Unit 5 : Intensive reading

​Text 1 :

Who needs a translator? ​

Read the different parts of the text and answer the upcoming questions.

​Part 1

Google is developing software for the first phone capable of

translating foreign languages almost instantly. By building on

existing technologies in voice recognition and automatic translation,

Google hopes to have a basic system ready within a couple of

years. If it works, it could eventually transform communication

among speakers of the world's 6,000-plus languages.

Article 1

Who needs translators?​

Open Ended

What's special about Google translate?

Open Ended

Identify Google's project in the future?

​Part 2

​The company has already created an automatic system for translating text on computers, which is being honed by scanning millions of multilingual websites and documents. So far, it covers 52 langauages. Google also has a voice-recognition system that enables phone users to conduct web searches by speaking commands into their phones rather than typing them in.

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Article 1​

​Who needs translators?​

Open Ended

How many languages does Google translate cover?

Open Ended

How is it going to be used?

​Part 3

Now it is working on combining the two technologies to produce software capable of understanding a caller's voice and translating it into a synthetic equivalent in a foreign language.​ Like a professional

human interpreter, the phone would analyse "packages" of speech,

​listening to the speaker until it understands the full meaning of words and phrases, before attempting translation.

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Article 1​

Who needs translators?​

Open Ended

What's Google trying to develop?

Open Ended

What does the word "packages" refer to?

​Text 2 :

Going for gold ​

Read the different parts of the article and answer the questions meanwhile.

​Part 1

Apart from being gold-plated and the fact that they are bulletproof - they seem much like any other vending machine. But instead of chocolate bars, a network of "gold-to-go" machines dispenses 24-carat bullion in a smart presentation box .

​Originally designed as a marketing device for an online gold-trading business, the machines have become such a success that their inventor plans to build a global network, installing them everywhere from fitness centres to cruise ships.

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Article 2​

Going for gold ​

Open Ended

What does "gold-to-go" stand for?

Open Ended

How does the article's writer describe the gold vending machine?

​Part 2

Thomas Geissler, the German businessman behind the machines, said their unexpected success was the result of a recent interest in ld. "Our customers are those who are catching on to the idea that gold is a safe investment at a time of financial instability," he said.

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Article 2​

Going for gold ​

Open Ended

Give a short summary about Thomas Geisser's idea.

​Part 3

​Since the first machine was installed in May, in the lobby of Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace hotel, Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace hotel, A20 gold-to-go machines have appeared across Europe. Germany already has eight. Next month, the first machines will open in the United States - in Las Vegas and Florida.

​The company claims its gold is cheaper than that available from the banks, largely because its overheads are lower, and that unlike at a bank, the machine gold is available immediately.

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Subject | Subject

Some text here about the topic of discussion

Open Ended

Where were the different machines put? Why?

Open Ended

What does the company claim?