Reading_for_the_Real_World_1_2nd_Ed

U N I T 1 Strange & Unusual 2

Bigfoot

Pre-Reading Questions

Think about the following questions.

1.Do you know any stories about mysterious creatures? Where were they seen?

2.Do you think that strange creatures like the Loch Ness monster exist? Why or why not?

3.What have you heard about “Bigfoot”?

Vocabulary Preview

Match each word or phrase with the correct definition.

1.	aggressive	a. a dead body or bones
2.	remains	b. a smell; a scent
3.	creature	c. to travel; to move from one country or area to another
4.	description	d. a statement that tells what something looks like
5.	migrate	e. an animal or monster
6.	odor	f. quick to attack; not afraid

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Bigfoot	Track 3

Native American and Canadian Indian tribes have passed down stories going back thousands of years about giant ape-men

living in the forests of the western United States and

5Canada. They called these creatures Sasquatch, Yerin, or Mountain Devils. Regardless of the name, the descriptions of these animals are usually the same. The Bigfoot is usually described as being very tall, well over

two meters. It is covered in thick, dark hair and usually gives off a bad odor.

10The Bigfoot’s body is usually very muscular and ape-like, yet it walks upright and has a face more similar to that of humans than of apes. For the most part, these creatures appear not to be violent or aggressive. Bigfoot sightings are usually of lone, or single, creatures, but there have been reports of people seeing

groups, or families, of Bigfoot.

15 People in other countries also tell stories of similar ape-men. In the Himalayas, a mountain range in Nepal, people call these creatures Yeti, or Abominable Snowmen. The Africans call them Ngoloko, and the Chinese tell stories of the Gin-Sung, or bearman.

Though sightings have been reported for centuries, is there any scientific

20evidence for the existence of these creatures? Some say yes, and others say no. Dr. Grover Krantz, a physical anthropologist at the University of Oregon, believes that Bigfoot may be a type of creature known as a Gigantopithecus.

A Gigantopithecus is an animal that lived in Asia over 300,000 years ago and looked like a mix between an ape and a very large man. Dr. Krantz believes that

25these animals, which lived long before humans, may have migrated from Asia and decided to settle in the heavily wooded area of the Pacific Northwest,

2	pass down --- to tell from one generation to the next
6	regardless of --- in spite of; not considering
17	abominable --- terrible
19	sightings --- fact of seeing; something seen
21	anthropologist --- a person who studies the development of humans
24	mix --- a combination
26	wooded --- having many trees

45 trickster --- a person who cheats others

49deeper --- farther inside

50elusive --- not easy to find; good at hiding

where food was plentiful.

Is it possible that creatures like these could have survived for so many years unknown to humans? Cryptozoologists compare the case of Bigfoot to that of the

30coelacanth. The coelacanth is a type of fish that was believed to have gone extinct over 70,000,000 years ago, but this fish has been discovered to be still

living off the coast of South Africa. Cryptozoologists believe that the animals that we now call Bigfoot have been able to survive by living in an area that people, until recently, have seldom gone.

35 There are, however, some questions that science has been unable to answer. For example, why have no dead Bigfoot bodies ever been discovered? And where is the physical proof of their existence? Bigfoot researchers point out that it is unusual to find the dead remains of any animal in the forest.

40Most of the time, they say, other animals eat the remains soon after death; this may be the case for Bigfoot, too. Many

skeptics, people who do not believe in Bigfoot, say that the video and photographs of Bigfoot are really pictures of people wearing an ape costume. They also believe that the Bigfoot footprints are really the footprints of a bear, or

45	footprints made by tricksters trying to fool scientists.
		It is possible that we may never know the truth about these animals. If they
	have avoided being seen for the last several thousand years, then maybe they will
	stay hidden for another several thousand. Or it may be that as we humans go
	deeper and deeper into the forests of Northwest America and Canada, we may
50	finally come face to face with the elusive Bigfoot.
		Reading Time	_______ minutes _______ seconds	572 words

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Reading Comprehension

AMark each statement as either true (T) or false (F) according to the reading.

1.____ Stories of Bigfoot are only very recent.

2.____ Bigfoot could be related to an animal that lived thousands of years ago.

3.____ Many people think that Bigfoot evidence is not real.

4.____ The coelacanth is an extinct Bigfoot.

BChoose the best answer.

1.Why do cryptozoologists think that the coelacanth is good evidence for the existence of Bigfoot?

a.The coelacanth is an old kind of fish that can live out of water.

b.The coelacanth also looks strange.

c.The coelacanth is originally from Asia.

d.The coelacanth shows that living ancient animals exist without being easily found.

2.Why don’t skeptics think Bigfoot exists?

a.Only pictures of Bigfoot have been taken.

b.They believe that the footprints were made by bears or tricksters.

c.Skeptics made a Bigfoot costume.

d.They are very big.

3.According to the reading, what do cryptozoologists probably study?

a.Fish

b.All animals

c.Unknown or mysterious creatures

d.Humans

CFor the next two questions, look for the answers in the passage and write them on the lines provided.

1.What is Dr. Krantz’s theory about Bigfoot?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

2.If Bigfoot does exist, why is the Northwest a good habitat for it to live in?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

Summary

Fill in the blanks with the phrases from the list. Use each phrase only once.

believers say	found or sighted	are not aggressive
a bad odor	came from Asia	usually eat them

Descriptions of Bigfoot indicate they are larger than men, have lots of hair, and usually have 1 _________________. One theory says that Bigfoot

2 _________________ originally, but it migrated to North America to find food. Some people wonder why more people have not 3 _________________ a Bigfoot. Bigfoot researchers say it is because these creatures 4 _________________ and hide when humans come near them. Skeptics also point out that no one has ever found a dead body of a Bigfoot; however, 5 _________________ that fact is not so strange. It is actually rare to find the remains of any dead animal because other animals 6 _________________.

Vocabulary Extension

Here are six words that are related to the topic but are not in the reading. Fill in each blank with the best word from the list. Use each word only once.

lair

monsters

legends

hoax

uncanny

supernatural

1.Where does the fox live? Its __________ is over there.

2.Is the Loch Ness monster real? I think it is just a(n) __________.

3.Long ago, people thought that rain was __________. They didn’t realize that it was a natural process.

4.“Do you think __________ exist?” “Well, I’ve never seen one.”

5.Bob had a(n) __________ experience. He still feels strange about it.

6.There are many __________ about ghosts.

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Supplemental Reading

The Death of Bigfoot?

Track 4

Is Bigfoot dead? The answer is “yes” according to the family of Ray L. Wallace, who died November 26th, 2002 in Seattle, Washington. After the death of his

father, Michael Wallace told a story that surprised many

5people who have been trying to solve the Bigfoot mystery. He claimed that his father thought of the idea of a Bigfoot

creature; though he did not make the name, Bigfoot, he developed it as a practical joke to make money. According to Michael, Ray Wallace asked a friend to make a pair of 16-inch (40 cm) footprints out of wood. He then used these

10footprints for making fake Bigfoot tracks around the woods near his house. Mr. Wallace would use these footprints to support stories about Bigfoot that he would tell to newspapers. Some of these stories were quite strange.

He once told a newspaper reporter, “Bigfooted creatures are people, they speak a language.” Mr. Wallace then used these stories to make money. He made

15tape recordings of strange sounds that he said were “Bigfoot conversations” and sold the tapes to tourists along with Bigfoot photos, posters, and pieces of animal hair that he said came from Bigfoot.

Though his family claims that Bigfoot died with Ray Wallace, others are not

so sure. Scientist Jeff Meldrum, a professor at Idaho State University, does not

20believe that Bigfoot was imaginary. Professor Meldrum claims to have copies of over forty footprints that he says belong to a very large, unknown creature, which he believes is Bigfoot.

Discussion

1.If Bigfoot exists, what kind of creature do you think it could be?

2.What other kinds of hoaxes have you heard about?

U N I T 2 Computers & Technology 1

The History of

the Internet

Pre-Reading Questions

Think about the following questions.

1.During which decade were computers first used in homes?

2.During which decade did lots of people start using the Internet?

3.Was the original use of the Internet for business or some other purpose?

Vocabulary Preview

Match each word or phrase with the correct definition.

1.	accelerate	a. a set of operation instructions for a computer program
2.	access	b. easily carried by hand
3.	cable	c. to go faster
4.	code	d. a person skilled at programming, usually having
		a mischievous purpose
5.	hacker	e. a cord made of strands of metal wire
6.	portable	f. to use by permission

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The History of the Internet Track 5

Almost everyone knows about the Internet. More than a billion people around the world are now online. The Internet is a powerful tool for information and communication.

The basic concept of the Internet was first thought of in the early 1960s. It

5began as a military research network, designed to be decentralized or spread out over many locations. If one location was attacked, the military could communicate from another location. The first small network went online in 1969. It connected four universities in the United States.

This network was very successful from the beginning. Scientists could now

10share information about their research. In 1972, email was invented and quickly became the most popular application. By the end of that year, the network connected many universities and government research centers. The general public became aware of the network in the late 70s. A new version allowed

	anyone to get online. People from all over the world joined online groups to talk
15	about thousands of different subjects.
		The term Internet was used for the first time in 1982. New technology had
	created a common language for the network computers. The Internet was now
		recognized as an international
		network. This was also at
20		the time when privacy and
		security started becoming
		important issues. Hackers
		and viruses began to
		emerge.
25		In 1990, the original
		military network went
		offline, and a year later the
	2	online --- connected to the network
	5	decentralize --- to put in many different locations
	11	application --- a special purpose for which something is used
	13	aware of --- conscious of; informed about

29	navigate --- to direct or manage its course
34	search engine --- a computer program that searches the World Wide Web
36	annual --- yearly
36	approximately --- nearly
40	consortium --- a group formed with the purpose to work together
44	data --- information

World Wide Web was born. The World Wide Web is in fact a browser for the Internet---a kind of software program that allows users to access and navigate

30within information on the net. With the introduction of the World Wide Web, the development of the Internet accelerated at a rapid pace. The first computer code of the web was created in 1991 allowing programmers to combine words, pictures, and

sounds on web pages.

In the early nineties, the first search engine, Gopher, and the first web

35browser, Mosaic, were developed, allowing easier and simpler access to the Net. Traffic on the Internet started growing at an annual rate of approximately 340,000 percent.

At the end of the 1990s, Internet2 was born. Internet2 uses fiber optic cables to link together a

40consortium of hundreds of high-speed networks around the world. Instead of connecting to the Internet solely through telephone lines, people

could now connect in a wide variety of ways, including

via satellite. These new methods have more data carrying capacity, or bandwidth,

45than telephone lines. This made the Internet faster and able to convey much more information. People could soon watch TV shows and movies online.

In the future, people will not need a computer to access the Internet. The browser will become a platform for the Web. Information will no longer need to be stored in a computer hard drive. Instead, it will be stored in places around

50the world. People can retrieve it through cell phones, music players, and other portable devices. This is called “cloud computing,” because it seems as if information floats down from the sky. A 2008 study said that the Internet will continue to grow. By 2020, a low-cost global network will allow people even in

remote areas to have Internet access. English will remain the primary Net language,

55but other languages, especially Mandarin, will increase. Also, a segment of society will refuse to use the Net and live without modern technology.

Reading Time

_______ minutes _______ seconds

562 words

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Reading Comprehension

AMark each statement as either true (T) or false (F) according to the reading.

1.____ The first small network went online in 1969.

2.____ Gopher was the first Internet search browser.

3.____ The Internet2 allowed people to watch TV online.

4.____ By 2020, English will no longer be the primary language of the Internet.

BChoose the best answer.

1.Which of the following is NOT an Internet-based technology?

a.Mosaic

b.Gopher

c.Hacker

d.World Wide Web

2.The first computer virus probably appeared in ____.

a.the early 70s

b.the late 70s

c.the early 80s

d.the early 90s

3.What was Gopher?

a.A computer company

b.A computer virus

c.A program application

d.A search engine

CFor the next two questions, look for the answers in the passage and write them on the lines provided.

1.Why was the first small network useful for scientists?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

2.In the future, why will people no longer need computers to access the Internet?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________