Grammar modal verbs. Modal verbs of probability, present and future

It beats me! This expression is used to express surprise at something that you
 find difficult to understand,
 "It beats me how he can live in that horrible apartment!"

It's beyond me. The expression "it's beyond me" means:  "it's impossible for me to
 understand"
 "It's beyond me why Mary wants to marry John."

 A bolt from the blue. To refer to something as a bolt from the blue means

 that it happened completely unexpectedly.
 The chairman's resignation came as a bolt from the blue!"

Out of the blue If something happens out of the blue, it happens unexpectedly

Caught unawares. If someone is caught unawares, they are surprised and unprepared
 for what happens.
 "The security guard moved so silently that the thief was caught unawares"

Drop a bombshell. If someone makes an unexpected or shocking announcement,
 they drop a bombshell.
 "Her new husband dropped a bombshell when he announced that he was already the father of three children!"

A doubting Thomas is one who habitually or instinctively doubts or questions.

“He was a doubting Thomas about the coming merger, not believing it would ever happen”.

One's jaw drops. If someone's jaw drops, they show total amazement.
 "When the prize was announced, the winner's jaw dropped."

Jump out of one's skin. If you jump out of your skin, you are extremely surprised or shocked. 
 "Jane nearly jumped out of her skin when the horse put its head through the window!"

The mind boggles. The expression "the mind boggles" is used as a reaction to something you find amazing or difficult to understand

Pigs might fly. To say “pigs might fly” expresses disbelief, or the idea that miracles
 might happen but are extremely unlikely.
 "My grandmother buying a computer? ...Yeah! ...and pigs might fly!"

Raise eyebrows. If something raises eyebrows, it causes surprise or disapproval.
 "When the boss arrived in jeans, it raised a few eyebrows."

Rooted to the spot. If you are so shocked, surprised or scared that you are rooted to the spot, your reaction is so strong that you are unable to move.
 "Joe stood rooted to the spot as the plane landed on the water."

It's a small world This expression is used by someone who is surprised to meet familiar people, events or situations in unexpected places.
 "Wow! It's a small world. I never expected to meet a neighbour on a transatlantic flight!"

Struck dumb. If someone is struck dumb, they are unable to speak because they are so surprised, shocked or frightened by something.
 "The accused was struck dumb when the verdict was announced."

 Words fail me. This expression is often used when someone is so shocked, surprised  or touched by something that they don't know what to say.

 "What do you think of Bob's attitude?"  "Words fail me!"

Wonders will never cease! This saying is used to express pleasure or surprise at something.
 "Idioms are increasingly popular with learners of English. Wonders will never cease!"
2. Complete each of these idioms.

1. 
   "Wow, how did you get that bruise?"
   "… me!"
   
2. 
   We were struck … by the candidate's announcement
   
3. 
   The mind … at the thought of what you could do with all that money.
   
4. 
   We might have fine weather for our holidays.' `Yes, and pigs…!' dit sal die dag wees قَد يَبيض الدّيك! قَد يشيبُ الغُراب! на куково лято až naprší a uschne den må du længere ud på landet med das glaubst du doch selber nicht και η γιαγιά μου αν είχε καρούλια... cuando las ranas críen pelo imesid võib juhtuda چیزی که تقریباً غیر ممکن است yhtä varmasti kuin lehmä lentää quand les poules auront des dents “כֵּן, בֶטָח” असंभव kad svinje polete majd ha fagy! mustahil líklegt eða hitt þó heldur (quando gli asini voleranno) ありそうもない 그런 일은 있을 수 없다 matysi kaip savo ausis ja notiktu brīnums mustahil als de kalveren op het ijs dansen Tror du/dere på julenissen? kaktus mi na dłoni wyrośnie as galinhas podem criar dentes când o face plopul pere şi răchita micşunele чего только на свете не бывает keď naprší a uschne pa kaj še! kad na vrbi rodi grožđe det vore i så fall ett under พูดอะไรที่เป็นไปไม่ได้ Belki olur! Balık kavağa çıkınca! 奇事也許會發生 коли рак на горі свисне خنزير اڑيں گے، عدم امکان کو بتلانے کے ليے استعمال کرتے ہيں chuyện khó tin 奇事也许会发生
   
5. 
   Actress Sharon Stone raised a few … last night when she donned an enormous Fendi fox wrap to the Cinema Against AIDS benefit in Rome.
   
6. 
   Mary won't believe that I have a dog until she sees it. She's such a … Thomas.
   
7. 
   They seemed to be talking calmly when out … she slapped him in the face!
   
8. 
   The actress was caught … when the audience recognized her and started to make a beeline asking for autographs.
   
9. 
   Imagine you knowing Erik! It's a…, isn't it?
   
10. 
    The Liverpool football club dropped a … when they announced that they had sacked their manager.
    

3. Render the following text into English using modal verbs and at least 15 active words and expressions (including the idioms). Suggest your own explanation of the mystery. Make sure you use the modal verbs of probability.

НОВОСТИ ИЗ БЕРМУДСКОГО ТРЕУГОЛЬНИКА

Бермудский треугольник - область, которая ограничена воображаемой линией, связывающей Флориду, Бермуды и Пуэрто-Рико, - был местом, где довольно часто пропадали корабли, самолеты и люди. Один из самых загадочных случаев произошел во время короткого авиационного перелета на остров Терк (Багамы).

Когда Хелен Каско приближалась на своей "Сесне-172" к острову, диспетчерская передала ей разрешение на посадку. Но Каско не отвечала, хотя ее канал не был занят. Через некоторое время наземный персонал аэропорта услышал, как Каско сказала своему пассажиру: "Я, наверно, сбилась с пути. Мы должны уже быть у острова Терк, но под нами внизу ничего нет. Ни аэродрома, ни домов, ничего". Диспетчеры отчаянно пытались и дальше связаться с Каско, но она их наверняка не слышала. Тут Каско произнесла свою последнюю фразу: "Отсюда вообще можно выбраться?!" Никаких следов самолета, никаких останков пилота и пассажира не было обнаружено.

Это странное исчезновение можно объяснить по-всякому: и похищением, и козням современных пиратов, и просто человеческими ошибками. Существует также гипотеза, что в середине Бермудского треугольника находятся огромный водоворот или дыра, которые засасывают в себя корабли или самолеты, приближающиеся к ним.

Можно также допустить, что под Бермудским треугольником находятся овеянные легендами пирамиды Атлантиды, служащие вроде бы источниками энергии, которые время от времени просыпаются и начинают действовать, внося сбои в функционирование систем кораблей и самолетов.

Люди, которые видят во всех этих происшествиях агрессию коварных инопланетян, склоняются, естественно, к гипотезе, что указанные существа каким-то образом вмешиваются в магнитное поле Бермудского треугольника и притягивают людей и их машины, для того чтобы их исследовать.

Сообщениями об исчезновениях в Бермудском треугольнике никого не удивишь, а вот появления исчезнувших судов чрезвычайно редки. В июле 1975 года член научного экипажа яхты «Нью-Фридом» сфотографировал невероятно сильную грозу над треугольником. Когда он просмотрел проявленные пленки, то с испугом увидел, что на расстоянии примерно сотни миль от яхты плывет корабль. Но ученый знал, что в ту ночь поблизости от их корабля не могло находиться ни одно другое судно.

READING & SPEAKING

1. Fill the gaps in the sentences using key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to help you.

1. 
   An ____________________ is someone who studies the stars and planets using scientific equipment, including telescopes. (para 1)
   
2. 
   If you ____________________ a radio signal, you send it through the air. (para 1)
   
3. 
   An ____________________ is a person or creature from a planet other than Earth. (para 1)
   
4. 
   A ____________________ is an extremely large group of stars and planets. (para 3)
   
5. 
   The planets of our solar system ____________________ the sun. (para 3)
   
6. 
   ____________________ communication is communication between different stars. (para 3)
   
7. 
   A ____________________ is the distance that light travels in a year. (two words, para 5)
   
8. 
   A ____________________ is a period of one thousand years. (para 6)
   
9. 
   A ____________________ is a hole or space that allows gas to escape. (para 8)
   
10. 
    A ____________________ is a substance in food that plants, animals and people need to grow. (para 9)
    

2. 
   Decide if these statements are true (T) or false (F). Then check your answers in the text.
   

1. 
   There are almost a million stars in our galaxy.
   
2. 
   The oldest broadcast has already travelled 80 light years from Earth.
   
3. 
   It would take a thousand years for a message from a planet 1,000 light years away to reach Earth.
   
4. 
   In the early days of research, astronomers focused on finding planets like the Earth.
   
5. 
   Some single-cell Earth creatures can live in temperatures of minus 200°C.
   
6. 
   Everyone agrees that making contact with aliens would be a good thing.
   

3. 
   Read the text. Retell it paying special attention to the use of your active grammar and vocab.
   

Is Stephen Hawking right about aliens?

Stephen Hawking thinks that making contact with aliens would be a very bad idea indeed. But with new, massive telescopes, we humans are stepping up the search. Have we really thought this through?

The hunt for intelligent species outside Earth may be a staple of literature and film – but it is happening in real life, too. Space probes are searching for planets outside our solar system, and astronomers are carefully listening for any messages being beamed through space. How awe-inspiring it would be to get confirmation that we are not alone in the universe, to finally speak to an alien race. Wouldn’t it?

Well, no, according to the eminent physicist Stephen Hawking. “If aliens visited us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans,” Hawking says. He argues that, instead of trying to find and communicate with life in the cosmos, humans would be better off doing everything they can to avoid contact.

Hawking believes that, based on the sheer number of planets that scientists know must exist, we are not the only life form in the universe. There are, after all, billions and billions of stars in our galaxy alone, with, it is reasonable to expect, an even greater number of planets orbiting them. And it is not unreasonable to expect some of that alien life to be intelligent, and capable of interstellar communication. So, when someone with Hawking’s knowledge of the universe advises against contact, it’s worth listening, isn’t it?

Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in California, the world’s leading organization searching for telltale alien signals, is not so sure. “This is an unwarranted fear,” Shostak says. “If their interest in our planet is for something valuable that our planet has to offer, there’s no particular reason to worry about them now. If they’re interested in resources, they have ways of finding rocky planets that don’t depend on whether we broadcast or not. They could have found us a billion years ago.”

If we were really worried about letting aliens know we were here, Shostak says, the first thing to do would be to shut down the BBC, NBC, CBS and the radars at all airports. Those broadcasts have been streaming into space for years – the oldest is already more than 80 light years from Earth – so it is already too late to stop passing aliens watching every episode of TV programmes like Big Brother.

There are lots of practical problems involved in hunting for aliens, of course, chief among them being distance. If our nearest neighbours were life forms on the (fictional) forest moon of Endor, 1,000 light years away, it would take a millennium for us to receive any message they might send. If the Endorians were watching us, the light reaching them from Earth at this very moment would show them our planet as it was 1,000 years ago; in Europe that means lots of fighting between knights around castles and, in north America, small bands of natives living on the great plains. It is not a timescale that allows for quick banter – and, anyway, they might not be communicating in our direction.

The lack of a signal from ET has not, however, prevented astronomers and biologists (not to mention film-makers) coming up with a whole range of ideas about what aliens might be like. In the early days of SETI, astronomers focused on the search for planets like ours – the idea being that, since the only biology we know about is our own, we might as well assume aliens are going to be something like us. But there’s no reason why that should be true. You don’t even need to step off the Earth to find life that is radically different from our common experience of it.

‘Extremophiles’ are species that can survive in places that would quickly kill humans and other ‘normal’ life-forms. These single-celled creatures have been found in boiling hot vents of water that come through the ocean floor, or at temperatures well below the freezing point of water. The front ends of some creatures that live near deep-sea vents are 200°C warmer than their back ends.

On Earth, life exists in water and on land but, on a giant gas planet, for example, it might exist high in the atmosphere, trapping nutrients from the air swirling around it. And given that aliens may be so out of our experience, guessing motives and intentions if they ever got in touch seems beyond the realms even of Hawking’s mind.

Paul Davies, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University argues that alien brains, with their different architecture, would interpret information very differently from ours. “Lots of people think that because they would be so wise and knowledgeable, they would be peaceful,” adds Stewart. “I don’t think you can assume that. I don’t think you can put human views onto them; that’s a dangerous way of thinking. Aliens are alien. If they exist at all, we cannot assume they’re like us.”

© Guardian News & Media 2010

4. Choose the best answer according to the text.

1. Stephen Hawking believes …

a. … we should continue to try to make contact with aliens.

b. … we should only make contact with intelligent life forms.

c. … we should do everything we can to avoid contact with aliens.

2. According to Seth Shostak, …

a. … TV and radio stations and radars should be shut down.

b. … TV and radio stations and radars could let aliens know we are here.

c. … TV and radio stations and radars are an effective way of contacting aliens.

3. The biggest problem in contacting aliens is …

a. … the lack of technology.

b. … the fact that we don’t speak their language.

c. … the enormous distances involved.

4. What are ‘extremophiles’ ?

a. people who like extreme sports

b. organisms that live in extreme temperatures

c. creatures with front ends and back ends that have different temperatures

5. Find the following words and phrases in the text.

1. 
   a two-word noun meaning a vehicle containing cameras and other equipment that is sent outside the Earth’s atmosphere to collect information (para 1)
   
2. 
   a two-word adjective meaning making you feel great respect and admiration and sometimes fear (para 1)
   
3. 
   an adjective meaning obvious (para 4)
   
4. 
   an adjective meaning not necessary (para 4)
   
5. 
   a noun meaning friendly conversation in which people tell jokes and laugh at each other (para 6)
   
6. 
   a verb meaning move quickly in circles (para 9)
   
7. 
   a four-word expression meaning outside the area of knowledge, experience or interest (para 9)
   
8. 
   an adjective meaning knowing a lot about different subjects (para 10)
   

6. Match the beginnings and endings to make phrases from the text.

1. 
   freezing a. inspiring
   
2. 
   solar b. year
   
3. 
   light c. point
   
4. 
   life d. number
   
5. 
   awe- e. form
   
6. 
   sheer f. system
   

7. Discussion

Do aliens exist? Should we try to make contact with them? Why? Why not?
8. Comment on the following quotations about mystery and faith.
To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Man is what he believes.
Anton Chekhov
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
Oscar Wilde
All is mystery; but he is a slave who will not struggle to penetrate the dark veil.

Benjamin Disraeli
Mystery is another name for our ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain.
Tryon Edwards
When people cease to believe in God, they don't believe in nothing; they believe in anything.

G. K. Chesterton
I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education.
Wilson Mizner
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Albert Einstein  
Life without faith in something is too narrow a space to live.
George Lancaster Spalding
There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it. 

George Bernard Shaw
There are ten church members by inheritance for every one by conviction. 

Author Unknown
As knowledge increases, wonder deepens.
Charles Morgan
READING & SPEAKING (2)
1. Read the article below. Discuss the importance of learning foreign slang at school and University.

In other words…
Foreign slang is often overlooked at school – which isn’t much good for real life, says Thomas Stephens.
“Whaassssuuupppp??!!” If, during a freshers’ party, I introduce myself with these words (all right, word), you’ll probably smile nervously and make a mental note to change course if necessary to avoid me. If, however, I’d said exactly the same thing two years ago, you’d probably have burst into laughter at my Wildean wit and “whassupped” me straight back. What’s up, indeed?
English is English you might think – a means of communication for millions of people around the world. And you wouldn’t be wrong. But language is also a fundamental means of self-expression – the “dress of thought”, according to Dr Johnson – and of identity.
When social groups want to create an identity (why they want to do this is another story!), they create their own customs and language; if you are then aware of the codes of conduct and slang, you can gain membership of these exclusive groups. But it’s not just good enough to learn these “passwords”. Language is alive: every year new words are born and others die, and if you don’t keep your fingers on the linguistic pulse, you’ll be exposed as an imposter, a culturally out-of-touch fake. That’s whassupp.
In the case of students, however, the social group is very large. University is a melting pot of national dialects and apart from a few local idioms, students in Southampton will be on the same wavelength as those at St Andrews.
This linguistic globalization leads, depending on your point of view, to either cultural enrichment or bland homogeneity. But your point of view is not important! In the box below you will find common words heard on campuses across the UK which you probably didn’t learn at school. Learn them, understand them and, if you want, use them. Sorted!
i Slang Glossary