English

There are millions of stars in the sky. If you look (6) .................. the sky on a clear night, it is possible to see about 3000 stars. They look small, but they are really (7) .................. big hot balls of burning gas. Some of them are huge, but others are much smaller, like our planet Earth. The biggest stars are very bright, but they only live for a short time. Every day new stars (8) .................. born and old stars die. All the stars are very far away. The light from the nearest star takes more (9) .................. four years to reach Earth. Hundreds of years ago, people (10) .................. stars, like the North star, to know which direction to travel in. Today you can still see that star.

Older Britons are the worst in Europe when it comes to keeping their teeth. But British youngsters (11) .................. more to smile about because (12) .................. teeth are among the best. Almost 80% of Britons over 65 have lost all or some (13) .................. their teeth according to a World Health Organisation survey. Eating too (14) .................. sugar is part of the problem. Among (15) .................. , 12-year olds have on average only three missing, decayed or filled teeth.

On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain to find a new route to India, China and Japan. At this time most people thought you would fall off the edge of the world if you sailed too far. Yet sailors such as Columbus had seen how a ship appeared to get lower and lower on the horizon as it sailed away. For Columbus this (16) ................. that the world was round. He (17) ................. to his men about the distance travelled each day. He did not want them to think that he did not (18) ................. exactly where they were going. (19) ................. , on October 12, 1492, Columbus and his men landed on a small island he named San Salvador. Columbus believed he was in Asia, (20) ................. he was actually in the Caribbean.