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2. Answer the questions on the text.

  • What kind of science is futurology? How is it defined?

  • What other names of this science are mentioned in the text? Which one appeals to you?

  • Who coined the term “futurology”? When?

  • Why is it less popular nowadays?

  • What does futurology mainly focus on?

  • What is its attitude towards supernatural means of prediction?

  • What methods are used by futurists today?

3. Match the italicized words from the text (see the box) with the meanings

(1-10) below.

to plot

professed

to call for

foresight

evident

to fall from favor

to presage

lay

with respect to

to anticipate

  • not trained or not knowing much about a particular profession or subject:

  • to ask publicly for something to be done;

  • easy to see, notice, or understand;

  • to be a sign that something is going to happen, especially something bad;

  • used to describe a feeling or attitude that someone says they have, but which may not be true;

  • to draw marks or a line to represent facts, numbers etc.;

  • to stop being liked by people in authority;

  • he ability to imagine what is likely to happen and to consider this when planning for the future;

  • concerning or in relation to something;

  • to expect that something will happen and be ready for it.

4. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English using the vocabulary from the text.

  • Инженер начертил кривую роста производства в прошлом году.

  • Мы предвидим немало проблем в связи с открытием новой фабрики.

  • Подобная работа требует много терпения.

  • Он дальновидно вложил деньги в прибыльный бизнес.

  • Было очевидно, что завод испытывает финансовые трудности.

5. Read the following predictions made by futurists. Which of the predictions would you like or not like to come true? Why?

  • The technology already exists, so very soon all of us are going to use our voices to give instructions to computers.

  • In the next few years, we will be communicating with our friends around the world using life-sized video images on large screens in our living rooms.

  • By the year 2020, computers will already have become more efficient and powerful than the human brain both in terms of intelligence and the amount of information they can store.

  • By the year 2030, genetic engineering and nanotechnology will enable us to live for at least 150 years. Using nanotechnology, tiny, insect-like robots may be sent around our bodies to carry out repairs and keep us healthy.

  • By the middle of the century, computers, millions of times smarter than us, will have been developed. By this time, we will be linking our brains with 'ultra-smart' computers. A new species might have developed – 'Homo Cyberneticus'.

  • Bу the end of the century, we will have colonised our solar system and will be looking for ways to colonise deep space.

6. Work in pairs. Make predictions about each other in twenty years’ time. Say what you think about your partner’s predictions.

Example. A: I think that in 20 years’ time you’ll be working as a chief engineer of a huge industrial enterprise.

B: I certainly hope so!

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