28460 roswell ufo reading vocabulary speaking

June 24, 2011

June 24, 1997 | The ‘Roswell Incident’
On June 24, 1997, the Air Force released a 231-page report titled “Case Closed: Final Report
on the Roswell Crash.” It suggested that the alien bodies people reported seeing in Roswell,
N.M., in July 1947, were actually life-sized anthropomorphic test dummies.
The Times article from the next day summarised the main theme of the report: “No bodies.
No bulbous heads. No secret autopsies. No spaceship. No crash. No extra-terrestrials or alien
artefacts. No government cover-up.”
The UFO phenomenon, which had originated in mid-June 1947 when a recreational pilot
reported seeing an object “flying like a saucer would” in Washington State. In early July,
several witnesses reported seeing flying discs and strange debris on the ground in Roswell,
N.M.
Public interest in the reports increased on July 8, 1947, when The Roswell Daily Record
reported “the intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment group at Roswell Army Air Field
announced at noon today, that the field has come into possession of a flying saucer.”
Then the United States government began an effort, which lasted decades, to investigate
and debunk the reports and thousands of similar reports from around the country. Public
concern about UFOs waxed and waned over the next several decades, but never
disappeared, partly due to popular culture.
In 1994, the Air Force issued a report titled “Roswell Report: Fact and Fiction,” which said
the debris was from top-secret, high-altitude weather balloons. But then in 1995, Ray
Santilli, a London-based entrepreneur, caught the public’s interest when he released what he
claimed to be footage of an autopsy of an alien, allegedly performed in Roswell in 1947.
Before large “celebrations” planned for the 50th anniversary of the Roswell Reports took
place, the Air Force issued its final report on the matter, hoping to close the case once and
for all.

Source: Edited by Emma Clayton.

Anthropomorphic dummies used for scientific research, which the Air Force’s 1997 report
suggests accounts for the sightings of aliens in Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947.


Vocabulary Focus
Match the words on the left from the article with their definitions on the right.

anthropomorphic

the cutting open and examination of a dead
body to find out why the person died

test dummies

when you try to prevent others discovering
information about a mistake or a crime

bulbous

broken pieces from something bigger

autopsy

life-size models of humans, used to test what
happens to people in car crashes

artefacts

a piece of film, usually showing an event

cover-up

making animals, Gods or objects seem like
they are human

witness

to show something is not true when people
think it is

debris

fat and round

debunk

objects made by people, of historical
significance

footage

a person who sees an event happen,
especially a crime or an accident

Worksheet created by Emma Clayton. Definitions from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.


Vocabulary Focus

ANSWER KEY

Match the words on the left from the article with their definitions on the right.

anthropomorphic

the cutting open and examination of a dead
body to find out why the person died

test dummies

when you try to prevent others discovering
information about a mistake or a crime

bulbous

broken pieces from something bigger

autopsy

life-size models of humans, used to test what
happens to people in car crashes

artefacts

a piece of film, usually showing an event

cover-up

making animals, Gods or objects seem like
they are human

witness

to show something is not true when people
think it is

debris

fat and round

debunk

objects made by people, of historical
significance

footage

a person who sees an event happen,
especially a crime or an accident

Worksheet created by Emma Clayton. Definitions from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.