(Advanced)) Why It Is So Hard to Live in the Present

The period of time we find hardest to inhabit is the present; for a range of powerful reasons we should take on board.


1.

Discuss these questions yourselves and then listen:

1. What tends to happen to our minds when we are experiencing the "now"?

2. Why are so many events easier to appreciate when they are over?

3. How does the speaker define "nostalgia"?

4. What emotion do we feel most of the time, but often forget about in retrospect?

5. How do our bodies stop us from enjoying the present?

6. What do we need to remember about other people?


2.

Go through this vocab: try using a synonym in the gap in brackets.

a stretch of time (p_____)

a rival (com__________)

to plot (to p___ )

when something is "over" (f_______)

to foreshorten  (to magnify or en______)

dull (adj) (b_____)

raw footage (une_______d)

settings (pl_____ and situ_______)

mediocrity (av______ness)

nostalgia (senti______ feelings about the past)

editing (removing or reorganising inf_____)

anxiety (w_____y)

gruesome (horr_____)

theoretical (purely id__)

non-specific (g_______)

to come to pass (to actually h_______)

to anticipate (to exp______)

itinerary (sch_____ or ag_____)

dissonant (unple______t)

to turn in on oneself (to with_____)

to have little to do with ( to be unrel______)

ungrateful (to fail to appr______)

entity (th____ or bei___)

to take in (to abs____ or dig____)

to fixate (to become ob_______ with)

to berate ourselves (o tell ourselves ____ )

to lay on a party for sb (to org____ and host)

an encounter (an intera____)

to give way to (to let sth rep____e sth)

Listen and check:

Why it is so hard to live in the present


3.

Adjectives

Why It Is So Hard to Live in the Present

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APPALLING	CAVERNOUS	CHAOTIC
CONSEQUENTIAL	DELICATE	DISSONANT
DULL	FIXATED	FORESHORTENED
GRUESOME	IMAGINARY	LIMITED
MEANINGFUL	NON-SPECIFIC	SHEER
SIGNIFICANT	SKILLED	SLENDER
UNGRATEFUL	UNINSPIRED	WEIRD

4.

For a challenge, try listening again and numbering the words above in the order you hear them.

Order here:

1. slender
2. delicate
3. imaginary
4. significant
5. foreshortened
6. dull
7. skilled
8. uninspired
9. consequential
10. meaningful
11. sheer
12. gruesome
13. non-specific
14. limited
15. appalling
16. dissonant
17. cavernous
18. chaotic
19. ungrateful
20. fixated
21. weird

(Upper-Intermediate) Brain Magic

Watch:

Brain Magic

Collocations used

(Upper-Intermediate) DNA Storage

DNA may be the new preferred way of backing up digital files. Scientists have figured out how to code files and attach them to DNA cells. The process holds information longer than any of the disks and drives that we currently use, but is this really the way to preserve all of humanity's digital accomplishments for the future?

Watch the clip:

DNA Storage

Take notes of the words in these gaps

will be ____ to _____
going to be ______ forever
it won't even ____ as long as paper
to prove their _____
_______ perfectly just like the _______
in the ______ run
they have _____  parts
without ___ your hard drives are _____ to fail
five years if you're _____
environmental ______
little ________ of DNA
the way that this ____ itself to us right now
future ______ are going to have access
there's _____ gonna be a record
you're gonna ____ to delete some shit
It's gonna be around for a _____
for ten thousand years or possibly ______

Discuss:

What are the implications of this new technology? 

If you'd like to learn more about how this process works watch this clip:

Sriram Kosuri


 

(Advanced) Messy Robots

A tangle of poles and ropes that looks like a twitching tent may be the precursor of a future robotic explorer, which would be dropped from a height of 100 km onto Saturn’s moon, Titan, without a parachute.

Watch:

Super Ball Bot


Vocab preview

Vocab review