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| Music in the News
Thursday 31 January 2002
Vocabulary from the world of music. Listen to and read the story then find explanations of difficult words below.
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Blur song goes into space
Summary: One of the most popular Brit pop bands, Blur, have been heading into the studio this week to programme a specially commissioned piece of music that will be played on a space mission to Mars. The track will be launched into space on a British spacecraft expected to land on the Red Planet in 2003.
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| | The News 
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| | | Pop group Blur are to record a special song that will be played on a space mission to Mars.
The song will be transmitted back to Earth as a call signonce the spacecraft Beagle 2 Lander has reached the Red Planet in 2003.
The band suggested the idea to scientist Professor Pillinger who is delighted that Blur are involved with the project.
He said: "We normally send back some piece of computer gobbledygook and we wanted to have something that was instantly recognisable."
Blur's bassist Alex James said that the tune, although based on a mathematical sequence, sounds a bit like the Dr Who theme tune mixed with tracks from the band's album.
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| | The Words | |
| | | transmitted
sent electronically through space
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| | | a call sign
an identification signal
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| | | once
as soon as
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| | | the Red Planet
the metaphorical name for Mars
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| | | delighted
very glad
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| | | are involved with
take part in
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| | | computer gobbledygook
a computer-generated sequence of signals that seems like nonsense. In a wider context, you can describe a speech or piece of writing as gobbledygook if it seems like nonsense to you - because it uses technical, official or complicated language
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| | | instantly recognisable
which can be immediately identified
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| | | the Dr Who theme tune
the main tune, or melody, from the cult science fiction TV series Dr Who
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| | Other stories
Retro English
Music Directory
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