Robo-Nation

Before Reading
 Do you usually think about future? Do you make plans?
 Are you used to reading news about technology, Science?
 Are you interested in robots? What do you know about them?
 Do robots take part in your daily life?
 What information about robots do you think you will find in the text below?

Let’s read the text below and learn a bit more about future and robots!

Robots are already a part of our lives. They do jobs that are too dirty, boring, risky, difficult or
impossible for us: they are vacuuming the floors in your home and exploring the surface of
Mars.
“Within the next ten years, we’re going to see a transformation between the industrial kinds of
robots, to personal robots”, says the scientist Joanne Pransky. She continues: “I’ll be the proud
owner of a domestic robot that will do household cleaning, and prepare and serve my meals,
and will also carry me to the bathtub if I can’t walk, monitor my vital signs, and if I need
medical specialist from distant town, will remotely become his or her eyes, hands and ears”.
Within a few more years we will build machines that not only equal but surpass human
intelligence – we’ll see cyborgs (machine-enhanced humans), androids (human-robot hybrids),
a future we can’t even imagine. Many scientists think the robots of science fiction will soon
become a reality. We will use the abilities of our machine creations to enhance and redesign
ourselves. But... what role will those machines play in human society? Cultural and ethical
values will be as important as the available technology in developing future robots? Will robots
become man’s new best friends or our rivals? Or worst, our enemies?
(Adapted from “Robots: The future is Now”, by Micheael Bay and Matt Ford, in http://cnn. worldnews; “Robo-Nation”, by Lee Gutkind, in
www.theamericanscholar.org; Forum: Robots “R” Us?, in www.post-gazette.com )

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT

1) Judge the sentences below T (True) or F (False).
a) ( ) Robots do jobs we don’t like, don’t want to do or simply cannot do.
b) ( ) Some future robots will be more intelligent than we are.
c) ( ) Joanne Pransky is the scientist who will use a robot to explore the surface of Mars.
d) ( ) Human intelligence will never be surpassed by machines created by human beings.
e) ( ) The robots of science fiction will never become a reality.
f) ( ) Cultural and ethical values are not really important in developing new robots.
2) Answer the questions below according to the text.
a) What kind of jobs will robots be able to do in our homes?
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 b) Can robots be more intelligent than human beings?
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c) Could human beings behaviours be affected by robots?
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VOCABULARY STUDY
1) Circle the cognates you find in the text.
2) Match the columns according to the words’ definitions.
a) “job” ( ) “Uninteresting, tiring”
b) “boring” ( ) “To come or grow to be; to take a job as”
c) “vacuum(ing)” ( ) “To make to appear greater or better”
d) “soon” ( ) “In a short time from now or from the time mentioned"
e) “enhance” ( ) “A person’s daily work or employment”
f) “become” ( ) “To clean using a vacuum cleaner”
GRAMMAR CORNER

SIMPLE FUTURE
WILL
The Simple Future tense is used to talk about future plans (1), to make predictions (2) or even to make
decisions or promises at the moment of the speech (3).
To make a sentence in the Simple Future tense we use the auxiliary WILL + verb (in the base form).
Examples:
(1) On her next vacation Julia will travel to her Grandma’s, in Fortaleza.
(2) The sky is so cloudy. I think it will rain soon.
(3) Okay, Loren, I will go to the party with you.
To make sentences in the negative form, we use WON’T (will + not).
 Sabrina won’t stay home tonight. She will go out with her family.
 Dad won’t buy the house anymore. He’s broke now.
To make sentences in the interrogative form, we use the auxiliary will before the subject.
 Will cars fly in the future? What do you think?
 Will Megan and Alisson get married next summer?

EXERCISES
Write a sentence from the text in the affirmative form.
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Write a sentence from the text in interrogative form.
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Choose a sentence from the text and change it into the negative form.
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1) Change the sentences into the required forms.
a) My parents will lend me money to buy a new car.
Neg.: _______________________________________________________________
b) The population will increase 50% in the next ten years.
Int.: ________________________________________________________________
c) Will the students have an English test tomorrow?
Aff.: ________________________________________________________________
2) Listen to the sentences and match them to the ones below.
( ) It’s a dream of his that comes true.
( ) I will give him a T-shirt as a gift.
( ) Certainly she will buy a new bikini.
( ) She will have to study hard.
( ) So Sandra won’t hang out tonight.
3) Make your own plans for...
a) next weekend.
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b) next month.
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c) next year.
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