Activity 1. Complete the table matching the adverbs and their role in a sentence. Cause and effect Time Contrast Condition If As soon as Whereas though In case because Now that only if Since Eventhough although after In the even that Whether or not While Before as Unless Adverbs: if, now that, as soon as, even though, whereas, when, even if, because, though, since, after, in case, only if, while, before, unless, although, whether or not, in the event that, as. Activity 2. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate adverb. 1. It began poring over the pages, _____________it scans the layers of sedimentary rocks, comprising Mount Sharp. 2. ____________more than 40 years, the subatomic particle was finally detected. 3. ____________water is essential to life, people poison it with chemicals from industry and agriculture. 4. I didn’t stop working until after midnight _____________I was totally exhausted. 5. We can see the light from the airplane flying high at night __________we hear the plane _________ light travels faster than sound. Activity 3. Match the words a-g and their synonyms 1-7. a. b. c. d. e. f. g. Anexpansion1. A crisis A curvature 2. An enlargement, growth To verify 3. A swing, variation Toencompass4. Bending A blunder 5. To affirm, prove A fluctuation 6. A fault, mistake, slip A big crunch 7. To include, contain Activity 4. Read and translate the text. Building a Human Heart Valve The World Heath Organization estimates that some 600,000 people around the world will need replacement heart valves within the next three years. British scientists delivered those patients some hopeful news: A team of researchers led by Dr. Magdi Yacoub of the Imperial College of London saw 10 years of work come to fruition this spring, when they grew bone marrow stem cells into functioning human heart-valve tissue. Yacoub hopes that the tissue can be grown into the shape of a heart valve using a special collagen scaffolding. Yacoub’s advancements build on the ongoing efforts of scientists around the world to grow new heart valves and other body parts. If Yacoub’s tissue holds up in animal trials, he estimates it could be used in human heart-valve transplant patients within 3 to 5 years. ScientistsCreate “CyborgFlesh” What with all our wearable tech and even smart contact lenses, it looks like the future is going to be cyborg, and scientists at Harvard made that future even more secure in 2015.Bioengineers at the university have managed to create the first tissue samples that are half man, half machine. Researchers created hybrid neurons, heart cells, muscle, and blood vessels by taking a collagen scaffold, wiring it up with nanowires and transistors, then encouraging the “natural” tissue to grow around it. The result has been dubbed NanoES (short for nanoelectric scaffold) Tissue. Although we have a long way to go, the applications for this technology are astonishing. You would be able to integrate your body into your personal tech, and even perhaps control it from your smartphone (or whatever we’ll be using by that point). Need a boost? Just open the adrenalin app. Feeling burned out? A bit of serotonin should do you good? You could even use it to monitor the body for abnormalities and alert to or even treat any developing problems.
