Bac 2011 Oral Test
What will our world be like in the coming years? Scientists today are analyzing statistics that show the world has changed in previous years and using them to try to predict the future. They want to know what sort of jobs we will be doing, what technology we will be using in our daily lives, what kind of homes we will be living in and what our world will look like in a few years.
These are some of the growing trends and the scientists’' predictions bellow.
1. THE ENVIRONMENT: In the coming years, we will almost certainly be living in a warmer world. And the world will continue to use fossil fuels which release carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. Damage done to the ozone layer by man-made chemicals will mean that our children will have an increased risk of developing skin cancer.
We will be living in a world with less energy available and we will then be forced to reduce our energy consumption.
2. TECHNOLOGY: In the coming years, most families will be using computers and Internet in the home to do a wide variety of tasks: computers will be a million times faster than they are today. We will be travelling in faster and more comfortable cars, trains and planes.
3. POPULATION: By the end of the 20th century, a population explosion will have taken place, in the developing world. In the developed countries, the population will have stabilized, but the proportion of older people will have increased dramatically and there will be problems associated with care of the elderly and increasing pressure on the medical services; it may be no longer possible for the government to provide pensions for everybody.
4. SOCIETY: Statistics will show that society is becoming more violent. Rising crime will be one of the main problems that the people in the 21st century will have to deal with.
Adapted from “Wasp Newsletter”, Vol. 28, 2, January 1997, pp. 9-10.