Sky and Stars
Do you like to watch the sky? What's the sky like at night in your hometown? What's your favorite star? Is it important to study stars?
Vocabulary
  • Light pollution (noun) - the glow from street and domestic lighting that obscures the night sky and hinders the observation of faint stars.
  • Glance (verb) - to give a quick short look.
  • Built-up (adj.) - A built-up area is one where there are a lot of buildings.
  • Starscape (noun) - a view of the stars visible in (a particular part of) the sky.
  • Make out (phrasal verb) - if you make something out, you manage with difficulty to see or hear it.
  • Constellation (noun) - any of the groups of stars in the sky that seem from earth to form a pattern and have been given names.
  • Cloud cover (noun) - the state of the sky when it is covered with cloud.
  • Terra firma (noun) - dry land, when compared with the sea or air.
  • Recapture (verb) - if something recaptures a previous emotion or style, it makes you experience that emotion again or it repeats that style.
  • Nebula (noun) - a cloud of gas or dust in space, appearing either bright or dark.
  • The bulk of sth. - most of something.
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Questions and answers
M: Rory, let's talk about the sky and stars. Do you like to watch the sky?

R: No, as much as I used to. There's a lot of light pollution in my hometown and in Moscow as a matter of fact. But when I do go home and there's a clear night on the beach, it's fun to have a glance upwards.

M: What's the sky like at night in your hometown?

R: Oh, like I said, there's a lot of light pollution in the more built-up areas. So you can get a good view of the starscape the further away you are, like in the village where I live, for example.

M: Can you see the moon and stars where you live?

R: Well, you can in Dundee, you can even make out the constellations in the Northern Hemisphere if you look hard enough, and everything comes into focus. And the moon is also quite bright most of the time, unless there's lots of cloud cover. This is less so in Moscow, you can only usually see the brightest stars in the sky, if ever.

M: Do you like to watch stars?

R: I liked it more when I was a child. Now my feet and eyes are sort of more rooted on terra firma. I think I should probably start doing it again and try and recapture the magic actually.

M: Have you ever taken a course about stars?

R: Not an official one. But I remember my dad telling me how to locate various constellations like Orion's Belt in the nearby nebula.

M: Is it important to study stars?

R: Well, probably not as much as it used to be for the bulk of people. I suppose, if you're an astronomer or an astrologist or an astrophysicist, then it's probably important. Everything else people can find out on the internet now.

M: What's your favorite star?

R: I used to like looking up to find Orion's belt, which is actually three stars. It's just for fun, though. And it's interesting how they line up like that, from our perspective. I think further out in the universe, they aren't actually arranged in a straight line that way.
M: Thank you, Rory, for your "starry" answers.

R: Hopefully, I was giving a starring performance.

M: Yeah, we'll give you five stars.

R: Out of five.
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