Task 4. Writing
How do you see your future?
Write your own opinion (about 150-200 words)
Task 5. Presentation
Make a presentation (8-12 slides) on the topic:The Inventions that changed the world.
SELF STUDY 15
Task 1. Vocabulary
Exercise 1. Match the verbs (1-6) to the nouns (a-f).
1 to comply with a) a market
2 to carry out b) a price
3 to break into c) an order
4 to place d) a market survey, an enquiry, an investigation, tests
5 to quote e) the delivery date, a deadline
6 to meet f) the regulations, a rule, an order
Exercise 2. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words
from the text below.
a. Using the latest multimedia_____________ would improve the quality of any performance.
b. Polyglots are usually _____________ with tremendous abilities that in its turn
an _____________ expanding of worldview.
c. I’m doing my best in the way of education and tomorrow sees m e_________ .
d. Mr. X was the _____________ behind the plan to acquire the newest_____________ .
e. There are so m any_____________ to choose from and some are arguably better than others.
Task 2. Reading
UP-TO-DATE DEVICES AND THE MODERN GADGET ECONOMY
By Dominic Basulto
For James Bond, the gadget was always frontand-center, as central to his persona as the martinishaken-not-stirred and the impossibly glamorous Bond girls. “The perfect gadget at the perfect time” appeared to be the unofficial mantra of Britain’s intelligence agency-slash-underground R&D lab, which was always working on the next big gizmo (__) to prepare Agent 007 for battle with the world’s super-villains (__). The remote control, the homing device, the encryption machine, the car phone, the pager — yes, even the robotic dog — were not commonplace innovations when they first appeared in James Bond films, but they are now part of our everyday tech lexicon.
While it may be too much of a stretch to say that our conception of the modern smart phone was derived from the James Bond wristwatch — the high-end-technology-as-accessory you can take anywhere — there’s no denying that the smart phone enables its owner to take on the guise of James Bond as we travel anywhere in the world. The technology endows (__) us with the power to open satellite maps, send encrypted messages and understand foreign languages, all with the click of a button. There is now an app for just about anything, each one a hightech gizmo worthy of a super-spy. Part of the reason why we love new smart phone technologies so much is because they create the mystique that we associate with characters like James Bond, and they give us entrée to a world of high-tech magic.
Bond taught us to think big when it comes to innovation, and it was never “incremental” (__) — it was always terribly “disruptive (__) The name “James Bond” is synonymous with seeing technologies that we’ve never seen before. For Bond, the “killer app” was exactly that — something that could mean the difference between life and death. It could be the deadly briefcase in “Dr. No” — with its supply of tear gas and 40 rounds of ammo (__) — or the panoply (__) of dangerous devices rigged up to his Aston Martin. At times, the “killer app” was actually the “survival app” — the one gadget that enabled Bond to elude his foes - like the jet pack in 1965’s «Thunderball»
No wonder governments around the world have attempted to capture the magic of Bond within their own R&D efforts. In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s Virginiabased venture capital arm, is even named after Q, the mastermind (__) behind Bond’s gadgets. In an effort to channel James Bond-style innovation from the private sector, Britain’s real-life MI5 is now calling on small businesses to provide new ideas for innovative technologies for covert ops.
While only one of the James Bond films — «A View to a Kill» — actually revolved around Silicon Valley (a plot to gain complete control of the world’s microchip market by flooding the Valley), each of them to some degree helped to create the modern gadget economy, where the most valuable tech companies have become the companies with the coolest tech. The modern gadget economy is one where we all love to talk about what’s in our tech gear bag, and where we all, at some level, love to pull out the latest gizmo and impress our friends with a worldly sophistication worthy of Bond ... James Bond.
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