[单项选择]The Space Age（）in October 1957 when the first artificial satellite was launched by the Soviet Union.
A. initiated
B. originated
C. embarked
D. commenced

[单项选择]The Space Age officially began on October 4, 1957, (1) the Soviet Union launched the modest 185-pound Sputnik Ⅰ, the first (2) satellite to orbit the earth. The following month, Russians succe- ssfully launched the 1100-pound Sputnik Ⅱ, (3) carried into space the globe, a female dog (4) Laika, who suffocated (窒息) on the sixth day of the (5) because of a failure (6) the internal temperature of the craft. But the satellite itself orbited the earth for 162 days and (7) up on reentering the earth’s atmosphere.
The United States, (8) second fiddle (小提琴) to its superpower (9) , orbited its first satellite, Explorer I, on January 31, 1958. It was a lightweight, 18-pound craft, carrying not animals but (10) instruments to study the (11) bands of energy in space (12) as the Van Allen radiation belts. Within the (13) fifteen years man had gone to th
A. space
B. manned
C. true
D. artificial