Wacky World of the Ufologists

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 472.

Unit 3

an agreement

to abrogate a contract

arbitration

to assess

a bargain

binding

to break down

to breach a contract

to cancel a contract

commission

to concede

a concession

to conclude a contract

conditions

consignment

a consignor

a consignee

a contract

a compromise

to carry out a contract

delivery

a discount

a five-per cent discount =

a discount of 5%

at a discount

a bulk discount

to draw up a contract

an emphasis on smth

to estimate

to evaluate

to execute a contract

a forwarder

an invoice

lease

litigation

to negotiate a contract

negotiation(s)

a negotiator

obligation

to offer

to order

an opponent

a party

a proposal

a resolution

to respond to the market

a royalty

settlement

a shipping agency

shipment

to sign a contract

term

thorough

a trade-off

a transaction

unit price

to violate a contract

win-lose solution

win-win solution

to write a contract

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: believe it or not but the modern religion of Ufology – the quest to interpret the mystery of unidentified flying objects – today enters its 42nd year. In short, however bizarre its foundations, Ufology continues to stake its claim as a social and global curiosity of some magnitude. Like many serious religions, it is evolving fast – adapting itself to a hostile environment with speed and panache. It has priests and missionaries, miracles and messages, though nothing, to date, resembling a grand orthodoxy. It is a religion of the space age that offers us heavenly lights, god-like aliens and flying green jellies above all the reassurance that we are not alone: that the universe pulses with intelligence. As,of course, it might.

Recently, there has been an | epidemic of UFO sightings, not only in Britain, where the number of UFO stories carried by the local and national media so far this year – more than 530 – has already exceeded any annual total for the last ten years, but from here to the South Australian bush and back. In turn, there is a craze of UFO abduction stories sweeping America. The most widely-reported UK sighting this year produced multiple stories claiming that eight policemen in Kensington, London had witnessed a grey-green-blue flying saucer through the telescope of 16-year old Zena Sfeir, and had been converted into 'complete believers' on the spot. It was later realised that all nine had been looking at Jupiter through a malfunctioning telescope.

You do not have to voyage very far into Ufology to encounter your first surprise: namely that this embryonic religion possesses a positive modern starting date – June 24 1947, when businessman-pilot Kenneth Arnold ('the man who started it all') claimed to have seen nine silvery objects travelling at great speed near Mount Rainier, Washington, fluttering and swerving and behaving 'like a saucer would if you skippedit across the water'. During June and July of 1947 there were at least 850 saucer sightings. The new religion was up and running, even though Arnold had been duped: perhaps by mirages – it hardly matters, unless you are a zealot.

A seasoned Ufologist like Hilary Evans of the British UFO Research Association is swift to offer some key admissions: that UFO witnesses deliberately lie, that some lie unconsciously, or that others are acted upon by intangible cultural or psychological influences that may bias, says Evans, “both the ability to perceive and/or the ability to interpret what is perceived”. Nor does he gloss over Ufology's obvious weakness, the tawdriness (in fact, the non-existence) of its evidence. 'For one thing,' he says, 'almost every scrap of it is eye-witness testimony only, unsupported by any confirming evidence. When we are offered tangible evidence, it inevitably falls short of being totally convincing ...' But then he switches tack: 'On the other hand, the sheer quantity of testimony is impressive. On whatever level of reality the UFO exists, it certainly exists as a new and uniquely complex challenge.'

Does it now? Without more ado, let us plunge into the wacky world of Ufology. It is a placeof exceedingly low gravity, so let us check our life-support systems lest we explode into a zillion astonished pieces.

The latest Gallup polls indicate that about 20% of Britons and almost 60% of Americans believe in flying saucers. A French group even estimated that we learn about only one UFO in 38,400 that visit Earth. These figures are worthless, of course. Serious Ufologists admit this, yet they sometimes employ them in stunning sleights of hand to underpin the claim that whatever you think of the figures, the UFO phenomenon is global, unique, complex, awe-inspiring and deserving of serious interpretive help from physicists, astronomers, engineers, meteorologists, physiologists, sociologists, anthropologists and mythologists – very few of whom, however, ever answer the SOS.

We are being visited, it appears, by whole genres and massive sub-groups of foreign-looking beings – often in the same week and always ignorant of each other's presence or existence. Bless them all, for we are seeing fairies and little fat men, hairy dwarfs and giant hominids, aliens 'resembling Italians' and headless women with webbed feet and bat-like wings.

One research group analysed 'thousands of cases' and determined that there were four main types of visiting alien: small humanoids, experimental animals, humanlike entities, and robots. But how eccentrically they behave! How frequently, when they are not collecting soil or flowers or abducting innocent human beings, are they seen to be repairing their spacecraft, which are forever breaking down. “The examples of apparent absurdity are very numerous,” one researcher concedes, “and we find one or two absurd details in every well-reported case. Some cases are veritable festivals of absurdity.” One in five of all alleged close encounters with UFOs and their occupants is claimed to leave some sort of trace: burnt ground, footprints, powdery residues, metallic fragments, etc. None of this alleged evidence is worth a brass farthing.

There is a modern folk-tale that holds that numerous governments are hoarding crashed saucers and/or alien bodies (generally mutilated) and that a global cover-up is in full swing. There is not a scrap of evidence to support these contentions. According to researcher Andy Roberts: 'Many UFO organisations and researchers thrive on rumour and secrecy, and from this base a body of folklore has been created. Similarities can be found with other discovery/secrecy/ conspiracy tales. For example, the stories in which people have stumbled on blocked-up tunnels in the London Underground train system, finding whole carriages full of corpses in Victorian clothes.'

After weeks of grappling with the rubbish-mountain of non-evidence on which Ufology is perched, my own brain has now gone on the blink, becoming spiteful and provincial. There may be no evidence for UFOs, but then there is little evidence for anything, least of all the notion that the galaxies pulse with life. Of course there are no flying green jellies, it says. Nor are there hominids or fairies or aliens that look like Italians. There are no bat-winged women and no talkingXXXX*cans. In all the reaches of time-space, it now maintains, we will never find anyone else to talk to or play tennis with. How can this be? Because we are alone.

(Michael Thompson-Noel, The Financial Times)

*XXXX: a brand of Australian beer.

B Find a word or phrase in the text which, in context, is similar in meaning to:

C Find a phrase in the text which, in context, is similar in meaning to:

Paragraph 6

1. hand movements used for performing magic tricks
2. respond to the emergency call

Paragraph 7

1. completely ludicrous and absurd
2. absolutely worthless

Paragraph 8

1. secretly storing crashed UFOs
2. a worldwide campaign to hide the truth
3. flourish on unproven stories

Paragraph 9

1. doesn't work properly

D Now choose the best answer to the following questions.

1. The writer thinks that Ufology

A. is a religion of the space age.

B. has many of the characteristics of a religion.

C. is a complex and important social phenomenon.

D. is entirely a matter of hoaxes and trickery.

2. The figure of 530 sightings applies to

A. Britain only.

B. Britain and Australia.

C. Britain, Australia and America.

D. the world.

3. Hilary Evans is inclined to believe in UFOs because

A. there are eye-witness accounts.

B. there is a lot of tangible and intangible evidence.

C. there are a lot of reports of UFO sightings.

D. there are many complexities to this phenomenon.

4. What is the writer's reaction to all theUFOstories that he has heard?

A. amusement

B. great interest

C. irritation

D. anxiety

E Read the following ideas expressed by J. Valley, a world renowned astrophysicist, and discuss them with the group.

Language awareness: body language

A Use these words to complete the sentences. Sometimes you will have to change the form of the words because they may be used as plural nouns, adjectives or verbs. Some words can be used twice.

B Can you explain what these newspaper headlines mean?

Theme two: Strange Happenings

A Read the following text, but do not attempt to fill the gaps until you have listened to Stephen's story. Then complete the text with a suitable word or phrase.

B Do you believe in vampires? What kind of creatures are they: live or dead?