- •Science and technological progress
- •Vocabulary
- •Vocabulary practice
- •2 Fill in the blanks using a word or word combination from the following list:
- •3 Fill in the correct word derived at the end of the sentence.
- •Discussion
- •Public opinion poll
- •Reading
- •Work on the text
- •1 Ask each other questions based on the text. Do it in pairs.
- •2 Answer the following questions using the information from the text or from any other sources.
- •Summary 1
- •Summary 2
- •Reading (ib)
- •1 Read the passage as fast as possible. From the four titles presented below choose the one which better expresses the main idea. Explain your choice.
- •Reading (ic)
- •2 Read carefully the second paragraph of the text and say a few words about the possible fields of investigation in the 21st century.
- •3 Read the passage carefully and find answers to the following questions.
- •4 Look through the passage and find English equivalents for the following Russian phrases.
- •5 Topics for discussion.
- •Reading (1d)
- •Work on the text
- •1 Look through the passage and find English equivalents for the following Russian phrases.
- •2 Examine each paragragh of the text above carefully and find answers to the following questions.
- •3 Look through the passage and fill in the blanks with the proper information. In some cases grammatical changes are necessary.
- •Supplementary reading
- •1 Answer the following questions.
- •2 Make a report about the houses described in this article paying attention to their shape and the materials they are made of.
- •Uses of the internet
- •Work on the text
- •1 Ask each other questions based on the text. Do it in pairs.
- •2 Tell the group whether these statements are true or false.
- •Shaping the future
- •Discussion
- •1 Read the following and discuss the likelihood of the predictions using the expressions in the box.
- •2 Which of these technologies would:
- •4 Complete the sentences with one word from the boxes. Then finish at least five with some predictions of your own concerning business, politics, the environment, leisure or life in general.
- •5 Read out the predictions you made in 4 to the rest of the group. Be prepared to support your views. Reading
- •1 Skim the extracts and match the extracts with the people.
- •2 Read the extracts for the second time and match the extracts with each speaker’s attitude towards technology, listed a – h.
- •The futurists
- •1 What are the latest trends and developments that you know or have heard about?
- •3 Team up with people from the other group. Explain your choice of titles, summarise what you read and discuss possible implications and opportunities for:
- •Listening
- •4 Listen to six business people’s opinions on the issues in 3 and compare your views. Choose one extract you like most. Explain why? Speaker 1
- •Speaker 2
- •Speaker 3
- •Speaker 4
- •Speaker 5
- •Speaker 6
- •For and against
- •1 Work in groups. Read one of the texts about modern technologies. Share your ideas with your partners.
- •2 Discuss the technology you’ve read about with the other group. Compare them according to:
- •3 Work in 3 groups. Read one of the extracts and make a short presentation of it.
- •4 Team up with the people of the other group and discuss possible technological implications and opportunities for:
- •Writing
- •1 Read the following and write an essay, giving your opinions on the statement.
- •Feedback
- •1 Share your opinion about the unit on the following:
- •2 Summarise your information (use the essay). Supplement
- •1 Read the following vision of the future. Then summarise and present the themes in your text to a partner.
- •2 Discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups.
- •1 Read the following vision of the future. Then summarise and present the themes in your text to a partner.
- •2 Discuss the following questions in pairs or small groups.
- •Innovations in transport
- •1 Read the text.
- •2 Answer the questions.
- •Reading and comprehension
- •Learn the meaning of the following words:
- •Read the text about electric cars and answer the questions below.
- •Reading and comprehension
- •3 Answer the questions.
- •4 Are these sentences about the text true or false?
- •5 Here are notes on the main points of “The Train with No Wheels”. Make full sentences and write a paragraph using the conjunction.
- •Future trends of a modern car warm up
- •1 Discuss the point how future-oriented you are.
- •2 Do this quiz. Answer the questions? Choose the variants that suits you more and find out your prospects.
- •Reading and comprehension
- •1 Study the meaning of these words so that you can understand the text better.
- •Try and guess the meaning of the following derivative and compound words:
- •Read the text about the car of the future and do the tasks that follows.
- •Discussion
- •Writing
- •Feedback
- •Listening
- •3 Complete the sentences.
- •4 Which speaker is:
- •5 Match words from the two columns to make expressions from the texts.
- •Speaking
- •1 Complete the table with these phrases used to talk about the future.
- •2 Work with your partner. Prepare a short presentation on one of these topics.
- •Reading and comprehension
- •1 Go through the vocabulary below to avoid difficulties of understanding:
- •2 Answer the following questions:
- •Supplement texts for reading
- •Contents
- •Технический прогресс
- •246653, Г. Гомель, ул. Кирова, 34.
Reading (ic)
Look through the first and the last paragraphs and find the sentences supporting the idea of the title.
TOMORROW IS NOW
The Julian calendar recorded the year 2001 – the beginning of the 21st century. It was far more than a chronological event, for the meaning and importance of chronological time is less vital now than ever before in history. Time began for man more than a million years ago and until today it has been the mover and shaker of man's destiny. However, the slow pace of nature has been augmented by the incredible speed of the developing technology since the last third of the 20th century. The technological innovations are revolutionizing our lives more than anything else. Events, inventions, moralities – all slide and change so swiftly that we seem to be rushing at tomorrow and our future has already arrived. In that sense the 21st century is already here, for the responsibility for the events and technology that will be produced is being formed today.
It is possible to extrapolate from certain seemingly well-rooted trends and technologies and thus gain a glimpse at the very least of the possible tomorrows that await us. The increasing sophistication of the rocketry, for example, prognosticates a continued assault on space. At the same time, we have virtually run out of frontiers on land and will probably turn at long last to the sea that blankets seven tenths of the earth's surface. We shall ask more questions – at the beginnings of things, and where they are headed. We shall have far more and better tools with which to pry loose the answers from a reluctant (unwilling) universe. "How did it all begin?" is certain to be a major intellectual question at which the cosmologists of the 21st century will launch themselves with all the exotica that a space-oriented society can offer. X-ray astronomy, gamma-ray astronomy, orbiting astronomical observatories, and the stable, atmosphere-free far side of the moon, as the finest of all observatories will be the disciplines and the platforms we shall use to peer out into space and back into time to the origin of all things.
And what might man find there? No one today has answers. We can safely say only that the questions will be raised and countless voyages in search of answers will be undertaken. In truth, the 21st century will probably be a new age of exploration, as men ask the questions they have always asked, but to which they have never before had the means of seeking the answers.
The 21st century will surely provide those means. Already, the laser, the computer, and atomic energy have found their ways into our lives and are already being used for the tasks of today. These same tools will be applied to new tasks of the 21st century, tasks we cannot even conceive of today.
In every area of human endeavour the future offers dazzling capabilities for exploring and understanding ourselves and the world about us. The question is in fact not so much what we will learn, but rather what shall we do with the incredible mountains of knowledge we are at this very moment heaping together. Shall we explore the other planets of the solar system or the depths of our oceans? Shall we control the weather or the human mind?
In all probability, we shall accept every challenge the human mind can find, in deepest space or inside its own cortex (кора головного мозга). These are simply broad areas of probability, yet it is to these only that we can look in the hope of seeing where we are headed. For the technological avalanche threatens to inundate (затоплять) us by generating an ever more elaborate technology and in the process creating problems that could not have been foreseen. Moreover, the solution to these problems lies in creating a still more sophisticated technology, which creates still more problems not by failing in its designed goals but by succeeding brilliantly. With every new technological development there comes a new set of unforeseen problems, and we have reached a point where we cannot afford unforeseen problems, lest they outstrip (обгонять, опережать, превосходить) our intellectual capacity to deal with them. We will soon learn to plumb the depths of the human gene and so present to nature on a molecular level our demands for the future of man. Shall we eliminate diabetes from the human race by substituting one gene for another? But what effect might that have on the other genes within the constellation of chromosomes that make up the blueprint of man? Can we determine the effect of changes we will make in the heart of a molecule or in the atomic nucleus of a star?
The 21st century will demand extreme caution and scientific discipline. For the targets of exploration are almost within our grasp, and the tools that will extend our reach are also close at hand. We shall pursue (run after) knowledge; it will be the preoccupation of the 21st-century man. The only questions remaining concern the uses to which such knowledge will be put and the price we must pay for it.