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4 The damage occurred a problem relating to temperature.
5 The impact of the chicken it to enter the train.
6 The engineers thought the gun was faulty, so they called their colleagues.

e Read the following engineering urban legends and complete the descriptions of causes
and effects using the correct form of the words and phrases in Exercise 13d. Sometimes
more than one word or phrase is possible.
1 Apparently, the biggest challenge in space exploration was developing a pen for astronauts to
use in orbit as ordinary ballpoint pens don’t work in space, because / due to / owing to
the fact that there’s no gravity. So this problem, there were teams of
researchers working for years, trying to find a solution. Eventually, someone came up with the
idea of using a pencil.
2 When they designed the foundations of the library on the university campus, they forgot to
allow for the weight of the books on the shelves, which the building to start
sinking. So , half of the floors have had to be left empty, without books, to
keep the weight down.
3 Did you hear about that Olympic-sized swimming pool that was built?
They got the length wrong, the tiles. They forgot to take into account the
thickness, which the pool measuring a few millimetres too short.
So , it can’t be used for swimming competitions.

14a One popular topic for urban legends is the suggestion that the moon landings didn’t
really take place and were filmed on Earth. In pairs, discuss the following questions.
18 In photos taken of astronauts on the moon, why are no stars visible in the sky?
19 In film footage, why is the flag planted on the surface of the moon seen moving slightly?
20 Why do photos of astronauts’ footprints appear to be on a wet surface and not in dry
dust?
21 Why is no blast crater caused by engine thrust during the landing visible below the
module?

b ► 9.6 Caroline and Renato, two colleagues at an engineering firm, are talking about the
moon landings during a coffee break. Read the conversation and compare what they say
with your ideas from Exercise 14a.

Caroline: So how credible is this hoax theory, then? I watched a documentary about it a while
ago.
Renato: Well, some of the questions are quite interesting, but from what I’ve read, they can all
be explained, scientifically. You know, like the fact that the stars aren’t visible in the sky on the
photos. Apparently, it’s just due to sunlight on the surface of the moon. It was too bright to see
them, that’s all.
Caroline: Isn’t the flag supposedly waving in the wind, in one of the shots?
Renato: That's right, yeah. They say it’s because of the pole shaking after it’d been stuck in.
There’s obviously no air, so as a result, it kept moving for ages, due to the fact that there was no
friction to slow it down.
Caroline: I see.
Renato: Another thing that's been explained is the footprints on the surface. People had said the
ground looked wet, so it couldn’t have been on the moon. But, apparently, that’s the way that
type of dust behaves in a vacuum. It sticks together, like mud.
Caroline: Wasn’t there some other theory to do with dust when the module landed, that there
should have been more dust, or something? Renato: Well, during the landing, there was
supposedly a lot of dust flying up, you know, caused by the blast from the engines. But when the

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