In favour

The iPad is basically a portable entertainment device. It’s beautiful, stylish, and fun to use – a fantastic all-in-one gadget with 10 hours of battery life. I can put all my music on it and the speakers are excellent. You can also watch films or TV programmes on it. And as the screen is really big – it’s much more like watching a real TV. The picture quality is fantastic, too. On top of that, the iPad has also an application called iBooks. This is a type of eReader, so you can download dozens of books onto it. Obviously, you can use an iPad to go online too, so you can go to your favorite sites, read online newspapers or check your e-mail. There are also lots of games included, and you can download more. I love my iPad!

Against

I’ve got an iPad but I’m not that keen on it. The keyboard is good but you can’t type very quickly on it. You can read e-books on it, but I’m not sure I could read a whole novel and I think my eyes would get tired after about 15 minutes. Another problem with the screen is its size. Basically, many of the applications are for the iPhone, which is smaller than an iPad. But the real problem for me is that there’s nothing an iPad can do that my laptop can’t do. For example, with my laptop I can watch movies, listen to music, read PDFs of books, and go online. Can an iPad do anything else? No, I don’t think so. I say, if you’ve already got a laptop, save yourself the money and don’t bother buying an iPad!

Vocabulary:

basically – загалом

entertainment device – розважальний засіб

dozens of – дюжина

obviously – очевидно

to check e-mail – перевіряти електронну пошту

keyboard – клавіатура

to go online – виходити в онлайн

to bother – хвалитися

Exercise 11. Discuss the following questions with the class:

1. What is iPad? What can you do with it?

2. What special applications does iPad have?

3. What about e-books? Why is iPad good for reading?

4. Is there a difference between laptop and iPad?

5. Do you have iPad? Do you want it?

6. How do you think is it good for teenagers to have it?

7. What other similar gadgets do you know?

*Exercise 12. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using modern gadgets. Fill in the table:

Advantages	Disadvantages

**Exercise 13. Write down an essay on the following situation:

Imagine you have a talk with Steve Jobs, a world famous inventor of modern gadgets. He gave you some advice and now you are going to invent something unusual. What will it be? How can it make our daily life easier and quicker?

2. Scientific and Technological Progress

Vocabulary

to overestimate – переоцінити

to accelerate – прискорити

to investigate – розслідування

the Universe – всесвіт

to discover – виявити

to compare – порівнювати

to apply – застосовувати

beyond – за її межами

ancestors – предки

a refrigerator – холодильник

a microwave oven – мікрохвильових піч

a radio telephone – радіотелефон

an invention – винахід

combustion engines – двигуни внутрішнього згоряння 

rapidly – швидко

science and technology – наука і техніка

splitting of the atom – розщеплення атома

conquest of space – завоювання простору

mankind – людство

network embraces – мережа охоплює

to prove – довести

power – влада

reverse – назад

safety – безпека

nuclear power stations – атомні електростанції

threat – загрозa

responsibility – відповідальність

grateful – вдячний

Exercise 1. a) Trаnslаte the fоllоwіng wоrd соmbіnаtіоns:

the role of science and technology, the development of civilization, the laws of the Universe, the trivial things, the great inventions, a long period for scientific and technological progress, the endless number of outstanding discoveries, the atomic age, the splitting of the atom, the information era, the greatest progressive role of science, to disclose the secrets of the Universe.

b) Make up 5 sentences with the new words and combinations.

Exercise 2. Match an invention and its inventor and build up a sentence:

Model: Radio was invented by Alexander Popov.

Invention	Inventor
1. A pen	Alexander Popov
2. Paper	Ancient Egyptians
3. A telephone	Charles-Émile Reynaud
4. Radio	Wright Brothers
5. A film (animation)	The Chinese
6. Electricity	William Gilbert
7. A computer	Alexander Graham Bell
8. An airplane	Charles Babbage
9.A compass	the Chinese

Exercise 3. Read the article and give it a title:

There are a lot of modern inventions nowadays: a mobile phone, the TV, the radio, a motor car, a computer, photography and others. People use them every day and they couldn’t live without all these things: for example we use a mobile phone when we want to talk with our friends, we use radio to listen to something interesting and etc.

In my opinion all of these objects are very important, but computer is the most important invention for me. Computer is modern and useful technical object. It makes our life easy and develops us.

We use computer every day: we listen to the music, download and watch a lot of films, videos and games. Using computer we can communicate with friends, relatives and others. Sometimes, we sit before the screen very long time and find a lot of information which we need.

Our world is really modern and we have a lot of inventions which can help us in life…