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122 Living and working together 09 LANGUAGE SKILLS EXPLORE LOOK AGAIN EXTRAS Read the article about urban legends. First decide whether the statements (1–8) are true (T) or false (F) and put a cross ( ) in the correct box. Then identify the sentence in the text which supports your decision. Write the first four words of this sentence in the space provided. There may be more than one correct answer: write down only one. The first one (0) has been done for you. 40 By Heather Whipps My mother has this friend whose daughter … Sounds familiar? You might have heard the same story. Except that it was someone’s boyfriend’s brother – or friend’s cousin. Or it’s an urban legend. Urban legends, or urban myths, are an important part of popular culture, experts say, oering insight into our fears and the state of society. ey are also good fun. e making of a legend Like the variations in the stories themselves, folklorists all have their own de nitions of what makes an urban legend. Academics disagree on whether urban legends are too fantastic to be true, or at least partly based on fact, says Mikel J. Koven, a folklorist at the University of Wales. Urban legends aren’t easily veri - able. Usually passed on by word of mouth or – more commonly today – in email form, they o en use the famous ‘it happened to a friend of a friend’ (or FOAF) clause that makes nding the original source of the story virtually impossible. However, this isn’t as important as the lessons they teach us. “e lack of veri cation in no way diminishes the appeal that urban legends have for us,” writes Jan Harold Brunvand in e Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Le- gends and eir Meanings . e de- nitionof anurban legend, hewrites, is “a strong basic story-appeal, a foundation in actual belief, and a meaningful message or moral.” Legends re ect cultural contexts Koven thinks urban legends are also good indicators of current society. “By looking at what’s implied in a story, we get an insight into the fears of a group in society,” he told LiveScience . “It’s these fears that tend to give rise to new legends.” A lot of fun, too … But urban legends aren’t all serious, with the most believable ones o en presented as funny stories, and Brunvand argues that legends should be around as long as there are in- explicable occurences in life. “It might seem unlikely that urban legends would continue to be created in an age of widespread literacy, rapid mass communications and restless travel,” he wrote in e Vanishing Hitchhiker , printed many years before widespread use of the internet. “A moment’s re- ©ection, however, reminds us of the many weird, fascinating but unveri ed rumours that o en come to our ears – madmen on the loose, shocking personal experiences, un- safe products and many other un- explained mysteries of daily life.” Urban Legends: How they start and why they persist Explore reading: Urban legends Statements T F First four words 0 One attraction of urban legends is that they are enjoyable. Q1 Folklorists agree that urban legends have a basis in fact. Q2 It’s very hard to discover how urban legends start. Q3 We only enjoy urban legends because we know they are true. Q4 Urban legends often have a sort of moral lesson or message. Q5 Urban legends give us information about society. Q6 New legends can reflect new fears and anxieties. Q7 Some experts believe that legends will continue as long as there are mysterious incidents in people’s lives. Q8 Modern times do not encourage the making of new urban myths. They are also good Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv