Volunteers experience 40 days of isolation in a cave

 

Volunteers experience 40 days of isolation in a cave   

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A8v7_-bTU0

Could you survive for a few days without your smartphone or without being connected to the Internet? How about living in a cave with no mod cons for 40 days? Fifteen people did just that. They took part in a project called Deep Time to see how they would react to and cope with being totally disconnected from the modern world. Scientists from the Human Adaption Institute lead the $1.9-million project. They wanted to understand how people would adapt to drastic changes in living conditions. They put the volunteers in a cave for nearly six weeks. There was no sunlight and the cave dwellers had no contact with the outside world. They had to rely on their body clock to know when to wake up, go to sleep and eat.

Most of the volunteers said they enjoyed the experience of total isolation. Two-thirds expressed a desire to remain underground a while longer in order to finish projects they had started. Deep Time's director Christian Clot said the experience would, "test humans' ability to adapt to the loss of their frame of reference for time and space". He said: "Our future as humans on this planet will evolve. We must learn to better understand how our brains are capable of finding new solutions, whatever the situation." One striking observation is that participants lost their sense of time. Mr Clot said: "In our heads, we had walked into the cave 30 days ago". One team member estimated the time underground to be 23 days.

 .
3. UNPLUG: Students A strongly believe we should all unplug from the modern world for a few days; Students B strongly believe the opposite.

4. ISOLATED: What are the good and bad things of living in these isolated places? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners often and share what you wrote.

 

Good Things

Bad Things

A cave

 

 

The desert

 

 

The jungle

 

 

A desert island

 

 

A mountaintop

 

 

Antarctica

 

 

5. INTERNET: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word "Internet". Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.
6. THINGS I'D MISS: Rank these with your partner. Put the things you'd most if you sent time in isolation at the top. Change partners often and share your rankings.

  • Smartphone
  • TV
  • Fast food
  • Tea or coffee
  • Music
  • Shopping
  • Friends
  • News

 

Vocabulary

    Paragraph 1

      1.

mod cons

a.

Deal effectively with something difficult.

      2.

react

b.

A person or animal that lives in or at a specified place.

      3.

cope

c.

The machines and devices of a well-equipped modern house that create an easier way of life.

      4.

institute

d.

Act in response to something; respond in a particular way.

      5.

drastic

e.

An organization having a particular purpose, especially for science, education, or a specific profession.

      6.

dweller
      

f.

Likely to have a strong or far-reaching effect; radical and extreme.

      7.

rely on

g.

Depend or count on someone or something.

    Paragraph 2

      8.

expressed

h.

Attracting attention by reason of being unusual, extreme, or prominent.

      9.

desire

i.

Conveyed a thought or feeling in words or by gestures and conduct.

      10.

adapt

j.

Develop gradually, especially from a simple to a more complex form.

      11.

evolve

k.

The action or process of looking at something or someone carefully or in order to gain information.

      12.

striking

l.

A strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.

      13.

observation

m.

Roughly calculated or judged the value, number, quantity, or extent of.

      14.

estimated

n.

Make something suitable for a new use or purpose; modify.

 

Before reading / listening

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if 1-8 below are true (T) or false (F).

  1. The article says we could all survive without a smartphone.     T / F
  2. Forty people lived in a cave for 40 days.     T / F
  3. The research project cost $19 million.     T / F
  4. Volunteers had to rely on their body clock in the cave.     T / F
  5. Two-thirds of the volunteers enjoyed the cave experience.     T / F
  6. The research director said we need to find solutions to situations.     T / F
  7. The participants in the research lost their sense of time.     T / F
  8. One team member left the cave after 23 days.     T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

  1. survive
  2. took part
  3. react
  4. drastic
  5. rely
  6. enjoyed
  7. adapt
  8. solutions
  9. striking
  10. estimated
  1. change
  2. extreme
  3. depend
  4. judged
  5. make it
  6. answers
  7. participated
  8. obvious
  9. behave
  10. loved

3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

  1. survive for a few days without
  2. see how they would
  3. how people would adapt
  4. cave
  5. They had to rely
  6. enjoyed the experience
  7. Two-thirds expressed a desire
  8. their frame of reference
  9. our brains are capable of
  10. participants lost their sense of
  1. dwellers
  2. time
  3. on their body clock
  4. of total isolation
  5. to drastic changes
  6. for time and space
  7. your smartphone
  8. finding new solutions
  9. react to and cope
  10. to remain underground

Gap fill

Put these words into the spaces in the paragraph below.

cope
sunlight
connected
clock
just
outside
survive
drastic

Could you (1) _____________________ for a few days without your smartphone or without being (2) _____________________ to the Internet? How about living in a cave with no mod cons for 40 days? Fifteen people did (3) _____________________ that. They took part in a project called Deep Time to see how they would react to and (4) _____________________ with being totally disconnected from the modern world. Scientists from the Human Adaption Institute lead the $1.9-million project. They wanted to understand how people would adapt to (5) _____________________ changes in living conditions. They put the volunteers in a cave for nearly six weeks. There was no (6) _____________________ and the cave dwellers had no contact with the (7) _____________________ world. They had to rely on their body (8) _____________________ to know when to wake up, go to sleep and eat.

Put these words into the spaces in the paragraph below.

adapt
evolve
estimated
isolation
situation
frame
sense
desire

Most of the volunteers said they enjoyed the experience of total (9) _____________________. Two-thirds expressed a (10) _____________________ to remain underground a while longer in order to finish projects they had started. Deep Time's director Christian Clot said the experience would, "test humans' ability to (11) _____________________ to the loss of their (12) _____________________ of reference for time and space". He said: "Our future as humans on this planet will (13) _____________________. We must learn to better understand how our brains are capable of finding new solutions, whatever the (14) _____________________." One striking observation is that participants lost their (15) _____________________ of time. Mr Clot said: "In our heads, we had walked into the cave 30 days ago". One team member (16) _____________________ the time underground to be 23 days.

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

Could you survive for (1) ____________________ without your smartphone or without being connected to the Internet? How about living in a cave with no mod cons for 40 days? Fifteen people (2) ____________________. They took part in a project called Deep Time to see how they (3) ____________________ and cope with being totally disconnected from the modern world. Scientists from the Human Adaption Institute lead the $1.9-million project. They wanted to understand how people would adapt to (4) ____________________ living conditions. They put the volunteers in a cave for nearly six weeks. There was no sunlight and (5) ____________________ had no contact with the outside world. They had to (6) ____________________ body clock to know when to wake up, go to sleep and eat.

Most of the volunteers said they enjoyed the experience (7) ____________________. Two-thirds expressed a desire to remain underground (8) ____________________ in order to finish projects they had started. Deep Time's director Christian Clot said the experience would, "test humans' ability to adapt to the loss of their (9) ____________________ for time and space". He said: "Our future as humans on this planet will evolve. We must learn to better understand how our brains (10) ____________________ finding new solutions, whatever the situation." One striking observation is that participants lost their (11) ____________________. Mr Clot said: "In our heads, we had walked into the cave 30 days ago". One team member (12) ____________________ underground to be 23 days.

Comprehension questions

  1. What do people in the cave have to live without for 40 days?
  2. What is the name of the project in the article?
  3. How much did the research project cost?
  4. What did the cave dwellers have no contact with?
  5. What did the cave dwellers have to rely on to know when to eat?
  6. What proportion of the volunteers enjoyed the cave experience?
  7. What did many participants want to finish?
  8. What did the research director say humans would do?
  9. What did the director say we needed to find?
  10. What did the participants lose their sense of?

Role play

Role  A – Smartphones
You think smartphones is the thing you'd miss most if you spent time in isolation. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their things are not so miss-able. Also, tell the others which is the least miss-able of these (and why): fast food, music or news.

Role  B – Fast Food
You think fast food is the thing you'd miss most if you spent time in isolation. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their things are not so miss-able. Also, tell the others which is the least miss-able of these (and why): smartphones, music or news.

Role  C – Music
You think music is the thing you'd miss most if you spent time in isolation. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their things are not so miss-able. Also, tell the others which is the least miss-able of these (and why): fast food, smartphones or news.

Role  D – News
You think news is the thing you'd miss most if you spent time in isolation. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their things are not so miss-able. Also, tell the others which is the least miss-able of these (and why): fast food, music or smartphones.

Discussion - Isolation

  1. What images are in your mind when you hear the word 'isolation'?
  2. Would you like to have taken part in this experiment?
  3. What do you think of caves?
  4. Could you survive for a few days without your smartphone?
  5. Could you live in a dark cave for 40 days?
  6. How would you cope with being disconnected from the world?
  7. What does your body clock tell you?
  8. What would you do in a cave for 40 days?
  9. What would you miss about having no contact with the outside world?
  1. What do you think of when you hear the word 'cave'?
  2. What do you think about what you read?
  3. How would you deal with total isolation?
  4. How might our future on this planet change?
  5. How good are you at finding new solutions?
  6. What happens when you lose your sense of time?
  7. How sociable are you?
  8. To what degree is technology isolating people?
  9. What questions would you like to ask the participants?

Language — Cloze (Gap-fill)

Could you (1) ____ for a few days without your smartphone or without being connected to the Internet? How about living in a cave with no (2) ____ cons for 40 days? Fifteen people did just that. They took part in a project called Deep Time to see how they would react to and cope (3) ____ being totally disconnected from the modern world. Scientists from the Human Adaption Institute lead the $1.9-million project. They wanted to understand how people would (4) ____ to drastic changes in living conditions. They put the volunteers in a cave for nearly six weeks. There was no sunlight and the cave (5) ____ had no contact with the outside world. They had to rely on their body (6) ____ to know when to wake up, go to sleep and eat.

Most of the volunteers said they enjoyed the experience of (7) ____ isolation. Two-thirds expressed a desire to remain underground a (8) ____ longer in order to finish projects they had started. Deep Time's director Christian Clot said the experience would, "test humans' ability to adapt to the loss of their frame (9) ____ reference for time and space". He said: "Our future as humans on this planet will (10) ____. We must learn to better understand how our brains are capable of finding new solutions, whatever the situation." One striking observation is that participants lost their (11) ____ of time. Mr Clot said: "In our heads, we had walked into the cave 30 days ago". One team member estimated the time underground to (12) ____ 23 days.

Which of these words go in the above text?

  1. (a)     survive     (b)     survivor     (c)     survives     (d)     survival    
  2. (a)     odd     (b)     nod     (c)     mod     (d)     pod    
  3. (a)     of     (b)     at     (c)     on     (d)     with    
  4. (a)     adept     (b)     adapt     (c)     inept     (d)     crept    
  5. (a)     cavers     (b)     stalactites     (c)     stalagmites     (d)     dwellers    
  6. (a)     watch     (b)     timepiece     (c)     clock     (d)     clock face    
  7. (a)     totality     (b)     total     (c)     totals     (d)     totally    
  8. (a)     while     (b)     whilst     (c)     whiling     (d)     whiled    
  9. (a)     of     (b)     to     (c)     at     (d)     up    
  10. (a)     revolve     (b)     involve     (c)     evolve     (d)     solve    
  11. (a)     era     (b)     clock     (c)     tardy     (d)     sense    
  12. (a)     give     (b)     be     (c)     have     (d)     do

Spelling

Paragraph 1

  1. vrvseui for a few days
  2. nodccntee to the Internet
  3. ecart to and cope with
  4. the Human pdAontia Institute
  5. aisrdct changes in living conditions
  6. They put the oursevnelt in a cave

Paragraph 2

  1. Two-thirds drssepeex a desire to remain
  2. their frame of reerfneec
  3. finding new sloounsti
  4. One gtikrins observation
  5. rtiapnpitasc lost their sense of time
  6. One team member eettasidm the time

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