PART 2: SPEAKING

UNIT 3: SUPERTITIONS AND BELIEFS

1. Discussion. Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

What do you think?

1. Black cats are unlucky.

2. It is unlucky to break a mirror.

3. It is bad luck when a shoelace breaks.

4. If my eye twitches, I will receive money.

5. If I point at a shooting star, something wrong will happen.

6. Opening an umbrella indoors will bring me bad luck.

7. If I walk under a ladder. I will get bad luck.

8. I have something that I consider lucky (a lucky pen or a lucky hat).

9. I have a lucky number.

Questions.
What's your lucky colour?
What are your lucky clothes?
Have you got a lucky charm (a favourite pen, a teddy bear, a ring) which you like to take with you
to an exam or job interview?
Is there anything you think is unlucky for you?

Discussion.
Think of some more things which bring good or back luck in your country.
Do you know any things from other countries which are supposed to bring good or bad luck?

Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F).

Superstition has forced a European airline to change its logo. New Belgian carrier Brussels
Airlines had to change its 13-red-dot logo on the tail of all its planes because of a flood of
complaints from passengers about the combination of thirteen red balls representing bad luck.
This number is unlucky in Western culture and many would-be passengers thought it just
wouldn’t do on an airplane. Airline officials were taken aback by the volume of disapproving mail
they received. Particularly upset was the original logo’s designer Ronane Holt. She said the
thirteen dots “looked just right” and had extra significance because the number of dots matched
the destinations it flew to in Africa. The design, in the shape of a “b”, also resembled the pattern
of lights on an airport runway as planes taxied before take off.

All of the airline’s planes now have to go back to their hangars for a paint job. A fourteenth red
dot will be added to the top of the “b”. However, this may not go down well in China, where the
number fourteen is unlucky. One-four in Mandarin sounds like the phrase "to want to die".
Passengers at Brussels airport were in two minds as to whether or not they thought the fourteen-
dot logo would bring better luck. Frequent business flyer Rene Charles said: “In this day and age,
superstitions are a little silly. There is no logic behind them.” However, she did admit that she
shared the concerns of other passengers and was happier that the newer logo has an extra dot.
Brussels Airlines is the result of a merger between SN Brussels Airlines and Virgin Express. It
begins flying, with the fourteen dots, on March 25.

Read the article and discuss the following questions.

1. What did you think when you read the headline?

2. Would the 13 dots on the logo have bothered you?
3. Do you worry about flying and airplane safety?
4. Do you have any small rituals/habits you do when you fly?
5. Do you believe in fate?
6. Would you feel safer flying with Brussels Airlines if the logo had 13 or 14 red dots?

Complete these sentences with words from the list below.

alien ESP ( extrasensory perception ) psychic

UFO (unidentified flying object) astrology
ghost telepathy

1. A is someone who has the power to predict the future or to see things that are not
present. They sometimes help solve crimes .
2. is the ability to “read a person’s mind” simly by using mental powers.
3. An is a creature from outer space – an inhabitant of another planet or galaxy.
4. A is a spirit of someone who has died.
5. A “flying saucer” is an example of a , a strange mental powers instead of the five
senses.
6. is the ability to gain information using special mental powers instead of the five
senses.
7. studies the influence of stars and planets on human nature. Astrological signs
affect people’s character and personality.

2. PREMONITIONS OF DISASTER

1. Did you ever have the feeling that something terrible was going to happen?
2. Did you ever cancel any plans because something “inside you” made you feel uneasy?
3. Do you think that some people can predict the future?

The Sinking of the TITANIC

People sometimes have the feeling that they know something is going to happen. This is called a
premonition. Some premonitions take the form of dreams or visions. Others are just strong
feelings, ideas, or guesses that come into people’s minds for no apparent reason.
Some people claim that they have premonitions at one time or another, but they known as
psychics or clairvoyants appear to be more sensitive to whatever causes accurate premonitions.
The following story is about the Titanic and the many apparently mysterious forewarnings that
were reported.

In the early morning of April 15, 1912, the Titanic, the world’s largest ocean liner at the time,
struck an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. A total of 1,502 lives were
lost. Later investigation turned up at least 20 cases of people having premonitions of the disaster.

One of the strangest examples of an apparent premonition involved a novel called Futility, written
in 1898 by Morgan Robertson. In the book, a huge liner, the Titan, sank after hitting an iceberg.
Like the Titanic, the Titan was said to be unsinkable. Also like he Titanic, the Titan carried too
few lifeboats for the large number of passengers on board.

In addition, there were two other stories that appeared to foretell the disaster, both written by a
passenger on the doomed ship – one of them over 20 years earlier.

At least nine people had dreams in which a ship like the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. Two
clairvoyants gave warnings about the disaster, and several other people had extremely strong
intuitions that something would go wrong. Some would-be passengers were so uneasy about the
voyage that they canceled their tickets at the last minute. All these uncanny coincidences appear
to be premonitions. There seems to be no way of explaining them

Source: Supernatural Guides: Mysterious Powers and Strange Forces

Discuss these questions.

1. Why do you think so many people had premonitions about Titanic?

2. Have you ever heard someone making predictions for the New Year or about an important
event? What was your opinion about those predictions

Discuss with the others about the following.

1. Do you really believe in strange and mysterious phenomena, i.e. levitation, telepathy, dowsing,
faith healing, reincarnation, astrology...? Why or why not?
2. Are you superstitious? Do you know anyone who is superstitious?
3. Why are some people superstitious?
4. Do you think that younger people are as superstitious as older people? Why or why not?
5. Are women more superstitious than men? Explain your answer.