Chapter 11 The future of technology

I. Work in small groups. Discuss the predictions about technology. Decide which ones are most likely to happen and when they will happen.

1. Medical robots will carry out operations, controlled by surgeons who may be hundreds of kilometers away.

2. Tiny robots will be injected into our bodies to deliver medicine and to perform surgery from the inside.

3. You will be able to interact with characters in a TV program and follow a storyline of your choice.

4. Planes will be controlled by computers which think like humans and are therefore afraid to crash.

5. Cars will be made of composites, plastic, and fibreglass, and will be assembled in six hours.

6. Cars will automatically drive at safe speeds and safe distances from each other.

7. You will be able to download your brain to a computer before you die.

8. Microchips will be stuck to your skin to form different circuits, including computers. You'll be able to watch a DVD using your arm as a screen.

9. Business will be carried out in 3-D virtual space, not in offices.

10. Active make-up will change to any shade you want.

11. Jobs like teaching children or nursing will continue to be done by people, but most other jobs will be done by robots and computers.

12. We'll be able to 'grow' plastics and fabrics from molecules.

Grammar notes: Phrasal verbs

• Study these sentences:

His father set up the company in 1965. The company closed down in 2002. Try to work out the answer.

• The words in bold are phrasal verbs. Phrasal verbs consist of a verb + an

adverb such as down, off, on, out, up. Some of these words can also be used as prepositions.

• Many phrasal verbs have two meanings:

Look up, then look down. (a doctor speaking)

Look up any new words in a (a teacher speaking)

dictionary.

Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs consist of a verb + adverb or preposition, such as in, out, up, down, off, on, which combine to form a single meaning. Phrasal verbs are used very frequently in both spoken and written English.

The meaning of the two words together is not always clear, for example

put off = to postpone or to delay. Some phrasal verbs have more than one meaning:

carry out = to perform an action

carry out = to take away or to take outside

One verb can be combined with different adverbs or prepositions to make different phrasal verbs, e.g. set off, set out, set up.

When phrasal verbs have an object, the position of the object changes, if it is a pronoun.

Try to work out the answer. OR Try to work the answer out. BUT Try to work it out.

NOT Try to work out it.

Other verbs in this group include: carry out, close down, cut down, fill in, find out, give up, look up, plug in, print out, put on, set up, shut off, switch on/off, take off, turn down/off, work out

However some phrasal verbs must put the object immediately after the phrasal verb, e.g.

Look for the information.

Look for it

NOT Look it for.

NOT Look the information for.