SESSION 2: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
DISCUSSION: Here are some questions you can try asking yourself before you come to our discussion on Wednesday:
- When you read this text, did it make you think of it as science-fiction?
- Do you think we are alone in the Universe?
- Would it be a good idea to make contact with aliens?
- What do you know about the eminent physicist Stephen Hawking?
- you think Hawking is giving us good advice of avoiding alien contact?
- What do you think of broadcasting TV programmes like Big Brother into space?
- Do you agree that the problem we have of communicating with aliens is the distance between our planet and another planet with alien life?
- What idea do you have of aliens´ physical appearance? Do you think they could be similar to us?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 2, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- Do you think Hawking is giving us good advice when he says we should avoid alien contact? Express your opinion.
- Do you think science and religion contradict each other? Express your opinion.
When we thought about aliens, our imagination draw inside our mind a kind of very intelligent dangerous green monster that arrives on Earth riding a UFO, but a single-celled creature can be considered as an alien too. Taking the infinite size of the Universe in count, it is much more than probable that some kind of aliens exist in some distant galaxy.
ReplyDeleteTo try to make contact with them is a very difficult task nowadays because humans don’t have enough technological level, therefore we are incapable of interstellar communications. It would be as if American Indian had tried to communicate with other continent in the 13th century, they just could use smoke signals because they even not could make glass in order to send a message in a bottle into the sea.
In accordance with the last paragraph the only way to contact with aliens depends of them. Just if more advanced aliens exist ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ and they decide to explore our planet we will know if they are there in the space.
We can’t know in this hypothetical meeting would be dangerous for us because we don’t have the faintest idea if they are peaceful or violent creatures.
After reading the article on Stephen Hawking opinions about what to do with aliens, lots of doubts and questions have assaulted my mind. It has happened because I can imagine several kinds of possible behaviours that possible aliens could have.
ReplyDeleteAs Stephen Hawking thinks, if aliens had human attitudes, then it would be absolutely necessary to avoid any way of contact with them, because if we are a little bit alike, they probably will do with us the same we did with natives from America, Australia or Africa, to give an example.
If aliens came here in a spirit of peace towards us, then they should avoid any communication or contact with people from the Earth. That is for the reason that we would destroy them in a few weeks, trying to take advantage of new visitors.
In conclusion, in the event that aliens exist, of course I am not to worried about it, what I really think is the best thing that could happen would be that everything continues as
If we consider staple reasons, we could say that Religion is based on faith and Science is based on empirical evidence. Science tries to explain the world we live on and predicts future problems in order to solve them. Religion is based on the necessity of believing in something bigger that guides us. Something that we remember when difficult moments come to us or when we need any kind of support or when we have questions that Science is not able to answer. I would say that they are not contradictory they are complimentary. At least, I prefer to think that way. It makes me feel better about the future.
ReplyDelete