FCE exam class

Reading Part 1 FCE exam

Vocabulary
Discuss the meaning of these words with your partner and use your phones or a dictionary to help you.
Involuntary (n)
Flitting (v)
Minority (n)
Firewall (n)
Scattered (adj)
To fall back on smthg (ph vb)
Far flung corners (expression)

After reading vocabulary check

Adam Beale and Matt Ellman

http://fiveagainstone.wordpress.com/

FCE exam class

Cold turkey on a 'digital detox'

Stuart puts on a brave face, despite being Facebook-less

So you're on holiday and you lose your internet connection. Is this such
a bad thing, asks BBC producer Stuart Hughes, a technology addict who
experienced an involuntary "digital detox" in the wilds of Ontario.
"I am out of the office and will respond on my return."
My automated email response has always been something of a white lie.
Flitting from smartphone to office computer to iPad, I'm always logged in
somewhere - around the clock and seven days a week.
I'm hardly in the minority.
The firewall between our work and home lives is melting fast.
A recent survey by Forbes Insights revealed that just 3% of respondents didn't
send or receive emails while on holiday. A study by researchers in the United
States claims that checking emails and social media may be harder to resist
than cigarettes or alcohol.
I had long promised to cleanse my system by locking my electronic devices
away for a few days. Like most addicts, though, I always found another
excuse not to give up.
When it finally came about, my digital detox was not entirely voluntary.

Adam Beale and Matt Ellman

http://fiveagainstone.wordpress.com/

FCE exam class

I recently flew to Canada for a family road trip. For 48 hours after leaving the
wired communities around Toronto, I maintained the illusion of being offline. In
reality, thanks to a 3G signal, I was as plugged in as I would have been in
London, New York or Tokyo.
But as I headed deeper into northern Ontario, centres of population became
more scattered - and so did a reliable connection. Two hours outside the
mining city of Sudbury, I pulled out my phone, ready to post a Facebook
update.
It was then that I was confronted by two words guaranteed to bring any web
junkie out in a cold sweat.
"No service."
That night I lay in my camper van, listening to the grasshoppers in the forest
outside, hoping I'd wake up to find the network had been restored.

There are worse places to experience technology withdrawal

Dawn broke, warm, bright and clear, over Halfway Lake. Canada geese flew
in formation over the water.
I checked my phone again.
No new emails. No Facebook updates. No tweets. Not even a lowly text
message. The withdrawal symptoms of digital cold turkey began to gnaw.
What if war had broken out overnight? What if I had missed the latest
Twitterstorm?

Adam Beale and Matt Ellman

http://fiveagainstone.wordpress.com/

FCE exam class

My inbox may have been overflowing, my Twitter feed crackling like a
campfire. I simply had no way of knowing.
I cursed myself for not having packed the laptop-sized satellite dish I use on
BBC assignments to access the web from far flung corners of the globe.
In desperation, I fell back on more traditional news sources and tuned my
portable radio to the Canadian broadcaster CBC.
There was lively discussion of Quebec's forthcoming provincial election and
Canada's Olympic (mis)fortunes in London - but no mention of events at
Westminster or Team GB's triumphs.
With three long disconnected days and nights stretching ahead of me, I
realised I had two choices. I could either fret over what I might be missing - or
embrace the unknown.
I opted for the latter. Slowly, as the virtual world receded, the real world in
front of me came into sharper focus.
I canoed across vodka-clear lakes, paddling hard against a side wind to steer
my boat away from the rocky shoreline. I cheered on my five-year-old son as
he took his first tentative steps on horseback. By torchlight I devoured books ones with real pages made of paper rather than downloaded onto a Kindle.
After three nights in the wilderness, I returned to civilisation.
Never usually a fan of the Golden Arches, the free wi-fi offered at a truck-stop
branch of MacDonald's made me feel like a man arriving at an oasis after
walking across the desert.
I downloaded my emails. I checked Facebook and Twitter. I scanned the
newspapers I had missed.
And I felt a wave of disappointment. More than 500 emails were waiting in my
inbox - but most were irrelevant or out of date. Twitter was as catty, witty, but
ultimately transitory as ever.
According to Facebook, most of my friends had taken up semi-permanent
residence in the Olympic Park. It was entertaining - but hardly need-to-know
information.

Adam Beale and Matt Ellman

http://fiveagainstone.wordpress.com/

FCE exam class

How much would you miss these gizmos?

I, meanwhile, had stored up timeless memories, perhaps made all the more
precious by the fact they were personal and private, not tweeted, texted or
emailed with my social network.
While I wouldn't say the experience cured me of my internet addiction, an
enforced digital detox was certainly instructive. It made me realise how reliant
I've become on instant online gratification - news when I want it, films and
music on demand, banter across time zones at the speed of Twitter.
I now plan to make my personal reboot an annual event - a once-yearly
opportunity to defrag my brain and reassess what's really important.
The wired world can manage perfectly well without me.
(Article taken from the BBC website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine19283726)

Adam Beale and Matt Ellman

http://fiveagainstone.wordpress.com/

FCE exam class

Q1) How does the writer describe the relationship between the workplace and
the home?
A.
B.
C.
D.

It is becoming stronger
It is just the same as it always was.
It is disappearing
There was never a relationship between the two

Q2) How did the words No service make the man feel?
A.
B.
C.
D.

Happy
Excited
Angry
Afraid

Q3) What form of communication did the writer use to get back in touch with
the world?
A.
B.
C.
D.

TV
Mobile phone
Newspaper
Radio

Q4) When the writer returned home how did he feel when he gained access
to the internet?
A.
B.
C.
D.

Relieved
Disappointed
Angry
Confused

Q5) What did the writers period of digital detox make him understand?
A.
B.
C.
D.

He didnt like going on holiday

He should always take his satellite equipment wherever he goes
How important the internet is to his life
How reliant he has become on the internet and instant access to
information.

Adam Beale and Matt Ellman

http://fiveagainstone.wordpress.com/