World News for Students of English

03-02-2021 07:00

The word ’robot’ comes from the Czech language. The Czech writer Karel Čapek uses the word for the first time in 1921.

Čapek writes a science-fiction play called ‘R.U.R.’ It is about a factory. The factory makes robots. Robots become very dangerous. They fight with people. They win.

The word ’robot’ is similar to the Czech word ’robota’. It means hard work. People often use it in the past.

People use robots for many things today. Robots can be small but very big, too. They help people do difficult tasks. They help clean hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic. They help in restaurants and hotels. Some people keep them as pets.

Difficult words: science-fiction (books and films about the future), pandemic (when a disease is in many countries of the world), pet (an animal which people keep at home).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.