Unit 09 It's a Mystery

Unit 9 Page 84 READING exercise 4 THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE There are many unexplained mysteries in the world. How was the Great Pyramid at Giza built? Are there yetis in the Himalayas? Is there a monster in the depths of Loch Ness? Here are our favourites. A The octopuses that walked on land You might see an octopus hop from one rock pool to another, but in late October 2017, over 20 octopuses were seen coming out of the sea and moving along a beach in Wales. 'No one has ever seen anything like this before,' said one local. 'It's very odd behaviour.' So, why did it happen? Different experts have different opinions. One is that the octopuses were ill. Another is that two big storms a few days earlier had confused the octopuses and affected their senses. A third expert said: 'There's been an increase in the octopus population, So it might be the octopuses needed to travel further to find food.' B The giant stone balls There are hundreds of large stone balls in the Costa Rican jungle. Evidence shows that they must be at least 600 years old and some could date back to 200 BCE. The spheres are up to 2.4 metres in diameter and are almost perfectly round. They are also very heavy, with some of them weighing 16 tons. The stone itself comes from miles away, so it took a huge effort to move them. It's thought they probably had a religious purpose and some people suggest a connection with the sun. Others have even suggested that the balls were created by an alien life form. But no one really knows and the mystery continues. C The Solway spaceman In 1964, Jim Templeton from Carlisle took a photo of his daughter Elizabeth and was surprised to see in the photo a strange figure behind her that looked like an extraterrestrial spaceman. Jim took the photo with the mysterious figure to the police, and soon afterwards it appeared in the newspapers. Then one day, Jim was visited by two men who said they were government officials. They asked him to take them to the scene of the photograph. Who were they? Why were they interested? Some people say the figure in the photo must be Templeton's wife – the camera flash made her dress look bright white. Most people agree that the image is real but can't be a spaceman. What do you think? D The Voynich manuscript In 1639, Georgius Barschius from Prague told a friend that he had a mysterious book which might be about science or medicine. It was full of puzzling pictures and diagrams, and it was written in an unknown language. Today, the Voynich manuscript is over 600 years old and still no one can read it. It has been suggested that the mysterious writing could be based on an Arabic or Roma or Aztec language. Others say it must be a secret code, and many expert codebreakers have tried to crack it. Every year people think they have solved the mystery, but no one ever has. Page 85 PRONUNCIATION exercise 1 1 Do you know the mystery of Amelia Earhart? Yes – her disappearance is very mysterious! 2 Wow! That's a great photograph. Thanks! I'm really into photography. 3 If we go to this summer camp, we can do the course on navigation. But I already know how to navigate. Page 85 PRONUNCIATION exercise 3 1 Do you know the mystery of Amelia Earhart? Yes – her disappearance is very mysterious! 2 Wow! That's a great photograph. Thanks! I'm really into photography. 3 If we go to this summer camp, we can do the course on navigation. But I already know how to navigate.

Page 87 LISTENING exercise 7 and 8 The Case of the Mysterious Fall Mr Huntingdon was a strange man. He lived all alone in the huge ancient house that stood on the top of the hill. Apart from Mr Huntingdon, only one other person ever went into that house: his cleaning lady and housekeeper Mrs Crabtree. Mr Huntingdon wasn't a very nice man and he treated Mrs Crabtree like a slave: 'Close the curtains! People are always trying to look in, trying to watch me. I won't have it!' 'Shake out those carpets! They're full of deadly spiders.' 'Don't move that chair! All chairs must face south!' Mr Huntingdon was also a very secretive man and spent most of his time in the house. The only time he ever left his house was on Friday mornings, when he would leave home to visit the shop of a fortune-teller in town. Half an hour later, he'd leave the shop and return home. He never stopped to buy anything. He never spoke to anyone. One Friday, the fortune-teller had some terrible news for Mr Huntingdon. 'This weekend,' she told him, 'you will be killed by a fall.' It was an odd thing to be told, for sure, but Mr Huntingdon wasn't particularly worried. After all, this was why he visited the fortune-teller – so that he could make sure nothing bad would ever happen to him. Mr Huntingdon hurried home. He had a plan. 'How can I fall if I spend all weekend lying down?' he reasoned to himself. He got some rope and lay down in the middle of the floor of his enormous hallway. He called Mrs Crabtree. 'I want you to tie me to the floor,' he told her. 'I want you to tie me so that I can't move.' Mrs Crabtree did as she was told. Maybe she should have asked why, but she didn't. Mr Huntingdon would probably just have told her to mind her own business. When he was tightly tied to the floor, he told Mrs Crabtree to leave the house and lock the door behind her. He didn't need her this weekend and she wasn't to return until Monday morning. Mrs Crabtree left, leaving Mr Huntingdon smiling at how clever he was. He heard the door close and the key turn in the lock. Mrs Crabtree was gone. There was nothing but silence ... or was there? What was that sound? A sort of creaking – very quiet at first, but slowly getting louder. Mr Huntingdon looked up. Above him hung a huge chandelier. It was slowly, very, very slowly, starting to move. He suddenly knew he shouldn't have sent Mrs Crabtree home. He shouted out for her, screaming her name again and again. It was too late. She wouldn't be coming back for 48 hours. He tried to free his arms and legs, but it was no use. He wasn't going anywhere. All he could do was look up at the chandelier and wait ... Mrs Crabtree arrived at eight o'clock on Monday morning. She opened the door and saw the body of Mr Huntingdon lying under the huge chandelier. 'Oh dear,' she sighed. 'I should have had that fixed.'

Page 88 READING exercise 2 THE DRESS It goes without saying that people love optical illusions – they've always been popular in books and pictures. Now, with social media, we've gone one step further and everyone is sharing these puzzling illusions. Here's one that really went down a storm with people all round the world. Is it blue and black, or white and gold? Which two colours would you go for? This is the story of how an ordinary dress became an internet sensation. You can't have missed it! The mother of a bride sent her daughter a photo of a dress that she was planning to wear to the wedding and it started an argument between the daughter, her fiance and their friends. Some of them saw the dress as white and gold while others saw it as blue and black. How weird is that? One friend posted the photo on the internet and the social media world went crazy. Within a week, the photo went viral and more than 10 million tweets mentioned the dress, using hashtags such as #thedress, #whiteandgold and #blueandblack. The retailer confirmed that the actual colour of the dress was blue and black, but the debate went on. So why did people see the dress so differently? After reviewing the photo, scientists had some answers. The photo wasn't very clear, so when it was taken the dress could have been in shadow or in the light. And the lighting may have been natural daylight (which is blueish) or from an electric light (which is yellowish). That's important, because our brain depends on the light to decide what colour things really are. A group of researchers set up an online study to find out more. The study went well, as 8,000 people responded and the results were interesting. There was a big difference between 'larks', who get up early and spend a lot of time in daylight, and 'owls', who stay up late and are more used to artificial light. Larks usually saw the dress as white and gold and owls usually saw it as blue and black. However, the researchers say that there might have been other reasons for the difference. The study showed that it wasn't important where people lived or what time of day they viewed the photo. But the size of their screen made a difference – people who saw the dress on a bigger screen were more likely to see it as white and gold. Also, women were a bit more likely than men to see it as white and gold. It seems there's still a lot to learn about how we see colours! One thing is certain. As a result of all this attention on social media, sales of the dress went up dramatically. The retailer produced the dress in white and gold as well as blue and black and they must have made a lot of money!

Page 90 Fiction exercise 2 and 3 Wild Country by Margaret Johnson Chapter l The flower market mistake The woman in the red dress was holding some large yellow flowers to her face. Behind her, there were lots more flowers – big flowers, small flowers, flowers of every possible colour. I was very pleased Id got up early to see Nice's famous flower market. It was beautiful, and it helped me to forget that I wasn't going to have a nice day. Or a nice ten days. Grant Cooper! Grant Cooper! I couldn't believe I was going to work with that man for ten days. It was going to be horrible. But I wouldn't think about it until I had to. And here, in the market, I could almost forget. There was colour all around me – not just the flowers, but also the people buying them in their summer clothes. Even the buildings behind the market were colourful – red and orange with blue windows. What a lovely picture it would make, if I only had my paints with me. But I did have a pencil somewhere. I could do a quick drawing. I still had a few minutes before I had to leave for the airport. I found the pencil in the bottom of my shoulder bag, together with an old letter. Soon my pencil was moving quickly over the back of the letter as I began to draw the woman in the red dress. She was smelling some red flowers now, and her hair was very blonde in the sunshine. As I drew what I saw, I quickly forgot about everything else. The woman buying the flowers obviously knew the flower seller. They were talking and laughing together, and I had lots of time to work on my picture. I don't know how long I stood there. I only know that the next time I looked at my watch, it was nine o'clock. Nine o'clock! I only had thirty minutes to get to the airport. Oh no, I was going to be late. Again. But before I could put the pencil and paper back into my bag, I felt something soft against my legs. It was a small brown dog, and he was on his own. 'Hello, boy,' I said. 'Are you lost?' The dog seemed to smile up at me, and I reached out to touch it. The dog smiled again, and then ... it bit me! I screamed and jumped quickly back from the dog. Too quickly. There was a very loud crash behind me. 'Mademoiselle!' shouted an angry voice. I turned round to see flowers all over the ground. 'I'm sorry,' I said. 'That dog – it bit me!' 'What dog?' asked the angry flower seller. 'Well, that one,' I said, but when I looked down, the dog had disappeared. 'It was here a minute ago,' I said, turning to look. Unfortunately, I turned so quickly that my shoulder bag flew through the air and crashed into some more flowers. 'Mademoiselle!' shouted the flower seller again. 'I'm sorry,' I started to say, but then I noticed that things were about to get even worse. A river of dirty water from the flowers was moving very quickly towards the blonde woman's expensive white summer shoes. 'Madame!' I shouted, but it was too late. 'My shoes!' cried the blonde woman. 'My flowers!' cried the flower seller. I held my hand up to show what the dog had done. 'My finger!' I cried, but neither the flower seller nor the blonde woman was interested in my hurt finger.