Instructions
Do the preparation exercise before you listen. Then do the other exercises to check your understanding.
Preparation
Do this exercise before you listen. If you don't know the answer, have a guess!
Worksheets and downloads
Transcript
Presenter: Welcome to Tech Today! This week it’s National Science and Engineering Week, so to celebrate we asked Jed our science correspondent to give us a round-up of new inventions.
Jed: Hi, yes, I’ve got some very interesting things to tell you about today, starting with a fun one: wingsuits, those suits that look like bats and allow people to fly, or glide, at least. They’re the ultimate in cool.
Presenter: But they’re not very new, are they?
Jed: Well, no, but the modern ones are better than ever and last October was the first ever world championship in China. The price is coming down, too. Now you can buy one for 600 to 2,000 dollars. It’s still too expensive for me, but I suppose it’ll keep coming down.
Presenter: OK, what about useful new inventions?
Jed: There are lots of those. There’s a new solar water distiller created by Gabriele Diamanti aimed at parts of the world where it’s hard to get clean drinking water. You pour in salty water and let the sun do the work for a few hours. Then, hey presto! You have clean water! It’s a very simple device and fairly cheap to produce.
Presenter: Can I hear some doubt in your voice?
Jed: Well, they still need help with investment to start producing the distiller properly. So if anyone out there has money to invest in a great product …?
Presenter: Absolutely. Get in touch with the designers.
Jed: Another useful invention which it would be good to see in production are ‘enable talk gloves’. These were invented by some Ukrainian students to allow people with speech and hearing impairments to communicate with people who don’t understand sign language. The gloves use sensors to translate sign language into text, then into spoken language using a smartphone. A brilliant invention!
Presenter: Yes, that could benefit thousands of people.
Jed: Another useful invention comes from a surprising source, James Cameron, the film director.
Presenter: The Titanic director?
Jed: The very same. Cameron was part of a team, headed by engineer Ron Allum, which designed the Deepsea Challenger Submarine, capable of descending to the lowest parts of the sea, 10 km down. Last year Cameron went down to the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the sea in the world. He was the first person to do a solo dive there, and he stayed for three hours, the longest time so far.
Presenter: That sounds impressive!
Jed: Yes. We know so little about what’s at the bottom of the ocean, and it’s important to find out more. OK, so now for something useful in a different way. You know that feeling when you’re trying to get tomato ketchup out of a bottle and it won’t come out, but you’re sure there’s lots more in there?
Presenter: Yeah, of course. It’s really annoying.
Jed: Well, a team of students at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have come up with a new product that you use to coat a glass or plastic bottle, and then what’s inside, hair gel or mustard, or whatever, comes out really easily.
Presenter: So, it saves hours of frustration trying to get stuff out of bottles?
Jed: Exactly. Right, now for my favourite invention. This is really silly, but I love it. It’s a way of producing clouds indoors.
Presenter: Clouds?
Jed: Yes. A Dutch artist has come up with a way of forming perfect, small, white clouds inside. They’re just beautiful. I don’t think you can do it yourself at home yet, though.
Presenter: I don’t think I’d want to.
Jed: Oh, you would if you’d seen the photos. They’re amazing.
Presenter: OK, Jed, thanks for that. We’ll leave you with your head in the clouds and see you again next week!
Discussion
Which of these new inventions would you most like to try out?
Comments
I would like to try the gloves, because i'd like to travel around the world and be able to communicate with foreing people
I would really like to try out the solar water distiller because if this invention really works like they say it could really change the world for the better.
Well, I would relly want to try de wintg-suit and do parachute. I have tried lot of sports, but I haven't do this one yet.
I'd most like to try out water distiller because I love chemistry and I'd like to know how it actually works. Second thing I'd like to try out are wing-suits because I've always wanted to take up an extreme sport and I still want but I don't have time for that.
The progress moves extremely fast, so very soon we could use wing suit as our own wings to reach any place. I'm also proud of my countrymen who have come up with an "enable talk gloves". Thank God, I live in the 21st century!
I'd like to try cloud-maker machine and hope that my wallpapers won't get peeled off ;D . The speech in this programme is prety simple and I understood most of it☻.
All these inventions are interesting and useful but I'd most like to try go down by submarine of James Cameron. That listening material was more difficult than previous one (e.g. Boy Bands, How to study, My hero etc). I listened to it many times and I understood about 80-90% of this material. Not bad. I didnt listen to it with transcript yet and when I do this, I think I understand whole material!!! Thank you for these Great materials to study!
For me, the most useful and interesting invention is "enable talk gloves". At the same time, I would like to invent a ship which is run with water. I know it would be very difficult but in my opinion, it can prevent global warming...
Hi, may I ask how “ebable talk gloves” work??
And...
I want the ship when your ship comes in! ;)
I would like to try the cloud maker machine because I love clouds
I would like to try the wingsuits because I've heard that it's very fun to do that. I'd like to feel the adrenaline in my body.
Hello, my name is Sasha, I'm practicing my English, I would like chat with somebody who likes football. The first invention i would like to try is the way of producing clouds indoors.
I like football and I want to talk to people for improving my English skills.
same
Hi everybody! I'd like to try out cloud-maker machine. Oh, it's very interesting! I bet it would be very romantic if there were many clouds around me. In my imagination, it is beautiful.
I am aslo impressed with the Deepsea Challenger Submarine. It's an important invention for human.
The invention that most impressive to me is wing-suit , that is brilliant thing I ever read . The human dream is flying and now they can do it . How interesting
Hello, my name is Lautaro, I'm practicing my English, I would like chat with somebody that likes football. About the inventions, I can say that the only invention that I like is "the water destiler", I think that the others are too useless.
In the text the very interesting invention is of a Dutch artist. He has come up with a way of forming perfect clouds.
Another interesting invention was invented by some Ukrain students. They invented a glove for traslating language into text, them into smoken language using a smartphone.
i think that the presenter wasnt too interested in the things that jed said. i would really like to try the first invention.
When I read 'Mary Poppins' in which the main character,Mary, came down from the sky on the wind with an open umbrella, my friends and I were tempted to fly on the wind like her……
Then, we tried… we tried a jump one by one from the window with an open umbrella…………..
Ouch……..!!!!!!
I would like to try wing suit,but it is kind of like dangerous.And if you really want to risk your life , you may try to do that and then hurt yourself
I would like to try wing suit, but it is also dangerous.
I am a middle school student and I want to learn English well.But the listening on the website is difficult for me.So could you give me some advice on how to learn English in my daily life?Thank you!
Hi 0721,
This is a difficult listening. Go to the main Listening skills practice section and click on 'Level A1' If these listenings are too easy, click on 'Level A2'. To find out more about our level system on the website have a look here: http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/cef-levels You can also search all our material by level if you go to the Contents page. Click ALL on the main menu bar to get there.
I hope this helps. Best wishes, Jo (LearnEnglish Teens Team)
Good, listening practise the best way to use my English!
The first invention i would like to try is the way of producing clouds indoors. I find that difficult to happen...and if it's working I'd like to see that in my home :Ρ
English is the best in world! English!!!!
Hurray! Hurray!
Good, listening practise the best way to use my English!
Best wishes for editors of this site!
This listening record is really hard for me, i couldn't hear all inventions properly even i listened this recording many time, Jed speaks too fast i think and some words are new for me, but it's better after i read the transcript.
I think the coolest invention is enable talk gloves, they are so useful to help people with special needs.
Hi Niluh,
Don't worry if you found this listening difficult. This is a high level of English and the recording is quite fast. The best thing to do is to listen several times and to use the transcript - which is exactly what you've done. You're a really good student, Niluh! :)
Best wishes, Jo (LearnEnglish Teens Team)
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