GPS is everywhere 13 Read the text and answer the questions. What did you know about GPS before you read the text? What have you learnt about this technology? What else would you like to learn about GPS? 14 MAKE CONNECTIONS. List situations or places where you have seen GPS being used or where you have used it yourself. 15 Look at the images below. Find out how GPS is being used in each activity. 16 Explain the relationship you can identify between the content you have learnt about in this unit and GPS navigation. 17 DEBATE What role does technology play in our daily lives? Is technological development always a positive thing? Discuss your opinions and give examples. Write down the conclusions you have come to as a group. You might not know the t erm Global Positioning System, but you probably know its acronym : GPS. You have al so probably seen how GPS i s used in vehicles, in mobi le phones and even on smar twatches. GPS i s a sat el lit e nav igation syst em that prov ides continuous location , speed and time synchroni sation ser v ices around the world . If you have a GPS receiver, you can f ind out at any moment and in any type of weather (rain , snow, fog, etc.) your exact location anywhere on the planet. In other words, you can f ind out the longitude, latitude and altitude of your exact position . GPS i s a 20th-centur y invention that was made possible thanks to the t echnological developments of the space age. The applications of GPS are extremely varied . GPS i s used ext ensively in transpor tation and al so in some games and for search-and-rescue mi ssions. Logi stics companies use GPS to make the drivers' job easier (21) and to optimi se deliver y rout es. Car tographers use GPS to make maps. GPS t echnolog y requires three fundamental elements: a set of sat el lit es that orbit the Ear th permanently recording data , a ground station that receives and int erprets the information sent by the sat el lit es, and lastly, receivers, which are the indiv idual dev ices each person has. G E O G R A P H Y I N M Y L I F E 21. Delivery drivers use GPS. 24
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