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English 15 Online
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Read the passage below. You will respond by writing an informational response paragraph. You will find specific writing directions below the passage. GOLD IN THE SKY By Alan E. Nourse Chapter 1. Trouble Times Two The sun was glowing dull red as it slipped down behind the curving horizon of Mars, but Gregory Hunter was not able to see it. There was no viewscreen in the ship's cabin; it was too tiny for that. Greg twisted around in the Picklepit that had been built just big enough to hold him, and shifted his long legs against the brace-webbing, trying to get them comfortable. He knew he was afraid ... but nobody else knew that, not even the captain waiting at the control board on the satellite, and in spite of the fear Greg Hunter would not have traded places at this moment with anyone else in the universe. He had worked too hard and waited too long for this moment. He heard the count-down monitor clicking in his ears, and his hands clenched into fists. How far from Mars would he be 10 minutes from now? He didn't know. Farther than any man had ever traveled before in the space of 10 minutes, he knew, and faster. How far and how fast would depend on him alone. "All set, Greg?" It was the captain's voice in the earphones. "All set, Captain." "You understand the program?" Greg nodded. "24 hours out, 24 hours back, 90 degrees to the ecliptic1, and all the acceleration2 I can stand both ways." Greg grinned to himself. He thought of the months of conditioning he had gone through to prepare for this run ... the hours in the centrifuge to build up his tolerance to acceleration, the careful diet, the rigorous hours of physical conditioning. It was only one experiment, one tiny step in the work that could someday give men the stars, but to Gregory Hunter at this moment it was everything. "Good luck, then." The captain cut off, and the blastoff buzzer sounded. He was off. His heart hammered in his throat, and his eyes ached fiercely, but he paid no attention. His finger crept to the air-speed indicator, then to the cut-off switch. When the pressure became too great, when he began to black out, he would press it. But not yet. It was speed they wanted; they had to know how much acceleration a man could take for how long and still survive, and now it was up to him to show them. Fleetingly, he thought of Tom ... poor old stick-in-the-mud Tom, working away in his grubby little Mars-bound laboratory, watching bacteria grow. Tom could never have qualified for

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