Passage 2

Peter: Hey Louise, look at this book about crop circles – some of the photos are absolutely unbelievable.

Louise: You don't believe in all that stuff, do you Peter?

Peter: I'm not saying I believe in UFOs and things, but some of the formations are fascinating. They're made up of lots of interconnected circles and geometrical shapes. 

You know, in the past few years, there have been more reports of them. The circles are getting larger and the designs are getting more intricate ... I'm sure that they can't all be man-made. Think about it – they're so complicated, and they appear at night in the middle of fields of wheat, barley or corn. It's definitely pretty weird!

Louise: I know, but I saw a TV documentary about it, and they showed how a group of hoaxers made an elaborate crop circle in a field at night using wooden planks, ropes, plastic tubes and a garden roller. They even fooled some of the people who believe in the paranormal – aliens coming down in UFOs and creating them, and so on.

Peter: I'm sure lots of them are created by people just to get publicity but look here – it says, "The first records of crop circles go back as far as the 17th century. Since the 1970s there have been over 12,000 reports from countries all around the world including Italy, America, South Africa, Australia and Brazil." Most reports are from here in England though.

Louise: But surely that's just because they get so much media coverage these days, so more people are making them.

Peter: Perhaps, but how do you explain the fact that the actual chemical composition of the grains of crops inside the circles changes? Scientific tests have found they have a higher protein level. The stems of the grains have often been exposed to high temperatures. And they found that the soil within the circles contains more iron than the soil outside. So far, the hoaxers haven't been able to copy all these features.

Louise: Well, I'm not a scientist but I'm pretty sceptical about all these so-called paranormal explanations. I remember in the programme I watched, the researchers found signs of human interference, such as holes in the earth and footprints!

Peter: Come on ... you must admit, that still leaves a lot which is unexplained!

Louise: There's lots of things that are hard to explain but this really ...

Answers

7   The statements said by Peter are 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8.

  The statements said by Louise are 3, 5 and 7.

8   1 (b)  2 (b)  3 (d)  4 (a)  5 (c)  6 (b)