Practice English Listening A2 Exercises – Topic: The Internet and Technology

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1 changes   2 Most   3 bottom   4 suddenly   5 Engineers

6 broken   7 weeks   8 ship

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a 2   b 5   c 3   d 1   e 4

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1 violent volcanic activity   2 ten years ago

3 Between Taiwan and the Philippines   4 heavy rocks

5 A special ship called the Wave Sentinel

Fibre optic cables

In the middle of the ocean, deep underwater, violent volcanic activity changes the ocean floor.

Usually we don’t know anything about this – until the internet stops working.

99% of all internet traffic between continents goes through cables at the bottom of the ocean.

But sometimes there are problems. For example, ten years ago nine important fibre optic cables on the ocean floor between Taiwan and the Philippines suddenly went dead.

Computers all over Asia crashed. Engineers looked for the problem and they found that the cables were broken.

Volcanic activity caused heavy rocks to move and break the cables.

Suddenly, many people in Southeast Asia couldn’t use the internet. What would happen to business? It took weeks to find and repair the cables.

Engineers used this special ship, called the Wave Sentinel. Its job is to keep the internet connected.

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1 robots   2 cheaper   3 disabled   4 accidents   5 suit

6 in their own homes   7 luxury  

8 information collection   9 pollution (in the water)

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1 always really expensive   2 accident

3 new types of robots   4 robotic fish

Host:   Welcome to University Radio, the station run by students for students. I’m Chen Hu and this is Science Today. Our subject is technological development and our guest is Professor Joanne Kent, expert in robotics. Thanks for coming in, Professor. When we think of robots, we generally think of science fiction films. Is this out of date?

Professor:   Yes, it is. Technology had developed very fast over the last ten years and robots are part of everyday life. Robots can now do many important things.

Host:   What kinds of things?

Professor:   Well, they have been used in factories for years; Japan and China have the most industrial robots in the world. But now robots are coming into our lives in other ways. In Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong, for example, there are robot waiters in restaurants and in South Korea a robot is used as an English teacher. Robots weren’t used very much in the past, since they were always really expensive. But because they have become cheaper, they are being used in new and interesting ways. One key area is the way robots can help with medical care.

Host:   Can you explain that a little more?

Professor:   Well, a good example is the robotic suit for disabled people. Robots can now assist people who can’t walk. They can help them to move again. People ‘wear’ the robot, like clothes. The robot then helps move the person’s arms or legs. For example, one man, Joey Abbica, couldn’t walk because of an accident at work three years earlier. Before the accident, Joey could surf really well. In fact, he won lots of competitions, but after the accident he couldn’t walk at all. He wasn’t even able to sit up on his own when a visitor came. And he couldn’t even feel his legs when doctors touched them. But when he put on the robotic suit, he was able to stand up and walk on his own again. He isn’t able to walk at all without the suit. Robotics changed his life.

Host:   So people have a much better quality of life, thanks to these new types of robots?

Professor:   Yes, that’s right. Service robots are also very helpful to people.

Host:   What do service robots do?

Professor:   Well, one of the reasons that service robots were invented is to save people time. They do all the jobs around the house that people find difficult, dirty or boring. For instance, robots can put clothes into a washing machine, and plates and cups into a dishwasher and they can clean your kitchen and bathroom. But for some people, service robots are really important; they’re not just a luxury. Elderly people, for example, can’t always do housework easily. They might need help from robots. The robot means they are able to stay in their own homes for longer.

Host:   So, robots can help people in their everyday life, but how do they help more generally?

Professor:   Robots are now solving modern problems, too. Have you heard of robotic fish?

Host:   I haven’t, but I assume they are robots that swim in water. What do they do?

Professor:   They were developed to help scientists with information collection. They look like fish, they swim and move like other fish, but when they are swimming, they can collect information about the amount of pollution in the water. Scientists can find out about pollution quickly, due to the robotic fish.

Host:   Well, we’ve heard of robots that clean your house, so it’s good to know they can help keep the environment clean, too. OK, we have some questions coming in, so let’s hear the first one …

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1 memory   2 difficult   3 websites   4 information   5 lazy

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6 information   7 answer   8 how   9 put   10 facts

11 location   12 find

News reporter:   For a long time, people have asked the same question: Do computers stop us from learning and developing? Do they make us stupid? A recent study at Columbia University in New York looked at this question, in particular how computers affect our memory. They wanted to find out if computers have changed the way we remember information.

First, the scientists did research on what happens when people are asked difficult questions. They found that what we think when we hear difficult questions has changed because of websites like Google^TM. When people were asked difficult questions in the past, scientists believe they tried to think of the answer to the question. However, because of modern technology, the first thing people think about now is how to find the answer; they don’t try to answer it themselves. For example, they think about what they might put into Google^TM, but in the past they thought about the question itself.

Second, scientists found that computers have changed the type of information we remember. There are advantages and disadvantages to these changes. A disadvantage is that it seems that people now forget facts, especially if they know the information will be saved in a file. On the other hand, an advantage is that they remember the location of the fact: in other words, where to find it. In one test, scientists told university students some facts and also where the facts were saved in a file. Most of the students couldn’t remember the facts, but they were able to remember the files and the location of the facts.

In conclusion, it seems that computers are not making us stupid, but they are making us lazy! Scientists believe that we are spending time remembering where and how we can find things, but we’re not trying to remember the information itself anymore.