Question

complete the article with the correct past simple form of the verbs in brackets.
the first man in space
on 12th april 1961, yuri gagarin ¹ became (become) the first man to travel into outer space. at 6.07 a.m. he ² ____ (take off) in his spacecraft, vostok 1, and then he ³ __ (fly) once around the earth. nearly two hours later, he ⁴ __ (parachute) down towards the ground, but he ⁵ __ (not land) in the right place. he ⁶ __ (finish) his trip in a field 280 km away. a farmer and his daughter ⁷ __ (see) him land, and at first they ⁸ __ (be) very frightened. gagarin was a hero when he ⁹ __ (return) to earth, but he ¹⁰ __ (not retire) from work. instead, he ¹¹ __ (travel) around the world telling his story. after that, he ¹² __ (work) for the russian air force and he ¹³ __ (help) to test new planes. unfortunately, one of gagarin’s planes ¹⁴ __ (crash) on 27th march 1968 and he ¹⁵ ____ (die) in the accident at the age of 34.

Explanation:

To solve this, we need to use the past simple form of each verb. Regular verbs form the past simple by adding -ed, while irregular verbs have specific past forms. Let's go through each blank:

1. "take off" is a phrasal verb. The past simple of "take" is "took", so "took off".
2. "fly" is an irregular verb; its past simple is "flew".
3. "parachute" as a verb (to descend with a parachute) has a regular past form: "parachuted".
4. For negative sentences with "land" (a regular verb), we use "didn't + base form", so "didn't land".
5. "finish" is regular, so "finished".
6. "see" is irregular, past form is "saw".
7. "be" (with "they") in past simple is "were".
8. "return" is regular, past form "returned".
9. Negative of "retire" (regular) is "didn't retire".
10. "travel" can have past form "travelled" (British English) or "traveled" (American English); here we use "travelled" (or "traveled").
11. "work" is regular, past form "worked".
12. "help" is regular, past form "helped".
13. "crash" is regular, past form "crashed".
14. "die" is irregular, past form "died".

Answer:

1. took off
2. flew
3. parachuted
4. didn't land
5. finished
6. saw
7. were
8. returned
9. didn't retire
10. travelled (or traveled)
11. worked
12. helped
13. crashed
14. died