Self-Driving Cars and Baby Naming Trends: Facts and Insights

Self-Driving Cars: Separating Fact from Fiction

Are Self-Driving Cars Fully Autonomous?

a) While testing the Google car, humans never had to take control and drive it.

FALSE. “With someone behind the wheel to take control if something goes wrong, seven test cars have driven 225,000 kilometers with only two human interventions.”

b) Since robot cars can be made to weigh less, they will use less petrol.

TRUE. “Because the robot cars would eventually be less likely to crash, they could be built lighter, reducing fuel consumption.”

Understanding Google's Self-Driving Car

a) According to the text, what does a Google self-driving car look like?

It looks like a small car with a lot of gadgets on the roof.

b) Give at least three advantages of robot cars.

They know the limits of each road, they don't make mistakes, and they avoid crashes and accidents.

Synonyms from the Text

• a) More difficult (paragraph 1) - harder
• b) In fact (paragraph 1) - actually
• c) Decreasing (paragraph 2) - reducing
• d) Evidence (paragraph 3) - proof

Grammar and Usage in Context

a) Last year my neighbor bought (buy) a Google car and he has complained (complain) since then.

b) According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million lives are lost (lose) in accidents every year.

c) Nowadays, there are many people who would enjoy driving (drive) a robot car.

d) The robot car was invented by Sebastian Thrun, an engineer who works for Google.

The Impact of New Technologies

I'm going to talk about new technologies and how they influence our lives. In the 21st century, what has caused the most significant revolution has mostly been mobile phones.

On the one hand, today's mobile phones are not like those of five years ago. Now, phones are converted into smartphones. This new type of phone can record, take amazing photos, listen to music, as well as connect to the Internet and share your photos with your friends on Facebook or download applications and games. But the most important application in smartphones for me is WhatsApp.

For me, it is essential because I can communicate with my father or my friends wherever they are.

We could summarize the main ideas written by stating that people today depend a lot on new technologies such as computers, but especially mobile phones. To conclude, new technologies help us, but we cannot abuse them because if we do, we can have problems.

What's in a Name? Baby Naming Regulations

a) There are no rules about what you can name your child in the UK.

FALSE. “In Britain, you can call a child almost anything you like - the only restrictions on parents relate to offensive words.”

b) Some children in the UK now have names of fictional characters.

TRUE. “For example, there have been six boys named Gandalf after the character in the Lord of the Rings novels and films.”

Baby Naming Challenges and Regulations

a) What was the New Zealand couple's problem, and how did they solve it?

They wanted to name their son “4real,” but numbers are not allowed in New Zealand, so they decided to call him Superman.

b) Explain at least three different regulations on naming children mentioned in the text.

In New Zealand, names cannot contain numbers. In Britain, only offensive words are forbidden. In other countries like Japan or Germany, regulations are more restrictive, and parents have to choose a name from a list.

Synonyms Related to Baby Naming

• a) Trend (paragraph 2) - fashion
• b) Select (paragraph 2) - choose
• c) In the same way (paragraph 2) - equally
• d) Like (paragraph 4) - such as

Choosing the Perfect Baby Name

a) Naming your baby is one of the most important (important) tasks you will ever face. A silly name may affect you and your child for ever!

b) If you don't like the first name that comes into your mind, keep searching (search) until you find a name that you really like.

c) No one likes (like) having their name constantly mispronounced (mispronounce), that's for sure.

d) Once you have an idea for your baby's (baby) name, always check the initials! I had a neighbor whose initials were “P.I.G.”