THE ARTICLE. Scientists can make things invisible

Scientists can make things invisible

Task 2

LANGUAGE WORK

Internet helps families stay more in touch

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a. F

b. T

c. T

d. T

e. F

f. T

g. F

h. T

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	much	a.	a lot
	according to	b.	as stated by
3.	down to	c.	because of
4.	in an instant	d.	quickly
5.	savvy	e.	know-how
6.	within	f.	inside
7.	decreased	g.	lowered
8.	similar	h.	almost identical
9.	connectedness	i.	linking
10.	author	j.	writer

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	technology is bringing people	a.	closer together
	keeping in	b.	regular contact
3.	It makes	c.	sense
4.	sent in an	d.	instant
5.	Everyone’s at	e.	it
6.	According to	f.	the Pew survey
7.	communication within	g.	families
8.	family members they	h.	did not live with
9.	There's a new kind of connectedness	i.	being built
10.	not until 5:30, 6 o'clock did	j.	they ever connect

GAP FILL:

Much has been said about how anti-social the Internet and mobile phones are. The truth is however, according to new research, communication technology is bringing people closer together. A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found family members were keeping in regular contact today more than ever before. And this is all down to e-mail, chat, our cellphones and SMS messaging. It makes sense. Years ago, it took a long time to write a letter, then find an envelope and go to the post office to buy a stamp and post it. Today we write mails while we wait for our change in the convenience store and they’re sent in an instant. Having free Internet telephone calls also helps us to stay in touch more often and for longer. Everyone’s at it, from five-year-olds to tech-savvy grandparents.

According to the Pew survey, technology has a very positive effect on communication within families. Researchers asked 2,252 adults whether new technologies had increased the quality of communication with their family. Fifty-three percent said it increased communication with family members they did not live with, two per cent said technology decreased this. Numbers were similar for those living in the same house as their family. The project director Lee Rainey said: "There's a new kind of connectedness being built inside of families with these technologies”. Survey co-author Barry Wellman agreed: "It used to be [that] husbands went off to work, wives went off to a different job or else stayed home…and the kids went off to school…and not until 5:30, 6 o'clock did they ever connect," he said.

1 - d

2 - b

3 - a

4 - c

5 - c

6 - b

7 - a

8 - d

9 - b

10 - d

11 - c

12 - a

Scientists in the USA say they are a step closer to developing materials that could make people invisible. Researchers at the University of California have found a way to cloak humans and objects using special materials that redirect light around things. The findings, led by Professor Xiang Zhang, were published in the journals ‘Nature’ and ‘Science’. Zhang works at the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centre at the university. His team developed a set of artificial “meta-materials” on a microscopic scale that is measured in billionths of a metre. The researchers said the special “fishnet structure” of the nano-sized objects do not absorb or reflect light, which makes them seem invisible. They compared the light to “water flowing around a rock".

The new discovery is a huge step forward from earlier technology that only allowed the concealing of two-dimensional objects. In the future, scientists could make “invisibility clothing” to hide people and large objects. However, scientists are still a long way from designing and manufacturing invisibility cloaks. The U.S. military is extremely interested in developing this idea to bring the technology to the battlefield. The U.S. Army Research Office funded part of Dr. Zhang’s research. The technology could also lead to more powerful microscopes that are able to look more closely at living cells and even tinier objects. This means scientists could look at how viruses are formed and how they grow.

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