What did Neil Armstrong actually say? - Unit 11

C2 Proficiency · Multiple Choice Cloze · Close-up C2, National Geographic Learning

Read the passage, then select the word or phrase that fills the blank in both meaning and grammar.

became

becoming

being

become

to set

setting

set

he set

however

without

otherwise

unless

work

paper

research

study

losing

missed

missing

lacking

blend

tell

pronouncing

stick

theories

findings

research

speakers

speaking

records

recordings

examples

possible

able

enough

made

correct

trivial

silent

crucial

'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,' is perhaps the most famous line of recent history. Uttered by the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, after (1) ___ the first person (2) ___ foot on the moon, it is also perhaps the most misheard. As Armstrong himself insisted, the sentence is meaningful only if he said, 'That's one small step for a man.' Armstrong was adamant that this is what he actually said on July 20, 1969 – (3) ___ , there's no distinction between one individual and all humanity. A (4) ___ carried out by a team from Michigan State University, after scrutinising the audio file of Armstrong's historic transmission for evidence of the (5) ___ 'a', concluded that the reason for the misunderstanding is the way people from central Ohio, where Armstrong was raised, pronounce the word 'for' and the phrase 'for a'. Speakers from this area tend to (6) ___ the two words together. Spoken by Armstrong, the phrase 'for a' would have sounded like 'frrr(uh),' according to these (7) ___ . By checking (8) ___ of 40 people raised in Columbus, Ohio, about 90 miles southeast of Wapakoneta, where Armstrong lived from the age of 13, the team was (9) ___ to show that the length of the 'r' sound was much the same when Ohioans said 'for' and 'for a', confirming Armstrong's version. However, it was also noted that, regardless of what Armstrong actually said, people are still more likely to hear the sentence without the (10) ___ 'a'.

What did Neil Armstrong actually say?

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