U N I T 1 S t r a n g e & U nusua l 2

Bigfoot

Pre-Reading Questions

Think about the following questions.

1. Do you know any stories about mysterious creatures?
Where were they seen?
2. Do you think that strange creatures like the Loch Ness monster
exist? Why or why not?
3. What have you heard about “Bigfoot”?

Vocabulary Preview
Match each word or phrase with the correct definition.
1. aggressive a. a dead body or bones

2. remains b. a smell; a scent

3. creature c. to travel; to move from one country or area to another

4. description d. a statement that tells what something looks like

5. migrate e. an animal or monster

6. odor f. quick to attack; not afraid

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Bigfoot Track 3

N
ative American and Canadian Indian tribes
have passed down stories going back
thousands of years about giant ape-men
living in the forests of the western United States and
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Canada. They called these creatures Sasquatch, Yerin,
or Mountain Devils. Regardless of the name, the
descriptions of these animals are usually the same. The
Bigfoot is usually described as being very tall, well over
two meters. It is covered in thick, dark hair and usually gives off a bad odor.
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The Bigfoot’s body is usually very muscular and ape-like, yet it walks upright
and has a face more similar to that of humans than of apes. For the most part,
these creatures appear not to be violent or aggressive. Bigfoot sightings are
usually of lone, or single, creatures, but there have been reports of people seeing
groups, or families, of Bigfoot.
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People in other countries also tell stories of similar ape-men. In the
Himalayas, a mountain range in Nepal, people call these creatures Yeti, or
Abominable Snowmen. The Africans call them Ngoloko, and the Chinese tell
stories of the Gin-Sung, or bearman.
Though sightings have been reported for centuries, is there any scientific
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evidence for the existence of these creatures? Some say yes, and others say no.
Dr. Grover Krantz, a physical anthropologist at the University of Oregon,
believes that Bigfoot may be a type of creature known as a Gigantopithecus.
A Gigantopithecus is an animal that lived in Asia over 300,000 years ago and
looked like a mix between an ape and a very large man. Dr. Krantz believes that
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these animals, which lived long before humans, may have migrated from Asia
and decided to settle in the heavily wooded area of the Pacific Northwest,

2
pass down --- to tell from one generation to the next
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regardless of --- in spite of; not considering
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abominable --- terrible
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sightings --- fact of seeing; something seen
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anthropologist --- a person who studies the development of humans
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mix --- a combination
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wooded --- having many trees
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trickster --- a person who cheats others
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deeper --- farther inside
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elusive --- not easy to find; good at hiding

where food was plentiful.

Is it possible that creatures like these could have survived for so many years
unknown to humans? Cryptozoologists compare the case of Bigfoot to that of the
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coelacanth. The coelacanth is a type of fish that was believed to have gone
extinct over 70,000,000 years ago, but this fish has been discovered to be still
living off the coast of South Africa. Cryptozoologists believe that the animals that
we now call Bigfoot have been able to survive by living in an area that people,
until recently, have seldom gone.
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There are, however, some questions that science has been
unable to answer. For example, why have no dead Bigfoot
bodies ever been discovered? And where is the physical proof
of their existence? Bigfoot researchers point out that it is
unusual to find the dead remains of any animal in the forest.
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Most of the time, they say, other animals eat the remains soon
after death; this may be the case for Bigfoot, too. Many
skeptics, people who do not believe in Bigfoot, say that the video and
photographs of Bigfoot are really pictures of people wearing an ape costume.
They also believe that the Bigfoot footprints are really the footprints of a bear, or
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footprints made by tricksters trying to fool scientists.
It is possible that we may never know the truth about these animals. If they
have avoided being seen for the last several thousand years, then maybe they will
stay hidden for another several thousand. Or it may be that as we humans go
deeper and deeper into the forests of Northwest America and Canada, we may
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finally come face to face with the elusive Bigfoot.

Reading Time _______ minutes _______ seconds 572 words

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R eading Comprehension
A Mark each statement as either true (T) or false (F) according to the
reading.
1. ____ Stories of Bigfoot are only very recent.
2. ____ Bigfoot could be related to an animal that lived thousands of years ago.
3. ____ Many people think that Bigfoot evidence is not real.
4. ____ The coelacanth is an extinct Bigfoot.

B Choose the best answer.

1. Why do cryptozoologists think that the coelacanth is good evidence for the
existence of Bigfoot?
a. The coelacanth is an old kind of fish that can live out of water.
b. The coelacanth also looks strange.
c. The coelacanth is originally from Asia.
d. The coelacanth shows that living ancient animals exist without being easily
found.

2. Why don’t skeptics think Bigfoot exists?

a. Only pictures of Bigfoot have been taken.
b. They believe that the footprints were made by bears or tricksters.
c. Skeptics made a Bigfoot costume.
d. They are very big.

3. According to the reading, what do cryptozoologists probably study?

a. Fish
b. All animals
c. Unknown or mysterious creatures
d. Humans

C For the next two questions, look for the answers in the passage and
write them on the lines provided.
1. What is Dr. Krantz’s theory about Bigfoot?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

2. If Bigfoot does exist, why is the Northwest a good habitat for it to live in?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
S ummary
Fill in the blanks with the phrases from the list. Use each phrase only once.

believers say found or sighted are not aggressive

a bad odor came from Asia usually eat them

Descriptions of Bigfoot indicate they are larger than men, have lots of hair, and
usually have 1 _________________. One theory says that Bigfoot
2 _________________ originally, but it migrated to North America to find food.
Some people wonder why more people have not 3 _________________ a Bigfoot.
Bigfoot researchers say it is because these creatures 4 _________________ and
hide when humans come near them. Skeptics also point out that no one has ever
found a dead body of a Bigfoot; however, 5 _________________ that fact is not
so strange. It is actually rare to find the remains of any dead animal because other
animals 6 _________________.

V ocabulary Extension
Here are six words that are related to the topic but are not in the reading.
Fill in each blank with the best word from the list. Use each word only
once.

lair monsters legends hoax uncanny supernatural

1. Where does the fox live? Its __________ is over there.

2. Is the Loch Ness monster real? I think it is just a(n) __________.
3. Long ago, people thought that rain was __________. They didn’t realize that it
was a natural process.
4. “Do you think __________ exist?” “Well, I’ve never seen one.”
5. Bob had a(n) __________ experience. He still feels strange about it.
6. There are many __________ about ghosts.

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