Dowsing (From Emile KAHOUN, Lycee Yadega)

Most happenings can be explained through Science. In fact, in science there are laws that describe how things happen and why. The law of gravity for example: everything that goes up must come down. There are no exceptions except for rockets that leave the Earth's gravity.
These natural laws can explain nearly everything that happens on Earth, but not quite all things. Some happenings seem still beyond science.
An example of a practice that science cannot explain is one of the oldest ways of finding well water, finding a good place to dig for water.. The person is usually, but not always, a man over the age of thirty. He holds the two ends of a V-shaped stick out in front of himself. In the hands of a person who has the power or ability to find water, the stick will shake and point down, showing a good point to dig for a well.
Is there a scientific explanation for this procedure of finding water? No, there is not yet.
Dowsing, as this process is called, is still beyond the ability of science to explain. Because people cannot explain it, they do not trust it. "Water witching" is the name that people have given to dowsing because they think it must be evil.
Dowsing is actually very all. They are a few pictures of ancient Romans, Greeks, and Incas holding V-shaped sticks. Where they looking for water?
The religious leader Moses needed water for his people while they were crossing the desert. Moses hit a rock with a stick and found water for his people. Did he, use a dowsing stick? We do not know the answers to thee questions. We must look for written records that are more clear. In any cases, dowsing is an old art that people do not understand but they still use because it works.

NOTES:

Laws: loi ;
a stick: un baton ;
a V-shaped stick: un baton en forme de V;
a rocket: un fusée ;
gravity: pesanteur.

QUESTIONS

1) answer by true or false and justify your answer.

a. Scientific laws explain how things happen and why.
b. All happenings can be explained through Science.
c. Science can explain dowsing
d. Dowsing is also called water-witching.
e. Dowsing is a new practice.
f. Moses used a dowsing stick to find water for his people.

2) Answer the questions.

a. What is dowsing?
b. Do you believe in dowsing? Justify your answer.
c. What shows in the text that dowsing is very old?
d. Do you think that science will be able to explain dowsing one day? Justify your answer.