Pre-reading questions:
I will read each question. Then, please answer them.
- Do you want to travel to space? Why or why not?
- Could you tell me your most memorable experience staying in a hotel?
Vocabulary:
I will read the words, meanings, and sample sentences. Then, repeat after me.
- stuck /stuhk/
- potential /puh-TEN-shuhl/
- holiday /HOL-i-dey/
- recent /REE-suhnt/
- construction /kuhn-struhk-shuhn/
[adjective] – unable to move, or set in a particular position, place, or way of thinking
Six of us were stuck in the elevator for over an hour.
[adjective] – possible when the necessary conditions exist
Three potential buyers have expressed interest in the company.
[noun] – an official day when you do not have to go to work or school
Have you decided where you’re going for your holidays this year?
[adjective] – happening or starting from a short time ago
Is that a recent picture?
[noun] – the work of building or making something, especially buildings, bridges, etc.
The bridge is an amazing work of engineering and construction.
Article reading:
Please read the whole article. Then, I will check your pronunciation and intonation.
If you’re stuck at home due to the pandemic and daydreaming about potential holidays, why dream about Bali’s beaches or Venice’s canals when a holiday in space might be in your future? A Californian-based company, the Gateway Foundation, has discovered plans for a cruise ship-style hotel that could one day float above the Earth’s atmosphere in 2019. By 2027, the Von Braun Station, a futuristic design consisting of 24 modules linked by elevator shafts to form a spinning wheel orbiting the Earth, was planned to be fully operational.
The hotel has a new name: Voyager Station, and it will be built by Orbital Assembly Corporation, a new construction company headed by former pilot John Blincow, who is also the chairman of the Gateway Foundation. Blincow explained in a recent interview with CNN Travel that while there had been some delays due to Covid, construction on the space hotel is expected to begin in 2026, and a trip to space should be feasible by 2027. “We’re trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner. It’s coming. It’s coming fast,” said Blincow.
The hotel’s interior resembles that of a budget Earth-bound hotel, but with some stunning out-of-this-world views. The hotel’s aesthetic, according to Tim Alatorre, a senior design architect at Orbital Assembly Corporation, was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which he characterized as “almost a blueprint of what not to do.” “I think the goal of Stanley Kubrick was to highlight the division between technology and humanity and so, purposefully, he made the stations and the ships very sterile and clean and alien.”
The hotel has a new name: Voyager Station, and it will be built by Orbital Assembly Corporation, a new construction company headed by former pilot John Blincow, who is also the chairman of the Gateway Foundation. Blincow explained in a recent interview with CNN Travel that while there had been some delays due to Covid, construction on the space hotel is expected to begin in 2026, and a trip to space should be feasible by 2027. “We’re trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner. It’s coming. It’s coming fast,” said Blincow.
The hotel’s interior resembles that of a budget Earth-bound hotel, but with some stunning out-of-this-world views. The hotel’s aesthetic, according to Tim Alatorre, a senior design architect at Orbital Assembly Corporation, was inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which he characterized as “almost a blueprint of what not to do.” “I think the goal of Stanley Kubrick was to highlight the division between technology and humanity and so, purposefully, he made the stations and the ships very sterile and clean and alien.”
Comprehension Questions:
I will read each question. Then, please answer them based on the article.
- When will Von Braun Station be fully operational?
- What is the new name of the hotel?
- Who is the head of Orbital Assembly Corporation?
- According to the article, when will a trip to space be feasible?
- Who is Tim Alatorre?
Discussion Questions:
I will read each question. Then, please answer them.
- Why do you think the name Von Braun Station was changed?
- Why do you think Blincow said this statement, “We’re trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner”?
- Why do you think Tim Alatorre was inspired by the movie “A Space Odyssey”?
- How would you describe the hotel in your own words?
- If you had an architect, would you want to design a hotel in space? Why or why not?