June 24, 2011 June 24, 1997 | The ‘Roswell Incident’ On June 24, 1997, the Air Force released a 231-page report titled “Case Closed: Final Report on the Roswell Crash.” It suggested that the alien bodies people reported seeing in Roswell, N.M., in July 1947, were actually life-sized anthropomorphic test dummies The Times article from the next day summarised the main theme of the report: “No bodies No bulbous heads No secret autopsies No spaceship No crash No extra-terrestrials or alien artefacts No government cover-up.” The UFO phenomenon, which had originated in mid-June 1947 when a recreational pilot reported seeing an object “flying like a saucer would” in Washington State In early July, several witnesses reported seeing flying discs and strange debris on the ground in Roswell, N.M Public interest in the reports increased on July 8, 1947, when The Roswell Daily Record reported “the intelligence office of the 509th Bombardment group at Roswell Army Air Field announced at noon today, that the field has come into possession of a flying saucer.” Then the United States government began an effort, which lasted decades, to investigate and debunk the reports and thousands of similar reports from around the country Public concern about UFOs waxed and waned over the next several decades, but never disappeared, partly due to popular culture In 1994, the Air Force issued a report titled “Roswell Report: Fact and Fiction,” which said the debris was from top-secret, high-altitude weather balloons But then in 1995, Ray Santilli, a London-based entrepreneur, caught the public’s interest when he released what he claimed to be footage of an autopsy of an alien, allegedly performed in Roswell in 1947 Before large “celebrations” planned for the 50th anniversary of the Roswell Reports took place, the Air Force issued its final report on the matter, hoping to close the case once and for all Source: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/june-24-1997-the-roswell-incident/ Edited by Emma Clayton Anthropomorphic dummies used for scientific research, which the Air Force’s 1997 report suggests accounts for the sightings of aliens in Roswell, New Mexico in July 1947 Vocabulary Focus Match the words on the left from the article with their definitions on the right anthropomorphic the cutting open and examination of a dead body to find out why the person died test dummies when you try to prevent others discovering information about a mistake or a crime bulbous broken pieces from something bigger autopsy life-size models of humans, used to test what happens to people in car crashes artefacts a piece of film, usually showing an event cover-up making animals, Gods or objects seem like they are human witness to show something is not true when people think it is debris fat and round debunk objects made by people, of historical significance footage a person who sees an event happen, especially a crime or an accident Worksheet created by Emma Clayton Definitions from Cambridge Dictionaries Online Vocabulary Focus ANSWER KEY Match the words on the left from the article with their definitions on the right anthropomorphic the cutting open and examination of a dead body to find out why the person died test dummies when you try to prevent others discovering information about a mistake or a crime bulbous broken pieces from something bigger autopsy life-size models of humans, used to test what happens to people in car crashes artefacts a piece of film, usually showing an event cover-up making animals, Gods or objects seem like they are human witness to show something is not true when people think it is debris fat and round debunk objects made by people, of historical significance footage a person who sees an event happen, especially a crime or an accident Worksheet created by Emma Clayton Definitions from Cambridge Dictionaries Online