3 Part Listening Video: Mars, Amazon and Sports

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This video from the Economist runs a science and technology podcast called Babbage.

In this edition Babbage discusses three main topics: Curiosity The Mars Rover, Amazon's move in to social gaming and the Role of Technology in Sporting Achievement.

There is only one video, which contains all three parts.

Part 1:  The Mars Rover

1.      The Rover, named Curiosity, has landed on Mars. How does the speaker feel about the landing? 

a)      It has been a greater success than the Olympics

b)      It has been a technological achievement, which has been widely reported

c)       It has been said to be very complicated and therefore expensive


2. The speaker then goes on to discuss pictures. What were the interesting pictures taken?

a)      The landscape of Mars

b)      The clouds and dust of Mars

c)       The of rover landing Mars

                   3. The first video from the rover has finally arrived. What does it show? 

a.       the process of the landing

b.      land and dust

c.       rockets

        4. The speaker asks the scientist what he is looking forward to learning from the rover’s pictures and      videos. Which best describes his reply?

a.       Various gasses such as geological methane

b.      Carbon and isotopes

c.       Elements that point to life on Mars

5. The speakers asks about the prospect that fossil evidence could be found. What does the scientist’s expect to see?

a.       Fossils of shells

b.      Ice

c.       Fossils of micro-organisms  

Part 2: Amazon and Social Gaming

Answer true or false to the following questions;

1.       Amazon has launched a new game on Facebook

2.       People are happy that Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple are working together

3.       Amazon’s new game is called Living Class

4.       The purpose of the game to create a treasure hunt with moving images

5.       The game is very easy

Fill in the sentences below with information from text.

A lot of other websites, such as City Ville and Zinger, have created .........  games. According to Amazon, the reason why they have made this game is to deliver an accessible gaming ................. However, it is clear that Zinger is in trouble, with it’s .............   ............... falling. Therefore  Amazon sees this game as an opportunity to move on to their ............... Zinger makes it money by selling.................... goods, and has a very popular business ..................... The games are free to play, but gamers are able to buy .......... to advance through the games more quickly. It also wishes to establish a franchise and a .................. for gaming. Overall, this is a logical extra ............ for Amazon to move into.

Part 3: Sports: Listen and take notes to this section.

 

After you have listened twice, fill the gaps below below.

 1. The makers of sport gear always want us to believe that better ............. is what improves performance.
2. To what extent does technology improve performance?

Technology does improve performance subtly.

                                                               i.       Cyclists on the Velodrome:  The technicians increase the ........................, because this causes the .................... to be less...................., which means there is less drag. This means that the cyclists have to fight against less ................   ............... An increase of .............. can improve there time by........................

                                                             ii.      Experiments on Swimmers: the experiment used a .................. system. It showed that swimmers with less..............   ............ and so a  .............. body should swim faster.

However, technology doesn’t always want to improve performance.

Javelin:  improving the javelin’s materials meant that the performance of the athletes became too good! One Javelin thrower threw a javelin almost ....................meters, it nearly hit the..........................! The other problem with the throw was that it.......................   ..................., which meant it was difficult to .....................................

Eventually, it was decided that the .................... of ............. should be moved, so that the javelin fell .........    ........... but also meant that it fell less ................

This has also meant that the Javelin throw has gone back by ...............  ..................

 

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