A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T
June 2009
S
TARTING OFF
Work with a partner and discuss the questions.
1. Do you think there is intelligent life on other planets?
2. Do you think aliens visit us on earth?
3. Have you ever seen a UFO?
4. What would you do if you saw a UFO?
V
OCABULARY
1
How much do you know about space? Work with a partner and put the words into the right columns.
Mars
flying saucers
The sun
asteroids
comets
sightings
Venus
Jupiter
a supernova
a moon
Saturn
Neptune
Uranus
the Milky Way
the solar system
PLANTES
OTHER
Earth
Mercury
galaxies
A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T
June 2009
V
OCABULARY
2
Work with a partner and put the planets in order, from closest to the sun to farthest away.
V
OCABULARY
3
Match the words in the ‘other’ column with the correct definitions.
1. the yellow star which our planet orbits
2. an object, smaller that a planet, which orbits a
planet
3. a time when you see something, especially something
unusual or special
4. something in the sky which you believe is a
spacecraft from another planet
5. a large group of (millions of) stars
6. an object like a bright ball with a long tail which flies
around the sun
7. large rocks which orbit the sun
8. a very large exploding star
9. the galaxy in which we live
10. the sun and everything which orbits it
B
EFORE YOU READ
Look at the questions below and discuss with a partner: True or False?
1. In reports of alien visits the aliens usually look the same.
True ☐
False ☐
2. In descriptions, most aliens have no hair.
True ☐
False ☐
3. In descriptions, most aliens have large ears.
True ☐
False ☐
4. Any aliens who visit us must have highly advanced technology.
True ☐
False ☐
5. We know why aliens will visit us.
True ☐
False ☐
6. A visit by aliens will change our lives.
True ☐
False ☐
F
IRST READING
Read the first part of the text ‘VISITORS FROM OUTER SPACE…’ and check your answers.
S
ECOND READING
Read the second part of the text and answer the questions below.
1. Who wrote about aliens living on the moon?
2. Is there life on Mars?
3. When is ‘UFO season’?
4. What was found in New Mexico?
5. How can you help the search for extra-terrestrial life?
A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T
June 2009
V
OCABULARY
4
Eight words in the text are underlined. Match them to the definitions below.
COUNTLESS
CLAIM
LAST
INCIDENT
ACCORDING TO
HOAX
SO FAR
SCREENSAVER
1. false information given as a trick, especially about
something dangerous or important (NOUN)
2. as somebody or something says (PREPOSITION)
3. say something is true, even though it might not be
(VERB)
4. a programme which darkens your monitor when
you leave your computer (NOUN)
5. something that happens, especially something
important or unusual (NOUN)
6.
so many you can’t say how many (ADJECTIVE)
7. up to now (VERB)
8. carry on for a certain time (VERB)
V
OCABULARY
5
Complete the sentences using one of the words from Vocabulary 1. You may need to change the form of the word.
1. There was a phone call about a bomb, but it was just a ____________________.
2. Look at the sky! So beautiful, ____________________ stars looking down on us.
3. It was a very strange ____________________. No-one can explain it.
4. ____________________ the weather forecast, there will be storms tomorrow.
5. A ____________________ is very useful. It stops your computer wasting electricity.
6. The film ____________________ almost three hours! It was very long.
7. She ____________________ that she did it herself, but I think somebody helped her.
8. How is the holiday? It’s fine ____________________, but I don’t know how it will be next week.
W
RITING
Work with a partner. Imagine you have seen a flying saucer land in your town and write a report about it.
Think about:
WHERE
Where did you see the saucer land?
WHEN
When did it happen?
WHO
Who came out of the saucer?
WHAT
What did they say?
HOW
How did you react?
Prepare the article together.
A C T I V I T I E S S H E E T
June 2009
"We have no proof, But...based on the best information we have available to us, we have to come
to the conclusion t
hat… other life probably exists out there and perhaps in many places..."
Neil Armstrong, astronaut, first man on the moon
VISITORS FROM OUTER SPACE… WHO… WHERE FROM… WHY…
Who do they look like?
One of the most
interesting things about
UFO eyewitness reports
is how similar the
descriptions of the aliens
are. Grey or blue skin,
hairless faces, a small
nose and mouth, large oval eyes
and no visible ears are in almost all
descriptions.
How do they get here?
Rocket ships, flying
saucers, wormholes,
teleportation… If the
aliens come from far
away planets or
incredibly distant galaxies, or even
from different dimensions then one
thing is obvious: they must have
technology so advanced we cannot
even imagine it.
What do they want?
Friend or enemy? To
help or to fight? Or
perhaps to watch, as we
watch animals on safari.
Writers and film makers
do agree on one thing, however:
wherever they come from and whatever
they want, any meeting with visitors from
another planet will change our lives
forever.
The truth is
out there…
Flying saucers, little green men,
super robots,
monsters… aliens
come in all shapes and sizes...
Book after book, magazine after
magazine,
film after film… people
never get bored of stories of space
aliens coming to Earth. And, of
course, there are many people who
believe that they have seen alien
space ships (UFOs - unidentified
flying objects) or even that they have
met aliens. Could they be right?
Where could aliens come from?
Many writers have written about
aliens living quite close to home: H.
G. Wells, for example, wrote about
aliens living on the
moon (‘The First
Men in the Moon’) and coming from
Mars (‘War of the Worlds’), while
countless films have been made with
similar themes. Today, we know
there is no life on the moon and
almost certainly no life on Mars, so if
there are aliens out there they will be
from much further away - outside of
the solar system, from planets we
may never see and may not even
have names for.
Do aliens visit us?
Every year thousands of people claim
to see UFOs and/or aliens - most of
them during
‘UFO season’, which lasts
from the end of May to the beginning
of September. Of course, this is just
the time when most people have their
holidays, which might explain some of
the sightings!
There have been some very famous
UFO sightings and some which have
never been explained. Probably the
most interesting UFO story is over 50
years old: ‘the Roswell
incident’. This is the story, some think, of
a UFO crash in 1947. According to this
story, the US military found parts of a
UFO and its alien pilots in the New
Mexico desert; the parts, some say, have
been kept secret in the US Air Force
base at Roswell, New Mexico. In 1995
there was a big controversy when a film
showing scientists with the alien bodies
was shown on television; in the end,
however, the film makers admitted the
hoax.
What can we do?
We are already looking for signs of
intelligent life in space. Every rocket,
shuttle and spaceship we have sent to
the moon, to the planets or into space
has looked for life - but we have found
nothing, so far. Perhaps the best chance
is with the SETI programme - a
programme which looks for signals from
space sent by alien intelligence.
You can help the search, if you want to.
One of the things SETI does is use
‘resting’ computers to analyse data from
space, looking for signals. It is possible to
install a screensaver on your computer
which will look for such signals whenever
you are not using your computer. Who
knows, you could be the person who
finds extraterrestrial intelligence - and all
while you sleep!
Ufologists have for many years
claimed that governments,
particularly the US government, has
secret information about alien visits,
including the famous ‘Roswell
incident of July 1947, when
(ufologists say) a crashed UFO and
its pilots were found in the New
Mexico desert by the US military.