3 Twentieth century achievements

A 1 Work in pairs. Read this list of twentieth century achievements. Without

using your dictionary, try to guess the meaning of the words in italics

(transplanted, organs, atom, assemble).

2 Write each phrase from the box in the right place in the list of achievements.

Twentieth Century Achievements

a space travel We landed men on the moon.

b organ transplants We transplanted new organs, for example, a heart, into living people.

с travel We travelled fast by land or air all over the world using cars and planes.

d antibiotics We discovered that penicillin and other

antibiotics can fight and destroy illness.

e nuclear energy We used the power at the centre of the atom. We made bombs with it but we also used it for energy.

f information technology We learnt how to transfer information to computers. Almost all offices now have computers.

g assembly line We learnt to assemble machines, for example, cars, in factories and mass-produce them.

h genetic engineering We learnt how to scientifically alter the structure of genes, so that, for example, a new kind of sheep or vegetable can be created.

i telecommunications We used equipment to communicate over distance in pictures, sounds, and words. This gave us radio, the telephone, television.

j the Internet In the last part of the century we connected up computers all over the world so that they could communicate with each other.