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The Danger Of Drones
The Danger Of Drones

Learn English meaning of 'drones'

Date: Dec 05 2016

Themes: Health, Hobbies, News

Grammar: Past Progressive Tense

Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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It’s hard to be an airplane pilot, but it’s easy to fly a drone. A drone is a tiny aircraft that anyone can learn to use. People often put small cameras on their drones. This way, they can take pictures from very high in the sky. So, what’s the danger of drones? There are a few things you should know about these toys.

Before an airplane leaves, the pilot needs to give a flight plan to the FAA, or Federal Aviation Administration. Drone pilots don’t need to document a flight plan yet. Because of this, there were several incidents in which planes and drones almost collided. Also, drones have injured people by falling on their heads. Now, the government is thinking about making new restrictions for drones.

Andy is telling Gary about a drone that nearly missed a plane. Listen to today’s English lesson to find out what they think about the danger of drones.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Andy_H

Andy_H

Gary

Gary

Andy_H:  Alright, Gary. We’ve got to talk about a really serious issue.

Gary:  Yeah?

Andy_H:  We’ve got to say no to the drones! I just read a report that a drone nearly missed a passenger jet as it was coming down.

Gary:  What?!

Andy_H:  Yeah, it almost collided with a passenger jet! I know drones are this cool, you know, little fun technology but I think it’s time we finally banned drones in a certain way. At least, restrict airspace.

Gary:  I agree with you. I think we need to set up restrictions because there is a risk for passenger airlines, for people. I know someone who was actually injured by a drone because it fell and hit them.

Andy_H:  I don’t doubt it.

Gary:  And I think we need to document this because there are incidents and we need to figure out how to permit drones to be used. They’re great. I think we can do wonderful things with them.

Andy_H:  And that’s the thing. You know, we do it with cars, we do it with guns, in a way. And I think it’s time we finally start to get permits, make a flight plan for drones, and try to figure out how we can get more safety involved.

Gary:  Well, actually, when you buy a drone now, you actually have to register it with the FAA.

Andy_H:  Really?

Gary:  Yeah.

Andy_H:  Well, that’s good news. Maybe we’ll have less birds being hurt.

Gary:  That would be good.

Andy_H:  That would be really good. Birds are awesome.

 

Grammar Point

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Discussion

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Drones are fun and useful, so why does Andy think maybe it’s time we banned them? Andy is worried that there aren’t enough restrictions on drones. There have been several scary drone incidents, and Andy tells Gary about one of them. Andy read that a drone nearly missed a plane full of people. If the plane and the drone had collided, who knows what might have happened.

Gary agrees with Andy. Gary thinks drone owners should document a flight plan before they fly their drone into shared airspace. Gary even knows someone who was injured by a falling drone once. In Gary’s opinion, it’s a good thing that the FAA now wants drone owners to register their drones. If we set up more restrictions like this, perhaps we can make this hobby safer for everyone. Andy hopes that birds will be safer too!

Should there be restrictions on where drones can fly? How else can we make this hobby safer?

 

Comments

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sallyjackson

United States

The easiest word for me was “collide”, as I assosiated it with collider – the word I remember well from our Physics courses on custom essay writing online service.


After those classes, I know so many new words connected with technology and physics. But they don’t help me speak fluently now, cause they are very rarely used.

02:13 PM Feb 07 2017 |

Sphenothalami

Syrian Arab Republic

When we talk about drone we need to talk about privacy. think for a moment: What would be our state of mind when we are being watched incessantly? 

So I think we need more restriction for drones, privacy is number ONE

09:44 PM Dec 05 2016 |

AliShahrivarian

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

Drones, robots, cameras, AIIIII; If we ignore collision of drones then what is more  important than it? I don’t mean that collision of planes and drones isn’t an important issue but what about privacy???


I agree with the restrictions on drones. How you feel when someone watching you on your yard or room? Yes, I know there’s a lot of thing that watching you nowadays but think about something that can fly and pursuit your activities.


Thanks to AI and Machine Learning (beside their harms – at least in future) we can handle privacy with their way. Programming self protectors; Think about some robot that always checks your privacy and will handle unwanted security breach. (We can’t avoid technology but we can secure it)


When I say privacy I mean everything privacy. Solving problems from planes airspace to the humanity rights.


Think about communication between planes and drones…

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