dateline: 21 March 2018
NB! For WEEKLY audio stories check out LISTEN & LEARN 🔈
Self-Driving Car Kills Pedestrian
Pre-Listening Vocabulary
- pedestrian: a person on foot (not in a vehicle)
- Uber: a ridesharing company that is similar to a taxi service
- fatality: death
- detect: to sense
- halt: to suddenly stop
- fleet: a number of vehicles operating together
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | More
Self-Driving Car Kills Pedestrian
Comprehension Questions
- What tragedy occurred?
- According to experts, what likely caused the accident?
- How did Uber respond to this tragedy?
Discussion Questions
Do you think this tragedy will make people doubt the technology that is being used in autonomous vehicles? How long do you think it will be before roadways in your region are filled with driverless vehicles?
show Answers
6 comments
-
Emanuel Moraes says:
Dear, Mr Joe
I am writing tô thank you for the learning plataform. Before, I could not to find exercises. Today, is easier.
Sincerely,
Emanuel Moraes -
Sang Phan says:
Hi Tara and everybody,
Thank you Tara for this week’s report.
I think that my listening skill is improving because I could fill in blanks four words (test, roadway, object, driverless).
I’ve never seen a self-driving car in my country. I guess that the type of self-driving car is just launched in some developed countries like the US, Canada . . .I think that the fleet of driverless cars is a symbol of our modern human civilization. However that is “a good news” and that is “a bad news”, too since a self-driving Uber car struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.
In my country there are so many motorbikes that it is said to be the “reign of motorbikes”. Every day there are not only serious congestions but also deadly traffic accidents in the roadways especially in big cities. So I am always worried each time I want to go somewhere in a big city.
I think the safety is important to all of us on roadways.
Cheers,
Phan Sang.
-
Bijan says:
Teacher Tara,
Thank you so much for sharing useful information with your students.
Best wishes,
Bijan from the Persian Gulf -
Tara Benwell says:
Hi Bijan,
Uber is the name of a ridesharing company. It also has the meaning you looked up. It’s ubercool, but it’s not available everywhere. I’ll be using Uber in Chicago soon.
Cheers,
Tara -
Bijan says:
Hi Tara,
First, thank you for this week’s news report.
Second, I could understand the news report without seeing the text in the first step and could fill in the blanks except one word (at fault).
Third, you have pronounced the news report word by word clearly. It’s very nice for a learner who wants to match his/her ears with your speaking. I hope all learners to enjoy listening to the news report.
Fourth, Sorry for disturbing you.
I have a problem about the meaning of the word Uber, so looked at the Cambridge Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary and the Merriam Webster Dictionary about the meaning of the word Uber. They all say:
“extremely good…” used before nouns (prefix) and it always has a hyphen after itself.I couldn’t find your above meaning in the above dictionaries. In addition, Google says me now the spelling of Uber is wrong.
Fifth, the above news report is a good news because a self-driving car was part of a test project and is a bad news because killed a pedestrian.
I hope the companies to find who or what is at fault.
Best wishes and have a greet weekend in nice Canada,
Bijan from the Persian Gulf -
Onee says:
Driverlesss fleet?? Hufh… I’m sorry to hear that.