Flying Saucers¹

In 1947 the pilot of a small aeroplane saw nine strange objects in the sky over Washing-ton in the USA. He said that they looked like saucers. Newspapers printed his story un-der the headline "Flying Saucers".

Since then, all over the world, people have reported seeing similar strange objects. No one knows what they are or where they come from. Some people say that they do not exist, but many others say that they have seen them. Usually people on the ground have seen them but not always. Airline pilots also have reported seeing them and so have astro-nauts ── the men who fly in spaceships.

Perhaps some people saw them only in their imagination. Perhaps some people made a mistake. But airline pilots and astro-nauts do not usually make mistakes of this kind. Captain Ed Mitchell, who was the sixth man to walk on the moon, said in 1974 that he believes that some "flying saucers" are real. Many other people now believe that these strange flying objects are visiting the earth from other worlds in space.

"They have come to look at us," they say. The American government tried to find out more about these objects. It listened to a great many people who said they had seen them. But the Government Committee could not decide on what the objects were. It called them UFOs, which is short for "Unidentified Flying Objects".

Some say they have seen people in the fly-ing saucers! In 1964, a driver of a police car in New Mexico saw a UFO landing² a mile away. When he reached it, there were two small figures standing³ near it. They looked like little men. When he reported on his radio, they got inside the object and flew away.

In 1973 two men were out fishing in Mississippi. They say they saw a UFO shaped like an egg. There were three creatures like men but their skins were silver in colour. They had no eyes, and their mouths were just slits⁴ (裂缝). Their noses and ears were pointed⁵. They made the fishermen get inside the UFO for a while. Then the creatures photographed them and took them to the place where they had been fishing.

There are many other similar stories. Some are probably untrue but some may be true. No one knows.

1. ___ took pictures of the two fishermen.

A. The creatures in a UFO

B. A driver of a police car

C. A pilot of a plane

D. Captain Ed Mitchell

2. The American government tried to ____.

A. look for the flying objects

B. know where the objects come from

C. learn more about UFOs

D. report more about UFOs

3. According to the passage, the name "flying saucers" was first used by ____.

A. a pilot of a small plane

B. an official in Washington

C. an editor of a newspaper

D. the man who flies in saucers

4. The purpose of this passage is to tell us _.

A. the shape of UFOs B. how to observe UFOs

C. the danger of UFOs D. what we know about UFOs

5. It is implied⁶ in the passage that the author

A. does not believe at all about the exis-tence of UFOs

B. believes that UFOs are real objects flying in the sky

C. is not sure whether there are UFOs or not

D. thinks UFOs come from other planets⁷

Key: 1. A 2. C 3. C 4. D 5. C