Read the text about Robert Goddard and fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in the Past Simple
Robert Goddard
(be) born in 1882. When he was a child, he
(become) interested in firecrackers and
(think) about the possibility of space travel. He later
(become) a physics professor at a university. In his free time, he
(build) rockets and
(take) them to a field, but they didn’t fly. When he
(go) back to his university after his
(fail) attempts, the other professors
(laugh) at him. In 1920, Goddard
(write) an article about rocket travel. He later
(become) a physics professor at a university. In his free time, he
(build) rockets and
(take) them to a field, but they didn’t fly. When he
(go) back to his university after his
(fail) attempts, the other professors
(laugh) at him.In 1920, Goddard
(write) an article about rocket travel. He
(believe) that one day it would be possible to go to the moon. When The New York Times
(see) his article, a reporter
(write) that Goddard had less knowledge about science than a high school student.Goddard
(want) to prove that The New York Times
(be) wrong. In 1926, he built a ten-foot rocket,
(put) it into an open car, and
(drive) to his aunt’s nearby farm. He put the rocket in a field and lit the fuse. Suddenly the rocket went into the sky.It travelled at 60 miles per hour (mph) to an altitude of 41 feet. Then it
(fall) into the field. The flight lasted 2½ seconds, but Goddard was happy about his achievement. Over the years, his rockets
(grow) to 18 feet and flew to 9,000 feet in the air.No one
(make) fun of him after he was successful. When Goddard
(die) in 1945, his work did not stop. Scientists continued to build bigger and better rockets. In 1969, when the American rocket Apollo 11 took the first men to the moon, The New York Times wrote: “The Times regrets the error.”