第六部分 完形填空  

第四篇

Where Have All Our Visitors Gone?

Sixty years ago, a man named Kenneth Arnold saw something that people are still　　　1 　　today -something that changed popular culture for ever.

Flying his plane over mountains in the US state of Washington, he saw a line of strange objects, either crescent -shaped or disc-like, flying　　2　　 the motion of a saucer skimming on water.

The media soon picked up on the story - the Flying Saucers were here1! Was the earth　being    3_    by creatures from another planet? Soon, so many sightings were made that　the US military began to     4　　It called these strange objects UFO2s – Unidentified　Flying Objects, and that is how they are 5 today.

Military investigations¹ found no evidence of visitors from outer space. But that did not stop　the true　　6　　　 The military were　7　　up, they said. Or __ 8　it　was because the travelers from space were of such superior intelligence that they could hide　from the most sophisticated military analysts².

People have always seen strange lights in the sky. In the past these were explained in　　9　　 ways. In a world where religion was less influential³ and science fiction was　popular, signs from god were replaced by visitors from other __　 10　　.

The date of the first UFO signings was also significant. In 1947, World War II had just　ended and the     11　　 war was just beginning. Humanity seemed locked in endless　conflicts. Like generations before them, people looked     12　 the skies for help. But instead of seeking God, they looked for help from super-intelligent aliens with __ 13　　technology. Belief in UFOs became the first religion of science.

However, even people who believe in UFOs are not quite sure why they visit the earth. The　universe is a big place and it is __ 14__ to assume that there is life somewhere out there.　It is possible that aliens have worked out how to travel through space. Yet some people report　that they have been taken by aliens and have had experiments __ 15　　 on them. Why　would anyone travel across half the universe to conduct medical experiments on people living in small towns in the United States?

词汇：

crescent n. 月牙，月牙形物

saucer n. 碟

skim v. 飞速掠过

alien n.外星人

注释：

1.         The media soon picked up on the story - the Flying Saucers were here! 媒体很快就炮制出了这个故事——飞碟在这里呢！pick up on 是个短语，在此处可以理解为：又回到Kenneth Arnold看到的这个飞行物并对它做进一步的描写。也就是说，可以把这个短语理解为“炮制”或“编造”。

2.         UFO：不明飞行物