7. Are we alone in the Universe? (ufo) ufo (Visiting the aliens)

A lot of people say that they have seen UFOs. Other people say they have been inside them. Not all of these stories are true; some of them are probably dreams, some stories of meetings with aliens sound true – although we can never be sure.

UFOs sell newspapers, and many newspapermen want to use UFOs in their stories. Because of this, some people have taken hoax photographs of UFOs to sell. Many scientists think that all UFOs are hoaxes. Certainly there have been some very clever hoaxes in the last fifty years.

It’s easy to make a photograph of a UFO. You need a small model of a spaceship. You photograph this one, and then take another photograph of the place where you want people to see the UFO. There are many photographs of UFOs taken by a man called George Adamski. Many people now believe that these are hoaxes.

There are also photographs of aliens. Many of these are probably hoaxes as well. Sometimes people see strange things in the sky, and they think that they are UFOs. When experts look carefully at them they sometimes discover that they are airplanes, balloons or even meteors.

Other photographs of UFOs look like flying sauces, but are probably just birds. Sometimes people have taken a photograph of a building or of something in the sky. When they look at the photograph later, they see a UFO. Often, this is a reflection of light in the lens of the camera. There are even photographs taken on the moon which show UFOs. These are probably just reflections, although some people think that they are aliens watching the spacemen.

Most experts think that most UFO stories are not real; but there are still a few stories which are very difficult to explain.

8. Famous Russian cosmonauts (Gagarin, Titov, Leonov, Bykovsky) Gagarin, Yury Alekseyevich

born March 9, 1934, near Gzhatsk, RussianS.F.S.R.

died March 27, 1968, near Moscow

Soviet cosmonaut who in 1961 became the first man to travel into space.

The son of a carpenter on a collective farm, Gagarin graduated as a molder from a trade school near Moscow in 1951. He continued his studies at the industrial college at Saratov and concurrently took a course in flying. On completing this course he entered the Soviet Air Force cadet school at Orenburg, from which he graduated in 1957.

Gagarin's 4 3/4-ton Vostok 1 spacecraft was launched at 9:07 AM Moscow time on April 12, 1961, orbited the Earth once in 1 hour 29 minutes at a maximum altitude of 187 miles (301 kilometres), and landed at 10:55 AM in the Soviet Union. His spaceflight brought him immediate worldwide fame; he was awarded the Order of Lenin and given the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and Pilot Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him and streets renamed in his honour across the Soviet Union.

He never went into space again but took an active part in training other cosmonauts. He made several tours to other nations following his historic flight, and from 1962 he served as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet. Gagarin was killed with another pilot in the crash of a two-seat jet aircraft while on what was described as a routine training flight. His ashes were placed in a niche in the Kremlin wall. After his death in 1968 the town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin.