Teens|Grammar activating|Int|11. Science and technology

Watch the video and complete the sentences with the missing information

The soup robot is as if the beer robot got the breakfast machine really drunk and then they had a child. It’s actually pretty sweet, I have a servo motor recorder, I’m going to controll all the servo motors and then you can, like, record a sequence and replay it. That was like this weird bug where I have to slam it for it to actually start. I 3D-printed all these parts, because you can’t get a claw that needs to pick up soup just like that.
Only a little bit of fine-tuning. Just a little bit.
Right.
Mmmm. I think it’ll work. Things are going to be great! Thank you for your trust in me. This especially is going to be so messy! Which is nice, because I have this whole crew here, who can help me clean up afterwards.
I’m just gonna sort screws and ignore what this robot is doing. I’m, like, actually nervous!
Hey Google, turn on the soup robot!
You got it! Turning the soup robot on.

Match the words to the pictures

Complete the sentences using the correct words

Listen to the recording and order the sentences

Presenter: And tonight on the book programme we’re reviewing a book called «Did you spot the gorilla?» by Dr Richard Wiseman, who’s an expert on creative thinking. With us tonight to talk about this book is Steven Hutchinson, a freelance journalist. So Steven, what exactly is Dr Wiseman’s main message?
Steven: Well, Dr Wiseman’s theory is that most people don’t think creatively because they concentrate so hard on the small, specific job that they are working on that they don’t see the bigger picture. That’s what the gorilla experiment proves.
Presenter: What was the gorilla experiment?
Steven: Well, a study was carried out by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris at Harvard University in 1999. He got volunteers to watch a 45-second film of people playing basketball. There were two teams. One team were wearing black T-shirts and the other team were wearing white ones. He gave the volunteers a simple task: they just had to count the number of passes made by the white team. Afterwards, he asked them how many passes they had counted and most people got the answer right. Then he asked them if they had seen anything unusual and at least half of them said no. And that’s really amazing. Because during the film, while the two teams were playing basketball, a woman dressed as a gorilla walked onto the court and she beat her chest at the camera, and then slowly walked off the court. And half the volunteers just didn’t see it!
Presenter: That’s incredible. Why not?
Steven: Because they were so busy trying to count the passes that they didn’t notice the gorilla! Dr Wiseman repeated this experiment many times and the result was always the same. In fact, he actually tried it on a group of top British scientists and not one of them saw the gorilla.
Presenter: How extraordinary!

Listen to the audio again and complete the sentences with the missing information

Read the sentences and answer the questions

✔️ Dr Wiseman repeated this experiment many times.

1. Is the verb in the active or the passive voice?

2. What tense is the verb in?

3. What is the subject of the verb?

4. What is the object of the verb?

✔️ This experiment was repeated by Dr Wiseman many times.

1. What is the subject of the passive verb?

2. What tense is the verb be in?

3. What form of the verb repeat appears?

Complete the sentences with passive voice

Complete the sentences with the correct passive form of the verb. Pay attention to the tense

Listen to the audio and answer the questions

Steven: The gorilla experiment is a perfect demonstration that we normally only focus on what we’re looking for, and don’t see outside it, so we sometimes miss really important discoveries which are right in front of us, we just don’t see them. That’s why when something is invented people often say, «Why didn’t anybody think of that before?» — well, they didn’t because they didn’t think creatively.
Presenter: Dr Wiseman gives some examples of people who he says are creative thinkers, doesn’t he?
Steven: Yes, people like the man who invented Post-it™ notes. He was actually trying to develop a really strong kind of glue, but he could only manage to make a very weak one. But instead of just thinking, «Oh that’s no good» he actually thought of a way of using the weak glue to make Post-it™ notes, notes that would stick to something but not too much. Or the man who set up Ikea, the furniture company — I mean for years people had been wanting cheap furniture that was well designed, but nobody did it. Or the idea of cheap air travel. People just accepted that it was impossible. But then somebody said «It is possible, and I’m going to do it.» And that’s how we got low-cost airlines like easyJet.
Presenter: Can we make ourselves creative thinkers?
Steven: Yes, Dr Wiseman has lots of tips on how we can become more creative. One of the things he recommends is to try to do the opposite of what you normally do. For example, he told a group of journalists to try to think of articles that nobody would find interesting — he said that from that, possibly a brilliant idea for something interesting will come up. His book is full of tips — it’s really worth reading.
Presenter: Has he had any «Eureka» moments himself?
Steven: Yes, actually he’s thought up a great idea for book lovers. His idea is to print a book which contains the first chapters of 15 other different books. This book has a book token in the back, a voucher that you can use to buy another book. The idea is that you read the beginnings and then choose which book you want to read more of and buy it with the book token.
Presenter: What a great idea! That’s creative thinking for you.

1. What three things are the examples of creative thinking in science? Why?

2. What did the doctor recommend to the journalists?

3. How can our creativity be developed?

4. What idea was presented by the doctor?

5. Have you ever had a Eureka moment yourself?

Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first one

Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verb from the list

Listen to the audio and repeat the sentences after the speaker

Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radiation in 1900.
Scientists do experiments in a laboratory.
Archimedes made an important discovery in his bath.
Isaac Newton’s experiments proved his theory that gravity existed.
The telephone was invented in the 1870s.
Pharmaceutical companies try to develop new drugs to cure illnesses and diseases.
Scientists have to do a lot of research into the possible side effects of new drugs.
Before a company can sell a new drug, they have to do tests and trials to make sure they are safe.
People can volunteer to be guinea pigs in clinical trials.