英語趣味課堂：不明飛行物-UFO

Todd: So Jonathan, I thought we would talk about UFOs.

Jonathan: Sure.

Todd: So do you believe in UFOs?

Jonathan: I think that the chance that there is intelligent life in the universe is overwhelmingly likely. But I don't think they're constantly visiting the earth to visit people in rural areas and do experiments on them.

Todd: Right. Stopping by. OK, so let's talk about somethings that people associate with UFOs? First is crop circles.

Jonathan: Crop circles. I think that's a hoax, and it's been proven to be so. There were some students in England who I think reproduced some crop circles, and I think that would be a shame if aliens travelled from distant galaxies just to mess around with your fields.

Todd: Right, like we go to somebody else's planet and we just rummage through their trash.

Jonathan: Just like we're gonna travel light years away just to mess with people's heads by putting a pattern in their wheat.

Todd: Right. Well, what about the ones in South America? I guess it's not a crop, but the lines in the desert.

Jonathan: Yes, there's the Nazca lines in Peru. I've actually been there. I took like a very small plane, like a Cesna to view some of those, and some people have postulated that they may be some sort of ancient runways or something like that, but I'm sure there must be another explanation that's more logical. Unfortunately, there aren't any thousand year old Incas around to tell us what they were.

Todd: Right, I think the thing that's amazing about those is they cover such a large area and they're so geometrically perfect so it seems pretty impossible to do.

Jonathan: Well, one thing I noticed when I was flying in the little plane, there are quite a few hills in the area which are reasonably high. People have said it would be impossible to direct the perfection of these things on the ground, but I think from one of this high vantage points, it would in fact be possible to direct some of these symbols to be carved into the stone.

重點詞匯：

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson

overwhelm

Intelligent life in the universe is overwhelmingly likely.

When something is overwhelmed that means it is affected by something in great numbers. Notice the following:

The hospital was overwhelmed with injured people after the earthquake.

The students were overwhelmed with information on the first day of class.

associate with

People often associate aliens with UFOs.

When you associate something, you connect it with something else. For example, people often associate fast food with American cuisine. Notice the following:

People often associate the military with rough, tough soldiers.

People tend to associate good grades with intelligence rather than hardwork.

rummage through

We rummage through their trash.

When you rummage through something, you look through it in search of something valuable. Notice the following:

We rummage through the trash for the missing keys.

The police rummage through the dumpster for evidence.

postulate

People have postulated it might be some sort of runway.

To postulate something means to suggest a reason for something even though there are no facts to support it. Notice the following:

Some academics postulate that Native Americans came by land and sea.

Many scientists postulate that Mars once had supported life much like Earth does today.

vantage point

A vantage point is a high place that offers someone a good view of something.

That hill is a good vantage point to take a nice a picture of the town.

From his vantage point, Tom had a good view of the parade.