Assignment 1

Name: Besma
Student ID: F2024001011
Course Title: English 1
Section: C-97
Date: Nov, 12 2024
Submitted to: Ma’am Shaama

Task 1:

The History of UFOs.

Unidentified Flying Object (or “UFO”) is a term commonly used to describe

lights or shapes in the sky. It was first coined by the United States Air Force
in 1952 to describe sightings of mysterious objects in the sky that could not
be explained even after careful investigation. Nowadays UFOs are spotted
frequently, and feature in numerous movies and TV shows. Another popular
name for such an object is, “Flying Saucer,” in reference to the round shape
of many UFOs.

The first widely publicized UFO sighting was in 1947, by a pilot called
Kenneth Arnold. Following this event, public sightings of UFOs increased
dramatically. Movies and TV shows began featuring visitors from outer
space, arriving on earth in flying saucers. With the popularity of these
images, many people claimed to have seen lights in the sky. Some experts
believe that people simply think they see UFOs because of the influence of
TV and movies.

However, experts estimate that as little as 5% of these sightings could be

called “unidentified.” Usually these lights are made by aircraft, satellites, or
weather balloons. Top secret air force activities during the Cold War may
have been responsible for many of the UFO sightings in America and
Europe. Although not actually aliens, the secretive nature of these flying
objects is definitely unidentified.

Another popular idea concerning UFOs concerns the role of world

governments. Specifically, people believe that the US government has
discovered alien life and operates a “cover-up” to hide the truth from the
public. The most widely believed cover-up is that of the Roswell Incident. In
July, 1947, a UFO supposedly landed in Roswell, New Mexico, and was
examined and hidden by government agents. There have been many
investigations into the Roswell Incident, however, these reports always
claim that no such event occurred.

1st Reading (Skimming)

Read through the article and answer each of the following questions.

1. What is the purpose of this report?

a) To describe the history of alien life.

b) To describe government cover-ups.

c) To describe the history of UFO sightings.

d) To describe UFOs in popular movies.

2. Why are UFO sightings so controversial?

a) They have never been proved.

b) There are many sightings.

c) The government covers up sightings.

d) There are very few UFO sightings.

2nd Reading (Scanning)

Read the text carefully and answer each of the following questions in
the form of a sentence or a short paragraph.

1.Why is Kenneth Arnold famous among UFO believers?

a) He was at Roswell in 1947.

b) He found a UFO in 1952.

c) He saw a UFO in 1947.

d) He saw a UFO in 1952.

2.How do experts explain many UFO sightings?

a) There are many alien visitors to earth.

b) TV and movies make people believe they see UFOs.

c) Government cover-ups make people paranoid.

d) They have no idea why there are so many sightings.

3.What do many people believe happened at Roswell?

a) Famous movies were made.
b) Kenneth Arnold was born.

c) The first UFO sighting.

d) A UFO landed there.

4.Circle the best answer for each question about the reading passage

Which of the following is true?

a) The first UFO was spotted in 1952.

b) The word “UFO” was first used in 1952.

c) The Roswell Incident occurred in 1952.

d) A UFO landed in America in 1952.

5.What influence did the Cold War have upon UFO sightings?
a) American pilots saw a UFO in the Cold War.

b) More UFO movies were made in the Cold War.

c) Lots of government cover-ups occurred.

d) Top secret air force activities caused more sightings.

State whether the following statements about the reading are true (T)
or false (F) according to the information in the passage.

6. Kenneth Arnold saw the first UFO. T

7. The Roswell Incident occurred in 1952. F
8. Experts say many normal things account for UFO sightings. T
9. Flying saucers are square-shaped. F

TASK2

PASSAGE1

Read the following text and draw a table of its structure.

VISUAL AND AUDITORY SPACE

The amount of information gathered by the eyes as contrasted with the ears
has not been precisely calculated. Such a calculation not only involves a
translation process, but scientists have been handicapped by lack of
knowledge of what to count. A general notion, however, of the relative
complexities of the two systems can be obtained by comparing the size of the
nerves connecting the eyes and the ears to the centres of the brain. Since the
optic nerve contains roughly eighteen times as many neurons as the cochlear
nerve, we assume it transmits at least that much more information. Actually,
in normally alert subjects, it is probable that the eyes may be as much as a
thousand times as effective as the ears in sweeping up information. The area
that the unaided ear can effectively cover in the course of daily living is quite
limited. Up to twenty feet the ear is very efficient. At about one hundred feet,
one-way vocal communication is possible, at somewhat slower rate than at
conversational distances, while two-way conversation is very considerably
altered. Beyond this distance, the auditory cues with which man works begin
to break down rapidly. The unaided eye, on the other hand, sweeps up an
extraordinary amount of information within a hundred-yard radius and is still
quite efficient for human interaction at a mile. The impulses that activate the
ear and the eye differ in speed as well as in quality. At temperatures of 0°C.
(32°F.) at sea level, sound waves travel 1100 feet a second and can be heard at
frequencies of 50 to 15,000 cycles per second. Light rays travel 186,000 miles
a second and are visible at frequencies of 10,000,000,000,000,000 cycles per
second.
The type and complexity of the instruments used to extend the eye and the ear
indicate the amount of information handled by the two systems. Radio is
much simpler to build and was developed long before television. Even today,
with our refined techniques for extending man's senses, there is a great
difference in the quality of the reproductions of sound and vision. It is
possible to produce a level of audio fidelity that exceeds the ability of the ear
to detect distortion, whereas the visual image is little more than a moving
reminder system that has to be translated before it can be interpreted by the
brain.
Not only is there a great difference in the amount and type of information that
the two receptor systems can process, but also in the amount of space that can
be probed effectively by these two systems. A sound barrier at a distance of a
quarter of a mile is hardly detectable. This would not be true of a high wall or
screen that shuts out a view. Visual space, therefore, has an entirely different
character than auditory space. Visual information tends to be less ambiguous
and more focused than auditory information. A major exception is the hearing
of a blind person who learns to selectively attend the higher audio frequencies
which enable him to locate objects in a room.
Bats, of course, live in a world of focused sound which they produce like
radar, enabling them to locate objects as small as a mosquito. Dolphins, too,
use very high-frequency sound rather than sight to navigate and locate food. It
should be noted that sound travels four times as fast in water as it does in air.
What is not known technically is the effect of incongruity between visual and
auditory space. Are sighted people more likely to stumble over chairs in
reverberating rooms, for example? Is it easier to listen to someone else if his
voice is coming from one readily located spot instead of from several
loudspeakers as is characteristic of our P.A. systems? There is some data,
however, on auditory space as a factor in performance. A study by J. W.
Black, a phonetician, demonstrated that the size and reverberation time of a
room affects reading rates. People read more slowly in larger rooms where the
reverberation time is slower than they do in smaller rooms. One of my own
interview subjects, a gifted English architect, perspicaciously improved the
performance of a malfunctioning committee by bringing in line the auditory
and visual worlds of the conference chamber. There had been so many
complaints about the inadequacy of the chairman that a replacement was
about to be requested. The architect had reason to believe that there was more
in the environment than in the chairman to explain the difficulties. Without
telling his subjects what he was doing, the architect managed to retain the
chairman while he corrected environmental faults. The meeting room was
next to a busy street whose traffic noises were intensified by reverberations
from the hard walls and rugless floors inside. When reduction of the auditory
interference made it possible to conduct a meeting without undue strain,
complaints about the chairman ceased.
It should be noted here by way of explanation that the capacity of the "public
school" upper-class English to direct and modulate the voice is far greater
than that of Americans. The annoyance the English experience when acoustic
interference makes it difficult to direct the voice is very great indeed. One
sees the sensitivity of the English to acoustic space in Sir Basil Spence's
successful recreation of the atmosphere of the original Coventry cathedral
(destroyed during the war) while using a new and visually daring design. Sir
Basil felt that a cathedral should not only look like a cathedral but should
sound like one as well. Choosing the cathedral at Durham as a model, he
tested literally hundreds of samples of plaster until he found one that had all
the desired acoustic qualities.
Space perception is not only a matter of what can be perceived but what can
be screened out. People brought up in different cultures learn as children,
without ever knowing that they have done so, to screen out one type of
information while paying close attention to another. Once set, these perceptual
patterns apparently remain quite stable throughout life. The Japanese, for
example, screen visually in a variety of ways but are perfectly content with
paper walls as acoustic screens. Spending the night at a Japanese inn while a
party is going on next door is a new sensory experience for the Westerner. In
contrast, the Germans and the Dutch depend on thick walls and double doors
to screen sound, and have difficulty if they must rely on their own powers of
concentration to screen out sound. If two rooms are the same size and one
screens out sound but the other one doesn't, the sensitive German who is
trying to concentrate will feel less crowded in the former because he feels less
intruded on.
PASSAGE2

Read the following text and draw a table of its structure..

The history of life on earth.

The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living
things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the
habits of the earth's vegetation and its animal life have been moulded by the
environment. Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect,
in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight.
Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one
species - man - acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.

During the past quarter-century this power has not only increased to one of
disturbing magnitude but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all
man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers,
and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the
most part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world that
must support life but in living tissues is for the most part irreversible. In this
now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister
and little-recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the
world - the very nature of its life. Strontium 90, released through nuclear
explosions into the air, comes to earth in rain or drifts down as fallout, lodges
in soil, enters into the grass or corn or wheat grown there, and in time takes up
its abode in the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death.
Similarly, chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in
soil, entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of
poisoning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams until
they emerge and, through the alchemy of air and sunlight, combine into new
forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those
who drink from once-pure wells. As Albert Schweitzer has said, 'Man can
hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.'
It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the
earth - aeons of time in which that developing and evolving and diversifying
life reached a state of adjustment and balance with its surroundings. The
environment, rigorously shaping and directing the life it supported, contained
elements that were hostile as well as supporting. Certain rocks gave out
dangerous radiation; even within the light of the sun, from which all life
draws its energy, there were short-wave radiations with power to injure. Given
time - time not in years but in millennia - life adjusts, and a balance has been
reached. For time is the essential ingredient; but in the modern world there is
no time.
The rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created
follow the impetuous and heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace
of nature. Radiation is no longer merely the background radiation of rocks,
the born-bardment of cosmic rays, the ultra-violet of the sun that have existed
before there was any life on earth ; radiation is now the unnatural creation of
man's tampering with the atom. The chemicals to which life is asked to make
its adjustment are no longer merely the calcium and silica and copper and all
the rest of the minerals washed out of the rocks and carried in rivers to the sea
; they are the symthetic creations of man's inventive mind, brewed in his
laboratories, and having no counterparts in nature.
To adjust to these chemicals would require time on the scale that is nature's; it
would require not merely the years of a man's life but the life of generations.
And even this, were it by some miracle possible, would be futile, for the new
chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream; almost five
hundred annually find their way into actual use in the United States alone.
The figure is staggering and its implications are not easily grasped - five
hundred new chemicals to which the bodies of men and animals are required
somehow to adapt each year, chemicals totally outside the limits of biologic
experience.
Among them are many that are used in man's war against nature. Since the
mid-1940s over two hundred basic chemicals have been created for use in
killing insects, weeds, rodents, and other organisms described in the modern
vernacular as 'pests'; and they are sold under several thousand different brand
names.
These sprays, dusts, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms,
gardens, forests, and homes - non-selective chemicals that have the power to
kill every insect, the 'good' and the 'bad', to still the song of birds and the
leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film, and to
linger on in soil - all this though the intended target may be only a few weeds
or insects. Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of
poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They
should not be called 'insecticides', but 'biocides'.
The whole process of spraying seems caught up in an endless spiral. Since
DDT was released for civilian use, a process of escalation has been going on
in which ever more toxic materials must be found. This has happened because
insects, in a triumphant vindication of Darwin's principle of the survival of the
fittest, have evolved super races immune to the particular insecticide used,
hence a deadlier one has always to be developed - and then a deadlier one
than that. It has happened also because, for reasons to be described later,
destructive insects often undergo a 'flareback', or resurgence, after spraying,
in numbers greater than before. Thus the chemical war is never won, and all
life is caught in its violent crossfire.
Along with the possibility of the extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the
central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man's
total environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm
substances that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even
penetrate the germ cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon
which the shape of the future depends.
Some would-be architects of our future look towards a time when it will be
possible to alter the human germ plasm by design. But we may easily be
doing so now by inadvertence, for many chemicals, like radiation, bring about
gene mutations. It is ironic to think that man might determine his own future
by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray. All this has
been risked - for what? Future historians may well be amazed by our distorted
sense of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few
unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environment and
brought the threat of disease and death even to their own kind? Yet this is
precisely what we have done. We have done it, moreover, for reasons that
collapse the moment we examine them. We are told that the enormous and
expanding use of pesticides is necessary to maintain farm production. Yet is
our real problem not one of over-production? Our farms, despite measures to
remove acreages from production and to pay farmers not to produce, have
yielded such a staggering excess of crops that the American taxpayer in 1962
is paying out more than one billion dollars a year as the total carrying cost of
the surplus-food storage programme. And is the situation helped when one
branch of the Agriculture Department tries to reduce production while another
states, as it did in 1958, 'It is believed generally that reduction of crop
acreages under provisions of the Soil Bank will stimulate interest in use of
chemicals to obtain maximum production on the land retained in crops.' All
this is not to say there is no insect problem and no need of control. I am
saying, rather, that control must be geared to realities, not to mythical
situations, and that the methods employed must be such that they do not
destroy us along with the insects.
Structured Table for Passage 1:

Section Content Summary Paragrap

h
Starts by comparing how much
information our eyes and ears
Introduction gather. It’s challenging to 1
calculate the exact amount since
we don’t fully know what to
measure, but researchers have
tried to approximate it.
The eyes send much more data
to the brain than the ears,
Information shown by comparing the sizes
Flow: Eyes of the optic and cochlear 2
vs. Ears nerves. The optic nerve has
about 18 times more neurons,
suggesting that vision provides
significantly more information.
The ears work best up to 20 feet
and can carry vocal sounds up
to 100 feet, although two-way
Range of conversation is limited at that 3
Each Sense range. The eyes, however,
 gather lots of details within 100
yards and still work well even
up to a mile away.
Sound and light travel at very
Speed and different speeds and
Frequencies frequencies. Sound moves at 4
about 1,100 feet per second,
while light is much faster at
186,000 miles per second. Their
frequency ranges also differ
widely.
Audio equipment is simpler to
build than visual tech. Radio
came before TV, and audio
Technology quality can now exceed what 5
for Vision our ears can detect. Visual
and Sound technology is more complex
and doesn’t reach the same
level of fidelity for the brain to
process.
Visual information is generally
clearer and more specific than
Space auditory information. For
Perception: instance, blind individuals 6
Vision vs. develop skills to perceive
Hearing objects through sound by
focusing on certain high
frequencies.
Bats and dolphins rely on sound
Animals instead of sight, using high-
with Sound frequency noises to navigate 7
Perception and find food. Sound travels
faster in water, giving dolphins
an advantage underwater.
Mismatch Discusses possible challenges
Between when visual and auditory cues
Visual and don’t align, like having trouble 8
Auditory locating sounds in echoing
Cues spaces or hearing a voice from
multiple speakers.
J.W. Black’s study shows that
room size and echo time can
Auditory impact reading speed. People 9
Space and read slower in large rooms with
Reading long reverberation times
compared to smaller, less echo-
filled spaces.
An English architect improved
a committee’s performance by
adjusting the room’s noise
Architectura levels, reducing distractions, 10
l Case Study and aligning the auditory
environment with the visual
setup, leading to fewer
complaints about the chairman.
English people, especially those
trained in public speaking, are
English sensitive to acoustics. Architect
Sensitivity Sir Basil Spence chose special 11
to Sound materials for Coventry
Cathedral to recreate the
original’s acoustics while also
 incorporating new designs.
Different cultures handle sound
Cultural and visual privacy in unique
Differences ways. Japanese use visual 12
in Space Use screens like paper walls, while
Germans and Dutch prefer thick
walls for soundproofing. This
influences their comfort levels
in different settings.

Structured Table for Passage 2:

Section Content Paragrap

Summary h
Describes how life’s evolution
on earth has always been
Introduction shaped by its surroundings, 1
to Life’s but more recently, humans
Evolution have gained the ability to
change these surroundings on
a large scale.
Highlights how, in the last 25
years, humanity’s power over
Human the environment has grown
Influence on immensely, leading to severe 2
Environment contamination of air, water,
and soil. Chemical pollution is
now a significant and often
irreversible issue.
Discusses how chemicals and
radiation are transforming the
The Role of world in harmful ways, 3
Toxic including nuclear fallout like
Chemicals Strontium-90, which enters
food chains and accumulates
in human bones.
Points out that life on earth
has taken millions of years to
Environmenta achieve balance, adapting to
l Balance natural challenges. However, 4
Over today’s rapid changes and
Millennia artificial toxins disrupt this
balance without giving time
for natural adaptation.
Describes how natural
Modern background radiation has been
Radiation and compounded by man-made 5
Chemical radiation, and how synthetic
Exposure chemicals, unfamiliar to
nature, pose new adaptation
challenges.
Explains that while nature
could adapt to natural
Time and elements over millennia,
Adaptation humans release hundreds of 6
Limitations new chemicals every year,
 forcing life to adapt at an
unnatural pace, with potential
negative consequences.
Since the 1940s, synthetic
Chemical chemicals have been
Warfare developed to combat pests. 7
Against These pesticides are applied
‘Pests’ widely, killing not only
targeted pests but also
beneficial insects, plants, and
animals, impacting entire
ecosystems.
As pests evolve resistance to
pesticides, increasingly toxic
Pesticide chemicals are created, leading
Evolution and to a cycle where even stronger 8
Resistance poisons are needed, harming
the environment in the
process.
Reflects on the irony of a
never-ending chemical war
The Unending against nature, where the
Chemical collateral damage impacts all 9
Battle forms of life, raising questions
about the wisdom of these
actions.
Emphasizes the dangers of
Long-Term pollutants that accumulate in
Environmenta plants, animals, and human
l Risks tissues, potentially altering 10
genes and affecting future
 generations.
Warns that human-made
chemicals might inadvertently
Genetic cause genetic mutations,
Impacts and which could reshape 11
Future Risks humanity’s future in
unintended ways, sparking a
moral question about the true
cost of using such substances.
Examines the paradox of
using massive amounts of
pesticides to control pests and
Contradictions maintain farm yields, despite 12
in Pesticide a surplus that costs taxpayers
Usage billions to store. Criticizes
policies that encourage
pesticide use despite
overproduction.
Concludes that while pest
control is necessary, it should
Need for be based on real needs and
Sustainable sustainable methods rather 13
Pest Control than harming the environment
and humanity along with the
pests.