Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Can you imagine life without WiFi? It wasn’t that long ago that the world didn’t have the internet. To get information back then, people used dictionaries, encyclopedias, movies, and the telephone, among other things. The word WiFi itself meant nothing to us, so it didn’t matter if your phone or laptop could get it.
It wasn’t as easy to get information back then, but maybe being without internet has its advantages. If you don’t have a smartphone, you don’t have to rely on getting access to a good signal. Without WiFi, it’s not important to live somewhere that gets a strong connection. Some people might even prefer what life was like before the digital age, as hard as that is for many of us to believe.
Do Jessica and Gary depend on WiFi in their homes and for their phones? Find out by reading today’s English lesson about technology.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Jessica: I do a lot of work from home, Gary.
Gary: Yeah.
Jessica: And today my internet connection went out…
Gary: Oh, no.
Jessica: …and I lost signal. My signal was coming in and out, and it stressed me out so much.
Gary: I bet you rely on that signal to be able to keep you connected to the internet, because your business…
Jessica: Exactly.
Gary: Yeah.
Jessica: I find it so funny, though. I left the house yesterday, and I didn’t have my smartphone on me. And the panic that I felt was absolutely ridiculous. Because I feel like, in this digital age, we have to have access to the internet at all times.
Gary: And what’s really funny is that WiFi is so important at home, but what’s actually interesting is that with smartphones, WiFi isn’t that important because they’re connected by another type of technology. So we’ve got this double back-up thing happening…
Jessica: Yeah.
Gary: …which is really neat.
Jessica: Very cool.
Gary: Yeah.
Grammar Point
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Discussion
Jessica lost access to WiFi today. It was challenging for her because she works from her home, and she uses the internet for her job. Yesterday she left her cell phone at home, so again, she wasn’t able to connect to the internet. She was surprised at how worried and anxious it made her feel to be without a way to get online.
Gary obviously understands how Jessica feels. He knows that she needs to be able to use the internet for her work. He points out that smartphones have a back-up system when they can’t connect to WiFi, which demonstrates how important it is for people to know that they can use the internet. It’s just what life is like in this digital age.
How do you feel when you can’t use WiFi? Is life simpler without the internet?
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