LESSON 14

 Speaking: Robots
 Reading: Passage 1 and Passage 2 Revision
 Writing: Table

I. Speaking

 Part 1:

1. Do you know something about robots?

2. Did you like any film has a robot in it when you were a child?

3. Do you use robot in your daily life?

4. Will you be comfortable if you are on a car driven by a robot?

 Part 2: Describe a product or application which is based on artificial intelligence

You should say

what it is

how it works

how it helps you

And what you think about it.

II. Reading

Ex.1:

Caral: an ancient South American city

Huge earth and rock mounds rise out of the desert of the Supe Valley near the coast of Peru in
South America. These immense mounds appear simply to be part of the geographical landscape
in this arid region squeezed between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountains But looks
deceive. These are actually human-made pyramids strong evidence indicates they are the remains
of a city known as Caral that flourished nearly 5,000 years ago. It true, it would be the oldest
known urban center in the America and among the most ancient in the world.
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Research undertaken by Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady suggests that the 150-acre plex of
pyramids, plazas and residential buildings was a thriving metropolis when Egypt's great
pyramids were still being built. Though discovered in 1905, for years Caral attracted little
attention, largely because archaeologists believed the structures were rainy recent. But the
monumental scale of the pyramids had long interested Shady, who began excavations at the site
in 1996, about 22 kilometers from the coast and 190 kilometers north of Peru's capital city of
Lima.

Shady and her crew searched for broken remains of the pots and containers that most such sites
contain. Not finding any only made her more excited: it meant Caral could be what
archaeologists term pre-ceramic, that is, existing before the advent in the area of pot-firing
techniques. Shady's team undertook the task of excavating Piramide Mayor, the largest of the
pyramids. After carefully clearing away many hundreds of years' worth of rubble and sand, they
identified staircases, walls covered with remnants of colored plaster, and brickwork. In the
foundations, they found the remains of grass-like reeds woven into bags. The original workers,
she surmised, must have filled these bags with stones from a nearby quarry and laid them atop
one another inside retaining walls, gradually giving rise to the pyramid's immense structure.
Shady had samples of the reeds subjected to radiocarbon dating and found that the reeds were
4,600 years old. This evidence indicated that Caral was, in fact, more than 1,000 years older than
what had previously been thought to be the oldest urban center in the Americas.

What amazed archaeologists was not just the age, but the complexity and scope of Caral.
Piramide Mayor alone covers an area nearly the size of four football fields and is 18 meters tall.
A nine-meter-wide staircase rises from a circular plaza at the foot of the pyramid, passing over
three terraced levels until it reaches the top. Thousands of manual laborers would have been
needed to build such a project, not counting the many architects, craftsmen, and managers.
Shady's team found the remains of a large amphitheater, containing almost 70 musical
instruments made of bird and deer bones Clearly music plaved an important role in Caral's
society. Around the perimeter of Caral are a series of smaller mounds and various buildings.
These indicate a hierarchy of living arrangements: large, well-kept rooms atop pyramids for the
elite, ground-level quarters for shabbier outlying dwellings for workers

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But why had Caral been built in the first place? Her excavations convinced Shady that Caral
once served as a trade center for the region, which extends from the rainforests of the Amazon to
the high forests of the Andes. Shady found evidence of a rich trading environment, including
seeds of the cocoa bush and necklaces of shells, neither of which was native to the immediate
Caral area. This environment gave rise to people who did not take part in the production of food,
allowing them to become priests and planners, builders and designers. Thus occupational
specialization, elemental to an urban society, emerged.

But what sustained such a trading center and drew travelers to it? Was it food? Shady and her
team found the bones of small edible fish, which must have come from the Pacific coast to the
west, in the excavations. But they also found evidence of squash, sweet potatoes and beans
having been grown locally. Shady theorized that Caral's early farmers diverted the area's rivers
into canals, which still cross the Supe Valley today, to irrigate their fields.But because she found
no traces of maize, which can be traded or stored and used in times of crop failure, she concluded
that Caral's trade leverage was not based on stockpiling food supplies.

It was evidence of another crop in the excavations that gave Shady the best clue to Caral’s
success. In nearly every excavated building, her team discovered evidence of cotton - seeds,
fibers and textiles. Her theory fell into place when a large fishing net made of those fibers,
unearthed in an unrelated dig on Peru's coast, turned out to be as old as Caral. 'The farmers of
Caral grew the cotton that the fishermen needed to make their nets, Shady speculates. And the
fishermen gave them shellfish and dried fish in exchange for these nets.' In essence, the people of
Caral enabled fishermen to work with larger and more effective nets, which made the resources
of the sea more readily available, and the fishermen probably used dried squash grown by the
Caral people as flotation devices for their nets.

Questions 1-6

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage ? In
boxes 1 – 6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information

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NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. Caral was built at the same time as the construction of the Egyptian pyramids.

2. The absence of pottery at the archaeological dig gave Shady a significant clue to the age of
the site.

3. The stones used to build Piramide Mayor came from a location far away

4. The huge and complicated structures of Piramide Mayor suggest that its construction required
an organised team of builders.

5. Archaeological evidence shows that the residents of Caral were highly skilled musicians.

6. The remains of housing areas at Caral suggest that there were no class distinctions in
residential areas.

Questions 7-13

Complete the notes below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

Caral as a trading centre

Items discovered at Caral but not naturally occurring in the area

7. the 7 ______________ of a certain plant

8. 8 _____________ used to make jewellery

9. the remains of certain food such as 9____________

Clues to farming around Caral

10. 10 ____________ still in existence today indicate water diverted from rivers

11. no evidence that 11_______________ was grown

Evidence of relationship with fishing communities

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 12. the excavation findings and fishing nets found on the coast suggest Caral farmers traded 12
______________

13. dried squash may have been used to aid 13 _______________

Ex.2:

READING PASSAGE 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 14-26 which are based on Reading Passage 2
below.

Stadiums: past, present and future

Stadiums are among the oldest forms of urban architecture: vast stadiums where the public could
watch sporting events were at the centre of western city life as far back as the ancient Greek and
Roman Empires, well before the construction of the great medieval cathedrals and the grand
19th- and 20th-century railway stations which dominated urban skylines in later eras.

Today, however, stadiums are regarded with growing scepticism. Construction costs can soar
above £1 billion, and stadiums finished for major events such as the Olympic Games or the FIFA
World Cup have notably fallen into disuse and disrepair.

But this need not be the cause. History shows that stadiums can drive urban development and
adapt to the culture of every age. Even today, architects and planners are finding new ways to
adapt the mono-functional sports arenas which became emblematic of modernisation during the
20th century.

The amphitheatre* of Arles in southwest France, with a capacity of 25,000 spectators, is perhaps
the best example of just how versatile stadiums can be. Built by the Romans in 90 AD, it became
a fortress with four towers after the fifth century, and was then transformed into a village
containing more than 200 houses. With the growing interest in conservation during the 19th
century, it was converted back into an arena for the staging of bullfights, thereby returning the
structure to its original use as a venue for public spectacles.

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Another example is the imposing arena of Verona in northern Italy, with space for 30,000
spectators, which was built 60 years before the Arles amphitheatre and 40 years before Rome’s
famous Colosseum. It has endured the centuries and is currently considered one of the world’s
prime sites for opera, thanks to its outstanding acoustics.

The area in the centre of the Italian town of Lucca, known as the Piazza dell’ Anfiteatro, is yet
another impressive example of an amphitheatre becoming absorbed into the fabric of the city.
The site evolved in a similar way to Arles and was progressively filled with buildings from the
Middle Ages until the 19th century, variously used as houses, a salt depot and a prison. But rather
than reverting to an arena, it became a market square, designed by Romanticist architect Lorenzo
Nottolini. Today, the ruins of the amphitheatre remain embedded in the various shops and
residences surrounding the public square.

There are many similarities between modern stadiums and the ancient amphitheatres intended for
games. But some of the flexibility was lost at the beginning of the 20th century, as stadiums were
developed using new products such as steel and reinforced concrete, and made use of bright
lights for night-time matches.

Many such stadiums are situated in suburban areas, designed for sporting use only and
surrounded by parking lots. These factors mean that they may not be as accessible to the general
public, require more energy to run and contribute to urban heat.

But many of today’s most innovative architects see scope for the stadium to help improve the
city. Among the current strategies, two seem to be having particular success: the stadium as an
urban hub, and as a power plant.

There’s a growing trend for stadiums to be equipped with public spaces and services that serve a
function beyond sport, such as hotels, retail outlets, conference centres, restaurants and bars,
children’s playgrounds and green space. Creating mixed-use developments such as this

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reinforces compactness and multi-functionality, making more efficient use of land and helping to
regenerate urban spaces.

This opens the space up to families and a wider cross-section of society, instead of catering only
to sportspeople and supporters. There have been many examples of this in the UK: the mixed-use
facilities at Wembley and Old Trafford have become a blueprint for many other stadiums in the
world.

The phenomenon of stadium as power stations has arisen from the idea that energy problems can
be overcome by integrating interconnected buildings by means of a smart grid, which is an
electricity supply network that uses digital communications technology to detect and react to
local changes in usage, without significant energy losses. Stadiums are ideal for these purposes,
because their canopies have a large surface area for fitting photovoltaic panels and rise high
enough (more than 40 metres) to make use of micro wind turbines.

Freiburg Mage Solar Stadium in Germany is the first of a new wave of stadiums as power plants,
which also includes the Amsterdam Arena and the Kaohsiung Stadium. The latter, inaugurated in
2009, has 8,844 photovoltaic panels producing up to 1.14 GWh of electricity annually. This
reduces the annual output of carbon dioxide by 660 tons and supplies up to 80 percent of the
surrounding area when the stadium is not in use. This is proof that a stadium can serve its city,
and have a decidedly positive impact in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions.

Sporting arenas have always been central to the life and culture of cities. In every era, the
stadium has acquired new value and uses: from military fortress to residential village, public
space to theatre and most recently a field for experimentation in advanced engineering. The
stadium of today now brings together multiple functions, thus helping cities to create a
sustainable future.

—————-

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* amphitheatre: (especially in Greek and Roman architecture) an open circular or oval building
with a central space surrounded by tiers of seats for spectators, for the presentation of dramatic
or sporting events

Questions 14-17

Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.

Which section contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

14 a mention of negative attitudes towards stadium building projects

15 figures demonstrating the environmental benefits of a certain stadium

16 examples of the wide range of facilities available at some new stadiums

17 reference to the disadvantages of the stadiums built during a certain era

Questions 18-22

Complete the summary below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 18-22 on your answer sheet.

Roman amphitheatres

The Roman stadium of Europe have proved very versatile. The amphitheatre of Arles, for
example, was converted first into a 18 ……………………, then into a residential area and
finally into an arena where spectators could watch 19 …………………… . Meanwhile, the arena
in Verona, one of the oldest Roman amphitheatres, is famous today as a venue
where 20 …………………… is performed. The site of Lucca’s amphitheatre has also been used
for many purposes over the centuries, including the storage of 21 …………………… . It is now
a market square with 22 …………………… and homes incorporated into the remains of the
Roman amphitheatre.

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Questions 23-24

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 23 and 24 on your answer sheet.

When comparing twentieth-century stadiums to ancient amphitheatres in Section D,

A They are less imaginatively designed.

B They are less spacious.

C They are in less convenient locations.

D They are less versatile.

E They are made of less durable materials

Questions 25-26

Choose TWO letters, A-E.

Write the correct letters in boxes 25 and 26 on your answer sheet.

Which TWO advantages of modern stadium design does the writer mention?

A offering improved amenities for the enjoyment of sports events

B bringing community life back into the city environment

C facilitating research into solar and wind energy solutions

D enabling local residents to reduce their consumption of electricity

E providing a suitable site for the installation of renewable power generators