Unit 20 Science and Technology

 Now read the following essay about Kline’s reflection of her college experience, in

comparison to her son’s college experience.

My son Hayden started college last week. Like many parents of freshmen, my husband

and I drove him to school together, the back of the car filled with essentials like extralong

twin sheets, a clip-on light for his bunk bed and a random mix of extension cords.

The milk crates, shower caddy and three-ring binders we helped him carry up the stairs

flashed me back to my own first days of college - but they weren’t the only reason this

experience felt so familiar.

Three decades ago, I was a freshman at the same university. Unlike Hayden, who grew

up outside of New York and attended a competitive suburban high school, I was the

182 English: Grade 11

only student from my small town in Maine to go to Yale, one of the few to even venture

out of state. And I had no idea what I was getting into.

I was lucky, in a way, to be so naive; I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I floated

through my first year obliviously unaware of the social currencies being exchanged

around me, only dimly perceiving markers of wealth and status.

When a fellow student bragged about his Alfa Romeo, I thought he meant a Camaro, the

fanciest car I’d ever seen. When a classmate casually mentioned that she was meeting

her parents in Gstaad for the long weekend, I assumed it was a town in Connecticut.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that actual Vanderbilts lived in Vanderbilt Hall.

But it wasn’t just my relative lack of sophistication that made my experience so vastly

different from my son’s. Typewriters and carbon paper, telephones with curly cords,

TVs with a few channels and no remotes, cassette tapes; compared with the tools

Hayden has at his disposal, I went to college in the Stone Age.

Without even thinking about it, my son uses technology in almost everything he does,

large and small. He installed Yale-specific apps on his phone that provide information

about when the washers and dryers in the basement of his dorm are available, the daily

menus of each dining hall, ratings of local restaurants, student contact information, the

entire list of classes, and an interactive campus map that shows you where you are and

where you’re going.

Within minutes of learning his three suitemates’ names this summer, he knew an

incredible amount about them: They friended and followed each other on Facebook

and Twitter and Instagram and immediately had access to each other’s prom pictures,

family vacation shots, performance videos, philosophical musings. They established

an ongoing group text, exchanging information such as who was bringing an Xbox and

who had a coffeemaker. Soon after arriving on campus, Hayden made a spreadsheet of

potential classes, vetting them in advance by using teacher rating sites and watching

videos of potential professors on YouTube.

There’s no question that my son is better prepared for college than I was. He manages

his time better, is more efficient and more directed, and spends less time in lines and

more time doing exactly what he sets out to do.

But I wonder what may be lost. I suspect it’s unlikely that he will ever, as I did, trek

all the way across campus on a snowy day to a friend’s dorm room, only to find that

person gone but another roommate available, and making a new friend in the process.

English: Grade 11 183

He won’t have to type and retype his papers

— using Write-Out, no less! — to make

revisions, finding in that process new insights

into what he’s written. I doubt that he’ll make

his way to a common room at 9 p.m. every

Sunday to watch a specific TV show (L.A.

Law, I’m thinking of you), bonding with a

hearty group of loyalists.

I think fondly of the rabbit holes I disappeared

down when I researched papers for history

and English because I couldn’t find quite

what I was looking for, or because I had to

go through so much material to find examples for my thesis. When you can type a

few words into a search engine and land on your topic — or when you can scan a

Shakespeare play for specific words or symbols — what opportunities might you miss

to expand your thinking in unexpected ways?

I worry that students today are more connected and more fragmented, learning more

about one another from afar but watching programmes on their iPads in their rooms.

The knowledge they have at their fingertips may make them more productive, but it

may also blunt the thrill of unanticipated discovery.

Sometime in my first week on that long-ago campus, I found myself hopelessly lost,

scrutinizing an indecipherable map, when a freshman boy came up to me. “Can I

help you with that?” He asked, and though he didn’t know his way around any better

than I did, we figured it out together. Twenty-three years of marriage later, we’re still

figuring it out.

As Hayden navigates his own journey, I wish for him the satisfaction of productivity

and the joy of tapping his potential. But I also hope for him at least some of the wideeyed

wonder I felt as a freshman, the delight of discovering a world that was as remote

and unknown to me as a foreign country.

And I hope he’ll experience the unexpected pleasures of getting lost, of chance

encounters, and the incalculable benefits of time wasted for no good reason at all.

Christina Baker Kline

Technological tree

Ways with words

A. Match the words with their correct definitions.

a. freshman                         iv. a first-year student at a university, college, or high school

b. naive                                 v. having a lack of experience or knowledge 

c. obliviously                     viii. without conscious awareness

d. brag                i. say something in a boastful manner

e. disposal                ii. action of throwing away something

f. dorm                        vii. dormitory, student residence hall or building

g. suitemate                        vi. someone who shares your bathroom/living room/kitchen in

college

h. incalculable                     iii. not able to be calculated or estimated

B. Replace the bold words in (a–h) selecting synonyms from the box.

delight incredible potential unanticipated fragmented scrutinizing

navigate indecipherable

a. Her story is unbelievable in the literal sense of the word.  incredible

b. We often read the novels of the reputed writers in the world.  Potential

c. The Facebook users are scattered but connected to each other through the

Internet. fragmented 

d. Sometimes unexpected events happen in our life. unanticipated

e. He paused, examining the faces of Anjana and Manju with his glittering

eyes. scrutinizing

f. I am sorry to say your handwriting is unreadable. indecipherable

g. He is matured. He can direct his own journey to make his career better. navigate

h. Gita's heart swelled with pleasure, translating her confidence into power. Delight

C. Complete the sentences by choosing the correct word given in brackets.

a. Does television …… children? (affect/effect)

b. Does television have an …… on children? (affect/effect)

c. Could you …… me your book, please? (borrow/lend)

d. Can I …… your pen? (borrow/lend)

e. Prices seem to …… every year. (raise/rise)

f. You can …… your hand if you want to ask a question. (raise/rise)

g. What did he …… to you? (say/tell)

h. I can't …… Hindi. (speak/talk)

i. I will …… to you on the phone. (speak/talk)

j. I think that's a very …… idea. (sensible/sensitive)

k. My teeth are very …… to cold. (sensible/sensitive)

l. Our …… is a popular person. (principal/principle)

m. I couldn't understand the …… of gravity. (principal/principle)

n. All friends, …… Nabina, came to the party. (accept/except)

o. Will you …… my request? (accept/except)

p. They were making too much …… . (noise/sound)

q. All she could hear was the …… of the waves. (noise/sound)

r. Did you give him any…… for his career? (advice/advise)

s. My parents …… me to be a teacher. (advice/advise)

Comprehension

Answer these questions.

a. Why did the author feel that she was lucky to be so naïve of her freshman

year at college?

The author felt that she was lucky to be so naïve of her freshman year at college because she was naive and she didn't know what she didn't know.

b. Why did she say that she went to college in the Stone Age?

She said that she went to college in the Stone Age because as compared to her son she didn't have technology. She had typewriters and carbon paper, telephones with curly cords,

TVs with a few channels and no remotes, cassette tapes; compared with the tools

her son had.

c. What kinds of technological tools can Hayden use at his college life unlike

at his mother’s time?

Hayden can use  technology in almost everything he does,

large and small. He has Yale-specific apps on his phone that provide information

about when the washers and dryers in the basement of his dorm are available, the daily

menus of each dining hall, ratings of local restaurants, student contact information, the

entire list of classes, and an interactive campus map that shows you where you are and

where you’re going.

d. How has the internet and social sites affected the lifestyle of the youths?

Internet and social sites affected the lifestyle of youths as they can easily friend and follow each other Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They have easy access to eachother's prom pictures, family vacation shots, performance videos, and philosophical musing.

e. What things about college life will Hayden really miss unlike his mother?

Hayden really misses to trek all the way across campus on a snowy day to a friend's dorm room, only to find that person is gone but another roommate available, and making a new friend in the process.

f. The writer says, "I worry that students today are more connected and more

fragmented". Isn't this paradoxical? How?

The students today are more connected and more fragmented. It is paradoxical as they are learning more about one another from afar but watching programmes on their iPads in their rooms. The knowledge they have at their fingertips may make them more productive, but it may also blunt the thrill of unanticipated discovery.

Grammar A. 

Fill in the gaps with suitable articles where necessary. 

a. Is he working as a university professor? 

b. My younger sister watches  (no article) television a lot. 

c. A: What did you get for your birthday?

 B: I got a lot of good presents. 

d. I'm going to the Dominican Republic for my winter vacation. 

e. I have to go to the bank today to deposit some money. 

f. Durga was injured in the accident and was taken to the nearest hospital. 

g. Every parent should visit (no article) school to meet the teachers. 

h. Who is the woman in this photograph?

 i. There is a piano in the corner of the room. 

j. A: Do you think he is lying?

 B: No, he's the kind of a guy that always tells the truth. 

B. Put a/an or the in the spaces. 

BOB COLLINS: A PROFILE

 Bob Collins has recently become a minister in the new government, being appointed Minister for Industry. Mr. Collins has had a varied career. He was a  professional footballer in the 1960s, some people considering him to be the most skillful player of his generation. After a serious injury, he became a manager of the oldest pub in Edinburgh. Five years later, he was offered the position of an  executive director of Arcon, one of the biggest supermarket chains in the country. He became a Member of Parliament in 1990.