Unit 1a Book

The previous section discussed some discoveries and inventions of the past. The inventors are no longer alive and the research behind the inventions has been finished, so the stories of the discoveries/inventions were described using the past tenses: simple and continuous. The following section will focus on current research and issues scientists and engineers are dealing with. You will notice that to talk about these issues, present tenses are used.

One problem humankind is currently facing is the possible shortage of energy sources because one day, we are going to run out of fossil fuels. For example, as the large deposits of oil have already been depleted, extracting oil is no longer as easy as it used to be a few years ago. Currently, oil companies need to use expensive technologies to get oil from numerous small pockets of oil instead of one large, easily accessible pocket. To get introduced to this issue, watch the Shell commercial and complete the related task here.  After that, find out more about Jaap and his invention by listening to or reading transcript 02 on p. 118 in your book (Bonamy, D. (2013). Technical English Level 4 Coursebook. Pearson Longman). While reading, complete this comprehension task.