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GENERAL ENGLISH · ENGLISH IN VIDEO · ADVANCED (C1-C2)

STARS
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1 Warm up

Look at these pictures of patterns of stars, or constellations, in the night sky. Match each picture with
its constellation name:

1. Taurus the bull

2. Aries the goat
3. Cancer the crab
4. Gemini the twins

Do you enjoy looking at the night sky?

What do you know about how stars are formed?

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2 Vocabulary

You are going to watch a video about the life cycle of stars from the National Geographic 101 series.
Before you watch, you need to know some vocabulary. Read the sentences from the video and write
the words in bold next to their meanings in the table, using the context to help you.

• More massive stars instead blast matter into space...

• But from the remnants of stars, heavier elements are cast into the universe...
• ...hot cores formed by ... dust and gas
• ... leaving behind an extremely dense body...
• ... the amount of light they emit...
• ...hydrogen ... begin(s) to fuse and create helium.
• Less massive stars such as our sun release their stellar material into space...
• Within these stellar nurseries, stars begin life...
• ...stars that are at least three times our sun’s mass ... create a bottomless well of gravity

Verbs Nouns Adjectives

join two or more things
together to make another
thing =
send or give out =
thrown or distributed in a
random way =
central parts of something = containing a lot of some
material in a very small space
a deep hole that is a source
=
of water or gas =
very large =
places where young children,
animals, or plants are taken
care of =

use an explosion to send what remains from a larger

something out with great body after something
force = happens to it =

3 Watch for main idea

Video
Now watch the video. Listen for the phrases with the key words from the last exercise and record
the order in which you hear them. Write the number in the space to the left of each sentence.

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4 Watch for detail

Read this sentence from the video. The word in bold is technical vocabulary, which a non-specialist
would not be expected to know. The word is defined or explained in the underlined phrase that follows
it.

Stars. Be they millions or billions of years old, are all born in nebuli, clouds of dust and
mostly hydrogen gas.

Many listening and reading texts follow this pattern - sometimes the definition or explanation comes
before the key word and sometimes it comes after. Recognizing this pattern will help you to recover
more information and achieve greater understanding.

Watch the video again and complete the missing information. The first letters of the missing words
have been given.

1. Within these stellar nurseries, stars begin life as protostars or hot cores formed by the c
and c of dust and gas.
2. As the protostars become hotter, hydrogen nuclei inside of the cores begin to fuse and create
helium. It is this c r , thermonuclear fusion, that generates a star’s
heat and energy and causes it to shine.
3. One of these classifications is by s t . Called spectral classes, these
seven major groups range from the coolest stars which are designated as M and up to the hottest
stars which are designated as O.
4. Stars are also c by the amount of light they emit or luminosity.
5. But the most massive stars, stars that are at least three times our sun’s mass, collapse into themselves
and create a bottomless well of gravity, a b h .

5 Comprehension
Work in pairs to find groups of three items that go together, according to the video. In each group of
three, one item is a main topic, while the other two are examples or explanations.

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STARS

6 Discuss

Discuss any or all of these questions in pairs or small groups.

1. What feelings do people often have when they look at the night sky?
2. How have stars and the night sky been important to people in the past?
3. How can people today learn to identify constellations or stars in the night sky?
4. How will the study of astronomy and the exploration of space benefit mankind?
5. Are you a fan of science fiction set in space? Why/not?

7 Extension

The video explains scientific concepts but even in this context there is some metaphorical language.
These expressions are not literally true, but they serve to transfer meaning from one situation to
another. Define the literal meanings of the words in bold from the text.

Like 1) fireflies on a still summer night, they gently dot and illuminate the infinite 2)
velveteen sky.
Called luminosity classes, these nine major groups range from the small, less bright white
3) dwarfs to the large and extremely bright 4) hypergiants.
But from the remnants of stars, heavier elements are cast into the universe and it is this
star dust that form the 5) seedlings of life itself.

Why has this sort of language been included in this video?

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