Future predictions guess the year
Using the tense that your teacher tells you to, choose one of the years below and make
predictions about life in that time until your partner guesses the right year. Use the list of
inventions on the next page to help you if you like. Note that some of the times listed might
be the same as each other, depending on what year it is when you are speaking.
Times Possible things to speak about
At the end of this year Accommodation
This time next year Birth/ Childhood
At the end of next year Computing
The year after next (= In two years) Crime/ Policing
In five years Education
At the end of this decade Entertainment
In a decade Fashion/ Clothing
In 2030 Food and drink/ Nutrition
In two decades Holidays
In half a century Medicine
At the end of this century Personal hygiene/ Personal grooming
In a century Retirement/ Old age
In 2200 Sports
In half a millennium Technology
At the end of this millennium The environment
In a millennium Transport/ Travel
In two millennia War
In a million years Work
Useful phrases
… will be (exactly/ more or less) the same.
… will be (slightly/ quite a lot/ completely) different.
… will be better/ faster/ cheaper/ more common/ possible.
What language could you use to talk about how likely things are to happen? Use that
language to discuss some inventions from the next page.
Predict whether the things in italics on the next page will definitely happen at some time
(+), might happen at some time (?) or will definitely never happen (-).
You can find analysis of the future possibility of the inventions in italics on the Internet.
Choose one of the things in italics that you would like to learn more about, search for
details on it online, and read and check whether your prediction was the same as that
writer’s.
Underline or copy down positive, negative and mixed words in that internet text to check
the probability that it exists.
Find three similar texts and change one to make it much more unlikely or likely than it
presently suggests. Explain all three texts then see if your partners can guess which one
you changed.
p. 1
Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2013/ 2024
⚫ A cure for criminality
⚫ A world government
⚫ Androids/ Robots which are indistinguishable from people
⚫ Bionic limbs
⚫ Breeding of extinct animals
⚫ Chips in our brains
⚫ Computer generated film stars/ television personalities
⚫ Cryonic suspension
⚫ Driverless cars/ Robotaxis
⚫ Eternal life
⚫ Face scanner (= Scanning your face instead of using a key or taking a fingerprint)
⚫ Finding alien life
⚫ Flexible displays (= Computer displays that can be bent like paper)
⚫ Flying cars
⚫ Generation ships (= Generations of people living and breeding on a spaceship on their
way to another planet)
⚫ Gravitational shielding (= Anti-gravity)
⚫ Growing of human organs
⚫ Human cloning
⚫ Human teleportation
⚫ Invisibility/ A personal cloaking device
⚫ Laser guns with the possibility of stun settings
⚫ Lightsabers
⚫ Limitless cheap electrical energy, e.g. from fusion reactors
⚫ Lunar and interplanetary tourism
⚫ Medicines which improve our intelligence
⚫ Permanent settlements on other planets
⚫ Personal force field shields
⚫ Reading people’s minds
⚫ Recording dreams
⚫ Replicator (= A machine that can scan and copy anything)
⚫ Reprogramming people’s minds
⚫ Robotic exoskeleton (= An external artificial skeleton that makes you stronger)
⚫ Robots with feelings
⚫ Selecting characteristics of your future child from a menu
⚫ Self-replicating machines
⚫ Space elevators
⚫ The complete automation of all work
⚫ The elimination of absolute poverty
⚫ Time machines/ Time travel
⚫ Human travel to other stars
⚫ Underwater cities
⚫ Universal translator
⚫ Uploading our minds (personalities, memories, etc) into supercomputers
⚫ Virtual reality that is indistinguishable from real life
⚫ War in space
⚫ Warp speed (= Faster than light travel)
p. 2
Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2013/ 2024
