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Worksheets — Listening
NAME: Nr. CLASS:
DATE: EVALUATION:
TEACHER: E. E.
1 Listen to the song Robot by the Futureheads and fill in the blanks.
I am a robot, living like a robot, talk like a robot, in the habituating (a)
look up to the (b) (robot), you can trample over me (robot)
Do anything you do; now the ground has gone
I am a robot, living like a robot, talk like a robot, in the habituating way
In the (c) we all die (robot), machines will last forever (robot)
Metal things just turn to rust, when you’re a (d)
I am a robot, living like a robot, talk like a robot, in the habituating way
The best thing is our life span (I don’t mind)
We last night on hundred (e) (I don’t mind)
If that means we’ll be together I don’t mind
I have no mind, I have no mind
I’m (f) to follow you (robot), do exactly as you do (robot)
Now my nervous system’s blue, I feel (g)
I am a robot, (h) like a robot, talk like a robot, in the habituating way
The best thing is our life span (I don’t mind)
We last night on hundred years (I don’t mind)
If that means we’ll be together I don’t mind (I have no mind)
The best things last a life time (I have no mind)
When you age I will not change (I have no mind)
I think I’ll be around forever if you don’t mind
I have no mind, why don’t (I have no mind) (robot)
I have no mind, why don’t (I have no mind) (robot)
I have no mind, why don’t (I have no mind) (robot)
I have no mind, why don’t (I have no mind)
Before listening
1 You are going to hear the following words. Read them and make sure you know what they mean.
While listening
2 Listen to an article about a new kind of technology and complete the sentences.
a) Helen Storey is a professor at The of Fashion.
b) Dr Tony ryan is pro-vice chancellor of the at the University of Sheffield.
c) They discovered that when is coated with titanium dioxide, it reacts with
and .
d) Ms Storey and Dr ryan have created Catalytic Clothing to .
e) The technology is similar to how a catalytic converter in a helps
the fuel mix.
3 Listen again and decide if these statements are TRUE or FALSE? Correct the false ones.
a) The new invention is the result of a partnership between fashion and science.
d) Dr Tony ryan says that if half of Sheffield’s population wore the jeans, the air in city
would be pure.
After listening
2 Skim the text quickly and write a suitable title for it.
If we were all to hear the frequency of red, for example, we would hear a note that is in between F and F
sharp. red is the lowest frequency colour and the highest is violet.
I started using it 24 hours a day, carrying it around in a backpack and feeling that the cybernetic device, the
eyeborg, and my organism were completely connected. I haven’t taken it off my head since 2004, except to
20 change the equipment when it breaks down.
It looks like an antenna that comes out from my head and goes up to the front of my face. at the back of
my head there’s a chip which transforms the light waves into sound, and I hear the colours, not through my ears
but through my bone structure.
at the beginning I had some strong headaches because of the constant input of sound, but after five weeks
25 my brain adapted to it, and I started to relate music and real sound to colour.
at the moment, I can see 360 colours and I have extended this to infrared so I can hear colours that human
eyes cannot see. My favourite colour is aubergine. It looks black but it is actually violet or purple, and it sounds
very high-pitched.
BBC. retrieved from /www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16681630 (abridged and adapted, November 2012)
4 Scan the text quickly to find what these words and numbers refer to.
3
a) Neil harbisson
b) 11
Worksheets — Reading
c) adam Montandon
d) 2004
e) 5 weeks
f) 360
5 Scan the text once more and find synonyms for the following words.
You may find it useful to use your dictionary.
a) bound e) talk; presentation
b) disease f) apparatus; piece of equipment
c) heal; remedy g) data, information
d) teacher; mentor h) eggplant
b) When he was told about his vision problem he knew he’d never see colours.
e) he wasn’t able to finish his art course because of his vision disorder.
1 Read the topic sentences of each paragraph and put the story in the correct order.
Use the table below to record your answers. The first paragraph has already been recorded.
1
Other people who prefer to believe in a scientific explanation have suggested that electrical forces in the
atmosphere caused this and other incidents.
2
Suddenly, a strange light seemed to be on top of the car, sucking it up off the road before dropping it
down again.
3
Meanwhile, a local lorry driver following the same route as Mrs Muller confirmed that he had also seen the
strange light in the distance.
4
In a state of shock, they drove to the nearest town and reported the incident to the police.
5
Thinking that the woman must have been so tired that she was dreaming, the police gave her a cup of
tea hoping to calm her down.
6
Finally, the police agreed to inspect the car and when they did, they saw the dust, noticed the smell and
also noticed some small dents in the roof of the car.
7
Feeling terrified and out of control, the family noticed a black powder seeping inside their car and smelt a
horrible stench.
8
This story was quickly accepted by some people as proof that aliens existed on earth.
9
When she saw a light flashing on the road ahead, she slowed down thinking that it was a traffic signal
10
Mrs Muller and her three daughters were driving from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town in the early hours one
morning in 1979.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
10
Worksheets — Reading
b) repulsive, awful
c) smell
d) communicated
e) truck
f) simultaneously
g) way, road
h) fast
i) accepted
Worksheets — Writing
NAME: Nr. CLASS:
DATE: EVALUATION:
TEACHER: E. E.
BEINg a rOBOT
Imagine you are living in the future and you are a robot. Describe your life and your feelings.
Here are some things you should consider about yourself as a robot.
• Your name.
• Your functions.
• Your life as a machine.
• what you do.
• How you function.
• If you need batteries or not.
• If you are free or if you belong to a human.
• what you look like.
• If you have any family.
• If you play any robot sports.
• Other things you think that are important to mention.
Activity 2
1 Separate the words and phrases in the box into formal and informal writing styles.
Dear Mr Jones | Business and work colleagues | Hi | I’ll come to your party | Thank you for your prompt
response Friends and family | Yours sincerely | Dear Sir /Madam | Thx 4 email | Call you soon x | Kind
regardsI am looking forward to | Thank you very much for the information | Yours faithfully
Formal Informal
2 Read the informal email below and correct the underlined mistakes.
annie
3 Find eight time expressions in the text that you have just corrected.
3
Worksheets — Writing
4 Imagine you are Annie. Write a formal email to a travel agency, asking for information about
flights to Australia.
Include some time expressions where appropriate.
Worksheets — Grammar
NAME: Nr. CLASS:
DATE: EVALUATION:
TEACHER: E. E.
Future
1 Complete the sentences with the correct form of the Future Simple, Continuous or Perfect.
a) at 9 o’clock tomorrow, the scientists (be) in their labs. They (work).
b) I have a letter for my colleague in Germany. (you / pass) by the post office on your
way out?
c) We are 30 minutes late. The lecture on technology (start / already).
d) The documentary about robots starts at 2.30. We’ll be there at 4 o’clock so it (finish)
by then.
e) I think we (have) all sorts of robots in the future.
f) The engineers (discuss) projects this morning. You cannot talk to them.
2 Choose the correct Future form (Simple, Continuous or Perfect). Then write the sentences correctly.
a) Don’t phone me between 9 and 11.
1. will work
I 2. will be working on my project then.
3. will have worked
1. will finish
They 2. will be finishing their meeting by then.
3. will have finished
c) The space ship is travelling around the planet. It is passing above america at the moment.
1. will travel
It 2. will be travelling more than 12,000 miles by the end of the month.
3. will have travelled
1. will build
He 2. will be building 300 robots a month.
3. will have built
3
Modal verbs
1 Look at the sentences and identify the meaning of the modal verb.
Worksheets — Grammar
2 Complete the sentences with must or can (in the affirmative or negative).
a) You read azimov’s laws on robotics it’s brilliant.
b) The robot speak four languages but it sing.
c) astronauts have medical tests before going into space.
d) My two-year old son play computer games is favorite one is Bubbles.
e) The russian scientists have learned English so they work for an american company.
f) You carry your PC like that. You might break it.
1 Underline the correct word in each sentence: either the adjective or adverb.
a) She invented a perfect/perfectly robot.
b) It looks beautiful/beautifully.
c) That robot doesn’t work very hard/hardly.
d) The machine works quick/quickly.
e) Machines can learn languages easy/easily.
f) The robot sings bad/badly.
3
Passive voice
Worksheets — Grammar
a) Scientists are building humanoid robots in america.
2 Rewrite the sentences in the passive voice starting with the word that is given.
a) He will buy me a new computer.
I
b) Scientists introduced us to a brand new world.
We
c) They have sent him a book on technology.
He
d) The English teacher usually shows the class some film trailers about artificial intelligence.
The class
e) The government promised students computers in every school.
Students
f) The committee lends them money for research on the field of robotics.
They
Conditionals
1 Write the sentences correctly using the 1st, 2nd and 3rd conditional.
a) If the astronaut (leave) today, he (arrive) on the Moon next week.
3
c) He (earn) lots of money, if his technological project (be) good.
Worksheets — Grammar
c) If engineers (invent) intelligent robots before, humans would have lost their jobs by now.
Articles
1 Complete the text with the correct article (a/an or the) or no article at all.
What will robots look like when they finally achieve (a) human level of intelligence and
autonomy? No one knows for (b) sure, but we’ve put together (c) list of books that will
challenge and disturb your preconceptions about what (d) robots might become.
I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov
This is (e) classic 1950s short story collection that sets (f) tone for so much science fiction
and science that has been devoted to robots. Here, asimov developed his idea of (g) ”three laws of
robotics". Each story is about how (h) robot or a group of robots has gone crazy because of
contradictions between these laws. Knitting the tales together is Susan Calvin, a brilliant “robopsychologist”
who is basically a futuristic robot hacker. She figures out (i) bugs in robot consciousness that cause their
(j) breakdowns. What is still so profound and interesting about this collection of stories over half
(k) century later is (l) extraordinary sympathy asimov has for his robots, their minds emerging
from (m) series of commands that often contradict one another. This is still one of
(n) greatest attempts (o) writer has ever made to explain how robot minds would work
differently from humans’, while still acknowledging (p) fundamental personality traits of these artificial
beings.
i09. retrieved from: io9.com/5266293/thirteen-books-that-will-change-the-way-you-look-at-robots
(abridged and adapted, October 2012)
SPaCE ExPlOraTION
CLASS DEbATE
Why explore space?
• why should we explore space? why should so much money, time and effort be spent researching
something with apparently so few benefits?
• why should resources be spent on space rather than on things and people on Earth?
Role playing
your classroom is going to become a forum for debate. your teacher is going to be the moderator.
• Divide into groups. Each group will have to defend its views on space exploration.
• read the instructions on the role cards and, organise your arguments in groups.
Priests – against
you are a group of priests against space exploration. In your opinion,
god created the Universe and no Man can explain its mysteries.
Astronauts – in favour
you are a group of astronauts (NaSa or ESa) that are in favour of space
exploration because it helps us understand the solar system and the
Universe, and to search for other possible forms of life.
Scientists – in favour
you are a group of scientists working for NaSa. you think your mission
is to explore the Universe and search for life, to understand and protect
our planet and to inspire the next generation of explorers.
3
• In groups try to portray the above people. you have to express your point of view and criticise your
opponents’ opinions. The expressions below may help you.
Giving your opinion:
Worksheets — Speaking
I think … I believe … I feel …
from my point of view …
Strongly agreeing: I quite agree. absolutely!
Partly agreeing:
well, I see your point but … I agree up to a point but …
Disagreeing:
I am afraid I don’t agree. That´s not true
TEChNOlOgy SUrvEy
1 Write the appropriate questions for the following answers.
a) Q:
A: when I hear the word technology lots of gadgets spring to my mind like Smartphones, tablets,
laptops, video games, Tv and so on.
b) Q:
A: yes, technology is important in my life.
c) Q:
A: The biggest technological inventions that have been created by man are the mobile phone,
Internet, the computer, the car, cinema, and the telephone.
d) Q:
A: Technology is a good thing, of course.
e) Q:
A: I could not live without my mobile phone, that’s for sure.
f) Q:
A: yes, definitely. Technology has changed our lives.
g) Q:
A: No, technology has not made us impatient.
h) Q:
A: yes, I think we are obsessed with technology.
i) Q:
A: yes, sometimes technology lets me down. when I want to send a message to a friend or to my
mum and there is no service provider.
j) Q:
A: I think old people think modern technology is something for the younger generation.
k) Q:
A: Sure, technology has made our lives better than our grandparents’ lives.
l) Q:
A: The Internet can be dangerous if you misuse it. and of course there are certain dangers that you
must be aware of.
2 Now take nine questions and write them into the boxes below, then interview another student
and find out what his/her answers are. Write the answers below in the table. 3
Worksheets — Speaking
a) e)
b) f)
c) g)
d) h)