A student discussion

A student discussion

Listen to two students comparing Mars and Earth to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Teacher: So you've got a few minutes to discuss with your partner.

Student 1: So, as far as I know, the main similarity between Mars and Earth is that they can both support human life.

Student 2: Yeah, but do we know that's actually true? I mean, Mars is much colder than Earth, isn't it? It says here it's about minus 55 degrees most of the time, whereas on Earth only places like Antarctica get that cold.

Student 1: True. Well then, I suppose you could say both planets are a similar distance from the Sun?

Student 2: No way! Mars is much further away! It says here it's about 228 million kilometres, while Earth is about 150 million.

Student 1: Yes, but in space that's not that far. Jupiter is, like, almost 780 million kilometres. That's why we use astronomical units when we talk about distances in space. Earth is 1 astronomical unit from the Sun and Mars is 1.3. The difference doesn't sound so big when you look at it that way.

Student 2: I see what you mean. Jupiter is 5.2 astronomical units so I guess you're right. What other similarities are there between the two planets?

Student 1: Let's see … not the colour, obviously!

Student 2: Yeah! Earth is called the blue planet and Mars is called the red planet for pretty obvious reasons!

Student 1: Their sizes are pretty different. Mars is about half the size of Earth.

Student 2: What about this? It looks like the days on both planets are almost the same length. Earth's day is 24 hours but Mars's is about half an hour longer.

Student 1: You're right. OK, any other things they both share?

Student 2: I suppose you could say they have water in common.

Student 1: Could you? How?

Student 2: Well, Earth is 70 per cent water and Mars probably had huge oceans in the past. It's just that most of the water there now is probably frozen.

Student 1: Ah, I see. I don't think we can say the air is the same, though. Most of Earth's air is nitrogen and oxygen, but Mars …?

Student 2: Mars doesn't really have air, not compared with Earth. It's got about one per cent as much air as Earth.

Student 1: Right, and it's mostly carbon dioxide.

Student 2: Gravity is another difference. I didn't know this, but Mars has higher gravity than the Moon. But it's much less than on Earth, of course.

Student 1: Oh, yes. It says Mars has about 38 per cent of Earth's gravity.

Teacher: OK, let's see what you've found …

Discussion

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Average: 4.3 (209 votes)

Submitted by Suraj paliwal on Wed, 06/01/2021 - 06:38

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Off course, one day people will live in Mars. Everything is possible. Human is developing rapidly in the Earth. One day that day will come. Many scientists work on this.

Submitted by MShadow on Sun, 03/01/2021 - 12:38

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Well, one of the great ambitions of SpaceX, a company founded by Elon Musk, is to send people to Mars, launch and establish environment and infrastructure in Mars so that human beings can live there in future.

Submitted by Elham Barakat on Thu, 31/12/2020 - 15:59

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There are still many arguments around this issue. But I suppose after more and more pollution on the earth and the problem of Global warming. We all will seek to live on another planet. The most probability it will be Mars. Mars is the suitable planet to support Human life after the earth.

Submitted by Djon on Sun, 27/12/2020 - 18:44

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As we know, still it was a lot of different discussion about if it possible to live on Mars in future. But, really, as for me i think that it`s almost impossible because the air won`t be expended and it`ll be impossible to live there for alive organism. But we never know , maybe, the science will extend the new area in this direction. We hope for miracle!

Submitted by Shahad2O on Sat, 26/12/2020 - 13:01

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I don’t think we can live on Mars, because in our human nature It’s need to air, water and food and these things we can’t find it on mars. But we can used mars for uesful things such as scientific centers and scientific researches to retuned it us to benefit.

Submitted by Saad786 on Sat, 26/12/2020 - 10:01

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Yes! that can be possible , if there will be UV radiations coming from the sun to Mars and there will ozone layer to protect the life . More trees means more oxygen. The main problem is not to land on the new planet but to give them necessities of life. For that purpose, there should be enough oxygen, water, natural habitat and residence in order to support life

Submitted by Letícia05040207 on Tue, 22/12/2020 - 02:19

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I've been learning about this content (planets from the Solar System) and when I listened to this recording some minutes ago, this immediatelly reminded me the classes from Internet. It is interesting how I even imagined which planets can be a place for we live in a long future

Submitted by Galit Avni on Mon, 21/12/2020 - 13:26

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Considering the fact that Mars doesn't really have air, I don't think people will live there one day.

Submitted by marwanN11 on Sat, 19/12/2020 - 09:20

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i don't think so. we destroyed our planet, and now want to go to new planet and make it fit for living.

Submitted by Aung5402 on Mon, 14/12/2020 - 03:01

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Well, as far as I know, Mars does not have the air as much as Earth and is only 1 % obtained when compared with the Earth. Whereas, I also wander how the future of university will go on because after many years, Mars will replace the location of the Earth. So, let's see how will be going on in the future. And I also wander how the technology of human will be developing in the future.