Session 4

Join us as we practise talking about the future. Find out the experts' views on how technology will affect business, tell us about your own predictions, and read a News Report on the future of travel.

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The future of travel?

How bad is the traffic where you live? Well, if you're fed up with sitting in cars, buses or trains with thousands of other people, perhaps taking to the sky is the answer!

A company in New Zealand is building a one-person jetpack that will let you fly to school, college or work. It will be on sale from 2016.

In this News Report, we hear about the future of travel and how different cities around the world are dealing with too many people with too little space!

Listen to the audio and complete the activity

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Are you fed up of endless traffic jams and overcrowded trains? Then how about travelling to school, university or work in your own jetpack?

A company in New Zealand is building a one-person jetpack that will go on sale in 2016.

It's designed to be used by emergency services but the chief executive of the company believes that it won't be long before it'll be available for everyday transport.

Realistically though, personal flight is likely to remain elusive for most of us.

Across the world, with populations growing, congestion, pollution and travel stress look likely to rise.

Major cities are approaching this challenge in different ways. Some are spending money on big infrastructure projects. Others see the future lying in greener transport alternatives such as electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Cities like Copenhagen, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Mexico have rolled out electric bike-sharing schemes.

But the really big change lies not in the type of transport but how we use it. According to some experts in 10 or 20 years the types of transport may not be that different, we will still have buses, tubes and trains, but everything will be integrated.

We'll simply decide where we want to go and an app will work out the fastest and cheapest way to get there.

It'll give you choices based on its knowledge about you, the traffic situation and even the weather. For example it might calculate that it's a nice day, there is congestion on your normal route so it will book you an e-bike or an automated taxi.

Download

You can download News Report on our Unit 28 Downloads page.

Vocabulary

fed up of
tired of, bored of

overcrowded
where there are too many people

jetpack
a machine you wear which has a powerful engine that enables you to fly

elusive
very difficult or impossible to get

congestion
the situation when there is so much traffic and too many people that it is difficult to move around

infrastructure
projects plans to build railways lines, roads, bridges etc.

greener transport
alternatives ways of travelling that cause less pollution

rolled out
introduced

integrated
designed to work together smoothly

Related story

This story is based on an original BBC News story.

End of Session 4

Well done, you've reached the end of the session. In Session 5 it's time to test yourself on everything you've learned in the unit, and join Alice in Wonderland where she plays a very curious game.

Session Vocabulary

  • fed up of
    tired of, bored of

    overcrowded
    where there are too many people

    jetpack
    a machine you wear which has a powerful engine that enables you to fly

    elusive
    very difficult or impossible to get

    congestion
    the situation when there is so much traffic and too many people that it is difficult to move around

    infrastructure projects
    plans to build railways lines, roads, bridges etc.

    greener transport
    alternatives ways of travelling that cause less pollution

    rolled out
    introduced

    following the lead of
    doing what has been already been done by

    integrated
    designed to work together smoothly