kill him … something
inside the bubble had caused it. Or else they had imagined it all.
He went across the small room, his magnetized soles loud on the thin metal floor in the bubble’s silence. He sat down in the
single chair, and reviewed the known facts.
10 The bubble was a project of Earth’s Galactic Observation Bureau, positioned there to gather data from observations that
could not be made from within the galaxy. The bubble had been made as small and light as possible. It was for that reason
that it could accommodate only one attendant.
The Bureau had selected Horne as the bubble’s first attendant and the cruiser left him there for his six months’ period of
duty. When it made its scheduled return with his replacement, Horne was dead. He killed himself … On the table was his
15 daily-report log and his last entry, made three months before:

I haven’t attended to the instruments for a long time because it hates us and doesn’t want us here.
It hates me the most of all and keeps trying to get into the bubble to kill me. I can hear it whenever
I stop and listen and I know it won’t be long…

The sentence was never finished. According to the temperature recording instruments in the bubble his body ceased
20 radiating heat that same night …
Silverman was Horne’s replacement. When the cruiser returned six months later bringing him, Green, to be Silverman’s
replacement, Silverman was completely insane. He babbled about something that had been waiting outside the bubble to
kill him but his nearest to a rational statement was to say once, when asked for the hundredth time what he had seen:
“Nothing—you can’t really see it. But you feel it watching you and you hear it trying to get in to kill you —for God’s sake—
25 take me away from it—take me back to Earth ...”
Then he had tried to hide under the captain’s desk and the ship’s doctor had led him away.

Glossary 2 5A.1  Read the text and listen.

vanished disappeared
bubble an empty, circular structure 3 Read the text again and answer the questions.
outermost most distant
1 Why is the bubble located so far away from the
wondered think about/question
galaxy?
soles the under-part of shoe
gather collect 2 How many ‘attendants’ are mentioned in the
log a type of diary or journal recording a extract? What are their names?
journey 3 Why is only one ‘attendant’ allowed to stay in the
ceased stopped bubble?
insane mad/crazy 4 Why was the entry in the log unfinished?
babbled speak in a rapid, incoherent way 5 Why does one attendant try to hide under a desk?

Think Level 2 Literature 5A PHOTOCOPIABLE © Cambridge University Press 2018

 5A LITER ATU R E

4 READ BETWEEN THE LINES Write the questions 3 The bosses chose Green because he is strong and
for the following answers: healthy.
4 Green feels that time passes slowly in the bubble.
1 ‘Ten thousand light-years beyond the galaxy’s
outermost sun.’ 5 Green hears a gunshot.

2 ‘Only one.’ 6 Green thinks he is more rational than the men in

the bubble before him.
3 ‘Three months before.’
4 ‘A hundred times.’ 8 5A.2  Listen again. Complete sentences 1- 5
5 ‘Nothing, you can’t really see it.’ with one word.
6 ‘The ship’s doctor.’ 1 The bubble was examined but was
found.
5 VOCABULARY Complete the following sentences
with a word from the glossary using the correct 2 McDowell says intelligence is a quality a man in the
form of the word. bubble doesn’t .
3 The bubble was as small and as a
1 NASA data about other planets and tomb.
galaxies by using radio-telescopes.
4 The bubble contained a remote-control panel for
2 Scientists have studied the limits of the instruments.
our solar system.
5 Green realizes boredom was not the reason he felt
3 In the Star Trek movies, the captain keeps a
.
where he records what happens on
the ship.
4 Many people what alien life will look WRITING Sequencing events
like.
5 Voyager was a space probe launched in 1977. It
9 WRITING Imagine you are one of the
astronauts in the bubble. In a log entry you
will not sending information back to
describe a bad day. Here are the things that
earth until 2020.
happened in note form:
6 ROLE PLAY Astronauts have to be physically ● had strange dream / woke
and psychologically fit and healthy. Below is an ● saw a shape outside
interview with a potential astronaut. Work with ● heard noise in bubble
a partner and decide how an applicant could ● knew something watching me
answer these questions and write down their
● saw a shape in the bubble
responses. Then practice reading the dialogue.
Q: Tell me why you want to be an astronaut. Combine these into a log entry using words
A: to sequence events like:
Q: Tell me about a time when you were scared. first of all | after that | when | later | but | later
What did you do? finally | immediately
A:
Q: How much exercise do you do?
A:
Q: What’s the longest time you have spent
completely alone?
LITERATURE
A: There is some disagreement about when the first
Q: What do you imagine alien life looks like? CHARACTERISATION
Science Fiction stories were written. Perhaps one
A: problem is that it is hard to give a clear definition. Look
at the following definitions. Which do you agree with?
7 LISTENING True or false? Before you listen, WIT
a Science Fiction tells stories about the future
discuss the following question in pairs: Do you usually involving aliens and other planets.
think Green will have more success than the
previous attendants? SHORT STORIES
b Science Fiction is a type of literature where
people imagine life on other worlds.
5A.2  Listen and decide if statements 1-6 are c Science Fiction predicts how technology will be
true or false, according to what you hear. GOTHIC NOVELS
used in the future or on imaginary planets.

1 Captain McDowell isn’t happy about Green being 10 Using your own ideas and some of the ideas in
the replacement. a-c, write you own definition of Science Fiction.
2 Green is annoyed with McDowell.

Think Level 2 Literature 5A PHOTOCOPIABLE © Cambridge University Press 2018