1 The words below appear in the text in Exercise 2. Find the words and guess their meanings. Use a dictionary to check your guesses. 1.vaguely ……………………
3. ancestors ……………………
2.consequently ……………………
2 Read the text and answer the questions. Ahead of Their Time We have all got five senses, but some people claim to have six. This additional sense,
commonly called
the sixth sense , is an ability to predict the future. Most scientists are
sceptical about these claims, however, Dr Larry Dossey, a medical doctor, believes them.
He has written a book about amazing premonitions.
In his book, he describes some examples of premonitions of the terrorist atrocities of 11th
September. At the beginning of September 2001, a woman from North Carolina in the USA
dreamt about falling into darkness. She could hear a man’s voice repeating the number 2,830.
She also vaguely heard the voice say a name. “It sounded like Rooks or Horooks,” she told
her husband. Consequently, she cancelled the family’s flight to Disneyland for 11th Septem-
ber.
On 11th September, when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York,
a third plane into the Pentagon in Washington and another plane into a field near Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, the woman’s dream seemed frighteningly real. On that day, the number of
deaths reported was 2,830 and the name of a pilot on the plane which crashed into the South
Tower was Michael Horrocks.
Another woman was on holiday in Washington two weeks before the attack. She had a
vision of the Pentagon with lots of smoke coming from it. While these dreams were not
specific enough for the women to do anything to prevent the disaster, they do seem to be
fairly accurate predictions.
Dr Dossey claims that many of us have the ability to sense things that are going to happen. In
the 1950s, one research study showed that trains in accidents often had fewer passengers than
they would normally have had. Moreover, the flights in the 2001 attacks were on average
only 21% full. Normally these flights were much busier. Dr Dossey believes that people
sometimes get a bad feeling before a disaster and that this is the reason why the flights were
so empty.
Dr Dossey says that this special sense comes from human evolution. Our ancestors needed it
to survive. Obviously, it is difficult to prove that a sixth sense exists, but it might explain
some unusual dreams.
1.What does Dr Dossey disagree with most other scientists about?
. . ................................................................................................................................................
2.What was the significance of the number 2,830?
. . ................................................................................................................................................
3.How many planes were involved in the 11th September attacks?
. . ................................................................................................................................................
4.Who was Michael Horrocks?
. . ................................................................................................................................................
5.What is the problem for scientists studying the sixth sense?
. . ................................................................................................................................................