Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
The First Space Cat
In a few weeks, space scientists will celebrate a remarkable event — the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first cat into space, an astronautical success that has never been repeated.
In the early 60s, dogs and monkeys were the animals usually used by scientists to find out exactly 【小题1】dangerous the conditions were in outer space. And they were also used to assess if humans 【小题2】 survive trips beyond the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.
A total of 14 street cats 【小题3】 (gather) at France’s space agency for selection as cat astronauts, but the cats were not given names on purpose in order to prevent scientists from becoming too fond of them. The cat selected to travel to space was simply known 【小题4】C341. C341 flew on a French rocket in October 1963, taking it to a place 【小题5】no cat had gone before.
Then, 【小题6】the news of its flight was announced on 18 October 1963, the French press decided this cat had to have its name. They picked “Felix” after a cartoon cat character, only 【小题7】 (discover) that C341 was female, so her name was then adjusted to “Felicette” as a result. In putting Felicette in one of its rockets, France added a new species to the list of animals that scientists 【小题8】 (send) into space before. Previously, two garden spiders, Anita and Arebella, had been taken to the Skylab 【小题9】(orbit) around the moon.
“In the 60s, 【小题10】(concern) about the possible danger for a human to be in outer space, scientists and engineers primarily undertook animal space flights to see if they suffered or their lives were threatened by the weightlessness or increased radiation or other effects they might experience up there,” said astronomer Jake Foster at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. “The fact that they did not fail paved the way for humans to begin journeys into space.”