1. Decide if the following statements are true or false.

The Phoenix can heal itself. True

Garuda was much more powerful immediately after his birth than in later life.                                                 True / False

The Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars to look for precious metals.                                                             True / False

The Phoenix mission lasted longer than it had been anticipated.                                                                   True / False

The existence of life on Mars now seems more likely than it seemed before the Phoenix mission.                    True / False

The Phoenix is not likely to be able to send signals next spring.                                                                   True / False

2. Here are the definitions for some of the words in the first part of the 'Phoenix' entry. Can you guess which words are defined? The first letter of each word has been given to you.

Injure somebody with a weapon (verb)                                                 w        

The army fighting against your army (noun)                                         e            

Too strong or skilful to be defeated (adjective)                                      i                    

Never dying (adjective)                                                                       i                               

Split or break apart suddenly                                                              b             

Kindness or forgiveness to somebody you have power over (noun)         m         

3. Complete each sentence with a word from exercise 2.

He ate so much that his trousers           .

Achilles was nearly                     but he had a weakness and in the end he was defeated.

The criminal who robbed the bank was completely without          . He shot everyone.

They lost the war because the                  had a much bigger army.

Gods live forever. They are                          .

The               was not very deep and the victim survived the knife attack.

4. The letters of the following words have been completely jumbled up. The words are in connection with space exploration and they were all used in the second part of the 'Phoenix' entry. Can you rearrange the letters to form the original words?

soisinm

cfrcaaepst

splesma

reorv

rneadl

aMitran

tplane

5. Now put the rearranged words back to their correct places in the paragraph. You will have to use one of the words twice.

Phoenix landed in the polar region, where no other (                    ) had landed before. It was not a (            ) but a lander, which means that instead of traveling on the surface it stayed at the spot of the landing. The (            ) was anticipated to last for about 90 (               ) days, but the (           ) kept on working two months longer before the approaching (               ) winter finally silenced it. Phoenix found (                  ) of ice in the ground but it also found materials that make the (            ) a much less life-friendly place than scientists had thought.

You can check your answers here.

Grammar note

This entry has some sentences with the verb tense Past Perfect.

Example:     'Phoenix landed in the polar region, where no other spacecraft had landed before.'

In this sentence the second verb (had landed) is in the Past Perfect form(had+past participle) to show that the activity happened before the first activity (landed). If you are not familiar with this verb tense you can do some exercises for it here.