Language

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘robot’?
c)	Are you looking forward to a world full of robots?
d)	How will the world change if computers and robots became more intelligent than humans?
e)	Do you think robots really could take over the world?
f)	Would you like to be implanted with nanobots that would boost your intelligence and memory?
g)	What would you like your robot to do?
h)	What could a robot do if it were 1,000,000 times more intelligent than us?
i)	What would humans be able to do better if they could think faster?

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	What do you think are our greatest technological challenges?
c)	What do you know about the human genome project?
d)	What invention would you like to see?
e)	If you were a pioneer, in what field would you like to be an innovator?
f)	Do you think life is becoming like a sci-fi movie?
g)	Will all this amazing technology and innovation solve all of the world’s problems?
h)	What questions would you like to ask Dr Ray Kurzweil?
i)	Did you like this discussion? Why (not)?

CORRECT WORD: Put the correct words from a–d below in the article.

A leading US scientist has (1) ____ that computers will be as intelligent as humans by 2029. Futurologist Dr Ray Kurzweil told the American Association for the Advancement of Science that in the (2) ____ future, machine intelligence will overtake the power of the human brain. He said that (3) ____ two decades computers will be able to think quicker than humans. Dr Kurzweil painted a picture of us having tiny robots called nanobots implanted in our brain to (4) ____ our intelligence and health. He told reporters that these (5) ____ nanobots would work with our brains to make us think faster and give us more powerful memories. Kurzweil explained that we are already “a human machine civilization” and that the upcoming technology “will be a further (6) ____ of that."

Dr Kurzweil was one of 18 top intellectuals asked (7) ____ the US National Academy of Engineering to identify our greatest technological challenges. Other experts included Google (8) ____ Larry Page and the human genome pioneer Dr Craig Venter. Kurzweil has a very impressive background (9) ____ science and innovation. He was an innovator in various fields of computing, including the technology (10) ____ CDs. He also pioneered automatic speech recognition by machines. He predicts the (11) ____ of new inventions will increase greatly from now, saying: "…the next half century will see 32 times more technical progress than the past half century." This means scenes from science fiction movies, like Blade Runner, The Terminator and I Robot, will become more and more a part of our (12) ____ lives.

1.	(a)	predict	(b)	prediction	(c)	predicted	(d)	predictably
2.	(a)	near	(b)	nearly	(c)	nears	(d)	nearness
3.	(a)	without	(b)	therein	(c)	herein	(d)	within
4.	(a)	boot	(b)	boost	(c)	boast	(d)	beast
5.	(a)	microchip	(b)	microscope	(c)	microscopic	(d)	micros
6.	(a)	extended	(b)	extends	(c)	extended	(d)	extension
7.	(a)	by	(b)	for	(c)	to	(d)	bye
8.	(a)	finder	(b)	founder	(c)	fonder	(d)	fender
9.	(a)	on	(b)	as	(c)	for	(d)	in
10.	(a)	rear	(b)	back	(c)	behind	(d)	beyond
11.	(a)	race	(b)	pace	(c)	space	(d)	ace
12.	(a)	everyday	(b)	every day	(c)	all day	(d)	today

WRITING:

Write about robots for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

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