Page 114 - English_Spark_5

14 Travelling to Mars

I can read...
I can read...
This extract is based on the ‘Danger on the Ice Canal’ by Richard Mace
Elam describing the adventure of three boys while travelling to Mars.

Aarav and Harsh were visiting the glass dome colonies on planet Mars along
with Ramanujan, their family friend. Now they must have returned to the

spaceship that had brought them to Mars. The journey from the glass dome to
their spaceship took only ten minutes on the high-speed sleds. So, they decided

to step out and watch the rockets being launched to send fuel to the spaceship
stationed above the planet.

In the dressing room, they put on their
spacesuits. Ramanujan carefully checked

the siblings’ air tanks, built-in heaters,
and their helmet radios for talking to one

another.

Outside, they found space-suited
figures gathered around the fuel

rocket cannon. Suddenly, the three
of them heard a loud roar and saw a

burst of flame. Like a bullet, the rocket

left the muzzle of the giant gun and
rose into the sky.

‘‘They will be shooting off more,’’ Ramanujan said. ‘‘Our

ship is at the end of the canal. We will be able to see the rockets go off as we
head back!’’

rocket cannon — a giant gun-like object from which rockets are shot out; muzzle —
the open end; canal — (here) the ice canals spread throughout the planet

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