The Bermuda Triangle

 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

myth	torpedo	mysterious
avenge	routine	disappear
robust	reliable	ordinance
doom	echo (2)	vanish into thin air
rescue	massive	disappear
sustain	theory	wreckage
mile	strange	square miles
legend	distress	Key West
vanish	monster	time warp
ray	anomaly	swallow

 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

The myth of the Bermuda Triangle began on the 5th of December 1945, when a group of five aircraft mysteriously disappeared.

Flight 19 was a routine training mission of five avenger torpedo bombers.

The three-seater avenger was the US Navy’s top ship and submarine killer. It could carry up to 2,000 pounds of ordinance and had a range of 1,000 miles.

The Avenger was robust and reliable.

The doomed Flight 19 left Fort Lauderdale at ten past two on a clear, winter’s afternoon.

Four hours after they took off, they vanished into thin air.

Fearing the worst, a naval search rescue plane took off into the darkening skies.

Twenty minutes later at 7:47 pm, the rescue plane also disappeared.

After a massive search, no wreckage was found. And nothing was every heard from them again. Until now.

Over the last sixty years, this mystery has sustained the wildest theories about what strange forces could be at work out here.

Legend has it that the Triangle covers the seas between Miami, the island of Bermuda and Puerto Rico, and area of one-and-a-half million square miles.

Since 1492, when Columbus first sailed into the area and saw strange lights in the sky, the list of unexplainable disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle has grown.

Thousands of ships and planes have simply vanished.

No warning, no distress calls, no wreckage.

Richard Wiener has written many best-selling books about these strange disappearances.

Richard Wiener: “We don’t know our own planet. We know more about the moon. We’re probably learning more about Mars than we know about our own planet. We know about the earth…we don’t know about the sea.”

The boat yards of Key West hum about those who were lost in the Triangle.

Stories of giant sea monsters, cosmic time warps, spinning compasses and holes in the ocean that swallowed ships have echoed throughout the world.

Yet the disappearances continue.

Richard Wiener: “I would say there’s some kind of anomaly going on down there that we can’t explain. Something that goes on far, far below the deepest rays, the last rays of sunlight, way down. There’s something going on down there.”

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

   Questions

1. The Bermuda Triangle became very famous in 1945. Is this correct or incorrect? What happened?

2. Were the Avenger Airplanes light and weak, or heavy and strong?

3. What are the points of the Bermuda Triangle?

4. Strange occurrences and mysterious happenings began in 1945. Is this right or wrong?

5. Are there many clues when a ship or airplane disappears?

6. According to Richard Wiener, which do we know more about, the moon or the bottom of the ocean?

7. What are some explanations of the disappearances of ships, planes and people?
 
 
A. I have flown over or sailed through the Bermuda Triangle. Yes or no? Would you like to fly over or sail through the Bermuda Triangle?

B. What are some possible explanations of the Bermuda Triangle?

C. Have journalists, writers, film makers, tour operators exploited or sensationalized the Bermuda Triangle?

D. Are there mysterious places in your country?

E. Do you know of other mysteries?

F. What might happened in the future?