How will quantum computing change the world?

How will quantum computing change the world?

I Lead-in.

a)    Take 2 minutes to think about your associations with the word ‘computer’. Write down the list of words that come to your mind when you hear about computers. Compare your list with the lists created by other students. What similarities do you have? What are the biggest differences between your associations?

b)    What problems can computing solve today? How will computers change in future? What new tasks will they have?

II Vocabulary focus. Match the words with their definitions.

1.    current

2.    fundamental

3.    go down the rabbit hole

4.    encryption

5.    precise

6.    predict

7.    thorny

8.    model

9.    gain momentum

A.   to say that an event or action will happen in the future, especially as a result of knowledge

B.   more important than anything else

C.   something that represents another thing as a simple description that can be used in calculations

D.   of the present time

E.    to move faster

F.    to enter into a situation that is strange or confusing

G.   difficult to deal with

H.   the process of changing electronic information or signals into a secret code

I.      exact and accurate

III Check Your Understanding and Practise. Complete interactive tasks to check your understanding of Vocabulary. Focus on the words and expressions (study definitions), match the terms to their definitions, solve the crossword puzzle, complete the quiz, chase down the correct answer to earn, unscramble words and phrases (correct order of letters), type in words to fill in the blanks, test your knowledge of  vocabulary. 

IV Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

superbugs; mechanics; drugs; technology; encryption; messages; different; fundamentally; billions; bits; massaged; supercomputers; mechanism; solve; fundamental; credit-card; clematises; world; better; problems; climate

Quantum computing is not just 1)______ computing, faster computing. It's a 2)______ kind of computing. It’s predicted to 3)______ some of the world’s most 4)______ problems from inventing new 5)______, to making brand new materials and creating more precise 6)______ models. It could solve some problems in seconds that would take current 7)______ thousands of years. The 8)______ is in its early stages, but the effort is quickly gaining momentum. So how will quantum computing change the 9)______?

A standard computer might have 10)______ of bits, each one can be a one or a zero, and they’re all completely separate from each other. Quantum 11)______, or qubits, work differently for a couple of reasons that come from quantum 12)______.

Thanks Jason, but let’s not go down that rabbit hole. All you need to know is this.

The theory shows that certain kinds of 13)______, not all, just some particularly thorny ones are made much easier when you’ve got quantum computers. One of those problems is in 14)______, the kinds of codes that protect your 15)______ details online or your 16)______ in Whatsapp or Signal.

V Match the words from two columns to make collocations and word combinations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	quantum	1.	problems
2.	solve	2.	momentum
3.	fundamental	3.	computer
4.	invent	4.	new drugs
5.	make brand	5.	of reasons
6.	climate	6.	model
7.	in its early	7.	stages
8.	gain	8.	mechanics
9.	change	9.	problem
10.	standard	10.	the rabbit hole
11.	for a couple	11.	details online
12.	quantum	12.	computing
13.	go down	13.	the world
14.	protect credit-card	14.	new materials

VI Watch the part of the video and mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.    Quantum computing is a different kind of computing.

2.    Standard computers are predicted to solve some of the world’s most fundamental problems.

3.    Encryption can help people to invent new drugs, make brand new materials and create more precise climate models.

4.    Quantum computers are developing very quickly.

5.    A quantum computer has bits, each one can be a one or a zero, and they’re all completely separate from each other.

6.    Quantum computers use the laws of linear algebra.

7.    Encryption protects chips in credit cards.

8.    Messages in Whatsapp or Signal don’t use encryption.

VII Match the words with their meanings.

1.    artificial intelligence

2.    reliable

3.    stuff

4.    stock

5.    advantage

6.    advance

7.    crack

8.    government

9.    network

10.basement

11.available

12.PhD

A.   to break something

B.   the group of people who officially control a country

C.   a large system consisting of many similar parts that are connected together to allow movement or communication between or along the parts

D.   the study of how to produce machines that have some of the qualities that the human mind has, such as the ability to understand language, recognize pictures, solve problems, and learn

E.    a condition giving a greater chance of success

F.    money that people invest in the government

G.   a part of a building  that is partly or completely below the level of the ground

H.   doctor of philosophy: the highest college or university degree

I.      an improvement or development in something

J.     able to be bought or used

K.   that be trusted or believed 

L.    things that someone says or does

VIII Check Your Understanding and Practise. Complete interactive tasks to check your understanding of Vocabulary. Focus on the words and expressions (study definitions), match the terms to their definitions, solve the crossword puzzle, complete the quiz, chase down the correct answer to earn, unscramble words and phrases (correct order of letters), type in words to fill in the blanks, test your knowledge of  vocabulary.

IX Watch the video and choose the correct words.

What got people really invest/investors/interested in making quantum computers was the realisation that they could break/broke/broker encryption that was supposed to be too hard to crack because regulate/solar/regular computers couldn’t crack them. That’s the kind of thing that gets the protectionist/attention/attentive of national governments, the ability to crack other countries’ encrypted networks/networked/networking. As in the case of superficial/official/artificial intelligence, China says it intends to red/lead/leader the world in quantum science and has announced plans to open its own nationally/national/nationalist quantum laboratory to open in 2020. America is getting revolve/solved/involved too. It intends to create a national quantum initiative/initiated/national. That’s because the prize that quantum computing offers, the potential strategy/strategist/strategic or commercial advantage, is hugely/refuge/huge. Imagine if you could make minute-to-minute, real-time stock predictions/addiction/predicted based on data from every trade ever made or if you could simply compute the reform/formula/formulate for a new fuel or a drug that beats a horrible release/disease/ease. That’s the kind of promise that quantum computing may puffer/offer/suffer.

There are already quantum computers out there, but it’s a bit like the station/situation/situated with regular computers in the 1950s, ...big basement-sized things that required a pile of Ads/PhDs/HDDs to operate and they still weren’t very power/powerful/powered.

          There’s a huge effects/effort/retort to make more powerful quantum computers. This used to be the snuff/bluff/stuff of university psychology/physics/physiology departments, but you can see the potential when you see who’s in the businessman/access/business now. It’s big names like Google, Microsoft, IBM. But it’s not just about when one day one company or one lab events/invents/vents this one computer. It’s going to be a bunch of small advance/advances/advanced towards the kind that’s commerce/commercial/commercially available, reliable and can really solve some of these big problems.

X Match the words from two columns to make collocations and word combinations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	interested	A.	science
2.	break	B.	government
3.	regular	C.	strategic or commercial advantage
4.	national	D.	the world
5.	crack	E.	on data
6.	artificial	F.	involved
7.	lead	G.	initiative
8.	quantum	H.	promise
9.	national	I.	encryption
10.	get	J.	physics department
11.	national quantum	K.	available
12.	potential	L.	intelligence
13.	make	M.	of small advances
14.	based	N.	quantum laboratory
15.	beat	O.	name
16.	offer	P.	effort
17.	huge	Q.	predictions
18.	university	R.	computer
19.	big	S.	encrypted network
20.	a bunch	T.	a horrible disease
21.	commercially	U.	in

XI Watch the part of the video and answer the questions.

1)    Why are national governments interested in developing quantum computers?

2)    What countries want to play a big role in the development of quantum computers?

3)    What initiatives do countries have in the development of quantum computers?

4)    What prize does the development of quantum computers offer?

5)    How can quantum computers help in the development of new products and making predictions?

6)    What size are quantum computers today? What kinds of people operate quantum computers nowadays?

7)    What big companies are interested in quantum computers?

8)    Will one company be able to develop a quantum computer?

XII Match the words with their meanings.

1.    prospect

2.    gnarly

3.    time-share

4.    plucky

5.    environment

6.    giant

7.    incredibly

8.    start-up

9.    race

  

A.   the possibility that something good might happen in the future

B.   extremely

C.   the conditions that you  work in 

D.   that is owned and used by several different people

E.    extreme,  very dangerous or exciting

F.    a very successful and powerful  organization

G.   brave

H.   a small business that has just been started:

I.      a competition in which all the competitors try to be the fastest and to finish first

XIII Check Your Understanding and Practise. Complete interactive tasks to check your understanding of Vocabulary. Focus on the words and expressions (study definitions), match the terms to their definitions, solve the crossword puzzle, complete the quiz, chase down the correct answer to earn, unscramble words and phrases (correct order of letters), type in words to fill in the blanks, test your knowledge of  vocabulary.

  

XIV Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the missing words.

Here’s the thing. When we talk about 1)____ computing, people tend to think of all-singing, all-powerful 2)____ that can run any kind of program. What’s called a 3)____ computer. That’s still a distant prospect, but in the meantime there will be smaller machines, more specific-purpose, less general-purpose. These things are incredibly hard to 4)____, they’re held at temperatures lower than that of deep space in very, very controlled laboratory 5)____.

Even if you could just pick one up off the 6)____, you wouldn’t. Yes, they’re incredibly 7)____ for some kinds of problems, but they’re not going to 8)____ the kind of computer on your desk or in your 9)____. You don’t need quantum powers to edit photos or send emails. In fact, what will probably happen is that a few 10)____ have the best computers, and you can use them on a kind of time-share 11)____, in the cloud, or you send off your gnarly quantum problem and just get an 12)____ back. But the kinds of problems that we’ll be able to pose, the kinds of answers we’ll be able to get are 13)____ unthinkable now. That’s what has 14)____, industry giants and plucky 15)____ in on the race.

XV Match the words from two columns to make collocations and word combinations used in the text. Use four collocations in your sentences.

1.	tend	A.	hard to run
2.	distant	B.	email
3.	incredibly	C.	basis
4.	controlled	D.	prospect
5.	edit	E.	an answer
6.	send	F.	photo
7.	on a time-share	G.	to think
8.	in the	H.	cloud
9.	get	I.	laboratory environment

XVI Watch the part of the video and mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.    People believe that quantum computers are all-powerful machines that can run any kind of program.

2.    Quantum computers are becoming universal computers.

3.    Old computers are incredibly hard to run, they’re held at temperatures lower than that of deep space.

4.    Soon quantum computers will replace the kind of computer on our desk or in our phone.

5.    In future it will be impossible to edit photos or send emails without the power of quantum computers.

6.    It will be possible to use quantum computers on a time-share basis or in the cloud.

XVII Unscramble the sentences. Put the words in the sentences below in the correct order.

1.    of / lower / are / space / in / Quantum / deep / computers / at / that / held / very / controlled / temperatures / environments. / laboratory / than

2.   
different / kind / of / is / Quantum / computing. / computing / a

3.    to / supposed / With / crack. / the / help / quantum / was / people / could / be / encryption / break / hard / that / too / to / computers / of

4.    don’t / emails. / to / powers / People / or / quantum / send / edit / need / photos

5.    of / kinds / much / got / you’ve / problems / quantum / easier / when / Certain / are / made / computers.

6.    lead / China / quantum / science. / to / the / world / intends / in

7.    has / of / billions / standard / computer / bits. / A

8.    run. / hard / Quantum / are / computers / incredibly / to

9.    to / will / materials / more / help / precise / new / climate / models. / computers / brand / create / make / and / Quantum

10.work / bits / differently. / Quantum

11.computing / change / world. / will / the / Quantum

12.America / national / a / initiative. / to / quantum / intends / create

13.make / a / huge / to / powerful / There’s / effort / quantum / more / computers.

XVIII OVER TO YOU. Think about the possible use of quantum computers in future. Imagine a scenario where quantum computers are part of everyday life. Write a 100-150 words paragraph describing the way quantum computers are used in 2050. Think about the problems quantum computers can solve and the tasks they cannot solve. Imagine how national governments use or don’t use the power of quantum computers to change the world for the better or for the worse. Write your paragraph in the Present Simple tense (imagine that you live in this world of the future).