You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-16 which refer to Reading Passage 38 below
                 
SEARCHING THE SKIES

From a giant antenna set among the undulating sheep paddocks of rural Australia, one of the great voyages of discovery has begun – the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI What the international Project Phoenix uncovers is likely to be so utterly different from our kind, so vastly more sophisticated, as to defy imagining.

The SETI Institute, a California!! Research Foundation, managed to raise $A16 million to fund Project Phoenix, which is using the Australia Telescope at Parkes in New South Wales for its search To make its discovery, the telescope needs an extra-special hearing aid, a device which resembles an old-fashioned ear-trumpet Chilled to minus 260 degrees C and crammed with electronics, this feed-horn is the most sensitive built Responsibility for its construction fell to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation radio-engineer Dr. Kel Wellington, another true believer since childhood in the existence of intelligence somewhere in the cosmos.

Project Phoenix is a methodical search Of the 40,000 million stars in our galaxy of similar age and character to our sun, 1000 have been selected which lie within 120 light years of Earth On a galactic scale, that is a bit like searching a one-meter circle of grass on a 100 football oval.

The Parkes antenna zeroes on each star in turn, checking the 200 visible only from the southern hemisphere The feedhorn listens in on radio channels between 1700” and 3000 megahertz, the most efficient communication frequencies It is here that the awesome power of modern technology comes into play the computers scan each of 28 million channels in blocks of searching among the clutter for the elusive pattern of a carrier signal that underlies all complex radio or TV transmissions.

The search’s prospects of success are founded on a formula known as the Drake equation, developed by SETI Institute founder Dr. Frank Drake This says that the number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy whose radio emissions are detectable depends on:

 The rate of formation of life-supporting stars
 The proportion of those stars with planets
 The number of earthlike planets per solar system
 The fraction of those on which life develops
 The fraction of those where intelligence develops
 The fraction of those where technology develops, and
 The lifetimes over which such civilizations can release detectable signals into space

To eliminate the dozens of interference events which occur daily, the new search uses something called a FUDD – a follow-up detection device There is one at Parkes itself and another on a CSIRO antenna at Mopra, 200 km away If a promising signal is detected by the mam antenna it is cross-checked on the FUDDs If they fail to see it, then it is probably local radio interference – perhaps a farmer on his mobile phone If they all see it, loud and clear, the excitement begins
At that point, says Dr. Bobbie Vaile, an astrophysicist at University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, the first step is to check, recheck and check again If the signal is still there and is consistent over time the next step is to call up colleagues on radio telescopes around the world and ask them to home in on the same star and frequency If they see it too, and the signal is narrow and unnatural-looking, it could come from another civilization.

At this point, she says, the Australian Prime Minister and the US President would be notified and public press conference convened ‘It certainly won’t be kept quiet It will be a discovery for all humanity. ‘And it will be a decision for humanity whether or not to respond The Project Phoenix team will only listen and learn – they will not transmit any event, Vaile points out, even to exchange messages would take many years, maybe lifetimes – and we have been sending radio messages out into the cosmos for nearly a century. A visit on either side is virtually out of the question to send a ship to the closest star. Alpha Centauri, four-and-a-half light years distant, would consume energy equal to humanity’s total use for 20 years.

Question 1

According to the passage which ONE of the following statements is true? Write the appropriate letter in the space numbered 15 on the answer sheet.

A  The search for extraterrestrial intelligence depends on an old-fashioned listening device.

B  Dr. Kel Wellington designed the Australia Telescope.

C  The stars selected for scrutiny fall within a specified age limit.

Questions 2-4

Choose the appropriate function from the list below for each piece of equipment. Write the appropriate letter corresponding to the function in the spaces numbered 16-18 on the answer sheet.

Note that there are more functions than you will need.

Equipment

2. antenna

3. feed-horn

4. computer

Functions

A  searches for stars within 120 light years of Earth

B  scans channels

C  looks for the clearest signal

D  closely examines 200 stars one by one

E  scans blocks of stars

Questions 5-9

Which of the following factors are mentioned as part of the Drake equation?

Write Y for those which are mentioned or N for those which are not mentioned.

Write your answers in the spaces numbered 5-9 on the answer sheet. An example has been done for you.

Example:  how many life-supporting stars have planets

Answer:    Y

5. how life-supporting stars are formed

6. how frequently life-supporting stars are formed

7. how many earthlike planets each solar system has 

8. how large the stars are

9. how great the populations of earthlike planets are

Questions 10-16

Below is a list of the steps which would be taken on the discovery of an interesting signal. Put them in the appropriate order by writing the letter for each step A-G in the spaces numbered 10-16 on the answer sheet.

List of steps

A    call press conference

B    ask colleagues around the world to check

C    check three times over

D    decide whether to respond

E    call up colleagues in other parts of the world

F     contact US and Australian Government leaders

G    cross-check through FUDDs
 




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