номер 4, страница 69 - гдз по английскому языку 8 класс (starlight) учебник Баранова, Дули

Exercise four. Page sixty nine.

The truth isn't out there. Or is it?

The annual UFO festival in Roswell, New Mexico, attracts thousands of visitors each year to this remote desert town. This year, we sent travel journalist, Ruth Bradley to take part in a new UFO discovery tour to visit key sites in the area, where the famous nineteen forty seven Roswell UFO case unfolded.

Did her out of this world experience make her a true believer?

When I was first asked by my editor to report on a UFO discovery tour, my heart sank. I just couldn't understand why I was being sent, me, a true skeptic.

A few days later, I was greeted at the airport in New Mexico by the tour's friendly guide and the other enthusiastic UFO spotters in my group. We were driven to the hotel along busy freeways, lined with UFO diners, UFO souvenir shops, and even UFO motels.

Little grey aliens stared down at us from billboards and road signs with huge insect eyes. I couldn't help smiling at these amusing sites. If nothing else, I had the feeling I would be having some fun on this assignment.

The following morning, we were taken to the spot in Roswell, where a cattle farmer, Mac Brazel, came across some large pieces of metal and a huge hole in the ground on the eighth of July, nineteen forty seven.

Our guide told us that shortly after Mr Brazel reported what he had seen, the newspaper wrote that he had seen a flying saucer. The next day, however, they changed the story and reported that it wasn't a UFO at all, but simply a weather balloon.

I wandered away from the group and looked around in the grass, half hoping to find one last piece of debris from the craft. Instead, I disturbed an enormous rattlesnake and quickly made my way back.

I had to admit, the story so far was fascinating, and I found myself looking forward to the next stage of the tour, where we would be shown Building eighty four.

This was the huge aircraft hangar on the old army base, where the remains of the strange craft were taken to be examined. It was an impressive sight. Eyewitness accounts later described the craft as unlike anything that had ever been seen on Earth. They said it was made of a material as light as plastic, as strong as steel, impossible to burn, and covered in strange hieroglyphics.

Others described seeing alien bodies.

The day ended with a visit to the UFO Museum, and I was fascinated by some creepy sketches of alien bodies on autopsy tables, which were drawn by a nurse working in the base hospital at the time.

As we headed back to the hotel, I stared up into the starry night and couldn't help wondering if anyone or anything was looking down.

The next day, we visited the town of Socorro, where in nineteen sixty four, Lonnie Zamora, a respected police officer, reported an oval-shaped object with two small creatures inside. As he drew near, blue flames burst from the craft and it soared into the sky. When Zamora came back with other officers, all that could be seen were burn marks on the ground and strange footprints.

The locals in this area have many stories like this one, and I asked whether we were going to go back home with a UFO story of our own.

Tour Guide: Wait until tonight, the tour guide told me.

That night, we camped out in one of the Nevada desert's UFO hotspots. As we looked up into the dark sky, one couple from Phoenix, Arizona, told me about the night in March, nineteen ninety seven, when they saw a weird formation of lights hovering above the city. They weren't alone. The strange phenomenon had been witnessed by over ten thousand locals, and there is even video footage of it.

I was a bit disappointed that I saw nothing worth photographing that night. What better souvenir to take back to the editor than a photo of a real UFO?

I'm still doubtful whether UFOs and aliens exist. However, after spending a night under the stars in the eerie Nevada desert, I have to admit that if intelligent life from a far off world decided to land on Earth, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was the place they chose to visit.