The Future

Pre-Advanced. Lesson 3
Lesson 3.The Future

“ The best way to predict the future is to

create it”.
- Abraham Lincoln

1. Warm Up
1. What is your favorite science fiction movie about the
future?
2. When you were a child, what did you imagine the future
would be like?
3. What do you think your life will be like in 2045?

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Lesson 3.The Future

5. Imagine you could live twice as long. How would you use
your time?
6. If you had the ability to modify the human body, what
changes would you make?
7. What are your predictions? Complete the table.
Good Things Bad Things
This year for you
Your country
Sport
Inventions
The world
Your old age

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Lesson 3.The Future

 2. Pre-Listening Activity
Match the words and phrases in the table to their synonyms.
1. Science fiction a. Head (informal)
2. automation b. A job you do at an office rather than a factory
3. manipulating c. Likely to be affected by
4. Susceptible to d. The use of machines to do work that people do or
used to do
5. Manual dexterity e. Hoping the things are going to turn out the way
you want them to
6. Cognitive labor f. Good with your hands
7. Noggin g. Using your mind to perform a task
8. Artificial Intelligence h. A computer’s ability to copy intelligent human
behavior
9. Keeping our fingers crossed i. with imaginative concepts
10. White collar j. controlling or influencing

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Lesson 3.The Future

3. Listening (2.1)
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/6min/151015_6
min_english_robots_download.mp3
After listening Exercise
Decide if each of the following statements about the text are true or false.

1. A study from Oxford University has suggested that 35% of existing UK

jobs are being automated in the next 20 years.
2. It's only the manual labor that's coming under threat of automation.
3. Office workers who do repetitive jobs such as drawing up
spreadsheets could be replaced with software.
4. Computers and machines are using their brains and getting smarter.
5. Manipulating small objects makes a job more likely to be done by
robots.

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Lesson 3.The Future

4. Vocabulary Match
a. inescapable, certain
1. dawn
b. control or use something in a skillful way
2. inevitable
c. crucial, of great importance
3. exponential
d. reproduce another product by examining
4. reverse engineer (verb)
its construction
5. dystopia
e. bring the dead back to life
6. motive
f. a reason for doing something
7. resurrect (verb)
g. increasing at a rate which is faster and
8. bolster (verb)
faster
9. manipulate
h. strengthen, support
10. inconceivable
i. unimaginable
11. pivotal
j. an unpleasant place which is the opposite
12. feasible
of utopia
k. the beginning or first signs of something
l. possible; plausible

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Lesson 3.The Future

5. Reading
Human civilization as we know it will end in the year 2045, according to
Raymond Kurzweil. This end, or more properly, transition, is known by Kurzweil and other
futurists as the Singularity. The Singularity will mark the dawn of greater-than-human
intelligence. This event will be the inevitable result of the exponential technological
growth of the present and near future. By the mid-2020s, Kurzweil predicts we will
successfully reverse engineer the human brain. By 2045, as a result of vast computing
power increases and cost reductions, artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence.
Beyond this point, labeled the event horizon, future events cannot be predicted with our
current means.
Kurzweil’s vision of this transformation is neither dystopian nor utopian. He
admits that technologies are double-edged swords, but he ultimately places faith in man. For
Kurzweil, despite the increased visibility of negative news due to modern media,
historically speaking, the world is getting better and people wiser. Having accepted the
unavoidability of technological progress, including the development of artificial intelligence
(AI), one aim of the movement is to make the transition to the future as friendly as
possible.

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Lesson 3.The Future

At 62, Kurzweil has personal motive to hope for the coming of the Singularity:
he wants to have his life extended by it. What’s more, he believes technology will
make it possible to resurrect his father. Among the medical advances Kurzweil
envisions are tiny computerized bots operating inside the body to bolster the
immune system. Concerning entertainment, similar technology would enable us to
manipulate our senses, making virtual entertainment possible. This, for Kurzweil,
is a reason why radical life extension would not necessarily mean radical
boredom.

With unmanned military drones in the sky, the world of human

knowledge stored in mobile phones in our pockets, and neural implants already in
some of our bodies, Kurzweil’s future may not be so inconceivable. The
movement is growing and a Singularity University has even been established.
The pivotal issue they face concerns the feasibility of genuine AI. Do
Singularitarians underestimate the task of duplicating the human brain? To this
question, Kurzweil responds, “I don't believe I'm underestimating the challenge. I
think [the critics] are underestimating the power of exponential growth." (361
words)

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Lesson 3.The Future

Comprehension
1. Determine whether the following sentences are true or false

1. Kurzweil believes our world will end in 2045.

2. Kurzweil believes mankind can more or less manage technology.
3. For Kurzweil, radical life extension would mean radical boredom.
4. According to the passage the world is getting better and people wiser.
5. The dawn of greater-than-human intelligence is the result of result of
the exponential technological growth of the present and near future

2. In your own words, how would you define the Singularity?

3. What is an event horizon?

4. According to Kurzweil, what will help keep us entertained if we live longer?

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Lesson 3.The Future

6. Grammar Focus
Will vs Would

We use will:
• to talk about the future – to say what we believe will happen
• to talk about what people want to do or are willing to do
• to make promises and offers

would is the past tense form of will. Because it is a past tense it is used:
• to talk about the past.
• to talk about hypotheses – things that are imagined rather than true.
• for politeness.

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Lesson 3.The Future

5. What is the most central issue concerning the Singularity debate?

6. Your Opinion: What did you think of the ideas presented in the article?
7. Resources: If people live longer, it would follow that Earth would need more
resources. Kurzweil believes that technology can extend resources. Do you share
his optimism?
8. Exponential Growth: is technological progress really increasing exponentially?
9. How would you live if the Internet went down for a month?
10. How do you think human civilization will ultimately end?

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Lesson 3.The Future

Beliefs Willingness
We use will to talk about what people want to do or are willing
to say what we believe will happen in the to do:
future: We’ll see you tomorrow.
We'll be late. Perhaps dad will lend me the car.
We will have to take the train.
We use would as the past tense of will:
We use would as the past tense of will:
to talk about what people wanted to do or were
to say what we believed would happen:
I thought I would be late …… so I would willing to do:
have to take the train. We had a terrible night. The baby wouldn’t go to
sleep. He kept waking up and crying.
Dad wouldn’t lend me the car, so we had to take
the train.
Offers and promises
We use I will or We will to make offers and to talk about something that we did often in the past
promises: because we wanted to do it:
I’ll give you a lift home after the party.
When they were children they used to spend their
We will come and see you next week.
holidays at their grandmother’s at the seaside.
They would get up early every morning and they’d
have a quick breakfast then they would run across
the road to the beach.

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Lesson 3.The Future

Conditionals
We use will in conditionals with if and unless to say what we think will happen in the future or present:
I’ll give her a call if I can find her number.
You won’t get in unless you have a ticket.

We use would to talk about hypotheses, about something which is possible but not real:
to talk about the result or effect of a possible situation:
It would be very expensive to stay in a hotel.

in conditionals with words like if and what if. In these sentences the main verb is usually in the past
tense:
I would give her a call if I could find her number.
If I had the money I'd buy a new car.
You would lose weight if you took more exercise.
If he got a new job he would probably make more money.
What if he lost his job. What would happen then?

We use conditionals to give advice:

Dan will help you if you ask him.
Past tenses are more polite:
Dan would help you if you asked him.

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Lesson 3.The Future

Grammar Exercise
Read the sentences and decide whether the gap should be filled with 'will' or 'would'.

1. ______ you mind closing the door ? 5. If I see her I ______ let her know.
Will will
Would would
2. Maybe I ______ speak to her. 6. She ______ speak to me, she was so
will upset.
would won't
3. We ______ see what happens wouldn't
tomorrow. 7. I promise I ______ tell anyone.
will won't
would wouldn't
4. What ______ you like to eat? 8. She thought she ______ be late, so she
will took a taxi.
would will
would

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Lesson 3.The Future

Grammar Exercise
Fill in the blanks with will or would. Add the words in the parenthesis.

1. My parents wanted me to take my nose ring out, but I _______ (not).

2. I _______ my nose ring in!
3. I knew that they _______ (object) to my nose ring.
4. They worry that I _______ (add) tattoos as well.
5. In fact, I _______ (get) a tattoo on my ankle.
6. But I______ (not tattoo) my face because I don't like pain.
7. I ______(take) off my nose ring at family dinners.
8. My parents thought that taking if off for family dinners ______ (be) very nice.
9. I promised that I ______ (wear) wear it in front of my grandmother either.
10. As a teenager, I have to draw the line between what I _______ and what I _____
(not) do.

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Lesson 3.The Future

7. Technology Predictions and Debate

1. Discuss which of the below items you think will exist in the
future. Add more items to the list if you can.
· Time travel · A cure for cancer
· Telekinesis · Classrooms without chalkboards
· Cloning of extinct species · Interactive clothing or invisibility
· Underwater cities · Other: ……
2. Artificial Intelligence Debate
Premise 1: Humanity is becoming wiser.
Premise 2: Wiser humans can develop and utilize AI responsibly.
Conclusion: AI should be developed.

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Lesson 3.The Future

Useful Vocabulary

Nouns Adjectives Verbs Phrasal Verbs

predictions convincing imagine used up
machines social print worry about
negotiation repetitive question draw up
human beings intelligent assessing find out
threat original involves turn out
advantage persuasive functioning
automated

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Lesson 3.The Future

8. Master the Language

Connect the below ideas to make a sentence.

government / crush / uprising e.g. The government plans to crush the uprising.

dawn / mankind
death / inevitable
increase / exponential
reverse engineer / inconceivable
technology / dystopia
motive / father
feasible / resurrect
bolster / body
deceased / resurrect
manipulate / DNA

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Lesson 3.The Future

Express Yourself

1. What springs to mind when you hear the word 'future'?

2. What are your predictions for the future?
3. Would you prefer to live in the future or in today's world?
4. In 50 years there are projected to be 10 billion people on the earth. How will that
affect the future?
5. Will people still need to study English in the year 2116?
6. Do you think everything we see in science fiction movies will come true?
7. What questions would you like to ask an expert on the future?
8. Will we be able to add machines to our body to improve it in the future?
9. Will science find a solution to the environmental problems we have? What kind of
solution will it be?
10. What is something that will happen in the future that you are looking forward to?

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Lesson 3.The Future

9. Master the Language

Discuss the article below.

http://www.headsupenglish.com/advanced/newslessons/futurehumans/futuread
vanced.pdf

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