CAE Reading and Use of English Part 8

You are going to read about items from science fiction that became real. For questions 47-56,
choose from the sections of the article (A-D). The sections may be chosen more than once.

Which science fiction work …

47 had a purpose other than pure entertainment?

48 presented a concept that is familiar today but through a different process?

49 was written by an author who has more famous fictional creations?

50 features machines that threaten to cause the downfall of man?

51 shows us a device that would have enormous significance for us if it really existed?

52 was created by a writer whose name will never be forgotten?

53 was given a title that might be better understood by people today than when it was written?

54 revolves around a character who uses a particular device to escape from the reality of a
situation?

55 delighted people over a period of many years?

56 foresaw something that is controversial today?

We’ve seen it all before!

Just how many of the technological advances we take for granted today were actually predicted in
science fiction years ago? Karen Smith checks out four influential works.

A - R.U.R

Originally a word that appeared solely in science fiction, the term ‘robot’ has now become
commonplace as developments in technology have allowed scientists to design ever more complex
machines that can perform tasks to assist us at work or home. But how did the word originate and
when? To answer this, we have to go back nearly 100 years to a play written in 1920 by a Czech
playwright, Karel Capek, called R. U. R — Rossum’s Universal Robots. The word is a derivation from
the Czech robota, meaning ‘forced labour’, or rab, meaning ‘slave’. Capek’s robots are biological
machines which are uncannily similar to what we today refer to as ‘clones’ or ‘androids’ but are
assembled from various parts rather than being genetically ‘grown.’ The play eerily predicts
problems that concern people today regarding machines that can think independently. Rossum’s
robots plan a rebellion against their creator, a man who in his own words, wants to ‘play God’. The
famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov was unimpressed by the literary value of Capek’s play but
believed it had enormous significance because it introduced the word robot to the world.
В - Ralph 124C41+

If you’re a science fiction aficionado, you’ll definitely have heard of Hugo Gernsback. Considered by
many to be the founding father of science fiction back in 1926 with the publication of his magazine
Amazing Stories, his name has been immortalised in the annual science fiction awards, the ‘Hugos’.
However, the quality of his writing is questionable and his stories are more highly regarded for their
content rather than plot or character development. Gernsback was deeply interested in the world of
electronics and, believing that science-fiction should inspire future scientists, he filled his stories
with ideas for numerous new gadgets and electronic devices. An extraordinary number of his
predictions have actually come true. Today we have television, televised phone calls, sliding doors
and remote controls, to name only a few, and the precursors of many of these can be found in just
one novel: Ralph 124C41+.The mystifying title is itself a prediction of language used in text talk
today: ‘one to foresee for all (1+)’! Gernsback’s prophetic stories included other predictions which
currently remain unfulfilled, such as complete weather control, thought records and aircabs. Watch
this space!

C - From the London Town of 1904

Mark Twain is a familiar name to most of us as the author of magnificent books such as Huckleberry
Finn and Tom Sawyer . He is less well-known, however, for his science fiction but to avid readers of
that genre, he is considered one of the best writers of all time. It is also quite possible that he
predicted one of the most influential scientific inventions the world has ever seen — something that
we all use and rely on every day: the Internet! It is in a little-known short story called From the
London Town of 1904 that a character invents a device called a ‘telectroscope’. This is a machine
that uses telephone line links across the world to enable him to see and hear what is going on in any
place on the globe at a given time. How familiar does that sound? The character, while on death row
for a murder that he did not commit, uses his machine to ‘call up’ different places in the world and
the narrator of the story comments that although in a prison cell, the man is ‘almost as free as the
birds.’

D - Star Trek

These days mobile phones have become such an integral part of our daily lives that we would be lost
without them but there was a time when we had to communicate using landlines or — horror of
horrors — by writing letters! Viewers watching the birth of a new TV science fiction series in the
1960s would have been amazed at the thought that the ‘communicator’ used by Star Trek’s Captain
Kirk would one day become an everyday form of communication available to us all. Kirk’s
‘communicator’ was a small device he used to flip open and, in retrospect, it seems surprisingly
similar to a mobile phone that became popular in the late 90s. The long-running series also featured
several other devices that have since moved from fiction to the real world. However, the famous
Star Trek ‘Transporter’, through which people can immediately materialise in different places, still
remains the Holy Grail for many in the world of science. Now, that really would make a difference to
our lives. ‘Beam us up, Scottie,’ please?
CAE Reading and Use of English Part 5

You are going to read a newspaper article. For questions 31-36 choose the answer (A, B, C or D)
which you think fits best according to the text.

The land under the sea - Underwater maps reveal a hidden history

Ten thousand years ago, as the last ice age drew to a close, sea levels around the world were far
lower than they are today. Much of the land under both the North Sea to the east of Britain and the
English Channel which now separates France and Britain was part of a huge region of forests and
grassy plains, where herds of horses and reindeer roamed free and people lived in villages by the
lakes and rivers. Then the climate gradually became warmer (a phenomenon certainly not confined
to our own age!) and the water trapped in glaciers and ice caps was released. This ancient land was
submerged in the resulting deluge and all that remains to tell us that it was once lush and verdant –
and inhabited – is the occasional stone tool, harpoon or mammoth tusk brought up from the seabed
by fishing boats.

Now the development of advanced sonar technology, known as bathymetry, is making it possible to
study this flooded landscape in extraordinary detail. A special echo sounder is fixed to the bottom of
a survey vessel, and it makes wide sweeps across the seabed. While previous technology has only
been able to produce two-dimensional images, bathymetry can now deploy computers, satellite-
positioning equipment and special software to create accurate and remarkably detailed maps. For
the first time, an ancient riverbed leaps out of the three-dimensional image, complete with rocky
ledges rising up from the bottom of the valley. The sites of prehistoric settlements can now be
pinpointed, and it is also possible to see in stunning detail the sunken shipwrecks that litter this part
of the seabed.

According to archaeologist Dr Linda Andrews, this technological development is of huge significance.

‘We now have the ability to map the seabed as accurately as we can map dry land,’ she says. She is,
however, scathing about the scale of financial support for such projects. ‘We have better images of
Mars and Venus than of two-thirds of our own planet! Britain is an interesting case. It’s been a
maritime nation for much of its history, and the sea has had such a massive influence on it, and in
view of this, it’s an absolute scandal that we know so little about the area just off the country’s
shores!’

Once bathymetric techniques have identified sites where people might have built their homes and
villages, such as sheltered bays, cliffs with caves and the shores of freshwater lakes, divers can be
sent down to investigate further. Robot submarines can also be used, and researchers hope they will
find stone tools and wood from houses (which survives far longer in water than on dry land) as proof
of human activity. The idea shared by many people in Britain of their country as a natural island
kingdom will be challenged by these findings: Britain has been inhabited for about 500,000 years,
and for much of this time, it has been linked on and off to continental Europe. It remains to be seen
how far this new awareness is taken on board, however.

In fact, the use of bathymetry scanners will not be limited to the study of lost landscapes and ancient
settlements. It will also be vital in finding shipwrecks. Records show that there are about 44,000
shipwrecks off the shores of Britain, but there is good reason to believe that the real figure is much
higher. In addition, commercial applications are a real possibility. Aggregates for the construction
industry are becoming increasingly expensive, and bathymetry scanners can be used to identify
suitable sites for quarrying this material. However, mapping the seabed will also identify places
where rare plants and shellfish are living. Government legislation could prevent digging at such sites,
either to extract material for a profit or to make the water deeper. This is significant in view of the
plans to dredge parts of the English Channel to provide deeper waterways for massive container
ships.

31 What point is made in the first paragraph 34 In the fourth paragraph, the writer
about the area now under the sea? suggests that a better understanding of the
settlements on the seabed may…
A The fact that it was populated has only
recently been discovered. A inspire more people to take an interest in
archaeology.
B It was created by the last ice age.
B modify the attitudes of the British to their
C Ancient man-made objects have been
country’s history.
found there.
C provide confirmation about the need to
D It was flooded, drowning the inhabitants.
deal with climate change.

D alter the perception people in other

32 How does the new sonar technology work? countries have about Britain.

A It has an echo sounder placed on the

seabed.
35 Quarrying is mentioned in the final
B It produces two-dimensional images of the paragraph to show that…
sea floor.
A there are ways of obtaining funds for
C It makes use of a number of different research.
devices.
B underwater surveys should be completed
D It bases its calculations on the location of as soon as possible.
archaeological sites.
C damage to the seabed has not been
recorded accurately so far.

33 How does Dr Andrews feel about the lack D there are potentially practical benefits for
of accurate maps of the waters around industry.
Britain?

A outraged
36 The use of bathymetry scanners may help
B resigned to

C astonished preserve the marine environment.

D amused promote the clearing of the English Channel.

identify new species of plants and animals.

obtain approval to look for shipwrecks.