Please read the vocabulary lesson at your natural speed, though it should not be too fast so that I could hear what you speak naturally and imitate yours. Part 2 can be found at https://rhinospike.com/audio_requests/sunflower/56306/ Thank you!
Describe an important invention
What was it?
When was it made?
Why do you think it was important?
Student: Well, I’m not generally particularly interested in science and technology and that sort of thing so this is quite a tricky topic for me. Anyway, one invention I can definitely talk about is television. I believe it was invented at the beginning of the twentieth century, so about a hundred years ago, but I’m not exactly sure who invented it. If I remember rightly, they started off by just being able to show still images and obviously the quality of picture was extremely poor. After a while, they could transmit moving images and include sound and by about 1930, TV looked something like it does now, except it was in black and white. I don’t think television had a huge impact until after the Second World War. Then, particularly in America, ordinary people started buying TV sets. Obviously, these days, it has a massive influence on just about all aspects of our life. If it wasn’t for television, we wouldn’t know what was happening in the world, we wouldn’t be able to watch sport or much entertainment and a million and one other things. Television has helped turn the world into a much smaller place. For example, if there is an earthquake in India, a terrorist attack in South America or a financial crisis in Europe we will know about it almost immediately through the medium of television. In the past, say a century ago, it might have taken weeks for news to arrive. Also, we have an understanding of what life is like in other parts of the world. When there is famine or drought somewhere, TV pictures bring it into our living-rooms and, hopefully, persuade us to try to do something about it.
Thank you a lot!