Talking About Mysteries The Unknown in English Spoken English Lesson

Hi, I’m Molly. Welcome to Oxford Online 
English! In this lesson, you can learn to  

talk about mysteries and things we can’t explain.
Do you like a good mystery? Perhaps you read a  

book, saw a film, or watched a documentary 
about something which can’t be explained? 

Think about the last mystery that had 
you wondering…what happened there?! 

In this lesson, you’ll learn about describing,  

responding to and speculating about mysteries. 
You’ll also hear about some interesting ones. 

Also, do you want English subtitles 
while watching this video?  

Click the ‘CC’ button in the bottom right now 
to turn on English subtitles if you need them. 

Now, let’s look at useful language that will 
help you talk about exciting mysteries. 

Ever heard of Dan Cooper? An unknown criminal who hijacked an airplane in the 70s? 

No, never heard of him.
I just watched a fascinating documentary  

about him on YouTube. His crime is still one of 
the greatest unsolved mysteries in US history! 

Okay, so what happened?
Well, the story of Dan Cooper is an intriguing  

one. So this guy, Dan Cooper, hijacked a plane 
full of passengers flying over the U.S. No one  

knows who he was and the case has baffled the FBI 
for over 50 years. Why did he do it? Terrorism? 

For money! During the flight, Cooper said he had a 
bomb in his briefcase and demanded parachutes and  

$200,000. The plane landed in Seattle and the 
passengers were exchanged for the money. Now,  

this is where the story gets really interesting!
Go on. 

The plane took off again for Mexico with 
instructions from Cooper to fly at 10,000 feet.  

At some point during the flight, they think 
Cooper jumped out of the plane with all the cash. 

Okay, so this guy escaped with the money?!
Well, that’s still unexplained. There are  

theories about what happened to him but 
the case remains a mystery to this day. 

So that’s it? They must know 
more about what happened? 

Well…
You’ll hear more about  

what happened to Dan Cooper later, in part three 
of the lesson. But now, let’s look at the useful  

language you heard to describe the mystery.
A great way to introduce a mystery you want  

to talk about is to say: ‘Ever heard 
of…?’ or ‘Have you heard about…?’ 

These mean you’re going to tell 
the listener something of interest. 

When you introduce a mystery, you might also 
use phrases like ‘no one knows’ or ‘no one  

knows for sure’. For example: ‘no one knows 
for sure who Jack the Ripper really was.’ 

‘No one knows where Cleopatra’s tomb is.’ 

Can you think of anything else 
‘no one knows’ the answer to? 

Next, you heard some adjectives beginning 
with U-N in the conversation which described  

the mystery of Dan Cooper.
Can you remember them?  

There were three; what were they? 

You heard ‘unknown’, ‘unsolved’ and 
‘unexplained’. You can use these words  

to talk about situations we can’t explain.
One of these words is commonly used together  

with the word ‘mystery’ to make a 
collocation. Do you know which one? 

‘Unsolved mystery’ is a common 
collocation. For example,  

the Dan Cooper incident is an ‘unsolved mystery’, 
because we still don’t know what happened. 

Correct use of collocations is a great 
way to expand your communication skills  

and express yourself more clearly. There are 
other useful collocations with the word ‘mystery’. 

For example, to describe a situation where 
there are unexplainable elements, you can say:  

‘There is an air of mystery to it’, or, 
‘The situation is shrouded in mystery’. 

If a mystery has been solved, then you 
can say the mystery has been ‘cleared up’. 

If it looks like the mystery will stay unsolved, 
you can say it will ‘remain a mystery’. 

Let’s look at other adjectives 
from the conversation. 

‘Fascinating’ means that something 
is extremely interesting.  

What was the last unsolved mystery 
you thought was fascinating? 

‘Intriguing’ has a similar meaning to 
‘fascinating’; if something is intriguing,  

it’s interesting and it makes you feel 
curious. You want to know more about it. 

‘Mysterious’ describes something you find hard to 
explain. You can use it with many different words:  

a mysterious noise, a mysterious stranger, 
a mysterious disappearance, and so on. 

Finally, you heard the speaker say:
‘The case has baffled the FBI for 50 years’. 

‘Baffled’ means extremely 
confused about something. 

Got it? Don’t forget that you 
can review any part of the lesson  

which you find difficult! Let’s 
move on to our next mystery. 

Have you heard of the Mary 
Celeste? The ghost ship? 

Ghost ship? No. What is that?
It was a ship, found drifting in the  

middle of the Atlantic Ocean, totally empty.
Sounds interesting! Tell me more! 

Well, this has baffled historians for over a 
hundred years. The ship left New York in December  

1872, sailing for Italy. They found it 
a month later with all the crew missing! 

Hmmm… Okay, so something happened on 
board, and everyone abandoned the ship? 

Well, it’s not that straightforward. When they 
found the ship, there was nothing wrong with it.  

What’s more, there were plenty of supplies and 
all the crew’s possessions were still on board. 

How could that be?
No one knows for sure,  

but there are some interesting theories 
as to what might have happened. 

Such as?
Some people believe  

pirates killed the crew. Others suspect that 
two of the crewmen killed the rest of the crew  

because their possessions weren’t found.
The passengers were murdered?  

This is giving me the creeps.
Other theories suggest mother nature, a storm  

maybe, caused the crew to abandon ship, but that 
doesn’t explain why they left everything behind. 

Yeah, that’s so weird.
Some people believe there  

must be a supernatural explanation, and 
the crew were taken by aliens, ghosts  

or some other type of creature from the deep!
Creatures from the deep? Surely not!  

Anyway, I’ve heard enough. Monsters 
from the ocean freak me out. 

A great way to show interest in a mystery 
story is to tell the person you’re interested.  

Can you remember how I did this? 

Look at some phrases you 
heard. Can you complete them? 

Pause the video and think about your answers. 
If you want, you can also go back, listen to the  

dialogue again, and find the missing words.
Did you get all four? Let’s check. 

The listener also responded to 
‘pirates killed the crew’ and ‘crewmen  

killed the crew’ by echoing this with a 
question: the passengers were murdered? 

These phrases show the speaker that you are 
listening and interested in what they are saying. 

Let’s do some practice. We’re going 
to use the conversation from part one.  

If you haven’t watched part one, that’s 
okay. You can still complete this task. 

Imagine: someone is telling 
you a story about a mystery. 

See if you can respond show more interest 
using the language you’ve just seen. 

Read and repeat the responses that you see on 
the screen. Then, to make it more difficult  

for yourself, you can rewind, close your 
eyes, and try and respond without looking. 

Ready? Here we go. 

His crime is still one of the greatest 
unexplained mysteries in US history. 

The case has baffled the FBI for over 50 years! 

They think Cooper parachuted out 
of the plane with all the cash. 

Nice job! Now try it again but this time 
don’t read the responses. Also: focus on your  

intonation. Intonation is essential to express 
interest. If you say ‘Really. I’m intrigued now’,  

you won’t sound interested. You need 
intonation: ‘Really? I’m intrigued now!’ 

Learning how to respond to 
mysteries and stories with interest  

will help you in your everyday conversations too. 

Next, you will learn how to speculate about 
a mystery. You speculate when you talk about  

something you don’t know about; maybe you have an 
idea, or you just want to guess about what happened. 

Using past modal verbs is a good way to do 
this: you can use the modal verbs ‘must’,  

‘might’, ‘may’, ‘could’ and ‘can’t’ 
to speculate about the past. 

So, let’s go back to the story 
about the mysterious Dan Cooper. 

While you listen to this conversation,  

think about these two things. 
What are the speakers sure about? 

And, what are the speakers unsure about?
Got it? Let’s listen. 

They must know more about what happened?
Well… for starters, they know so little  

about the man that Dan Cooper 
might not ‘ve been his real name 

Okay. So did they figure anything out?
So many things are uncertain.  

As the plane was flying over the Washington 
mountains at night, he probably parachuted  

out. They’re not completely sure.
You mean he could’ve hidden 

on the plane and escaped later?
Possibly, but police searched the  

plane and didn’t find him.
So he must’ve jumped out! 

But he can’t’ve survived the jump from 10,000 
feet into the mountains! Did they find his body? 

No body or parachute was ever found. They did find 
a bag containing $6000 in a river. It may have  

belonged to Cooper but even that wasn’t certain.
Wow. Great story! I wonder what really happened  

to him? Maybe he’s sitting on a beach in 
Mexico right now laughing at all of us? 

Haha…maybe.
So, the speakers gave their  

ideas about what happened to Dan Cooper. What were 
they sure about and what were they unsure about? 

If you are unsure yourself, go back 
and listen to the conversation again. 

Firstly, let’s look at the 
things they were sure about  

and how they used past modals to communicate that. 

Can you fill in the blanks 
with the modal verbs you heard? 

He must have jumped out! 

This means the speaker is certain that 
Cooper did jump out of the airplane. 

He can’t have survived the jump. 

This means the speaker is certain 
that Cooper didn’t survive the jump. 

Why is the speaker so sure Cooper 
jumped out of the airplane? 

Because the police didn’t find 
Cooper when they searched the plane. 

Why is the speaker so sure that 
Cooper can’t have survived the jump? 

Because the speaker assumes it’s impossible 
to survive a jump into the mountains. 

You can use ‘must have’ or ‘can’t have’ to talk 
about things in the past where you don’t know  

for a fact, but you’re sure about what happened. 
You use logical deduction to reach a conclusion. 

Now, let’s look at the things the 
speakers were unsure about. They said:  

Dan Cooper might not have been his real name. 

He could’ve hidden on the plane.
It may have belonged to Cooper. 

The speakers in these cases are not sure. You 
can use ‘might have’ ‘could have’ or ‘may have’  

to talk about something in the past which 
you think is possible, but you’re not sure. 

So, if you say ‘He could have hidden on 
the plane’, you mean that it’s possible,  

but not certain, and either way you don’t know.
What do you think happened to Dan Cooper?  

Pause the video and make two sentences you are 
sure of and two sentences you are unsure of. 

Now, listen to me say these sentences again 
and repeat after me. He must’ve jumped out. 

He could’ve hidden on the plane.
Which words are stressed? And, which sounds  

are missing? Listen more than once if you need to.
The modal verbs ‘must’ and ‘could’ are stressed. 

For past modals of deduction, the 
modal verb is usually stressed.  

This is because the speaker wants to 
emphasize their logical conclusion or guess. 

The missing sound was the ‘h’ sound in have. 

The ‘have’ is pronounced in its weak 
form so you shouldn’t make the ‘h’ sound. 

What do you think happened to Dan Cooper or 
the Mary Celeste? Comment below and tell us  

what you think happened in these famous unsolved 
mysteries. Use the language you learned today. 

Thanks for watching!
See you next time!