Answers. 1. Vocab extension: Choose several of the words from the text

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Homo floresiensis. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. KILLER APP: Make a poster on a revolutionary application for this new technology.

4. CONCERNED: Write a letter to a newspaper voicing your fears over this new technology.

TRUE / FALSE:
(a) Scientists have just invented a cap that can think. F
(b) Scientists have invented a device that can allow human thoughts to control a computer’s actions. T
(c) Four laboratory monkeys tested the new device. F
(d) This technology can provide communication and control to people who are totally paralyzed. T
(e) This technology needs painful surgery. F
(f) Brain power may soon be able to control motorized wheelchairs. T
(g) This is a major breakthrough in neuroscience. T
(h) The researchers who discovered this won the Nobel Prize for medicine. F

PHRASE MATCH:

GAP FILL:

The expression to ‘get one’s thinking cap on’ has just taken on a new and quite literal meaning. Scientists have invented a device that can allow human thoughts to control a computer’s actions. Four volunteers wore a special cap, containing 64 electrodes that were ultra-sensitive to brainwave activity and brain signals. The machine translated the volunteers’ thoughts “to control rapid and accurate movement of a [computer] cursor in two dimensions ”, according to researchers Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarland of the New York State Department of Health and State University. Not quite Hollywood-style robotics... yet, but getting there.

The researchers say Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) “can provide communication and control to people who are totally paralyzed. ” The whole procedure is completely non-invasive, needing no surgery. It opens up a whole world of possibilities and hope in its application, especially for people disabled with spinal cord injuries and severe motor disabilities. Brain power may soon be able to control motorized wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs. The age of the Bionic Man and cyborgs may come sooner than we think. This is truly a major breakthrough in neuroscience, and may even pave the way for a Nobel Prize for the researchers.