19 Track 19

Review unit 4

Fluency Practice

Review Reading 8: Three Centuries of Hoaxes

Page 161

Three centuries of hoaxes

A Thinking Machine

In 1769, long before computers were invented, a man from Hungary built a wonderful machine that could play chess very well. It delighted people all over Europe and beat nearly everyone it played, including famous figures like French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, and scientist and inventor Benjamin Franklin.

For decades, many people believed that it was truly a thinking machine. There were people who said it was a hoax, but could not prove it or explain how it worked.

Some 85 years later, the secret was finally revealed. There was a man hiding inside the machine all along… who was obviously very good at playing chess!

Zoo Escape

On November 9, 1874, New York newspaper, The Herald, ran a shocking story on its front page. It claimed that all the animals in the Central Park Zoo had escaped and were running around the city.

It said the police were working to rescue people, but 27 people had already been killed, and 200 people hurt.

It warned everyone to stay at home to avoid danger. Many people in New York were terrified, and did as the paper said. If only they had read the final words of the article, which said: “Not one word of it is true. Not a single act or incident described has taken place. “It was all just a hoax. The story was made up by Thomas Connery, an editor at The Herald, who wanted to draw attention to the poor condition of cages in the zoo.

Rosie the runner

The first woman to cross the finish line of the 1980 Boston Marathon was 23-year-old Rosie Ruiz. However, as she climbed the stairs to receive her prize, people started to become suspicious.

She didn’t seem to be sweaty or tired. Furthermore, none of the other runners remembered seeing her, and her picture never appeared in photographs or TV broadcasts of the race.

Later, several people said that they had seen her join the race only at the end. It turned out she had run only half a mile (about 805 meters) and taken the train for the rest of the race! Her prize was taken away, of course.