Exercises:
Do all activities in unit 9 except listening and speaking.
Discussion:
Do you think we will ever be able to travel at the speed of light? Or faster? Do you think we will be able to travel through space? Write your comments in the discussion forum. (not a writing task practice, just something to discuss so don't worry about word count or introduction paragraphs etc.)
Even if the fact that it is impossible, according to the theory of special relativity, to travel at the speed of light or faster is generally acknowledged among scientists, I believe that the continuous and always faster development of technology will enable us to travel for longer distances than the actual ones, and obviously to explore personally new places and maybe some planets: there will be a perpetual upgrade of the concept of “behind the corner”, and maybe space travels will be extended to common people, after a previous period of training.
Well, unlike Lorenzo, I don't know anything about special relativity and what scientists think about it, but I agree with him. Science and technology have made such unbelieavable and unimaginable discoveries so far and nothing could prevent them from reaching higher tops. Probably by 2090 we will be able to travel at the speed of the light by special planes. You never know! At the beginnig it might be reserved just to rich people, as it always happens in case of new technological devices and comforts. But it would be certainly affordable to other people soon later.
Like Federica, I don't know the theory of special relativity. However, searching on the Internet, I read that when the speed grows up to infinity, the mass does the same, so if we travelled at the speed of light, our body would become as a meatball! For that reason, I think that it will be impossible for us to travel at that speed or even faster in the future because this means that we'll change fundamental physics rules. Despite that, I'm sure that the technological progress will continue to develop until also common people will be able to travel through space. Space travel and planets "sightseeing" will quite probably become a new type of holiday in the future, a valid and exciting alternative to the sea or the mountain.
