- •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.
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.
1 What factor is augmenting the slow pace of nature and making us rush at tomorrow?
2 What makes the author prognosticate a continuous assault on space in future?
3 Why does the author predict great researches of the seas and oceans?
4 What tools of investigation of the universe has the author mentioned?
5 Why is the author cautious while speaking of new technologies?
4 Look through the passage and find English equivalents for the following Russian phrases.
Время было вершителем и мерилом судьбы человека; медленная поступь; ожидающие нас возможные альтернативы завтрашнего дня; наступление на космос; выведать ответы у неподдающейся природы; мы примем любой вызов; поток технологической информации угрожает затопить нас; заглянуть в космическое пространство; задачи, которые мы даже не можем и представить сегодня.
5 Topics for discussion.
1) Our future has already arrived.
2) The shape of tomorrow can well be foreseen.
3) The main fields of investigation will be the space and the seas and oceans.
4) Among the theoretical problems the main will be the origin of the Universe.
5) Man should be cautious about new technologies.
Reading (1d)
THE SCIENTISTS’ RESPONSIBILITY
I think it may be reasonably maintained that neither the United States nor any other nation can, by itself, solve the important problems that plague the world now. The problem that count today – the steady population increase, the diminishing of our resources, the multiplication of our waste, the damage to the environment, the decay of the cities, the declining quality of live – are all interdependent and are all global in nature.
No nation, be it wealthy, large or populous, can correct these problems without reference to the rest of the world. Though the United States, for instance, brought its population to a firm plateau, cleaned its soil, purified its water, filtered its air, swept up its waste, and cycled its resources, all would avail it nothing as long as the rest of the world did none of these things.
These problems, left unsolved, will weigh us down under a steady acceleration of increasing misery with each passing years; yet to solve them requires us to think above the level of nationalism. No amount of local pride anywhere in the world; no amount of patriotic ardor on a less-than-all-mankind scale; no amount of flag waving; no prejudice in favour of some specific regional culture and tradition; no conviction of personal or ethnic superiority can prevail against the cold equations. The nations of the world must co-operate to seek the possibility of mutual life, or remain separately hostile to face the certainty of mutual death.
Nor can the co-operation be peevish agreement of haughty equals: each quick to resent slurs, eager to snuff out injustice to itself, and ready to profit at the expenses of others. So little time is left and so high have become the stakes, that there no longer remains any profitable way of haggling over details, manoeuvring for position, or threatening at every moment to pick up our local marbles and go home.
The international co-operation must take the form of a world government sufficient effective to make and enforce the necessary decision, and against which the individual nations would have neither the right nor the power to take up arms.
Tyranny? Yes, of course. Just about the tyranny of Washington over Albany, Albany over New York City, and New York City over me. Though we are each of us personally harried by the financial demands and plagued by the endless order of the officialdom of three different levels of government, we accept it all, more or less stoically, under the firm conviction that live would be worse otherwise. To accept a fourth level would be a cheap price to pay for keeping our planet viable.
But who on Earth best realizes the serious nature of the problems that beset us? As a class, the scientists, I should think. They can weigh, most accurately and most judiciously, the drain on the world’s resources, the effect of global pollution, the dangers of fragmenting ecology.
And who on Earth might most realistically bear a considerable share of responsibility for the problems that beset us? As a class, the scientists, I should think. Since they gladly accept the credit for lowering the death rate and for industrializing the world, they might with some grace accept a good share of responsibility for the less than desirable side effect that have accompanied those victories.
And who on Earth might be expected to lead the way in finding solutions to the problems that beset us? As a class, the scientists, I should think. On whom else can we depend for the elaboration of humane systems for limiting population, effective ways of preventing or reversing pollution, elegant methods of cycling resources? All this will clearly depend on steadily increasing scientific knowledge and on steadily increasing the wisdom with which this knowledge is applied.
And who on Earth is most likely to rise above the limitations of national and ethnic prejudice and speak in the name of mankind as a whole? As a class, the scientists, I should think. The nations of the world are divided in cultures: in language, in religion, in taste, in philosophy, in heritage – but wherever science exists at all, it is the same science; and scientists from anywhere and everywhere speak the same language, professionally, and accept the same mode of thought.
It is not then as a class, to the scientists that we must turn to find leaders in the fight for world government?
From “Today and tomorrow, and…” by Isaac Asimov