阅读理解

　　One night in March 1999, a man was driving from California to Oregon, US, to visit some friends．He had stopped his car to have some food when he started to hear strange noises．Turning on the headlights, he saw an 8-foot-tall creature covered in thick, dark hair．The creature stared at him for a minute, turned in the road and walked off slowly into the woods．

　　In the past 50 years alone, there have been thousands of reported sightings of similar creatures in the US, Canada, the Himalayas(喜马拉雅山地区)and even Hubei Province in China．The creature is known as bigfoot．

　　Bigfoot is said to be a very tall(between 2 and 4.5 metres), ape-like(类人猿似的)creature that is covered in hair and walks upright on two legs．It is very wary(警惕的)of human beings．

　　Believers think bigfoot is a direct descendent(后代)of ancient gigantopithecus(巨猿)．But it remains one of the planet’s undiscovered secrets．There is a little evidence(证据)to support the believers’ theory：traces of hair, footprints and body prints as well as the reported sightings．Some people have even showed what they say with photos or films of bigfoot．

　　But so far, no one has found bones or any other definite proof that the giant creature exists．

　　As a result many people believe the evidence is just part of a big trick．

　　The footprints are easy to make, they say：all you need do is to make two large feet out of plaster(石膏), attach them to the bottom of your shoes and walk with big steps．As for the photos and films, they are just people dressed in ape suits．

　　They also say the sightings are not real, just people making mistakes．For example, bigfoot could be a bear living in the wild that sometimes stands up on its back legs．