UFOs the Case for and Against Answer question 1 and question 2 OR 3. 1. The article presents both sides of the argument for and against UFO's. Which side do you think is more convincing? Why? 2. Interview three people to determine if they believe spaceships have visited Earth. What reasons do they have for their views? Or 3. You are driving late one night in the countryside. Suddenly, you see a strange object hovering above the highway just ahead of your car. Tell what happens. UFO’s: The Case For and Against IRA PECK THE NIGHT WAS perfectly clear and calm, and the stars bright. Captain Lawrence J. Coyne and his crew of three were cruising in an Army helicopter toward Cleveland, Ohio. The date was October 18, 1973. At about 11 p.m., Sgt. Robert Yanacsek noticed a red light to the east. The light kept getting larger and brighter, and Yanacsek warned that it was heading straight toward the helicopter. Coyne estimated that it was traveling nearly 700 miles an hour. To avoid a collision, Coyne started to descend rapidly. The red light, however, kept coming right at the "chopper." Coyne thought, "It's going to ram us. This is it!"  Suddenly the light stopped just above and in front of the helicopter. Coyne and his crew now saw a "big, gray, metallic-looking" object. It was about 60 feet long, and shaped like a cigar. It had a red light on the front and a center dome. At the rear was a green light that moved like a spotlight. For a few seconds, the green light was turned on the helicopter. Then the object sped off to the west, with only a white "tail" light visible. It soon disappeared over the horizon. Coyne set his controls for a gradual descent. To his amazement, the helicopter's instruments indicated that it was actually climbing 1,000 feet a minute. It seemed that either the metallic object had affected the helicopter's instruments or that it had pulled the helicopter upward against the force of gravity! Eventually the "chopper" began to act normally again, and the rest of the flight was uneventful. Coyne reported the incident, and insisted that he and his crew were telling the truth. He was backed up by a family that was driving through the area that night in a car. The family said they had seen the helicopter, the hovering metallic object, and the mysterious green light. Investigators could find no natural explanation for the occurrence. The object could not have been a meteor or a conventional aircraft. To this day, the "thing" that Captain Coyne encountered is classified as a UFO-an unidentified flying object. The modern age of UFO's began in June, 1947. Kenneth Arnold, a businessman and part-time pilot, was flying near Mt. Rainier, Washington. Suddenly, he saw nine discs racing across the sky at a terrific speed. Each disc, he said, "flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across water." Newspaper writers called them "flying saucers," and the name caught on. By the end of the year, more than 800 people reported seeing "fl ...

1. UFOs the Case for and Against
Answer question 1 and question 2 OR 3.
1. The article presents both sides of the argument for and
against UFO's. Which side do you think is more convincing?
Why?
2. Interview three people to determine if they believe
spaceships have visited Earth. What reasons do they have for
their views?
Or 3. You are driving late one night in the countryside.
Suddenly, you see a strange object hovering above the highway
just ahead of your car. Tell what happens.
UFO’s: The Case For and Against
IRA PECK
THE NIGHT WAS perfectly clear and calm, and the stars
bright. Captain Lawrence J. Coyne and his crew of three were
cruising in an Army helicopter toward Cleveland, Ohio. The
date was October 18, 1973. At about 11 p.m., Sgt. Robert
Yanacsek noticed a red light to the east. The light kept getting
larger and brighter, and Yanacsek warned that it was heading
straight toward the helicopter. Coyne estimated that it was
traveling nearly 700 miles an hour.
To avoid a collision, Coyne started to descend rapidly. The red
light, however, kept coming right at the "chopper." Coyne
thought, "It's going to ram us. This is it!"
Suddenly the light stopped just above and in front of the

2. helicopter. Coyne and his crew now saw a "big, gray, metallic-
looking" object. It was about 60 feet long, and shaped like a
cigar. It had a red light on the front and a center dome. At the
rear was a green light that moved like a spotlight. For a few
seconds, the green light was turned on the helicopter. Then the
object sped off to the west, with only a white "tail" light
visible. It soon disappeared over the horizon.
Coyne set his controls for a gradual descent. To his amazement,
the helicopter's instruments indicated that it was actually
climbing 1,000 feet a minute. It seemed that either the metallic
object had affected the helicopter's instruments or that it had
pulled the helicopter upward against the force of gravity!
Eventually the "chopper" began to act normally again, and the
rest of the flight was uneventful.
Coyne reported the incident, and insisted that he and his crew
were telling the truth. He was backed up by a family that was
driving through the area that night in a car. The family said they
had seen the helicopter, the hovering metallic object, and the
mysterious green light.
Investigators could find no natural explanation for the
occurrence. The object could not have been a meteor or a
conventional aircraft. To this day, the "thing" that Captain
Coyne encountered is classified as a UFO-an unidentified flying
object.
The modern age of UFO's began in June, 1947. Kenneth Arnold,
a businessman and part-time pilot, was flying near Mt. Rainier,
Washington. Suddenly, he saw nine discs racing across the sky
at a terrific speed. Each disc, he said, "flew like a saucer would
if you skipped it across water." Newspaper writers called them
"flying saucers," and the name caught on. By the end of the
year, more than 800 people reported seeing "flying saucers."

3. The Air Force, which is responsible for the safety of our skies,
began to investigate some of these reports. For "flying saucers,"
it substituted the term "unidentified flying objects" (UFO's). By
definition, a UFO is simply a mysterious object that is seen in
the sky. There is no immediate explanation for it.
Since 1947, UFO's have been observed by people on every
continent. They are usually seen at night and in rural areas.
According to a recent poll, about 13 million adult Americans
believe they have seen a UFO. And almost half of them think
that UFO's come from another planet. More and more, the term
UFO has come to mean a spaceship guided by intelligent beings.
The Air Force and private groups have investigated thousands
of reports of UFO sightings. They agree that almost all of these
sightings can be explained naturally. Reports of UFO's actually
turn out to be one of the following:
Meteors, airplanes, stars and planets (especially the planet
Venus), weather balloons, space satellites, missiles and rockets,
unusual cloud formations, flights of birds, swamp gas, mirages,
and hoaxes.
A typical example of a UFO report took place in Aurora,
Illinois, on the night of April 29, 1978. Between 10:30 p.m. and
midnight, the police of this Chicago suburb received calls from
10 people who claimed they saw a UFO. All the witnesses
described a round saucer, with lights rotating around its
perimeter.
An investigator from the Center for UFO Studies was sent to
look into the reports. From past experience, he suspected that
the UFO was really an advertising plane. Such a plane carries
rows of lights that blink on and off, spelling out a message.
When a person sees the lights from certain angles, the message
cannot be read. Only rows of flashing lights appear. Then the

4. witness reports seeing a "rotating saucer."
The investigator called a Chicago advertising agency. The
agency said it had sent up an advertising plane on the night of
April 29. And the plane had been in the area of Aurora at the
time of the sightings. The UFO then became an IFO-an
identified flying object.
ARE UFO's SPACESHIPS?
YES...?
People who believe that UFO's are spaceships from other
planets give the following reasons:
- There are billions of stars· in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Some of them must have planetary systems that can support life.
If we on planet Earth could send a spacecraft to the moon, then,
these people argue, why can't "they" (the extraterrestrials) come
here?
- Even if most UFO reports are explained naturally, a few of
them are still not explained. Some of the unexplained UFO's
"must" be visitors from another world, these people say.
OR NO?
People who believe that all UFO's have a natural explanation
give these reasons:
- If a spaceship from another planet in our galaxy arrived near
Earth, it would have traveled a very great distance. It would
probably have taken about 10,000 or more years to reach us.
Why, then, if such creatures really have traveled all that time
and distance to reach Earth, have they made no effort to
communicate with the scientific and political leaders on Earth?

5. - So far, no physical evidence has ever been produced to prove
that spaceships from other worlds have ever visited Earth. (In
fact, we have no solid evidence that other worldly spaceships
even exist.) No UFO has ever been examined by scientists.
Are UFO's visitors from another world? Or are they simply
normal events that the viewer may not understand?
What do you think? How would you go about trying to find out
if you are right?
Why do you think most astronomers believe that even if there is
intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, the odds are that such
creatures haven't tried to visit us in person?
"UFO's: The Case For and Against" by Ira Peck from SCIENCE
WORLD, March 18, 1983. Copyright © 1983 by Scholastic Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Scholastic Inc.