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The Future

Learn English with this future English lesson

Date: Dec 21 2018

Themes: Time

Grammar: Modal Verbs

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Intro

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

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In the 1950s, when Americans thought about the future, they believed we would have flying cars. People believed we would be living on the moon, farming on the bottom of the ocean, and turning our deserts green. We dreamed that people could call any number in the US from their home telephones. At least the last one is true today! In fact, we can call any number in the world.

More than 50 years later, we still hope for breakthroughs that will make life better in the future. Technology makes things possible today that no one would have believed in the 1950s, so it’s hard to know what life will be like in the 2050s. Will we be living on the moon? Will we finally have our flying cars? It’s definitely fun to think about.

Jeff and Rafael are discussing the future. Learn more about how they think by reading today’s English lesson.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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

Rafael

Jeff

Rafael: Dude, I’m so excited about what kind of opportunities I might have tomorrow. You know? Just thinking about what might come. Technology… advancements… scientists are making breakthroughs all the time. What do you think about that?

Jeff: I think too much about it. It just sounds like total chaos.

Rafael: What?

Jeff: Modern advancements… they sound good, but they’re kind of a bummer a lot of the time. You know?

Rafael: If you put it into perspective… all of the things that we’ve done over the eons… scientists are brilliant.

Jeff: They are.

Rafael: What’s going to come a hundred years from now? We might solve world hunger. You know what I mean?

Jeff: Sometimes it just gets to be too much. You know?

Rafael: Yeah.

Jeff: We need the big breakthrough.

Rafael: Yeah.

Jeff: I’m not crossing my fingers for it, but hey. You never know.

Rafael: You never know.

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Discussion

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To Rafael, the future looks good. He believes that with improvements in technology and science, he will have all kinds of opportunities to pursue. Rafael also thinks that in his future life, someone may find a way to end world hunger. He’s hopeful and positive, and he thinks that Jeff will feel the same.

But Jeff’s opinion of the future is quite different. Jeff sees chaos in his world. He’ll be happy if scientists find a way to solve problems like world hunger, but he’s not expecting it to happen. To Jeff, just because something is new and modern doesn’t mean that it’s going to be perfect. It might even be anything but perfect.

Do you think your future looks good? Why or why not?

Comments

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naira71

Azerbaijan

Yes people made lot breakthoughts nowadays,but they didnt become kinder.They are going on to fight ,kill each other .Technology made us modern but it didnt make us human.

foz12

Saudi Arabia

As one song said in it’s words, the future is not our to see, but let’s say hopefully it will be good and shiny.

jansladek

Slovakia

I think we all should go back to the Nature as we ones have been…

Without the Nature there won´t be any sign of us….So beter to see real needs…

buttafly

Germany

Definitely, Lesya :)

About future predictions….I’ve chosen a few classic mistakes from the past. Just enjoy and have a good chuckle :D

“The telephone cannot be seriously considered as a means of communication. It is of no value to us” ( A Western Union internal memo,1876)

“I think there’s a world market for about five computers.” (Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM,1943)

“Who in their right mind would ever need more than 640KB of memory” ( Bill Gates, 1981)

and my personal favorite :D

“We don’t like their sound, and electric guitar music is on the way out.” ( A Decca Recording Company man who rejected The Beatles in 1962)

You all just have a look at the way the communication industry has developed in the last 20 years – I’m sure it will continue to do so. Change is the only thing that is continuous ;)

I’d love to have a time machine – travelling through all the different centuries would be soooo awesome. Wanna join me, Lesya? ;)

kotlesya

Belarus

Yeah, Anja :D

I hope future will not make us to wait it for so long. :)

Future seems like something fantastic from a fairy tale for us.

Each century has its own pros and cons,how do you think? :-)

buttafly

Germany

Lesya…that’s just what we have been waiting for!! Therefore..hey,future hurry up!!!!

kotlesya

Belarus

I have heard that by 2050 Japanese scientists are going to make a lift from Earth to cosmos go. :-) The lift will be made from the special materials which are not invented yet.

I am looking forward for that… if I still be alive :-D

buttafly

Germany

I don’t know what the future has in store for me but I do have a vision, an idea and a dream about it ;)

Michele1

Italy

It is not easy to say how our future will be. But,we should be anyway positive people about that,because some breakthroughs,sure, will arrive to improve the life of the young people. The negative attitudes dont help us to solve every kind of problems,never.Just yesterday, the space scientists have been able to send an european spacecraft (Rosetta) to the comet 67P at 500 millions kms far and after a ten years trip of about 6 billions of kms.It means the humans are still able to do something wonderful for a better life on the Earth.I believe our future will be in the space. For now it will be enough to riduce overpopulation and overconsumption.