Instructions Listen to the conversation. Then choose the best response to the questions.

1. It certainly isn't easy to predict the future, and some people have got it spectacularly wrong, especially when it comes to popular inventions. Let's start with airplanes. In 1895, a prominent scientist in England said that it was impossible to build a flying machine that was heavier than air. And, only six years later in 1901, after one failed attempt to fly, Wilbur Wright said that people wouldn't be able to fly for another 50 years. But it was later that same year thaT Wilbur and his brother Orville flew the first airplane in Ohio. In 1933, after the Boeing 247 had flown for the first time, an engineer predicted that a bigger plane would never be built. The 247, however, only carried ten people; compare that with the Airbus A380 of today, which can carry up to 900 people. Computing is another field where experts have made massive errors when trying to predict trends. In 1943, an IBM executive predicted that there was a world market for only five computers. Almost sixty years later, the number is nearer two billion! In 1950, a mechanics magazine predicted that one day computers may weigh as little as one and a half tons. Yes, that's tons! Even then many people didn't believe it. And as recently 1977, an executive of an electronics company thought that nobody would ever need a personal computer in their home. Nowadays, of course, many homes have several computers. It's certainly fun to speculate on what the future holds. But careful what you predict, because your words could come back to haunt you!