Bermuda (or “Devil’s”) Triangle

(Newspaper “English“, 23/2002, p.16)

The Bermuda Triangle is a triangular area in the Atlantic Ocean bounded roughly at its points by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. Legend has it that many people, ships and planes have mysteriously vanished in this area. How many have mysteriously disappeared depends on who is doing the locating and the counting. The size of the triangle varies from 500,000 square miles to three times that size, depending on the imagination of the author. (Some include the Azores, the Gulf of Mexico, and the West Indies in the “triangle.”) Some trace the mystery back to the time of Columbus. Even so, estimates range from about 200 to no more than 1,000 incidents in the past 500 years. Howard Rosenberg claims that in 1973 the U.S. Coast Guard answered more than 8,000 distress calls in the area and that there have been more than 50 ships and 20 planes go down in the Bermuda Triangle within the last century.

Many theories have been given to explain the extraordinary mystery of these missing ships and planes. Evil extraterrestrials, residue crystals from Atlantis, evil humans with anti-gravity devices or other weird technologies and vile vortexes from the fourth dimension are favourites among fantasy writers. Strange magnetic fields and oceanic flatulence (methane gas from the bottom of the ocean) are favourites among the technically-minded. Weather (thunderstorms, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, high waves, currents, etc.), bad luck, pirates, explosive cargoes, incompetent navigators, and other natural and human causes are favourites among skeptical investigators.

There are some skeptics who argue that the facts do not support the legend and that there is no mystery to be solved, nothing that needs explaining. The number of wrecks in this area is not extraordinary, given its size, location and the amount of traffic it receives. Many of the ships and planes that have been identified as having disappeared mysteriously in the Bermuda Triangle were not in the Bermuda Triangle at all. Investigations to date have not produced scientific evidence of any unusual phenomena involved in the disappearances. Thus, any explanation, including so-called scientific ones in terms of methane gas being released from the ocean floor, magnetic disturbances, etc., are not needed. The real mystery is how the Bermuda Triangle became a mystery at all.

The modern legend of the Bermuda Triangle began soon after five Navy planes vanished on a training mission during a severe storm in 1945. The most logical theory is that lead pilot Lt. Charles Taylor’s compass failed. The trainees’ planes were not equipped with working navigational instruments. The group was disoriented and simply, though tragically, ran out of fuel. No mysterious forces were likely to have been involved other than the mysterious force of gravity on planes with no fuel. It is true that one of the rescue planes blew up shortly after take-off, but this was likely due to a faulty gas tank rather to any mysterious forces.

Over the years there have been dozens of articles, books, and television programs promoting the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. In his study of this material, Larry Kushe found that few did any investigation into the mystery. Rather, they passed on the speculations of their predecessors as if they were passing on the mantle of truth. Of the many uncritical accounts of the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, no one has done more to create this myth than Charles Berlitz, who had a bestseller on the subject in 1974. After examining the 400-page official report of the Navy Board of Investigation of the disappearance of the Navy planes in 1945, Kushe found that the Board wasn’t baffled at all by the incident and did not mention alleged radio transmissions cited by Berlitz in his book. According to Kushe, what isn’t misinterpreted by Berlitz is fabricated. Kushe writes: “If Berlitz were to report that a boat were red, the chance of it being some other color is almost a certainty.” (Berlitz, by the way, did not invent the name; that was done by Vincent Gaddis in “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle, “which appeared in the February, 1964, issue of Argosy, a magazine devoted to fiction.)

In short, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle became a mystery by a kind of communal reinforcement among uncritical authors and a willing mass media to uncritically pass on the speculation that something mysterious is going on in the Atlantic.

By Nadezhda Plotnikova

Yeti

(Newspaper “English“, 23/2002, column “Wondering Wanderers”, p.16)

Sightings of this creature were a regular occurrence during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Extensive research has been undertaken to establish whether the yeti actually exists on the snowfields of the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet. This omnivorous creature, so often featured in horror movies, has been seen in different forms, and is sometimes referred to as the “abominable snowman”, or “meh-teh”. One description of the creature is that of an animal that walks upright, having thick ragged fur that is red-brown in color, and stands approximately 1.8m tall. Some have reported that the meh-teh is similar in appearance to an ape with a dome-shaped head, large feet and a broad mouth. Research by zoologists compares the yeti to the orangutan.

Sir Edmund Hillary, the explorer, alleged to come into contact with the yeti on several occasions, the most publicized being in 1960. A scalp believed to be that of the creature was revered by locals in a remote monastery but on examination was revealed to belong to a mountain goat/antelope.

The latest reported sighting was in 1972 when footprints were found by Eric Shipton, Edward Cronin and Dr Howard Emery on an expedition in Nepal. The footprints were found amidst the base camp in a valley between Everest and Kanchenjunga, and followed a path from the camp to a steep incline. The expedition agreed that the incline was extremely treacherous and would be virtually impossible for a human to climb. A mould of the footprint was taken for future research by Jeffrey McNeely.

In 1959 an expedition was launched by Tom Slick to discover new evidence. Yeti droppings were recovered and brought for future investigation. A new species of nematode worm was discovered, which according to scientists, will only be found to be linked to one type of animals. As this species of worm is known not to be linked to any other animal this evidence has been accepted as proof towards the yeti’s existence.

By Nadezhda Plotnikova

ПРИЛОЖЕНИЕ

English as a World Language

(Headway: Student’s Book, Upper-Intermediate; 1996, p.2)

Today, when English is one of the major languages, in the world, it requires an effort of the imagination, to realize that this is a relatively recent thing – that in Shakespeare’s time, for example, only a few million people spoke English, and the language was not thought to be very important by the other nations of Europe, and was unknown to the rest of the world.

English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England, in all the continents of the world. This exporting of English began in the seventeenth century, with the settlements in North America. Above all, it is the great growth of population in the United States, assisted by massive immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that has given the English language its present standing in the world.

People who speak English fall into one of three groups: those who have learned it as their native language; those who have learned it as a second language in a society that is mainly bilingual; and those who are forced to use it for a practical purpose – administrative, professional or education. One person in seven of the world’s entire population belongs to one of these three groups. Incredibly enough, 75% of the world’s mail and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English.

Old English, like modern German, French, Russian and Greek, had many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person, etc., but over the centuries words have been simplified. Verbs now have very few inflections, and adjectives do not change according to the noun.

As a result of the loss of inflections, English has become, over the past five centuries, a very flexible language. Without inflections, the same word can operate as many different parts of speech. Many nouns and verbs have the same form, for example swim, drink, walk, kiss, look, and smile. We can talk about water to drink and to water the flowers; time to go and to time a race; a paper to read and to paper a bedroom. Adjectives can be used as verbs. We warm our hands in front of a fire; if clothes are dirtied, they need to be cleaned and dried. Prepositions too are flexible. A sixty-year old man is nearing retirement; we can talk about a round of golf, cards, or drinks.

Openness of vocabulary involves the free admissions of words from other languages and the easy creation of compounds and derivatives. Most world languages have contributed some words to English at some time, and the process is now being reversed. Purists of the French, Russian, and Japanese languages are resisting the arrival of English in their vocabulary.

Geographically, English is the most widespread language on Earth, second only to Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who speak it. It is the language of business, technology, sport, and aviation. This will no doubt continue, although the proposition that all other languages will die out is absurd.

Реферат

1. The headline of the article is “English as a World Language”. It comes up from textbook “Headway: Student’s Book, Upper-Intermediate” by John and Liz Soars. It is dated 1996. The article is placed on page 2. The author of the article is unknown.

2. This issue refers to the field of linguistics and concerns the points from the history and some features of the English language.

3. The central topic of the article is history, usage, basic characteristics and future of English.

4. The article opens in a description of the English language in Shakespeare’s time. The author says that only a few million people spoke English at that time and it wasn’t very important as it was unknown to the rest of the world. Then he explains how English became a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England in the 17^th and later in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, assisted by massive immigration. Further on, the author reveals that people who speak English can be divided into three groups: speaking it as native language, learning it as a second one or being forced to use it for some practical purpose. He backs the given information with statistics that 75% of the world’s mail and 60% of all the telephone calls are in English. After that, the article informs is about several basic characteristics of the language. It brings to the forefront the simplicity of form. Going on, the author emphasizes the flexibility, which means using one and the same word as different parts of speech, for example, drink, smile, walk, etc. And finally the author tells about the openness of English vocabulary, which involves free admission of words from other languages.

The author draws a conclusion saying that geographically English is the most widespread language on Earth. But he admits that it is second only to Mandarin Chinese in number of people speaking it.

He tries to predict that English will continue developing and spreading, but that doesn’t mean all other languages will die out.

5. I find this article very interesting and informative. I quite agree with the author who says English is a world language.

The article is aimed to acquaint the readers with some aspects of the English language. It is intended for people learning English.

Аннотация

1. The headline of the article is “English as a World Language”. It comes up from textbook “Headway: Student’s Book, Upper-Intermediate” by John and Liz Soars. It is dated 1996. The article is placed on page 2. The author of the article is unknown.

2. This issue refers to the field of linguistics and concerns the points from the history and some features of the English language.

3. The central topic of the article is history, usage, basic characteristics and future of English.

4. The article is aimed to acquaint the readers with some aspects of the English language. It is intended for people learning English.

Список использованной литературы:

1. Федорова Р.С. Реферат и аннотация. Общие требования. Межгосударственный совет по стандартизации, метрологии и сертификации / Р.С. Федорова. – Москва, 1996. – 12 c.

2. Полякова Т.Ю. Английский язык для инженеров / Т.Ю. Полякова, Е.В. Синявская, О.И. Тынкова, Э.С. Улановская. – М.: «Высшая школа», 1998. – 463 с.

3. Маслыко Е.А. Настольная книга преподавателя иностранных языков / Е.А. Маслыко, П.К. Бабинская, А.Ф. Будько, С.И. Петрова. – Минск: Высшая школа, 1998. – 522 с.

4. Демьяненко М.Я. Основы общей методики обучения иностранным языкам / М.Я. Демьяненко, К.А. Лазаренко, С.В. Мельник. – Киев, 1984. – 368 с.

5. Современный словарь иностранных слов / Гл. ред. Е.А. Гришина. – М.: «Рус. яз.», 1993. – 740 с.

6. Рогова Г.В. Методика обучения иностранным языкам в средней школе / Г.В. Рогова, Ф.М. Рабинович, Т.Е. Сахарова. – М.: «Просвещение», 1991. – 224 с.

7. Рябцева Н.К. Научная речь на английском языке. Руководство по научному изложению. Словарь оборотов и сочетаемости общенаучной лексики: Новый словарь-справочник активного типа (на английском языке) / Н.К. Рябцева. – 2-е изд. – М.: Флинта: Наука, 2000. – 600 с.

8. Headway: Student’s Book, Upper-Intermediate; John and Liz Soars; 1996, 136 p.

ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ