Individual work

1. Read the text “Ukrainian Pictorial Art” (p. 72) from the section Supplementary Reading.

2. Prepare a short report about famous Ukrainian painters and their craft.

3. Be ready to discuss in groups the topics below:

• Is the Appreciation of pictures a special faculty which only a few can possess?

• A great painting enriches our experience of life, just as a great poem does or a great musical composition.

• “ Aesthetic effects” make art especially engaging and illuminating.

• The masterpieces of painting, like the masterpieces of music and poetry transform experience.

• Often works of art project powerful moods, the moods of people or animals, or even the moods of landscapes, buildings.

UNIT 6

SCIENCE

PRE-READING TASKS

Task 1. With a partner discuss the following questions:

These predictions were made in the 1970s about life in the early 21^st century. Which have come true, or partly true? Why do you think some of them were correctly predicted, and some weren’t? Which may still be proved correct?

1. “All dental treatment will be pain-free.”

2. “Deserts will no longer exist, as we will have learnt how to increase rainfall.”

3. “We will no longer have to get up and walk over to the TV go change channel.”

4. “Electric cars will have become the most common form of private transport.”

5. “Average life expectancy in some countries will be over 100 years.”

6. “We will be able to re-grow entire arms and legs that we have lost in accidents.”

Task 2. Look at the table and answer the questions below.

Technical advances affecting daily life are represented by certain technologies:

technology	examples of uses/applications	example sentence(s) with connected key words
digital technology	digital photography, video and sound recording; digital broadcasting	The sound quality of a digital tape recorder is superior to that of an analogue [non-digital] one.
satellite communications	satellite navigation systems; mobile phones	She has an in-car GPS [global positioning system] navigation system, so she never loses her way.
biotechnolo- gy	genetic modification of plants	Biotechnology companies are experimenting with new, disease-resistant crops for farmers, [with a high level of protection against diseases]
artificial intelligence (Al)	automatic translation; identification systems	Al scientists are hoping to create computers that will be more and more like the human brain.
ergonomics	efficient design of human environments	This car has ergonomically designed seats; they're very comfortable on long drives, [designed to give maximum comfort and efficiency]

What types of technology would you associate with the following?

• a round the world yachtsman/woman trying to establish his/her exact position

• a designer creating a new type of computer keyboard which would be more efficient

• a scientist producing a new type of wheat which does not need to be sprayed against insects

• a camera that does not use film

• a computer that could make decisions for itself

Task 3. Look at the table and answer the questions below.

In the future we might see more of the following things:

smart buildings	computer-controlled buildings where things like lighting, heating, security, etc. are completely automatic; the adjective smart can be used for anything that is fully automatic, making its own decisions (e.g. a watch, a credit card, a camera, dishwasher, cooker)
virtual reality	computer-generated experiences that feel like the real thing; the adjective virtual can be used for any experience you can have without leaving your computer (e.g. a virtual university/supermarket)
interactive TV	TV set where you can choose exactly what to watch and when, and which can also be used as a computer for the Internet, etc.; the adjective interactive can be used for anything where the communication between you and the machine is two-way (e.g. interactive video: you do not just watch it, you can also send your own pictures)
interplanetary travel	travel to planets in outer space
e-commerce	doing business via the Internet

Genetic modification may be used to change fruit and vegetables so that they grow better [changing genes] However, many people object to the idea of genetically modified (or GM)food, [food created by changing the genes of the ingredients]

Genetic engineering [making artificial changes to the genetic structure of organisms] and gene therapy [changing genes in order to prevent disease or disability] will be used to eradicate diseases, thanks to our knowledge of the human genome [the 'map' or index of all the genes in a human being].

Designer babies may be possible, [babies whose genetic characteristics are artificially created].

Cloning of animals, and even human beings, may become common, [making a genetically identical copy].

What do we call ...

• food which has been grown by interfering with plant genes?

• an identity card that holds every possible kind of personal information about you?

• the experience of near-reality you can get with certain computer programs?

• an exact genetic copy of something?

• creatures from other planets?

• the process of altering human and animal genes?

• the process of treating defective genes to get rid of diseases?

• a baby whose genetic features have been chosen by its parents?

Task 4. You are going to read an interview with Stephen Hawking, in which he is asked to predict the future of humankind in the third millennium. Before you read the text, work with a partner and make your own predictions about the following:

1. making contact with an intelligent life form from another planet;

2. developments in computer technology;

3. genetic engineering on plants, animals and humans;

4. developments in human intelligence and knowledge.

READING

1. Skim the text to get the general idea.

A Brief History of the Future

Will we colonise the universe? Are aliens out there? Can computers outsmart us? In a unique interview, Professor Stephen Hawking, who has spent a lifetime applying his formidable intellect to the big questions, gives Nigel Farndale his predictions for the human race.

I've come here — to Cambridge University's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where Hawking holds the professorial chair once held by Isaac Newton — on the turn of the millennium to ask him what he thinks the future has in store for the human race.

If the world's population continues to grow at its present rate — doubling every 40 years — there isn't going to be enough room for us all on Earth by the year 2600. So will we, I ask, be able to spread out to other planets?

"We shall probably manage a manned or, should I say, personned, flight to Mars in the next century," Hawking says. "But Earth is by far the most favoured planet in the solar system. Mars is small, cold and without much atmosphere, and the other planets are quite unsuitable for human beings. We either have to learn to live in space stations or travel to the next star. We won't do that in the next century."

I ask whether we humans will keep on changing, or will we eventually reach an ultimate level of development and knowledge?

"In the next 100 years or even in the next twenty, we may discover a complete theory of the basic laws of the universe (the so-called Theory of Everything, in which quantum theory is unified with Einstein's theory of general relativity), but there will be no limit to the complexity of biological or electronic systems we can build under these laws. By far the most complex systems we have are our own bodies. There haven't been any significant changes in human DNA in the past 10,000 years. But soon we will be able to increase the complexity of our internal record, our DNA, without having to wait for the slow process of biological evolution. It is likely that we will be able to redesign it completely in the next 1,000 years — by increasing our brain size, for example. Of course, many will say genetic engineering on humans will be banned but I rather doubt that they will be able to prevent it. Genetic engineering on plants and animals will be allowed for economic reasons and someone is bound to try it on humans —unless we have a totalitarian world order, someone will improve humans somewhere."

"We need to become more complex if biological systems are to keep ahead of electronic ones. At the moment computers have an advantage of speed but they show no sign of intelligence. This is not surprising as our present computers are less complex than the brain of an earthworm, a species not known for its intellectual powers. But computer’s speed and complexity double every eighteen months and this will probably continue until computers have a similar complexity to the human brain."

But will computers ever show true intelligence, whatever that might be?

"It seems to me that if very complicated chemical molecules can operate in humans to make them intelligent, then equally complicated electronic circuits can also make computers act in an intelligent way. And if they are intelligent, they can presumably design computers that have even greater intelligence and complexity.'

"On the biological side, the limit of human intelligence has been set by the size of the human brain that will pass through the birth canal," Hawking says. "Having watched my three children being born, I know how difficult it is to get the head out. But in the next 100 years I expect we will learn how to grow babies outside the human body so this limitation will be removed. But ultimately, increases in the size of the human brain through genetic engineering will come up against the problem that the chemical messages responsible for our mental activity are relatively slow-moving — so further increases in the complexity of the brain will be at the expense of speed. We can be quick-witted or very intelligent, but not both."

It's time to ask the big one: will we make contact with aliens in the next millennium?

"Even if life developed in other stellar systems, the chances of catching it at a recognisably human stage are very small. Any alien life we encounter will be much

more primitive or much more advanced than us. And if it's more advanced why hasn’t it spread through the galaxy and visited Earth? It could be that there is an advanced race out there which is aware of our existence but is leaving us to stew in our own primitive juices. However, I doubt they would be so considerate to a lower life form. Some people believe that the reason we have not been contacted is that when a civilisation reaches our stage of development it becomes unstable and destroys itself. But I'm an optimist. I think

we have a good chance of avoiding nuclear war and Armageddon."

(Jones C., Bastow T. Inside Out. Student’s Book. Advanced [Теxt] /

C. Jones, T. Bastow. – Spain : Mcmillan, 2006. – P. 69.)

2. Now read the article again and find out what Stephen Hawking’s predictions are.

3. Answer the following questions. Work in pairs.

• Does anything Stephen Hawking says surprise you?

• Do any of his predictions scare you?

• What would you like to know about the future? Ask your partner what they think might happen.