Question

explosion of the space shuttle challenger speech
by ronald reagan

january 28, 1986, just 73 seconds after liftoff, the space shuttle orbiter challenger exploded in the sky. all seven astronauts on board the spacecraft were killed. that evening, president ronald reagan was scheduled to give his state of the union speech. but out of respect, reagan decided to postpone the speech and instead talk to the nation about the tragedy.

ladies and gentlemen, id planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. today is a day for mourning and remembering.

nancy and i are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle challenger. we know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. this is truly a national loss.

nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. but weve never lost an astronaut in flight; weve never had a tragedy like this. and perhaps weve forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle; but they, the challenger seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. we mourn seven heroes: michael smith, dick scobee, judith resnik, ronald mcnair, ellison onizuka, gregory jarvis, and christa mcauliffe. we mourn their loss as a nation together.

for the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. but we feel the loss, and were thinking about you so much...

select the correct answer from each drop-down menu.

what events does reagan link to the challenger seven?

reagan links choose an answer and choose an answer to the challenger seven, uniting three events to support...

options for the first drop-down menu:

• the state of the union address
• a previous nasa disaster
• schoolchildren watching television

Explanation:

Analyze the historical context and speech text

The text on the left is Ronald Reagan's "Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger Speech." In the third paragraph, Reagan states: "Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight; we've never had a tragedy like this." This refers to the Apollo 1 fire, which is a previous NASA disaster.

Identify the linked events

The prompt asks: "What events does Reagan link to the Challenger Seven?"
The sentence to complete is: "Reagan links [Dropdown 1] and [Dropdown 2] to the Challenger Seven, uniting three events to support..."
The first dropdown menu shows options: "the State of the Union address", "a previous NASA disaster", and "schoolchildren watching television".
The text explicitly mentions the loss of three astronauts nineteen years ago (a previous NASA disaster) and later mentions the schoolchildren watching the coverage on television ("And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off").
Thus, Reagan links "a previous NASA disaster" and "schoolchildren watching television" to the Challenger Seven, uniting these three groups/events.

Answer:

What events does Reagan link to the Challenger Seven?

Reagan links <blank>a previous NASA disaster</blank> and <blank>schoolchildren watching television</blank> to the Challenger Seven, uniting three events to support...