WATCH AND LISTEN
A. Write T (true} or F (false). Then correct the false statements with a partner.
1 Very few predictions for the future that were made 100 years ago were accurate.
2 Predictions that came true 1included the invention of certain types of communication and travel.
3 Predictions that didn’t come true included certain changes to education and special medical advancements.
4 Two of the predictions that were somewhat true were about travel and communication.
5 The modern-day people in the video make very different predictions for the future than the people of 100 years ago.
6 Four of the modern-day people make predictions about transportation.
B. Complete the predictions made in the past that were mentioned in the video.
1 People thought telephones would be _____________.
2 They predicted that we would be able to communicate worldwide using _____________.
3 They thought we would tour the country driving _____________.
4 They suggested that we would clean our homes automatically using _____________.
5 They thought that a college education would be _____________.
6 They believed we would have killed all the _____________.
7 They were certain we would have put an end to _____________.
8 They thought we would get our shopping delivered by _____________.
9 They thought students would learn because of _____________ connected to their heads.
C. Write the letter of the correct phrase to complete each sentence.
a cars will drive themselves
b people will choose their dreams
c there won’t be any cars
d robots will do all the work
e people won’t get sick anymore
f we will have flying cars
1 Joshua predicts that in the future ____.
2 Bao thinks that ____.
3 Yasmin expects that ____.
4 Mike thinks that ____.
5 Patricia believes ____.
6 Shane predicts that ____.
Answers
A
1 F; Some of the predictions for the future that were made 100 years ago were remarkably accurate.
2 T
3 T
4 F; Predictions that were somewhat true were about travel, shopping, and education.
5 F; The modern-day people make very similar predictions to the people of 100 years ago.
6 F; Only three of the modern-day people make predictions about transportation.
B
1 wireless 2 moving pictures 3 houses on wheels
4 electric scrubbers 5 free for everyone
6 mosquitoes 7 cancer 8 tubes 9 wires
C
1 d 2 e 3 b 4 c 5 a 6 f
Audioscripts
Reporter: Thinking about the future, we often wonder what new technology the next 100 years will bring. But what did the public 100 years ago think the world would be like today? And did any of their predictions come true?
Some of their assumptions were remarkably accurate. For instance, people in 1900 were crazy about photography. They imagined that in the twenty-first century, we’d be able to take a picture on one side of the world, sending the same picture to the other side of the world in less than one hour. Try less than one second! They believed that telephones would be wireless, letting us talk on the phone anywhere. And that using moving pictures, we’d be able to communicate with people all over the world. They thought we would tour the country driving houses on wheels. And that, fed up with doing our own cleaning, we would clean our homes automatically using electric scrubbers.
Other predictions didn’t quite work out. They thought that a college education would be free for everyone. Aware of the danger posed by mosquitoes, they believed we would have killed them all. And believing in the power of modern medicine, they were sure that we would have put an end to cancer.
Some predictions sort of came true. They were curious about air travel back then, and lots of people thought we’d have flying cars by now. And while that prediction hasn’t come true, there certainly are many people commuting to work in the morning by airplane these days. They thought store purchases would arrive quickly, traveling through tubes connected to every home. Today we get our purchases fast all right, but they usually come on a truck. And they thought students might learn by wires connecting their brains to machines. Well, there’s no electricity flowing into the heads of our students, but our classrooms today are certainly “wired.”
So what about the future? What do people familiar with how much has changed in the last 100 years think the world will be like in 2100?
Joshua Aquino: One hundred years from now? I think we’ll all be just hanging out, letting robots do all the work.
Bao Lam: I imagine we won’t get sick anymore, having figured out how to cure all diseases.
Yasmin Fernandes: Before you go to sleep, you tell a computer what you want to dream about that night. And while you’re sleeping, it guides your dreams.
Mike Parker: No more cars. I’m sick of cars. We’ll all be completely reliant on public transportation.
Patricia Kowalski: Cars will drive themselves.
Shane Smith: Two words: flying cars.
Reporter: It always seems to come back to flying cars, doesn’t it? But who knows? Maybe this time, that prediction will come true. For Channel 4 News, I’m Gene Mackey.
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