Unsolved - a reading activity by teacher Marcelo Vieira

Unsolved

1. Do you know of any accidents or crimes that haven’t yet been solved?

2. Do you believe there may be a paranormal component in any of these cases?  

3. Do you watch TV programs of which main feature is mystery? Do they deal with real or fictional situations?

4. Are there any situations in your life that you deem mysterious?

You are going to read about an unsolved case that happened here in Brazil, adapted from the website: www.cracked.com . The case leads the website’s top 5 list of the “Creepiest Unsolved Crimes Nobody can Explain”. Can you? What are your theories?

The Lead Masks Case

In 1966, a Brazilian boy flying a kite happened upon the bodies of two engineers lying next to each other in the grass. There was no sign of how they had died before the boy stumbled across them and he claimed he found them that way. We’re sure the cops took a good hard look at him to make sure he wasn’t like that murderous magical kid from The Twilight Zone who could kill people with his mind or the host of the Twilight Zone who could kill people with his gun.

Anyway, before long the hill was crowded with policemen, scratching their heads at an utterly baffling crime scene – if it was a crime at all. The two dead men were dressed for their funerals in fancy suits and impermeable coats. There was an empty water bottle nearby. There were no signs of violence on either of them.

Why is it called the “Lead Masks Case”? Well, that’s the baffling part. The dead men wore lead masks, a type used to protect against radiation. The two guys were identified as electronic technicians from the area.

The police gathered evidence and eventually created a reconstruction of the day of their deaths. In it, the men buy their raincoats and go to a bar to buy bottled water. Whatever the reason, one of the men appeared rather nervous, and when they left the bar they went straight to the hill the boy found them at, then spontaneously dropped dead. Case closed. Great job everyone!

It Gets Weirder!

A notebook was found at the scene. The notes inside translate to:

16:30 be at the agreed place.

18:30 swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for the mask sign

Well, they swallowed “capsules,” so obviously that’s what killed them, right? The problem is the note seems to imply they were waiting for something to happen after the capsules took effect, which means if they were poison, the two guys didn’t know they were. Also, the men had a coupon to return the water bottle when they were finished with whatever they were doing, which also seems to imply they didn’t plan on dying on that hill.

Toxicology tests could not be taken due to the victims’ organs not being properly preserved (they were apparently left in storage too long, but we like to think the investigators took the idea of heart volleyball and ran with it).

So, what in the hell convinced them to go out to a hill, strap on radiation protection and swallow some strange capsules? What effect were they waiting for? What were the masks protecting them from? Was there some third party who convinced them to do all of this, saying the pills would, what, make them travel back in time? Or give them super powers? Was it all part of some 60s Brazilian version of Punk’d?

Vocabulary work

1. Connect the words to their corresponding synonyms, according to the text:

a. before long (   ) collected

b. gathered (   ) encountered

c. strap on (   ) fasten to

d. stumbled across (   ) soon

e. utterly baffling (   ) totally incomprehensible

2. In the text, the author makes several (funny) comparisons and associations. What is said about each of these?

a. the ability of the killer to leave no evidence behind

b. the men’s clothes

c. the fact that the bodies were not well preserved

d. the fact that they were convinced to take pills of unidentified effect

3. Which of these elements is also used by the author? Where?

(   ) hyperbole

(   ) euphemism

(   ) irony

(   ) metonymy

Marcelo Vieira