A Story About Forks

  In 1608 an Englishman whose name was Thomas Corayte visited Italy. He liked the country and noted down every interesting thing he found. But there was one thing which he found more interesting than the others. In his diary Thomas wrote, “ When the Italians eat meat, they use small forks. They do not eat it with hands, as they say, people do not always have clean hands.”
  Before leaving for England, Thomas Corayte bought a few forks.
  At home Thomas gave a dinner to show the invention to his friends. When the servants brought the steaks, he took out a fork and began to eat like they did in Italy.
  Everybody looked at him in surprise. When he told his friends what it was, they all wanted to take a good look at the strange thing. All his friends said that the Italians were very strange people because the fork was very inconvenient.
  Thomas Corayte tried to prove the opposite. He said it was not nice to eat meat with one’s fingers because they were not always clean.
  Everybody got angry at that. Did Mr Corayte think that people in England always had dirty hands?
  Thomas Corayte wanted to show that it was very easy to use the fork. But the first piece of meat he took with the fork fell to the floor. His friends began to laugh and he had to take the fork away.
  Only fifty years later did people in England begin to use forks.

                        (Taken from “Английский язык для школьников и поступающих в ВУЗы.” by Tsvetkova I.V., Klepalchenko I.A., Myltseva N. A.    Москва: Глосса – Пресс , 2003     c.73.)

Answer the questions:
1.Why did Thomas Corayte bring forks to England?
2.Why did everybody look at Thomas when he began to eat like the Italians?
3.Why did the first piece of meat fall to the floor when Thomas took it with the fork?
4.When did people in England begin to use forks?

The Bemuda Triangle

  In 1492, just before he reached land, Christopher Columbus wrote that strange things were happening at sea. His ship’s compass wasn’t working right, and there were mysterious lights over the ocean. Today, the area that Columbus sailed through is famous because of the hundreds of ships and airplanes that have been lost there. This part of the ocean, which stretches from Florida to Puerto Rico to Bermuda, is often called the Bermuda Triangle.
  Among the stories that have created a stir is the disappearance of Flight 19. In Flight 19, there were five United States Navy airplanes that were on a short and easy training mission. After reporting that the compass on the airplane wasn’t working properly, one of the pilots radioed that they were in a jam. There was something wrong with their position; they were lost. Then the airplanes just disappeared. A rescue airplane was sent out to bring them back, but something happened to that airplane as well. It disappeared along with the others. None of the planes or the 27 men on board were ever found.
  Another bizarre incident involved a National Airlines passenger flight. Not long before it was announced to land at Miami International Airport, the flight disappeared from the airport’s radar screens. For ten minutes, the airplane could not be found on radar. But the flight did arrive on schedule. When it landed, the pilot said that, out of the blue, a strange fog had appeared and surrounded them for 10 minutes. It is strange but all the clocks and watches of the passengers and crew were ten minutes slow.
   Some people think that UFOs are responsible. Others say that there are dangerous forces in the Bermuda Triangle and that traveling in that area is playing with fire. Most experts don’t believe these ideas, offering other explanations, such as bad weather or accidents. However, it is true that thousands of people have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. People who say they don’t believe it often have to agree that they are wrong when they examine the evidence.       

             (Taken From “Moscow News” № 36, September 5 – 11, 2001

                                                      “Learn English with Longman and MN”   p.4)

Answer the Questions:

1.What happened to Christopher Columbus when he sailed through the area known as the Bermuda Triangle?
2.How many airplanes in Flight 19 disappeared? How many were later found?
3.What happened to the National Airlines flight that landed in Miami?
4.What was strange about the clocks and watches on board the airplane?
5.What do you think the best explanation is for the strange things that happen in the Bermuda Triangle?
6.Do you the stories about people disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle are true? Why or why not?

Lie detectors

 (Polygraph) Download in http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4534208/lie%20detectors.doc
Although "lie detectors" are being used by governments, police departments, and businesses that all want guaranteed ways of detecting the truth, the results are not always accurate1. Lie detectors are properly called emotion detectors, for their aim is to measure bodily changes that contradict what a person says. The polygraph machine records changes in heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and the electrical activity of the skin (galvanic skin response, or GSR). In the first part of the polygraph test, you are electronically connected to the machine and asked a few neutral questions ("What is your name?" "Where do you live?"). Your physical reactions serve as the standard for evaluating what comes next. Then you are asked a few critical questions among the neutral ones ("When did you rob the bank?"). The assumption (предположение) is that if you are guilty, your body will reveal the truth, even if you try to deny it. Your heart rate, respiration (дыхание), and GSR will change abruptly (=suddenly) as you respond (=answer) to the incriminating questions.
That is the theory; but psychologists have found that lie detectors are simply not reliable. Since most physical changes are the same across all emotions, machines cannot tell whether you are feeling guilty, angry, nervous, thrilled, or revved up (=excited)  from an exciting day. Innocent people may be tense and nervous about the whole procedure. They may react physiologically to a certain word ("bank") not because they robbed it, but because they recently bounced a check4. In either case  the machine will record a "lie." The reverse mistake is also common. Some practiced liars can lie without flinching  (вздрагивать), and others learn to beat the machine by tensing muscles or thinking about an exciting experience during neutral questions.

QUESTION
According lo the passage, polygraph tests
(A)  record a person's physical reactions
(B)  measure a person's thoughts
(C)  always reveal the truth about a person
(D)  make guilty people angry

ANSWER
Answer (A) is correct because it is a rewording of "bodily changes." Answer (B) is incorrect because the polygraph measures physical changes; thoughts are not physical changes. Answer (C) is also incorrect since the passage states that lie detectors are "simply not reliable." Answer (D) is incorrect since the polygraph does not make guilty people nervous; it makes innocent people nervous.

QUESTION
According to the passage, what kind of questions are asked on the first part of the polygraph test?
(A) Critical .
(B) Unimportant
(C)  Incriminating
(D)  Emotional