6 Minute English / Tech that refuses to die

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I m Phil.

And I m Georgie.

The exciting thing about technology is that it s always changing. Can you remember when computer floppy disks, hand-held Game Boys, and fax machines were in fashion? Do you still have a Walkman cassette player from the 1980s?

Today technology progresses so quickly that old tech soon becomes obsolete, no longer in use having been replaced by something better or more fashionable.

So, you might be surprised to hear that until recently the government of Japan still used three and-a-half inch floppy disks to store official documents; that around the world, music cassettes and Walkmans are making a comeback; and that even the world-famous Swiss CERN physics laboratory uses old-fashioned magnetic tape reels to record its data.

Yes, it seems that some old technology just refuses to die - maybe because people still love it, or maybe because of the old English proverb, if it ain t broke, don t fix it, meaning that things should only be changed if they don t work. So, in this programme, we ll be hearing about old tech which continues to be used today. And, as usual, we ll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first I have a question for you, Georgie. Computers have seen some of the biggest advances in technology. But what was the name of the first computer developed for home use in the UK? Was it:

a) the Commodore 64?b) the Sinclair ZX80? or,c) the BBC Micro?

Hmm, I ll guess it was the Commodore 64.