I don't believe that today's wonders are similar inkind to the wonders of the Ancient World.
Theywere all buildings, such as the Pyramids in Egypt,or other architectural structures.
Over the past100 years, we have seen amazing technologicaland scientific achievements.
These are surely ourmodern wonders.
1 The Internet (online, website) It is everywhere.
More than half a billion peopleuse it, and the number of people who are onlineincreases by 100 million every year.
In 1994 therewere only a few hundred web pages.
Today thereare billions.
It has revolutionized the way we liveand work.
But we are still in the early days.
Soonthere will be more and more interactivitybetween the user and the website, and we will beable to give instructions using speech.
2 Space travel (solar system, galaxies) In 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped out of his spacecapsule onto the surface of the moon and madehis famous statement: ‘That's one small step for aman, one giant leap for mankind'.
Since then,there have been space probes to Mars, Jupiter,Saturn, and even to the sun.
One day, a spaceobservatory will study how the first stars andgalaxies began.
So far, it seems that we are alonein the universe.
There are no signs yet that thereis intelligent life outside our own solar system.
But who knows what the future holds?
3 Medical science (health care, penicillin) Surely nothing has done more for the comfortand happiness of the human race than theadvances in health care!
How many millions ofpeople have benefited from the humble aspirin?
How many lives has penicillin saved?
Average life expectancy worldwide has risendramatically over the past 100 years, from about47 years in 1900 to about 77 years today.
4 International travel (airlines, abroad) We are a world on the move.
Airlines carry morethan 1.5 billion people to their destinations everyyear.
It is estimated that, at any one time thesedays, there are as many people travelling in aeroplanes as the total number ofpeople who travelled abroad in the whole of thenineteenth century (but I have no idea how theyworked this out!)
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5 The Olympic Games (competition, drug abuse) It is true that they are now commercialized, andthere is greed and drug abuse.
However, it is acompetition in which almost every country in theworld takes part.
Every four years, for a briefmoment, we see the world come together inpeace and friendship.
We feel hope again for thefuture of mankind.
6 Agriculture (corn, famine) In 1724, Jonathan Swift wrote, ‘Whoever makestwo blades of grass or two ears of corn growwhere only one grew before serves mankindbetter than the whole race of politicians'.
In Europe our farmers have done this.
In 1709,whole villages in France died of hunger.
Now inEurope, we can't eat all the food we produce.
Ifonly politicians could find a way to share it withthose parts of the world where there is famine.
7 We are still here!
The last wonder of the modern world is simplythat we are still here.
We have had nuclearweapons for over 50 years that could destroy theworld, but we haven't used them to do it.
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1. We have missed the first act of the play because when we arrived at the theatre the performance already had started.
2. At the time of the trial last summer Hinkley has been in prison for eight months.
3. The staff was paid weekly but now they are receiving a monthly salary.
4. Denise had left school early on Wednesday because she was taking her driving test.
5. What’s the point in arguing with people who are holding very strong opinions?
6. Many of the survivors have been working in the fields when the earthquake struck.
7. Phil stood at the door soaked from head to toe: he has been running in the rain.
8. Jim will leave on the early flight the next morning so he made his excuses and left the party before midnight.
9. It seems to me, Minister, that the Government have broken all its pre-election promises regarding the Health Service, (18) нет слова в скобках?
10. It must be raining really hard. All the passers-by were soaked through.
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// Могут быть неточности, контекст можно интерпретировать по-разному.