Living with technology Unit 1 Living with technology Welcome to the unit

Objectives To get a general idea of the topic in Unit 1 To look at the four different electrical and electronic devices (P1) and discuss how these devices have changed our lives

Lead-in Many things have been invented in the history of mankind and more and more things are to be invented. Today, it is such an era (时代)that science and technology develop rapidly and penetrate into our life. What electrical and electronic appliances (电器) do you have at home?

Which do you think is the most useful?

Electronics have developed very quickly in the last decades Electronics have developed very quickly in the last decades. Do you think these things have made our lives more convenient or have they made simple things more complicated?

What do you think life without these products would be like? What’s your opinion on these products?

● They are invented to meet people’s needs. ● They have improved people’s lives to some degree. ● They are developing very quickly. ● The radiation from some of the electrical or electronic devices, such as mobile phones, may be harmful to people’s health. ● When people buy new electrical or electronic devices, they throw away the old ones. This may generate a large amount of waste, which is harmful to the environment.

Enjoy another video about the development of computers

Picture 1: Compare the TV in the picture with the TV in your home. 1. antennae (天线) on top 2. a small screen 3. only black and white pictures 4. no remote control (the control panel was on one side of the screen)

Development of TV black-and-white TV colour TV LCD screen 液晶显示器

Picture 2: How did people record music in the past? Put the tapes into the recorder, then play the tape with music at one side and play the record button at the other side to record the music onto the blank tape.

Look at picture 2. What devices do people need to record music now? A computer, an MP3 player and some recording software. How do people record music using a computer? People copy the music from a CD to the computer using recording software. The music will then be digitalized and stored in and played by an MP3 player.

Development of audio (音响) devices gramophone (留声机) CD player radio/tape recorder MP3 player

Picture 3: How do you look up a word in a paper dictionary? The words in a paper dictionary are arranged in alphabetical order from ‘A’ to ‘Z’. We need to look at the first letter of the word and use it to search in the dictionary. If two words start with the same letter, we look at the second letter to decide the alphabetical order. If the first and the second letters are the same, we look at the third letter and so on.

How do you look up a word in an electronic dictionary? We key in the word we want to look up and click the button ‘Enter’. Then the word entry will appear on the screen.

Besides the dictionary, what else can be stored in your electronic dictionary ? There can be a calendar, a list of addresses and phone numbers, memos or a clock. More recent electronic dictionaries have large memories and some can be used as electronic libraries with hundreds of books stored inside.

Development of dictionaries paper dictionary electronic dictionary

Picture 4: How did people keep in touch in the past? --- by letter/telegraph/telephone How do people keep in touch now? --- mostly by mobile phone What functions do the latest mobile phones have?

--- such functions as: 1) sending images and sounds as well as text messages 2) used as a digital camera 3) connected to the Internet 4) receiving TV signals 5) …

Development of communication letter/telegram telephone cell phone Development of communication

Development of cameras traditional camera mobile phone digital camera with a camera digital camera

electric fan fan Development of fans air-conditioner

Discussion 1. Can we depend on these electronic devices completely? 2. How have these electrical or electronic devices improved our lives?

With people’s hard work and intelligence, human beings own lots of useful and handy electric and electronic devices. These devices do save us a lot of time and energy. Besides, they free us from heavy housework. But we should not depend completely on them. We human beings should make reasonable use of them so that we can relax ourselves and find pleasure and happiness in our life.

These inventions have greatly improved people’s lives. Mobile phones are a good example of this. Before mobile phones came into use, people couldn’t make phone calls or receive phone calls if there was no telephone nearby. With mobile phones, people are able to make calls at any time and at any place. Today, many of us are very busy and cannot be expected to wait for a long time. Mobile phones provide us with a chance to keep in touch with others wherever we are.

Preview Preview the wordlist in Unit 1 Learn how to understand headings when reading Preview the Reading on Pages 2-3

How important are watching TV and listening to the radio to you? Prepare a timeline listing when your families bought different electrical and electronic devices.