Describe a piece of technology (not computer-related) you like to use

Well, the technology that springs to my mind is the portable translating device. It's about the same size as a memory stick, so it’s easy to carry around. I’m not sure who invented it at the first place, but it just has come into existence for about 2 or 3 years and is becoming increasingly popular in China. It’s said that this gadget is built on technologies in voice recognition and automatic translation. It’s quite intuitive and not complicated at all for users. All we need to do is speak to the stick and it will translate our words into another language. With this device being around, people don’t have to worry about talking with their friends from other countries. But this technology is still at its beginning stage, sometimes it fails to recognize the users’ words because of strong accent or if the user speaks fast, so there’s still room for improvement. The way I see it, it may not find favor with students or the young because they still have the time and energy for studying a new language. However, it’s definitely gonna be helpful for the old or businessmen who have neither the time nor the energy to improve their second language. It can work as a perfect personal interpreter for them.

Possible questions from the examiner

Do you think that technology always has positive effects?

Do you like to use new technology？

Does technology deeply affect people’s life?

Is there any difference between technology in cities and in small towns?

Do you agree that men are more obsessed with new technology than women?

How to teach older generation to use new technology?

Vocabulary

memory stick

U盘

come into existence

问世

gadget 

小玩意

intuitive 

直观的

voice recognition

语音识别