Tag Archive: science & technology – intermediate

Pre-reading questions: Do you find smartphones more advantageous or more disadvantageous? What would your life be like without smartphones? Vocabulary: effortless – easy; natural English is not her first language but her speech is effortless. instantly – immediately I was so tired that when I got home, I fell asleep instantly. extend – increase in scope; to include more Please extend the scope of your research to cover environmental issues in the countryside. mere – no more than; only I want nothing more than mere friendship. accessible – reachable; attainable The Internet has made information more accessible. Communication has been made effortless by smartphones. Through smartphones, people can instantly exchange…
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  Pre-reading questions: Do you use any social media platforms like Facebook? How often? Do read news in social media? Why?   Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said that Facebook is totally against fake news. He said that they are also victims and they do not want them on the site. It’s not easy to figure out which are fake and which are not. Some people are actually calling them fake news only because they totally disagree to them. Hackers and political groups that post and share fake news are the ones responsible for them. These kinds of news have existed on the site for many years now. However, Facebook handles…
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Pre-reading questions: Describe a healthy skin. What’s the best way to keep your skin healthy? An image-scanning software, developed at Stanford University, can precisely detect skin cancers as well as dermatologists. This new discovery may be available on your smartphones soon. The team imitated a Google algorithm that can classify images. A database with 130,000 photos of different skin diseases has been organized. The images were gathered from the internet and examined by dermatologists. The software was tested to identify cancerous and non-cancerous lesions. The app’s capability was compared to that of 21 board-certified dermatologists’. The results were remarkable as the app did as well as the dermatologists. The creators of…
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Pre-reading questions: How often do you change your smartphone? Why? What smartphone brand do you like the most? Why? A 2016 report was released by Kantar Worldpanel. It shows that Americans and Europeans hold onto their phones longer. Before upgrading to a new phone, people in America hold onto their phones for an average of 22.7 months while Europeans do for 21.6 months. It is an entirely different situation in China. The Chinese change their phones faster for an average of 20.2 months. Smartphone markets in China change constantly. There are also cheaper phones available from companies like Oppo and Vivo, which are very popular in the country. Vocabulary: release…
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Pre-reading questions: What is your most preferred form of exercise? How do you monitor your food intake? Sony’s Lifelog fitness tracking app has been updated with additional features. The app can now evaluate your food based on a photo you take of it. It can give a thorough feedback of the food and also provide calorie count. The app is currently available for download via Google Play. The app uses Sony Mobile’s Meal Image Analysis software. Based on the past charts recorded by the app, it will also offer nutritional suggestions according to your diet. The app can be used on smartphones and Sony’s SmartWatch 3. The certainity of the…
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Pre-reading questions: What features are you looking for in a mobile phone or tablet? Have you used a classic phone with just voice and text messaging features? Have you heard of the 3310 mobile phone? Nokia has come up with a new version of the popular 3310 model. It has the basic features of what you need on a daily phone – text messaging, Opera Mini browser, MP3 player, a 2MP camera, 2 sim card slots, and the classic Snake game. It will be available on the second quarter of the year with glossy red and yellow; and matte blue and gray colors. The new 3310 aims to encourage people…
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