Changing
bodies
READING
1 Label the picture with the words in the list.
2 Put the words from Exercise 1 in the correct box. Some words go in more than one box.
3 SPEAKING Work in pairs. Discuss the questions. Which parts of the body do you use when you:
read a book?
eyes, fingers, arm, muscles, hands
play football?
leg, toe, foot, eye
watch television?
eye, ear
make a phone call?
arm, finger, mouth, ear, eye, thumb
eat a meal?
mouth, eye, finger, thumb, hand
walk to school?
leg, foot, toe, eye, ear
4 Look at the picture below and the title of the article. What do you think the article will be about? Choose one of the following.
1 What we want to look like in the future.
2 What the human body will be like in the future.
3 How we can change our bodies if we want.
5 Read and listen to the article and check your ideas.
Changing bodies
A long time ago, people were very different from the way we are now. For example, if you find a really old house somewhere, you’ll see that the doors are usually much lower than they are today. Why? Because hundreds of years ago, people were shorter. Over time, the human body changes to adapt to a new way of life.
Can we expect the human body to change in the future? For sure. And the main reason is that we have more and more technology, and it is changing how we live.
What kind of changes can we expect? Well, no one can be 100 per cent sure, but here are some possibilities.
1 Let’s start with the example above. Humans are now ten centimetres taller than 150 years ago. So, in the future, people will probably be even taller. Most of us now have much better food than people in the past – and so we grow more.
2 We’ll get weaker in more than one way. The most important way is that our muscles will not be as strong as now because we won’t do a lot of physical work.
3 We are already using our feet less, and our hands more (think about computers and tablets and so on.) So we can expect that our legs will get shorter and our feet smaller, and at the same time, our fingers will get longer. And our fingers and our eyes will both get better, because they’ll have to do more work together.
4 Now, what about the mouth? It’ll get smaller, perhaps, because technological improvements will mean that we don’t need to talk so much – and also because our teeth will get smaller (so mouths don’t need to be so big to keep them in).
5 Here’s a good one – it’s very possible that people will have four toes, not five. The little toe really isn’t needed any more (people who lose them don’t miss them) so it will probably disappear some time in the future.
6 And last but not least – people won’t have as much hair on their bodies as now, as we don’t need it to keep ourselves warm any more.
Will all these things happen? And if so, when? These are questions that no one can answer for sure.
6 Read the article again and answer the questions.
THINK VALUES
Exercise and health
1 Read the sentences. Give each one a number from 1 to 5 (1 = doesn’t give a lot of importance to health and 5 = gives a lot of importance to health).
1 [latex]\Box[/latex] You should do regular exercise to make sure your muscles are strong.
2 [latex]\Box[/latex] It’s OK to spend a lot of time sitting in front of the television.
3 [latex]\Box[/latex] A wonderful thing to do is go for long walks in the fresh air.
4 [latex]\Box[/latex] Using a computer and writing text messages gives your hands and arms exercise.
5 [latex]\Box[/latex] You don’t have to do sport to be healthy and keep fit.
6 [latex]\Box[/latex] It’s a good idea to do a lot of simple exercise (for example, use the stairs and don’t take the lift).
2 SPEAKING Work in small groups. Talk about health and exercise.
1 Together, decide the number that the group is going to give to each of the sentences in Exercise 1.
2 Together, decide on and write another sentence that shows how the group feels about health and exercise.
3 Compare your ideas with other groups.
GRAMMAR
will / won’t for future predictions
1 Look at the sentences from the article. Complete with will / ’ll / won’t. Then complete the rule.
2 Complete the table.
3 Complete the conversation. Use ’ll, will or won’t and a verb from the list.
4 SPEAKING Work in pairs. Act out the conversation in Exercise 3.
VOCABULARY
Parts of the body
1 Match the words with the photos.
2 Listen and match the speakers with the pictures.