Life' Great Mysteries

ENGLISH
E-BULLETIN

CHAPTER 2
(LIFE’ GREAT MYSTERIES)

PREPARED BY;
• AHMAD ARIF

• KHAIRY

EDITOR’S NOTE

Greetings from Sekolah Tuanku
Abdul Rahman! My friend(top
picture) and I(bottom picture)
strive to provide to you the best
of experience whilst reading
our bulletin. We try to put the
fun in learning so it is our wish
that you, the reader can pick up
something new about life’s
greatest mysteries alongside
getting a better grip on English
grammar.

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BEAST OF GEVAUDAN

In the 1760s, nearly three hundred people were killed in a
remote region of south-central France called the Gévaudan
(today part of the département of Lozère). The killer was
thought to be a huge animal, which came to be known simply
as “the Beast”; but while the creature’s name remained
simple, its reputation soon grew extremely complex.

Not only was the Beast of Gévaudan said to prefer
attacking women and children (and above all small girls),
according to first-hand accounts published in the press it often
“removed the victim’s head and drank all her blood”, leaving
nothing behind but a pile of bones.

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Illustrators had a field day representing the Beast, whose appearance was reported to be so monstrous it
beggared belief. One poster, printed in 1764, described it as follows:

Reddish brown with dark ridged stripe down the back.
Resembles wolf/hyena but big as a donkey. Long gaping jaw,
six claws, pointy upright ears and supple furry tail — mobile
like a cat’s and can knock you over. Cry: more like horse
neighing than wolf howling.

Another print, probably published the same year, bears the
caption: “Picture of the monster desolating the Gévaudan,
This Beast is the size of a young Bull, it likes to attack Women
and Children, it drinks their Blood, cuts off their Heads, and
carries them off.” A reward of twenty-seven hundred livres is
promised to whoever brings the animal down.

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The rampage of the Beast of Gévaudan was one of the
first international news stories. First breaking in the
Courrier of nearby Avignon, it was quickly taken up by
the papers of Paris and from there spread abroad. A
German print from September 1764 shows the Beast,
looking more like a quadrupedal kangaroo than a wolf or
hyena, attacking an improbably well-dressed man in a
rather Teutonic-looking landscape.

By the winter of 1764–1765, the attacks in the Gévaudan had created a national fervour, 5
to the point that King Louis XV intervened, offering a reward equal to what most men
would have earned in a year. Tens of thousands of hunters descended on the region.
King Louis also deployed a dragoon captain, named Jean-Baptiste Duhamel, and a
number of royal troops. Yet neither the swarms of hunters, nor Duhamel, nor the pair of
professional wolf stalkers Louis eventually sent to replace Duhamel, were able to track
down the animal responsible. It was not until September 1765 that François Antoine,
Louis’ lieutenant of the hunt, shot the enormous “Wolf of Chazes”, which was stuffed
and put on display in Versailles.

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Although Antoine also killed the wolf’s similarly enormous
mate and cub, the attacks continued. But by now the Royal
Court had lost interest. The story had played itself out, and
public attention had moved on to other matters. Luckily a
local nobleman, the Marquis d’Apcher, organized another
hunt, and in June 1767 the hunter Jean Chastel laid low the
last of what had turned out to be the Beasts of the
Gévaudan.

Supernatural explanations of the attacks of 1764 to 1767
continue to circulate. Even today, some believe they were
the work of werewolves or meneurs de loups (magical
“wolf whisperers”, or “leaders of wolves”, who can
command wolves to do their bidding). But most
historians now agree that the Gévaudan — a sparsely
inhabited, extremely impoverished rural area — was, as
Graham Robb puts it, “infested with wolves”.

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MEANING OF WORDS FROM THE TEXT

impoverished: extremely poor

sparsely : in a thinly dispersed manner; in small numbers.

engraving : a print made from an engraved plate, block, or other surface.

quadrupedal : (of an animal) four-footed; using all four feet for walking and

running

desolate : make (someone) feel utterly wretched and unhappy.

livre : an old French monetary unit equal to 20 sols

first-hand : coming from the original source or personal experience; gained

or learned directly

improbably : in a way that does not seem likely to happen or be true

rural : in, relating to, or characteristic of the countryside rather than the

town

supple : bending and moving easily and gracefully; flexible.

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SECRET OF WYSTERIA

Little Gracie found a strange house, Counting Ten, Nine, Zero fingers.
A place to play just past all the Won't you come and play The
trees. Grey Man's game?
Swift sharp needles do spot his face, Move quick, Be an artful dodger
Before he feeds on the sheep's When the cleavers start
white fleece. swishing in flames.
Phan-tas-ma-go-ooo-ri-cal, Phan-tas-ma-go-ooo-ri-cal,
Willows of Wysteria. Willows of Wysteria.
A Memorial, A Memorial,
A Crescendo A Crescendo
Of Hysteria Of Hysteria.
Little children went astray Little children went astray
In the sunny soil beneath, In the sunny soil beneath,
Wriggling worms in disarray. Wriggling worms in disarray.
Hear them laughing underneath. Hear them laughing underneath.

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DO YOU KNOW?

Back when the bubonic plague ate
up most of the world's population,
the Romans had a clever idea to
keep the healthy separated from
the sickos. The plagued people
were shipped off to Poveglia Island,
a small, secluded land mass that
floats between Venice and Lido.
There, people lived out the last of
their wretched lives together until
they croaked.

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GRAMMAR EXERCISE 1

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ANSWER FOR GRAMMAR EXERCISE 1

wrote
introduced
created
became
appeared
passed away
feels
is writing
appeared
thinks
was reading
decided

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GRAMMAR EXERCISE 2

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ANSWER (GRAMMAR EXERCISE 2)

1. THAT 6.FOR WHICH
2.WHEN 7.WHICH
3.WHERE
4.WHOSE
5.WHY

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GRAMMAR EXERCISE 3

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ANSWER

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IDIOMS

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A WORD DAY

elegiac
play

adjective el-uh-JYE-ak
PrevNext

Definition

1 a : of, relating to, or consisting of two dactylic hexameter lines
the second of which lacks the arsis in the third and sixth feet
b (1) : written in or consisting of elegiac couplets
(2) : noted for having written poetry in such couplets
c : of or relating to the period in Greece about the seventh
century b.c. when poetry written in such couplets flou rished
2 : of, relating to, or comprising elegy or an
elegy; especially : expressing sorrow often for something now
past

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JOKES

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REFERENCES

1. ENGLISH DOWNLOAD STUDENT’S BOOK,HAMILTON HOUSE LTD,37 BAGLEY WOOD
ROAD,KENNINGTON,OXFORD ENGLAND.

2. https://www.history.com/news/beast-gevaudan-france-theories
3. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/poveglia-island-like-hell_b_4188986
4. https://www.riddlester.co/5-mystery-riddles/
5. https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

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Thank You

Khairy

0109227925
[email protected]
@khairy_kik

AhmAadprAilrHifaDnasnsoianl

0189808163
[email protected]

@_riffdani