Science and Technology
Unit 9
Useful Information
Science is knowledge of facts, laws and relationships that is obtained through systematic observation and experimentation. When we think of science we normally think of exact sciences like biology, chemistry and physics. But many other branches of science have developed over the past century.
Sociology and psychology, for example, are not exact sciences although their findings are based on the principles of scientific investigation.
Since most people in society do not work as scientists, they tend to perceive science as it affects them in their daily lives. In other words, they see the practical and the applied aspects of science. Scientific knowledge applied to practical uses is normally referred to as technology. Robotics, for instance, is a branch of technology involving the study and production of man-like machines capable of performing human tasks. For many years, robots belonged to the realm of science fiction, but now they are used in various manufacturing sectors including the auto industry. Robots have become increasingly complex and sophisticated. Some people predict that, in the not too distant future, robots will be capable of feeling the same emotions as humans. It is hard to imagine an emotionally independent machine, but many of the things we take for granted now were once considered to be impossible dreams.
The technological changes that took place in the 20th century revolutionized virtually every aspect of life from communication to material comfort. In the space of two or three generations, people witnessed major advances in medical research, nuclear energy and space exploration. In the early part of the 20th century, people had implicit faith in scientific progress. However, wars, pollution and new diseases have undermined our confidence. The consequences of technological innovations have not always been positive and the moral or political choices regarding new inventions have sometimes been questionable.
Video machines, computerized banking and the Internet have all affected our lives in different degrees. In some cases, they have made life more convenient and more pleasurable. In other cases, however, they have resulted in serious erosion of our privacy. Information and activities that we once considered private are now readily available to public and private agencies. Whether we like it or not, we are being watched and monitored on a regular basis.
Despite the negative reactions which many technological inventions have generated in recent years, many people still regard science in such a positive light that they believe science can solve almost any problem. For example, most developed and many developing nations have eagerly embraced space technology and exploration, and most scientists agree that research and development in these areas deserves high priority for financial support. Knowledge of our universe is certainly advancing, but
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other people object that costly and potentially dangerous areas including manned space exploration could be replaced by less expensive robotic space probes which are capable of doing most of the activities now performed by manned space exploration. In addition, there is recognition that much of space exploration supports military and political motives which could increase the tensions and competition that already exist between nations.
PART 1 Preparation
1 Cloudy Days in Tomorrowland
Teaching tips
In doing this activity, the teacher should try to draw students’ attention to what actually happened.
The teacher may divide the quotations among different groups and ask each to collect data for what actually happened and do a presentation in class.
STEP ONE
1 Orville Wright (1871-1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) are famous for making the first powered flight in their aircraft in 1903. Wilbur Wright failed to predict their successful flight in their airplane in 1901.
2 Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was an English novelist, best-known for his science-fiction novels, such as The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898). These novels combined political satire, warnings about the dangerous new powers of science, and a hope for the future. The prediction means: I don’t think that submarines will do anything except cause people to die (because of the lack of air). H. G. Wells failed to predict the important role that submarines have played.
3 Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929) was a French general. He strongly supported the use of offensive warfare, which resulted in many of his corps being killed by German machine guns in 1914. He became Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces on the Western and Italian fronts in 1918, and served as the senior French representative at the armistice negotiations with Germany. He failed to predict the role of the airplane in military affairs.
4 Henry Ford (1863-1947) was an American industrialist and maker of the first motor cars. He set up the Ford Motor Company in 1903, designed the famous Model T car in 1908 and over 15 million cars had been sold before the model was discontinued in 1928. He is known as one of the richest, most successful American businessmen. The prediction failed to predict the popularity and necessity of the automobile in our everyday life.
5 Lee De Forest (1873-1961) was an American inventor who was a pioneer in the development of radio communication. He failed to predict the magic power that science can have. Man can now go to the moon by space flight.
6 The first computers weighed several tons. But now computers only weigh a few kilos.
129 Science and Technology 7 Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was a Scottish-born American scientist and inventor,
best-known for inventing the telephone in 1876. He also started the Bell Telephone Company.
William Orton failed to predict the widespread use of telephone, which becomes an indispensable part of our life.
8 Kenneth Olsen (1926-2011) was an American computer entrepreneur. He failed to predict the widespread use of computers beginning in the 1980s.
9 Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) was a British physicist and engineer. Kelvin failed to predict the widespread use of radio in the 20th century.
10 Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979) was an American motion-picture producer and powerful studio executive, who led the 20th Century Fox film studio from the mid-1930s to the 1950s, which were among its most successful decades. He failed to predict the popularity of TV throughout the world.
STEP TWO Sample
• It is said Li Siguang, a famous Chinese geologist, predicted that three major earthquakes would occur in China in 50 years. So far, two have occurred, one in Tangshan in 1976 and the other in Wenchuan in 2008.
• In 1910, a novelist Lu Shi’e (陆士谔) wrote in his novel New China about a world expo that would open in Shanghai in 100 years. He even predicted its exact location. It was hard to imagine at that time such a big event could happen in Shanghai.
• On January 2, 1901, Hochi Shimbun (《报知新闻》) in Japan published Predictions of the 20th Century. It listed 23 predictions that would happen in the 20th century. Now 12 of them have become realities and five of them partly true. Those 12 predictions include: photo telephone, around-the-world tour in seven days, long-distance photography, high-speed trains (240 km/h), electricity becoming the main power, etc. It predicted that the Sahara Desert would be transformed into fertile plains a step at a time, and civilization would develop in China, Japan and Africa. However, the Sahara Desert is still a desert today, yet modern civilization has developed in China and Japan.
2 Making Your Own Predictions
Sample
1 • Cancer and AIDS will no longer be considered deadly diseases. Wonder drugs will be developed to cure all kinds of diseases. Medicine will be developed to prevent aging and people will live much longer than now.
• There will be many kinds of advanced equipment in hospitals, and doctors or nurses will be able to monitor the patients without going to the wards. But the medical costs will be much higher.
• With the use of computers and the Internet, patients will get treatment without leaving home.
They can consult the best specialists at home or abroad by informing the specialists of their symptoms. Blood tests can be conveniently made by the patient himself at home with a handy device and diagnoses will be made online. Only those who need surgeries will go to the hospital.
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2 • Computer technology will be greatly developed in the 21st century. People will be able to work without leaving home. Heavy traffic will be something unheard of at that time. There will be fewer supermarkets, department stores and other kinds of shops. People will shop there just for fun, and they do shopping mostly online. A lot of sales clerks will thus be laid off. Prices will be much lower.
• The future computers will be faster in speed and will be of any size or shape as the user wishes. Pocket computers will be very common in the near future and they can also be used as a cell phone. Multimedia computer technology will make television, VCD and DVD out of date. A new type of computer will include all these devices and become the century’s “one for all”. What’s more, operating a computer will be so easy that with a tiny chip implanted in your head you’ll be able to run it by thinking about something or telling it what to do. In other words, the machine will work for you as you desire. Thinking is working!
3 • There will be no College Entrance Exams and education at the tertiary level will be open to everyone so long as they desire it and can do it. Everyone can afford the expenses. Large campuses will be unnecessary. All the courses will be online and students can see and talk to their professors online too during the office hours. Face-to-face talk or discussion can be arranged when the professor and student think it is necessary. Students can learn by using the right computer software themselves, and watching educational programs online.
Different kinds of seminars can be planned in advance and be conveniently carried out by means of teleconference in a virtual meeting room.
• Students will have more freedom in choosing and changing their majors. In fact, students can define and decide their own major if they have a good reason. And those who already have or don’t need a degree will have more freedom to take whatever courses they prefer for their personal development, future career or whatever. Of course, advisory committees are always available online to meet learners’ needs.
• Education in the future will be available to people of all ages. A bachelor’s degree may become the basic requirement for all professions. Education will be people’s life-time pursuit since science and technology develop so fast and there will be an increasing need for updating one’s knowledge. In education it will be true that if there’s a need it will be met. At that time when Chinese people meet they will greet each other by saying “What are you studying now?”
4 • Crops and vegetables will be growing in factories rather than open fields. Farmers will no longer worry about the weather conditions. “Precision agriculture” will become popular, involving the integration of satellite observations, on-the-ground instruments, and sophisticated farm machinery to apply the appropriate amounts of seeds, water, fertilizers, and so on, literally meter by meter, so that maximum efficiency in food production will be realized. Liquid fertilizers will be used to help the plants grow more healthily and strongly.
Biotech advances will lead to more productive and nutritious crops.
• More crops will be harvested from the same piece of land due to the use of advanced technology. Thus, fewer farmers are needed to feed the population. More labor will be transferred to other fields. New species of fruits will be produced which are tastier and more nutritious, available all year round. World food production will be sustainable to feed everyone on the Earth.
131 Science and Technology 5 • Green energy (wind, solar, tidal, geothermal [地热的], and biofuels) will replace fossil fuel
to a great extent, as 90% of global energy consumption comes from renewables. Corn-produced ethanol (乙醇) as well as biofuels extracted from common algae (藻类) will be used to drive cars. Smaller cars will be running on the road. They will have better designs and performance, and use less power.
• Houses will be electrically self-supporting as solar panels are installed on their roofs. They will also be supplemented with power produced from the wastes such as kitchen garbage and garden garbage. So households will need no power from fossil fuel for lighting, heating, cooking, air-conditioning, etc. As a result, the air will be cleaner and the environment will be better protected.
• The number of wind power plants will have increased dramatically to meet the industrial demand. To join them to provide electricity for industries there’ll also be tidal and geothermal power plants. When more and more renewable power are applied, the resources on the Earth will be better reserved. Humans will be able to do more for the Earth instead of destructing their home planet.
• Power grids—electrical distribution networks—will be perfected. Energy won’t be something that most humans worry about.
3 Show Time
Sample
(In the morning after a storm. Daughter wakes up.) Daughter: It’s cold. Mom, I’m freezing.
Mom: It is. Son, get up and see what’s wrong.
Son: Oh, fire. It’s the fire. It went out during the storm last night.
Daughter: Mom, what are we going to do without fire? We’ll be cold. We can’t cook food. What can we do?
Dad: Don’t worry. We will get another fire.
Mom: How can we do that?
Dad: Let’s get the fire from our neighbor.
(The neighbor comes.)
Neighbor: Good morning. It’s too bad that last night’s storm blew out our fire. May I borrow your fire so that I can cook breakfast?
Mom: Ours has gone out, too. We thought we could get the fire from you.
Neighbor: Too bad. Now we are going back to life 1,000 years ago when there was no fire.
Son: Mom, Dad, I will go out to Cave Primitive to get the fire.
Mom: Son, you’re too young to go that far. It takes five days to get there. There are all kinds of dangerous animals in the mountain.
Son: I am a grown-up now. I can kill as many animals as Dad does and I’m even quicker than he is.
Dad: But I am more experienced.
Neighbor: Well, I am also an experienced hunter. I can go together with your son and we surely will come back safe and sound.
Son: That’s a good idea. Mom, Dad, please let me go with our neighbor.
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Dad: OK. Take good care of yourselves on the way. Here’s the spear and a sharp stone to protect yourselves and to hunt for food.
Mom: And you can take some smoked meat with you.
Daughter: Brother, take care and I love you.
Son: I love you, too. Take care of Mom. I will be back in 10 days.
PART 2 Reading-Centered Activities
In-Class Reading
Pre-Reading
Sample
1 • I enjoy living in the modern world. It provides us with so many wonderful things that our ancestors couldn’t even have dreamed of. All these have made our lives so colorful, enjoyable and convenient. I can’t imagine a life without them. Then, by means of modern transportation, we can go and see anything or visit any place in the world. We can communicate with anyone in the world whenever we want to.
But on the other hand, I find living in the modern world a bit exhausting. We are living and working at a fast pace and we just can’t slow down because we are only small parts of a huge machine. When the machine sets a pace its parts have to follow. In addition, modern society is full of competition and challenges. I find myself always in a rush.
• If I had a choice, I would prefer to live in one of those less scientific ages. People then had more time with their families and had less pressure from work. They didn’t have to work so hard to make money. Though they had no TVs, phones or computers, they had more communication with their family members, their neighbors and their fellow workers. Since there was almost no pollution, they were breathing clean air, drinking pure water and having all kinds of natural food. They were living in a much better world than we are. It seems as if our modern world has developed advanced science and technology in order to solve the problems the development has created.
2 • I don’t want to live in the future. I’m the sort of person who is satisfied with what I have. From what I read in books, magazines, newspapers, etc., I somehow get the feeling that people in the future will become more indifferent to each other. Besides, there will be less and less face-to-face communication between people in the future and the distance between people will be greater. So I’m happy to be living now.
• I’d like to live in the future world. With the development of modern science and technology, more and more inventions will be made and we can have access to a greater variety of things.
I once read a science-fiction story depicting the future world as one where people live in harmony and peace, enjoying the pleasure and convenience advanced science and technology could bring us. This is exactly what I want. I don’t like to see people compete against each other. I hate wars and feel sorry for the victims of wars.
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Passage Reading
Words, Phrases and Grammatical Points 1 … had been invented by 1914… (Lines 3-4, Para. 3)
The word “by” in this sentence means “not later than”.
e.g. I) She had promised to be back by five o’clock.
II) The application must be in by the 31st to be accepted.
2 … will rule our lives to a greater and greater degree. (Lines 2-3, Para. 4)
The phrase “to a greater and greater degree” means “increasingly” or “more and more”. Expressions like “to some / a large / a great / a certain degree” are used to show that something is partly, but not entirely true.
e.g. I) I agree with you to some degree.
II) What you say is true to a certain degree.
3 They can’t wait for the next invention to be available. (Lines 8-9, Para. 4)
The expression “can’t wait / can hardly wait to do sth.” is used to emphasize that one is so excited about something that one is eager to do it. It is usually used in spoken English.
e.g. I) We can’t wait to get started.
II) I could hardly wait to get out of there.
4 … proposed over 100 years ago… (Line 6, Para. 6)
The word “propose” in this sentence means “state that a theory is probably true because it fits in with the evidence that has been considered”.
e.g. I) Einstein proposed his theory of general relativity in 1915.
II) His theory proposes the existence of black holes in the universe.
“Propose” is often followed by a that-clause in subjunctive mood when it means “suggest”.
e.g. I) He proposed a motion that the chairman resign.
II) It was George who first proposed that we store clothes in that locker.