Reading Comprehension & Précis_S2 Faculty of Letters & Humanities A.C.

English Studies Department Hassan II University

Dr. H. Rouijel Casablanca

The Man in the Moon Has Company

by Alan M. Macrobert
from The Boston Globe

Have you ever really looked at the moon? Really looked? You might be surprised at how much you
can see.
The moon is the only world beyond the Earth whose landscape is laid out for view with the naked
eye1. If your eyesight is normal (or well- corrected by glasses), you can make out a great many features
5 on the moons face—plains, mountainous regions, and the marks of meteorite impacts. The most obvious
markings are dark gray patches. These are flat plains of lava2, but 17th century astronomers using the newly
invented telescope assumed they were water. They named each spot as if it were a sea, mare in Latin
(pronounced mah-ray).
The accompanying diagram identifies the largest “seas.” Mare Tranquillitatis, the Sea of Tranquility,
10 is famous as the site where Neil Armstrong first set foot in 1969. To its upper left is Mare Serenitatis, the
Sea of Serenity, and Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Rains. All three are roughly circular, the result of lava’s
flooding gigantic craters left by meteorite impacts when the moon was young. To their left is the larger,
more formless Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms, with Mare Humorum (Sea of Moisture) and
Mare Numbium (Sea of Clouds) below it. The large bright areas are mountainous, cratered terrain made
15 of lighter colored rock. Tiny bright patches in Oceanus Procellarum are splashes of bright-colored rock
kicked up by the formation of individual craters.

With a little imagination, the gray seas suggest a face, the familiar man in the moon with his lopsided3
smile and weepy eyes. We are born with a brain that tries to find meaning everywhere, even in the most
20 random, meaningless patterns—and human faces are what we are programmed to recognize most readily
of all. So most people have no trouble seeing the man in the moon, with his enigmatic, clownish grin4.

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is laid out for view with the naked eye can be seen without any special equipment.
2
lava fluid rock from a volcano
3
lopsided crooked
4
enigmatic, clownish grin puzzling smile like a clowns

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 Other cultures have seen other shapes in this celestial Rorschach test. A surprisingly wide variety of
peoples saw a rabbit in the moon. According to the Aztecs, the moon was pure white until one of their
gods flung a rabbit against it. In India, the story goes that a rabbit leaped into a fire to sacrifice himself to
25 feed a starving beggar. The beggar turned out to be the god Indra in disguise. He put the rabbit on the
moon so all could remember its act of generosity. In ancient China, the rabbit was carried there by the
moon goddess Heng O, who was fleeing her angry husband. The Chinese also saw a toad in the moon.
Others have seen an old man carrying sticks, a beetle, and a woman reading a book.
The ancient Greeks weren’t satisfied with this sort of fantasy. Some wanted to know what the spots
30 actually were. One idea was that they were reflections of the Earth’s continents and seas. But others
showed that this was not possible. Pluto of Chaeronea, a Romanized Greek who lived from about 46 to
120 CE, wrote a book titled On the Face of the Disk of the Moon. He reported a wide variety of opinions
about the moon and gave arguments for and against each. He refuted some of those theories, such as the
one that the markings were illusions in the eye of the beholder5. Instead he suggested, rightly, that the light
35 and dark areas are composed of different materials. He demonstrated that the moon’s phases prove it to
be a solid, opaque6 sphere with a rough surface lit by sunlight, an object very much like the Earth.
Extending this analogy, he declared that the moon was covered with mountains and valleys. This very
correct idea may have been suggested by the small irregularities that can be seen in the moon’s straight
edge near its quarter phases. They are indeed shadows cast by lunar mountains.
40 Plutarch recorded some even more remarkable ancient findings. He quotes Aristarchus as determining
the moon to be between 0.31 and 0.40 the size of the Earth (close enough; the true value is 0.27). He cites
an unidentified philosopher who measured the moon’s distance to be, in modern units, about 215,000
miles (the true value averages 240,000). All this was done with nothing but the naked eye, probably some
crude sighting tools, and an excellent knowledge of geometry by people who had outgrown tales about
45 faces and rabbits.
Today we’re spoiled by technology. People think they can’t see anything in the sky without a
telescope, much less figure out what it is. But a good eye and brain can go a long way.

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in the eye of the beholder in the mind of the person looking.
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opaque not allowing light to pass through.

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Consider the Issues

Work with a partner to answer the questions below.

1. Look at the title of the article. Why do you think the author chose this title? How do you think it
relates to the information in the article?
2. The author describes the different things that people have seen in the face of the moon. Why do you
think he provides this information? What point might he be trying to make?
3. The author says that we are spoiled by technology. What do you think he means? Do you agree or
disagree with him? Why?

Reading Skill: Using Context Clues

As you learned in Chapter 1, you can use context (the surrounding words and ideas) to guess the
meanings of unfamiliar words. These are some common types of context clues that can help you
understand new words as you read:

Common Context Clues Examples

You can see a lot with the naked eye. With normal eyesight, you can
A definition
make out many features on the face of the moon.
Plutarch recorded some remarkable ancient findings, such as the size
An example
of the moon and the moon's distance from Earth.
The subject and object of an He suggested that the light and dark areas of the moon are composed
unfamiliar verb of different materials.
Contrasting words They weren't sure what it was, but they assumed it was water.

Words in a series It’s rough, mountainous surface led people to see different things.

Cause and effect His enigmatic smile confused us completely.

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A. Analyze the Reading

Read these sentences from the article and use context to guess the meaning of each boldfaced
word. Then look up each word in a dictionary to check your guess.
1. “If your eyesight is normal (or well-corrected by glasses), you can make out a great many features on
the moons face—plains, mountainous regions, and the marks of meteorite impacts.” (Look for
examples.)
My guess: __________________________________
Dictionary definition: _________________________
2. “We are born with a brain that tries to find meaning everywhere, even in the most random,
meaningless patterns—and human faces are what we are programmed to recognize most readily of
all.” (Look for words in a series.)
My guess: __________________________________
Dictionary definition: _________________________
3. “In ancient China, the rabbit was carried there by the moon goddess Heng O, who was fleeing her
angry husband.” (Look at the subject and object of a verb.)
My guess: __________________________________
Dictionary definition: _________________________
4. “The Chinese also saw a toad in the moon. Others have seen an old man carrying sticks, a beetle, and
a woman reading a book. The ancient Greeks weren’t satisfied with this sort of fantasy.” (Look for
examples.)
My guess: __________________________________
Dictionary definition: _________________________
5. “He reported a wide variety of opinions about the moon and gave arguments for and against each. He
refuted some of those theories, such as the one that the markings were illusions in the eye of the
beholder. Instead, he suggested, rightly, that the light and dark areas are composed of different
materials.” (Look for contrasting information.)
My guess: __________________________________
Dictionary definition: _________________________

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B. Apply the Reading Skill
Read these sentences about the moon and use context to guess the meaning of each boldfaced word.
Underline the words that helped you to guess.
Interesting Facts About the Moon
1. We always see the same side of the Moon; the other side is always hidden.
hidden means ______________________________________
2. When Alan Shepard was on the moon, he drove a golf ball nearly one half a mile.
drove means _______________________________________
3. The footprints of the Apollo astronauts will not erode because there is no wind or water on the moon.
The footprints could stay there for 10 million years.
erode means _______________________________________
4. Flying once around the moon is equivalent to flying from New York to London and back.
equivalent means ____________________________________

Précis:
Write a precis paragraph summarizing the article in 480 words (+/- 10 %).