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Close encounters in Texas 德州第三類接觸

Standing near the area where he saw a large silent object in the sky, Ricky Sorrells talks about the sighting, Dublin, Texas, US, Jan. 14, 2008. PHOTO: AP 本月十四日在美國德州都柏林市，瑞奇．索瑞斯站在他目睹一個大型無聲的物體飛行地點說明當天情景。 照片：美聯社

Several dozen people - including a pilot, a county constable and business owners - in a Texas farming community insist they have seen a UFO .

Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot, said the object he saw last week was 1.6km long and 0.8km wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts." While federal officials insist there is a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.

Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 90m over a pasture behind his home. "It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I'm not crazy," Sorrells said.

Sorrells said he has seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifle's telescopic lens and described it as very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.

Major Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8, when most people reported the sighting.

Lewis said the object may have been an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes. Lights from the aircraft would seem unusually bright and may appear orange from the setting sun.

"I'm 90 percent sure this was an airliner," Lewis said. "With the sun's angle, it can play tricks on you." One man has offered a reward for a photograph or videotape of the mysterious object.(AP)

德州一個農村有數十多人-包括一位飛行員、一位郡警和一些企業家-堅稱他們親眼目睹幽浮。

貨運公司的老闆，同時也是一個飛行員的史帝夫．艾倫表示他上週看到一個長一千六百公尺、寬八百公尺的物體，「那絕對不是地球上的物體。」

聯邦官員堅稱此事有合理解釋，當地民眾保證他們看到的東西比飛機更大、飛得更快且更低；他們還表示飛行體的發光外貌不斷變換，和飛機的燈光不符合。在過去兩週內，其他一些市鎮的目擊居民報案時對於飛行體的描述都十分接近。

機械師瑞奇．索瑞斯說，當他跟朋友說他看到一個扁平的金屬物體在他家後面草地上空約九十公尺處盤旋時，他的朋友都取笑他。索瑞斯說：「我很開心聽到其他人也曾目睹，因為那表示我沒有發瘋。」

索瑞斯表示他看到這個飛行物體好幾次，他透過他的來福槍的望遠瞄準鏡觀察，他描述這個物體非常大，而且沒有接縫、螺帽或螺絲。

華茲堡聯合預備基地海軍航空站空軍第三Ｏ一戰鬥機聯隊發言人卡爾．路易斯少校表示，一月八日晚間並沒有F-16或其他飛機在該區執勤，當天正是大多人宣稱目睹飛碟之日。

路易斯認為，這個物體可能是兩架民航機併飛造成的錯覺，飛機的光源在日落時會異常地亮，而且可能呈現橘紅色。

「我幾乎有九成把握肯定那只是一架飛機，」路易斯說：「太陽照射的角度不同可能使人產生錯覺。」有一個男子甚至出價懸賞這個神秘物體的相關相片或影片。（美聯社／翻譯：袁星塵）

TODAY'S WORDS 今日單字 1. freight n. 貨運 (huo4 yun4) 例: My father runs a freight business. (我父親經營一家貨運公司。) 2. configuration n. 表面配置 (biao3 mian4 pei4 zhi4)，外貌 (wai4 mao4) 例: The stones were in an unusual configuration. (這堆石頭排列而成的形狀很奇特。) 3. telescopic adj. 能望遠的 (neng2 wang4 yuan3 de5) 例: The hunter looked through his telescopic lens. (獵人透過他的望遠鏡觀看。) 4. illusion n. 錯覺 (cuo4 jue2)，幻覺 (huan4 jue2) 例: Mirages are illusions brought on by extreme heat. (海市蜃樓是因為過熱而產生的幻覺。)

SAY WHAT? 說說看 UFO 幽浮／飛碟 UFO stands for unidentified flying object . The expression can refer to any flying object for which there is no apparent explanation. However many people associate the term with extraterrestrials. Another common expression to describe an extraterrestrial craft is flying saucer. The most well-known UFO report is probably the Roswell incident. On July 3, 1947, wreckage was collected on a ranch north of Roswell. At first the US military stated that they had found wreckage of a flying disc . They later retracted the statement and said it was a wrecked weather balloon. 幽浮是不明飛行物體縮寫，可以用在任何未被確認的飛行物體上；但大多數的人都將這個字和外星人聯想在一起，另一種外星飛行器的說法是飛碟。 最著名的幽浮大概是羅斯威爾事件，一九四七年七月三日，美國羅斯威爾市北方的一座牧場上出現殘骸， 美國軍方一開始聲稱他們發現了飛碟的殘骸，稍後又撤銷這項聲明並表示那只是氣象球的殘骸。

OUT LOUD 對話練習 Bill: Hey, you want to see a video from my vacation? Kate: Sure. What's it of? Bill: It's me bungee jumping off the bridge at Victoria Falls. Watch. Kate: Wow! That's out of this world! How on earth did you have the guts to do that? It's so high. Bill: Well, my little brother had gone first, so I didn't really have a choice. 比爾：嘿，你想看我度假時拍的影片嗎？ 凱特：好啊，那是什麼？ 比爾：是我去維多利亞瀑布高空彈跳的紀錄，仔細看！ 凱特：哇！真是精彩絕倫！你哪來的勇氣跳下去的啊？那實在是有夠高耶。 比爾：唔，我弟弟先跳了，所以我實在是沒什麼選擇。 out of this world　精彩絕倫 If something is out of this world, it is unbelievably amazing. For example: "That fireworks display wasout of this world! I've never seen so many types of fireworks set off together before." 「out of this world」表示某事美妙的令人不可置信，例如：「那場煙火秀實在是精彩極了！我從來沒有看過這麼多種不同的煙火組合。」

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