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Unit 8 Weird news
1 Work in pairs. Look at the photo. What is unusual about it? Do
you think it is real or fake? Why?
2 Read the comments on the photo. What or who do the words
in bold refer to? 1 If you look closely you can make them out. 2 That’ s too much of a coincidence. 3 I’ve seen this kind of thing before. 4 I think it ’s genuine. 5 You can see where he has added more flamingos. 6 Look at the ones at the top.
3 Work in groups. Have you ever been tricked by anything fake?
How can you tell if these things are fake or genuine?
jewelry money paintings passports watches
F E A T U R E S
94 Nature’s mysteries
An explanation of strange phenomena in the natural world
96 Desert art
An article on the mysterious Nazca lines in Peru
98 Lost and found?
Current theories about pilot Amelia Earhart’s disappearance
102 Killer bees
A video about an invasion of bees in Latin America
A flock of flamingos in the Gulf of Mexico Photograph by Robert B. Haas
Unit 8 Weird news 93
56200_02_P02_P081-152_ptg01.indd 93 15/04/14 12:32 PM
8a Nature’s mysteries
3 32 Listen to the audio clips. Write the number of the clip (1–3) next to the words in Exercise 2.
4 32 Listen to the clips again. Are the sentences true (T) or false (F)? 1 The colors are man-made lights. 2 The color of the lights depends on oxygen and nitrogen. 3 The orange ball is a butterfly egg. 4 One image uses a technique called macro photography. 5 Some plants can chase insects. 6 The Australian sundew plant traps flies on its sticky spikes.
5 What can you remember? Test each other. 1 What are the lights in the sky? 2 Why might butterflies lay eggs in places like this? 3 How do some plants catch animals?
Vocabulary and listening the natural world
1 Work in pairs. You are going to listen to some audio clips from a website about mysteries in nature. Look at the photos from the website. Discuss them with your partner.
It looks like / reminds me of (a)…
2 Work in pairs. You will hear these words in the audio clips. Complete the sentences with them.
ants atmosphere beetles butterflies flies insects nitrogen oxygen particles predators radiation species spikes stem
1 and are gases in the. 2 Both and are flying. 3 is the name for energy in the form of rays or waves. 4 and live on the ground and in the soil. 5 Leaves and flowers grow from a plant’s. 6 are tiny pieces of material. 7 catch and eat other. 8 Some plants have long, sharp , like needles.
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8b Desert art
Vocabulary history
1 Are you interested in history? Complete the questions with some of these words. Then work in pairs asking and answering the questions.
ancient belief century period prehistoric sacred society tradition
1 Do you enjoy visiting monuments? 2 Which historical interests you? 3 What do cave drawings often show? 4 What do you think were the key historic events of the 20th? 5 Are there any historical sites with religious or significance in your country? 6 Do you think we can learn from studying how lived in the past?
Listening and reading
2 33 Have you heard of the Nazca lines? Work in pairs. Try to answer the questions. Then listen to part of a radio show. Check your answers. 1 What are they? 2 Where are they? 3 How big are they? 4 What do they show?
5 How many are there? 6 How old are they? 7 How are they made?
I’ve never heard of them. But from the photo, they look as if they’re drawings of something.
I think they might be in South America, but I’m not exactly sure.
3 Did any of the information surprise you? Is there any additional information you would like to know about the Nazca lines? Write two or three questions.
4 Read the article Desert Art and answer the questions. Does the article answer your questions from Exercise 3? 1 When did people discover the Nazca lines? 2 What ideas did people have about their purpose? 3 Why was water important to Nazca society? 4 What is the current theory about the significance of the lines?
5 Why do you think people are so fascinated by the Nazca lines?
DESERT
ART
T
he mysterious desert drawings known as the Nazca lines have puzzled people since they first become widely known in the late 1920s. Before air travel in Peru began, it was impossible to get a clear view of the giant drawings of the spider, monkey, and hummingbird. Yet the Nazca people who made these patterns 2,000 years ago couldn’t have seen them from above.
O
ne of the first formal studies of the lines was by Maria Reiche. She spent half a century working for their conservation and was convinced that the lines must have been part of an astronomical calendar. Other people thought they might have been ancient Inca roads or irrigation systems. The weirdest idea was that they could have been landing strips for alien spacecraft!
ceremonial (adj) /ˌserəˈmoʊniəl/ ritual and traditional phenomenon (n) /fəˈnɑməˌnɑn/ an unusual event or fact
WorDBUiLDiNG noun → adjective We can make adjectives from nouns by changing the endings of the nouns. mystery + -ous → mysterious religion + -ous → religious astronomy + -ical → astronomical ceremony + -al → ceremonial
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T
his region of Peru is one of the driest places on Earth and yet successful societies, including the Nazca, lived here. Water must have had an incredible significance to these societies, so perhaps the lines were related to it. We know that the Nazca River, which comes down from the nearby mountains, runs underground for about nine miles before suddenly resurfacing. This must have seemed an astonishing, even sacred, phenomenon to ancient societies. It has also become clear that there are other huge drawings in the area, not just the ones in the desert. Many are much older than the Nazca figures, so the same group of people can’t have created them. It now seems that the Nazca lines may have been part of a long tradition of ceremonial activities connected to water and religious beliefs.
Grammar modal verbs (3)
6 Look at the grammar box. Find and number eight sentences with these forms in the article.
SpecULAtioN AND DeDUctioN ABoUt tHe pASt must might / may / could can’t / couldn’t
have + past participle
For more information and practice, see page 166.
7 Answer the questions about the sentences (1–8) in the article. 1 Which sentences speculate about things that were possible? 2 Which sentences express certainty about the explanations they give? 3 Which sentences make a deduction based on logical information?
8 Rewrite the sentences about the Nazca using one of the words in parentheses. Check your answers with your instructor. 1 We know water wasn’t easy to find. (can’t / must) 2 It’s possible the rivers dried up. (might / may not) 3 There’s no doubt the lines were very important. (could / must) 4 Perhaps the lines had a religious significance. (may / can’t) 5 It isn’t logical that the animal drawings were roads. (might / couldn’t) 6 Obviously the animals lived in the region. (might / must) 7 One possibility is that the Nazca people used simple tools. (could / must) 8 It seems clear that people maintained the lines carefully. (might / must)
Speaking
9 Work in pairs. Why do you think the Nazca lines were created? What do you know about these other mysterious sites?
The Sphynx Stonehenge Rapa Nui Jamestown
10 Work in groups. Look at the list of things archaeologists have found that date from around 2,000 years ago—the same period as Nazca society. What do they say about how people lived then?
a leather sandal a circle of 6-foot granite “standing stones” fragments of pottery with iron-based painted patterns a metal pot containing cream with a fingerprint visible pits dug in the ground, full of apricot and plum seeds a bronze mirror in a grave pots in the ground containing hundreds of coins animal bones
11 Tell the class your ideas. Which ideas are the most interesting?
Spider Photograph by Robert Clark
The Bermuda Triangle Petra The Great Wall
Unit 8 Weird news 97
Three Theories
Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, was attempting a round-the-world flight in 1937. She planned to land on the tiny Pacific Ocean island of Howland just north of the equator. She never arrived. Her fate, and that of her navigator Fred Noonan, remains one of aviation’s greatest unsolved mysteries. Researchers have spent millions of dollars investigating the case and several books have been published that examined different theories.
The official US position is that Earhart ran out of fuel and crashed in the Pacific Ocean. The radio log from a US Coast Guard ship indicates that she must have been near Howland when contact was lost. Another theory says that Earhart could have crashed on a different island, called Nikumaroro, and subsequently died since the island is uninhabited. Yet another theory claims she was captured while on a secret mission to the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands in the North Pacific and eventually returned to the US with a new identity.
By Ker Than for National Geographic News
Where is
Amelia Earhart?
genome (n) /ˈʤinoʊm/ the genetic information of each living thing saliva (n) /səˈlaɪvə/ the liquid normally produced in your mouth
The missing pilot
Lost and found?
February 18, 2011 Amelia Earhart’s dried saliva could help solve the longstanding mystery of the aviator’s 1937 disappearance, according to scientists who plan to take samples of her DNA from her correspondence. A new project aims to create a genetic profile that could be used to test recent claims that a bone found on the South Pacific island of Nikumaroro is Earhart’s. Justin Long, a Canadian whose family is partially funding the DNA project, points out that at the moment, anyone who finds fragments of bones can claim that they are Earhart’s remains. Long, an Internet marketing executive, is the grandson of 1970s aviator Elgen Long, who with his wife wrote the 1999 book Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved. According to Justin Long,
Earhart’s letters are the only items that are both verifiably hers and that might contain her DNA. Hair samples are one of the best sources of DNA, but no hair samples from Earhart are known. There was, in theory, a sample of Earhart’s hair in the International Women’s Air and Space Museum in Cleveland, US. However, a 2009 study revealed that the sample was actually thread. The remains of Earhart, her navigator Noonan, and their twin-engine plane were never recovered. But in 2009, a group of researchers found a bone fragment on Nikumaroro that they believed might have been from one of Earhart’s fingers. However, some scientists have suggested the Nikumaroro bone fragment isn’t human at all but may instead belong to a sea turtle that was found nearby. The new Earhart DNA project will be headed by Dongya Yang, a genetic archaeologist at Simon Fraser University
in Canada. Yang will work on four letters Earhart wrote to her family, out of more than 400 letters in the Earhart archive. Much of Earhart’s correspondence was done by her secretary but the assumption is that Earhart must have sealed the envelopes of these personal letters herself. Meanwhile, geneticist Brenna Henn of Stanford University said she knows of no other case where DNA has been collected from decades-old letters. But she said Yang’s methodology “sounds reasonable.” The problem is that about 99 percent of the genome is identical among all humans. If the team obtains little material, they have almost no power to discriminate between Earhart’s DNA and anyone else’s. To ensure that the DNA from the envelopes indeed belonged to Earhart, the team will compare it to DNA from Earhart’s living relatives and DNA extracted from a letter written by Earhart’s sister.
Unit 8 Weird news 99
8d You’re kidding me!
3 34 Look at the expressions for reacting to news. Listen to the conversations again. Put the expressions in order (1–9).
reActiNG to SUrpriSiNG NeWS Are you serious? Are you sure? No way! Oh yeah? Really?
That can’t be right! They must have made a mistake. You‘re kidding me! You’re pulling my leg!
4 April Fools’ Day (April 1) is a day when people play tricks on each other in many countries. Do you do anything similar in your country? Discuss with a partner.
5 pronunciation showing interest and
disbelief
a 35 Listen to these expressions for reacting to news. Notice how the speaker’s intonation rises to show interest and falls to show disbelief. Repeat the expressions.
Oh yeah? Come on!
b Work in pairs. Take turns responding to these statements. Use the expressions in Exercise 3. 1 I’d love to go snorkeling in Antarctica. 2 A meteorite has crashed to Earth in the middle of Dubai. 3 I found a wallet full of money! 4 Biologists have discovered a parrot that can speak three languages. 5 I’m starting a new job tomorrow.
6 Work in pairs. Choose one of the other April Fools’ Day headlines from Exercise 1. Decide what the hoax is. Make notes about the main points of the story. Invent as many details as you wish. Practice telling the story with your partner.
7 Work with a new partner. Take turns listening and reacting to your stories. Use the expressions for reacting to news to help you.
real life reacting to surprising news
1 34 Listen and choose the best headline (a–b) for each conversation.
1 a EscapEd shEEp takE ovEr park
b Sheep in global warming Shock
2 a ForgEd EUro alErt
b (^) USa To join The eUro zone
3 a FUEl pricEs to doUblE nExt wEEk
b gaS priceS SlaShed
2 Can you remember? Answer the questions for each story. 1 What is the problem? 2 Does one of the speakers believe the other? 3 What is the date?
100
8f Killer bees Video
One man believes that this foreign bee may cause problems for the whole rain forest.
102
5 Watch the rest of the video (03:06 to the end). Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)? Correct the false sentences. 1 By 1982, the African bee was starting to make its home in Panama. 2 Roubik thinks the newspapers reported the story of the bees correctly. 3 The African bees are most dangerous to man. 4 Native bees are important because they pollinate the plants in the rain forest. 5 Native bees cannot compete with the stronger African bees. 6 Roubik visits the Mayan people because they have a lot of experience with bees. 7 Mayan farmers think the African bees are not a problem. 8 Fifteen years ago there wasn’t much honey.
After you watch
6 roleplay interviewing a bee keeper Work in pairs. Student A: You are an entomologist studying bees. Use the ideas below to prepare questions to interview a Mayan bee keeper. Student B: You are a Mayan bee keeper. Use the ideas below to tell the entomologist your concerns. ● (^) how long the farmer has kept bees ● (^) how much honey there used to be ● (^) how many native bees there are now ● (^) the effects the disappearance of native bees is having on the local forests Act out the interview. Then change roles.
7 Work in groups and discuss these questions. 1 Should human beings be permitted to experiment with nature to increase the production of food? 2 What are the risks of experiments like these? What are the advantages?
Before you watch
1 Work in groups. Look at the title of this video and the photo and discuss the questions. 1 What do you know about bees? 2 Why do you think these bees are called “killer bees”? 3 What problems do you think they might cause for the rain forest?
2 The video is about a man who studies bees. What do you think you will see him doing in the video?
driving flying a plane holding bees writing a journal
getting stung by a bee hiking in the rain forest putting his hand in a beehive working with a beehive
While you watch
3 Watch the video and check your answers from Exercise 2.
4 Work in pairs. Choose one of the topics below. Watch the first part of the video (to 03:05) and make notes about David Roubik or bees. Then tell another pair what you found out about your topic. David Roubik 1 Where and for how long has he studied bees?
2 Where does he work?
3 How many species of bees has he found in one square kilometer of the rain forest?
4 Why does he think there’s a problem for the native bees?
Bees 5 How do bees benefit the rain forest?
6 Where do they live?
7 Why did people bring African honeybees to South America?
8 How did the experiment go wrong?
adaptable (adj) /əˈdæptəbəl/ able to change canopy (n) /ˈkænəpi/ the top level in a rain forest compete (v) /kəmˈpit/ try to be more successful entomologist (n) /ˌentəˈmɑləʤɪst/ a person who studies insects force out (v) /ˈfɔrs ˈaʊt/ make a person or animal leave hive (n) /haɪv/ a place where bees live interact (v) /ˌɪntərˈækt/ have a relationship with leading (adj) /ˈlidɪŋ/ most important outlandish (adj) /aʊtˈlændɪʃ/ very strange
pollinate (v) /ˈpɑləˌneɪt/ carry pollen from one flower to another repeatedly (adv) /rɪˈpitɪdli/ again and again sting (v) (past: stung) /stɪŋ/ what an insect does when it injects a person with poison spread (v) /spred/ move to cover a larger area survive (v) /sərˈvaɪv/ continue living under difficult conditions swarm (n) /swɔrm/ a large group of bees take over (v) /ˈteɪk ˈoʊvər/ take control of something
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