Tales of the unexplained

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Unit 1
Tales of the unexplained
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In this unit, we will

• read a news story about a missing boy and a
• magazine article about Yetis
• listen to a dialogue between a boss and his
• employee
• talk about aliens and conduct an interview
• write a report
• tell a mysterious story

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The world we live in is full of mysteries
unsolved even by todays advanced science and
technology.
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Have you heard stories about these things?


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UFOs are unidentified flying objects, but no one
really knows what they are.
The chances for seeing a UFO are greater for
those people who live in small towns or in the
country and are outside late at night.
UFOs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are only
small spots of light that move in strange
patterns across the night sky.
Some can be seen in the daytime are often disk-
or saucer-shaped.
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Yeti
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The yeti is a humanlike monster who is supposed
to live in the Himalayas, the highest mountain
range in the world. Several sightings, mainly of
footprints, have been reported by westerner
explorers throughout the years. Yet none of them
have been supported with evidence in any way.
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Himalayas the highest mountain range in the
world
Yeti Abominable Snowman
Half-man and half-beast
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• Where is Himalayas? Whats the weather like
  there?
• Why do some people make great efforts to climb
  it?
• Yeti is reported to be half-man and half-beast,
  have you heard of it?
• Do you think some climbers disappearance have
  some connections with Yeti?

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Lock Ness Monster
Loch Ness
the largest of a series of interlinked
lochs, or lakes, located in northern one of
Scotlands top tourist attractions.
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On the 21st December 1933, the Daily Mail carried
the following headline "Monster of Loch Ness is
not a Legend but a Fact." The hunter, M A
Wetherall, a member of the Royal Geographical
Society and the London Zoological Society said
It is a four fingered beast and it has feet or
pads of eight inches across. I judge it to be a
powerful soft footed animal about 20 feet in
length....... I am sure that it can breathe like
a crocodile(??) with just one nostril(??) out of
the water."
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Loch Ness Monster
In China, we have Lake Tianchi Monster.
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Pyramids in Egypt
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Not much is known about Khufu. The tomb had been
robbed long before archeologists came upon it.
Any information about Khufu was taken with the
objects inside the tomb. He is thought to have
been the ruler of a highly structured society and
he must have been very wealthy. He was buried
alone in this massive tomb. His wives may have
been buried nearby in smaller mastabas.
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The Sphinx
Half human, half lion, the Sphinx is 240 feet
long and 66 feet high
Pyramids , Egypt
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How Wide
The base of the Great Pyramid is a square with
each side measuring 230 m (756 ft) and covering
an area of 5.3 hectares (13 acres).How much is
that? Imagine a football field. Nearly 10
football fields could fit within the base. The
area of the base is also equal to about seven
city blocks in New York City.                    
             

• If you were to walk around the base, about how
  far would you walk?
• 500 m (1,640 ft)
• 1850 m (6,069 ft)
• 920 m (3,018 ft)

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How Tall
At 146.5 m (481 ft) high, the Great Pyramid stood
as the tallest structure in the world for more
than 4,000 years. Today it stands at 137 m (449.5
ft) high, having lost 9.5 m (31 ft) from the top.
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How Heavy?  
More than 2,300,000 limestone and granite blocks
were pushed, pulled, and dragged into place on
the Great Pyramid. The average weight of a block
is about 2.3 metric tons (2.5 tons). How
much is that? Well, you can think of it in terms
of refrigerators. An average refrigerator weighs
about 91 kg. If 1 metric ton 1,000 kg, how many
refrigerators equal a 2.3-metric ton block?
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• A.25 refrigerators
• 5 refrigerators
• 90 refrigerators

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How Steep? Each side of the Great Pyramid
rises at an angle of 51.5 degrees to the top. Not
only that, each of the sides are aligned almost
exactly with true north, south, east, and west.
For a pyramid to look like a pyramid, each of
the four triangular-shaped sides must slope up
and towards each other at the same angle so that
they meet at a point at the top. The builders
constructed the pyramid layer by layer, starting
at the bottom. They had to check their work
often, for even a tiny error at the bottom could
grow into a very large error by the time the
workers reached the top!
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Stonehenge  
prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain,
southern England, consisting of two concentric
circles of large standing stones. It was built
between 2800 and 1500 BC and is thought to have
been an astronomical calendar or a temple to the
sun.
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• Do you think such kind of things
• mysterious ?
• Are you curious about them?
• Besides UFOs, can you list
• anything more unexplained
• youve ever heard or seen in
• your daily life?

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Do you know more stories about these things?
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What other unexplained things do you know
about?Can you share them with us?
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Group discussion
1. Do you believe in unexplained things mentioned
above? Why or why not?
2. If you saw a UFO or a monster some day, what
would you do?
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If you saw a UFO or an alien some day, what would
you do?
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Famous film ET
UFO
E.T.
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Language points
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mystery??, ?????, ?
???????????? How he got in is a
mystery. ???????????? Who has taken the book? It
is a mystery. ???????????. There are too many
unexplained mysteries in the world.
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advanced (adj.)???, ???, ???
advanced teaching methods. ??????? a person of
advanced age. ???? the advanced
education ???? advanced mathematics ???? advanced
studies ????? advanced ideas ?????
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run into??, ??, ??, ??, ??
?????????????????. I ran into an old friend
yesterday in the street, whom I hadnt seen for
10 years.
??????????????. He ran into the back of another
car the other day.
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Translate the following phrases

• ????
• 2.????????
• 3.????
• 4. ??????
• 5.??????

be full of mysteries
advanced science and technology
a sunken ship
believe in unexplained things
run into a UFO
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Homework

• Surf the net and learn more about
• world mysteries. Prepare a short
• speech to introduce something that
• interests you.
• Preview the reading passage on
• page 2.

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