A Answer the following questions.
ã1 Do you like to read books or watch movies about ghosts? Can you name some?
2 How do you feel when you read ghost stories or watch scary movies?
3 Why do you think ghost stories are so popular?
B Discuss your answers with a partner.
A Skim the passage on the next two pages. Then match the story titles in the box to the correct summaries. Write a-e.
a The Basketball Player c Resurrection Mary e The Grandmother
b The Girl on the Side of the Road d The Smoking Ghost
1 __ A doctor is shocked to discover that the mysterious girl he just sent home died in a car accident two years ago.
2 __ When a lady passenger disappears from their back seat, the drivers manage to find her daughter and report the incident. They find out the old lady died three years ago.
3 __ A taxi" driver unknowingly sends a girl to the cemetery that she is buried in. Years later, the same girl is seen locked within the cemetery gates.
4 __ A woman picks up a boy from a local school. He asks to be let out in a deserted area, and then disappears. It turns out he started hitchhiking ... 29 years ago.
5 __ A hitchhiking soldier asks for a cigarette from the driver. He then vanishes, leaving only the cigarette lighter.
B Discuss your answers with a partner. Then read the passage to check your answers.
C Now read the entire passage carefully. Then answer the questions on page 69.
Motivational Tip: Share your enthusiasm for reading. How has reading helped you become a better person? Why do you consider reading such a central part of who you are? When we talk about things that we are excited about and things that we love with our friends we can influence them in pos,t,'Je wa'js.1hh1k about how 'jOU can share your enthusiasm for reading with others today to motivate them to be better readers.
66 UNIT 4 Chapter 1
One of the most entertaining types of ghost stories is that of the phantom, or vanishing, hitchhiker.1 It's also one of the most chilling because, if true, they bring ghosts in very close contact with mortals.2 Perhaps more disconcerting still, the stories describe the ghosts as looking, acting, and sounding like living people-even physically interacting with the
5 unsuspecting drivers who pick them up.
The basic story usually goes something like this: a tired driver traveling at night picks up a strange hitchhiker, drops him or her off at some destination, and then somehow later finds out that the hitchhiker had in fact died months or years earlier-often on that very same date. Like most ghost stories, tales of phantom hitchhikers are impossible to verify, and are most often considered to be
10 urban legends.3 There are many such stories, and it's up to you to determine whether or not you believe any of them. Here are just a few.
THE BASKETBALL PLAYER
A woman, driving to her sister's house on a winter evening, sees a boy of pbout eleven or twelve years of age hitchhiking on the side of the road. She stops for him; he gets into the front seat next to her, and they chat as they drive down the highway. The boy says he's a basketball player for a 15
local school, and she sees that, indeed, he has the height and build of , an athlete. She also notices that he is not wearing a jacket of any kind,
despite the fact that it's winter. The boy seems to have no particular destination in mind as he points to the side of the road and asks to be let out there. The woman is puzzled because she can see no houses 20 or lights anywhere. Before she can pull over to the side of the road, however, the youth simply vanishes. She immediately stops the car, gets out, and looks around, but the boy is nowhere to be seen. She later learns that the same vanishing hitchhiker was first picked up af
the same spot twenty-nine years earlier! 25
THE GIRL ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD
A doctor, while driving home from a country club dance, picks up a young girl in a white dress. She climbs into the back seat of his car
1 A hitchhiker is a person who travels for free by getting rides from passing vehicles.
2 A mortal refers to a human being.
because the front seat is crowded with golf clubs, and tells him an address to take her to. As
30 he arrives at the address, he turns to speak to her but she is gone. The curious doctor rings the doorbell of the address given to him by the mysterious girl. A gray-haired man answers the door and reveals that the girl was his daughter. She had died in a car accident exactly two years earlier.
RESURRECTION. MARY
The story of Resurrection Mary begins on a winter
35 night when a young girl named Mary is killed in a car accident while on her way home from a dance.
Five years later, a taxi driver picks up a young girl in a white dress on the same street. She sits in the front seat and instructs him to drive north. After driving a
40 short distance, she suddenly tells him to stop, and then simply vanishes from the taxi. The taxi is stopped in front of Resurrection Cemetery, where the girl is buried. According to an account many years later, a
woman witnessed Mary locked inside the iron fence of the cemetery. Reportedly, the metal bars
45 of the fence bore the imprints of her hands.
THE SMOKING GHOST
On a dark winter night, a man stops for a stranger hitchhiking on the side of the road. The stranger is dressed in a military uniform and, after he gets into the car, asks if he can have a cigarette. The man gives him one, and a lighter with which to light it. With his peripheral vision,4
50 the driver sees the flash of the lighter, but then, on turning his head, is astonished to see that his passenger has vanished into thin air.5ãonly the cigarette lighter remains on the seat.
THE GRANDMOTHER
Two businessmen stop for a little old lady in a lavender6 dress walking along the side of the road in the middle of the night. She tells them she is going to see her daughter and granddaughter, and they offer to drive her 55 to the next town. On the way, she proudly tells them all about her children and grandchildren, such as their names and where they live. After a while, the men become engrossed in their own business conversation, and when they reach their destination, the old woman is no longer in the back seat. Fearing the worst, the men retrace their route, but do not find the Go woman anywhere. Finally, recalling the daughter's name, they go to her house to report what they fear might have been a horrible accident. The men identify her from photos in the daughter's house. It turns out that ttiP old woman was buried exactly three years ago that day.
4 Peripheral vision is the outermost edge of the entire area that a person can see. It means to see out of the corner of the eye.
5 To vanish into thin air is to disappear completely.
6 Lavender is a pale or light purple color.
68 UNIT 4 Chapter 1
A Choose the correct answer for the following questions.
1 Why does the writer consider vanishing hitchhiker stories to be very scary?
a The ghosts look and behave just like humans.
b The ghosts usually want to harm the driver.
c The ghosts take the driver to the place where they died.
d The ghosts tend to disappear right in front of the driver.
2 What did the woman find strange about the boy in The Basketball Player?
a He said he was a basketball player but didn't look like one.
b He wasn't wearing a jacket even though it was winter.
c He was always seen at that same spot on the side of the road.
d She had never heard about the school he claimed to study at.
3 The passenger in Resurrection Mary died because she __ _ a was locked inside the cemetery
b got lost on her way to the dance c forgot to take her medicine d was in a car accident
4 What did the two men in The Grandmother do first when they discovered the lady had disappeared?
a They reported the accident to the police.
b They drove back to where they first saw her.
c They drove straight to her daughter's house.
d They didn't do anything and drove back home.
B Read the following sentences. Check (v") whether the sentence is true for The Basketball Player (B), The Girl on the Side of the Road (G), Resurrection Mary (R), The Smoking Ghost (S), or The Grandmother (Gr).
, ,, - "' �:/ "' _;, B G
1 The hitchhiker in this story is a young girl.
2 The hitchhiker in this story is a soldier.
3 This story involves the hitchhiker disappearing.
4 The hitchhiker in this story wants to be dropped off at a specific location.
5 The story mentions that the hitchhiker was killed in a car accident.
6 The people driving the vehicle later visit the relative
\..._ of the hitchhiker.
C Discuss the following questions with a partner.
1 Which of the five stories in the reading did you find the scariest? Why?
2 Do you think this type of story is found in many cultures or only a few?
Explain your answer.
R
Reading
Comprehension
Check Your Understanding
Gr'
Critical Thinking �
Vocabulary Comprehension
Definitions
70 UNIT 4 Chapter 1
A Match the words in the box with the correct definition. Write a-j. The words are from the passage.
a vanishing
f puzzled b chilling
g astonished c unsuspecting
h engrossed d disconcerting i fearing the worst 1 __ having one's attention completely occupied
2 __ surprised, amazed
3 __ confused or unable to make sense of something
4 __ a mark or outline made by an object pressing on something 5 __ feeling that the worst possible thing has happened
6 __ the size or proportions of a person's body 7 __ upsetting; making one feel worried or uncertain
e build j imprint
8 __ not knowing about something that is happening or will happen 9 __ disappearing
10 __ frightening
B Complete the following sentences using the correct form of the words from A.
1 Even though he has a small , Tim is a very good rugby player. He's very quick and agile.
2 I stayed up late last night because I was really in my book.
3 Crocodiles usually lie in wait for prey and then make a surprise attack.
4 No wonder the woman looked . when I tried to order food; I had mistaken her for a waitress!
5 She gripped my arm so hard that her hand left a(n) _______ on my skin.
6 We were all _______ by how he managed to fit in dessert after eating such a huge meal.
7 I find it quite _______ when people don't look you in the eye during a conversation. It makes me feel like I can't trust them.
8 The Amityville Horror is a(n) tale of a family that moves into a house haunted by a man who had murdered his entire family there.
9 A common magician's trick is to place their assistant in a box and make them ______ _
10 When Fred didn't come home from his fishing trip, his wife immediately _______ . She called the coastguard to ask for help.
A Write the part of speech for each word in the box below. Then write the words next to the correct definitions.
__ mortuary __ mortgage __ murder __ morgue __ mortality _, _ post-mortem __ amortize __ mortified __ immortal __ moribund __ morbid
1 lasting or living forever
2 obsessed with disturbing subjects like death
3 a place where bodies of people found dead are kept for examination or identification
4 feeling extreme shame or embarrassment 5 the crime of intentionally killing a person
6 an agreement that allows one to borrow money to finance a purchase, usually of property
7 8 9 10 11
______ medical examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death
______ to reduce a debt or expenditure by making payments over a period of time
______ a place where dead bodies are kept before a funeral ______ the quality or state of not living forever
______ at, or near, the point of death; out of date
B Complete the following paragraphs using the words from A. Not all the words will be used. Check your answers with a partner.
All of us, at one point or another, face death and our own (1) . Perhaps this is what the creator of the television show Six Feet Under was thinking when he conceived of the program which, at its peak, had five million viewers tuning in. Despite the fact that the theme was quite (2) , it was obviously a popular topic. The show takes place in a funeral home. The characters frequently have to go to the (3) to retrieve bodies of the deceased, many of whom were (4) or accident victims. The bodies are then placed in the (5) until the funeral takes place. Six Feet Under examines many issues related to death, and reminds us that though our loved ones may pass away, our thoughts will keep them (6) _____ _
Vocabulary Skill
The Root Word mart
In this chapter, you read the word mortal.
This word is formed from the root mort, also written mor or mur, which means to die or death. There are many words in English that use this root and they are used in a variety of contexts.
UNIT 4 Before You Read
Witches
Reading Skill
Identifying Meaning from Context
You can often guess the meaning of unfamiliar words in a passage by using the following strategy:
1. Think about how the word is related to the topic. 2. Identify the part of speech of the word. 3. Look at how the word relates to the rest of the information in the paragraph. 4. Use your knowledge of prefixes,suffixes,and word roots to identify the basic meaning 01 the word.
72 UNIT 4 Chapter 2