Martians and more

　　Everyone is listening to the radio. Each newsflash is more terrible. Aliens have invaded Earth!

　　Would you believe a radio report that Martians had landed on Earth? Thousands of people did. Some hoaxers use the radio, the newspaper or photographs to make their hoaxes seem real.

　　火星人和……

　　每个人都在听收音机，插播的新闻一个比一个更令人感到恐惧。外星人入侵地球了！

　　你会相信收音机里报道的火星人已登陆地球的消息吗？成千的人们对此坚信不疑。骗子们利用收音机、报纸或是照片等一切手段使他们的江湖骗术看起来更真实。

　　newsflash: an interruption that is made to a radio or television program to announce an important piece of news. 插播新闻

　　aliens: creatures from outer space. 外星(异域)人

　　The Day of the Martians

　　It was 1938. A newsflash interrupted the music on the radio. There were blue flames on Mars! The music continued. Then there was another newsflash. A meteor had fallen in New Jersey. No, it wasn誸 a meteor. It was a spaceship ?full of Martian soldiers. They were marching. They were armed...

　　火星人的日子

　　那是1938年。一条插播新闻打断了收音机里正在播放的音乐。火星上发现了蓝色的火焰。音乐继续播放。随后又是一条插播新闻。一颗流星坠落在了新泽西州。不，那不是颗流星，那是艘太空船——而且满载火星战士。他们正向地球进发。他们个个全副武装……

　　interrupt: break the flow of (something continuous). 打断

　　meteor: a flaming streak in the sky, caused when small pieces of space rock burn up as they pass through the Earth’s atmosphere. 流星

　　People ran into the streets. There was panic everywhere.

　　By that night, most people knew the truth. The world was safe. Actor Orson Welles had been reading H. G. Wells’book The War of the Worlds on the radio for Halloween.

　　人们纷纷涌向街道，恐慌随处可见。

　　直到晚上，大多数人都知道了真相。世界依然安然无恙。原来是演员奥尔森·威尔斯为了庆祝万圣节在朗读作家H·G·威尔斯的小说《星球大战》。

　　panic: a feeling of anxiety which is so great that you cannot do anything at all. 恐惧，恐慌

　　Life on the Moon?

　　In 1835 —about 100 years before the Martian radio play —people in New York read an amazing story in the Sun newspaper. There was life on the moon!

　　The paper said that Sir John Herschel, a famous British astronomer, had invented a powerful telescope. Through it, he could see fantastic things on the moon, including pyramids, blue unicorns and human-like creatures with bat wings.

　　月球上真有生命吗？

　　1835年，大概是那部火星人广播剧播出前的100年左右，纽约人从《太阳报》上读到一则令人吃惊的消息。月球上存在生命！

　　报道说著名英国天文学家约翰·赫舍尔爵士，最近发明了一架超级望远镜。通过该望远镜，他可以看到月球上奇异的东西，包括金字塔、蓝色的独角兽和长着蝙蝠翅膀的半人半兽的生物。

　　amazing: surprising and incredible. 令人惊讶的

　　fantastic: odd, strange, or wild in shape, meaning, etc. 奇异的，怪诞的

　　unicorns: an imaginary animal that looks like a white horse and has a horn growing from its forehead. 独角兽

　　For six days, the newspaper published articles about these marvellous discoveries. On the seventh day, the paper announced it was a hoax.

　　报纸连续6天刊出了关于这项神奇发现的报道。到了第7天，报纸才公布了这是一条开玩笑的消息。

　　marvelous: something that is wonderful and excellent. 神奇的

　　Phoneygraphs

　　We believe what we see with our own eyes. But sometimes it is best to look at things twice! Hoaxers have produced photographs of aliens, UFOs and ghosts!

　　虚假的图像

　　我们常常相信亲眼所见的东西。可有时最好是多看一眼！许多外星人、UFO(不明飞行物)和幽灵的照片都是那些骗子们加工出来的！

　　In 1934, Dr Robert Wilson photographed a long-necked creature in the murky water of Loch Ness in Scotland. Many people believed that this was one of the first photographs of the Loch Ness monster. What do you think?

　　1934年罗伯特·威尔森博士在苏格兰浓雾弥漫的尼斯湖上拍摄到了一只长着长脖子的动物。许多人认为那该是第一批尼斯湖怪照片中的一张。你认为呢？

　　UFO: unidentified flying object. 飞碟(不明飞行物)

　　murky: heavy and thick with smoke and fog. 烟雾弥漫的