Контрольное задание №1

Пояснения к тексту
a matter of time — дело времени
before men were placed in... когда люди будут летать на...
to undergo training — проходить подготовку
the first man to fly— первый человек, который полетел
a. m. (ante meridiem - лат.) — до полудня
a vocational school — (зд.) ремесленное училище
a test pilot — летчик-испытатель
in training — для подготовки
and it was upon him that... и именно на него....
YURY GAGARIN (1934-1968)
1. In the 1960s satellites were travelling at high speeds around the Earth. It was only a matter of time before men were placed in them. In the Soviet Union and in the United States men were undergoing training for this purpose. They were called cosmonauts in the Soviet Union and astronauts in the United States.

2. 
   The first man to fly⁴ into space was a Soviet man, Yury Gagarin. On Wednesday, April 12, 1961 at 9.07. a.m. Moscow Time, the sputnik-spaceship "Vostok" was launched info space with a man on board. This man was the first cosmonaut, Yury Gagarin.
   
3. 
   Yury Gagarin, the son of a carpenter, was born near Gshatsk (now Gagarin), Smolensk region on the 9th of March, 1934. His early education was interrupted by the war. After the war he attended a vocational school⁶ and then a technical industrial school. His interest in flying led him to the Orenburg Flying school from which he graduated with honours as an airforce lieutenant in 1957. After serving as a test pilot, he joined the group of cosmonauts in training for orbital flight and it was upon him that the choice fell in 1961.
   
4. 
   On April 12, 1961, Gagarin became the first man placed in orbit about the Earth. He remained in orbit 1 hour and 48 minutes, rising as high above the surface as 187, 66 miles and travelling at a velocity that reached 17,400 miles an hour. So on April, 1961, mankind entered a new era - the era of mastering space age.
   
5. 
   Yury Gagarin died, tragically, in an airplane crash near Kirzhach on the 27^th of March, 1968.