Fill in the gaps with the words from the box. Each word is used only once. You may need to change the word in order for it to fit the context. There are 2 extra words in the box.
Getting Over Our Two-Year Itch
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ARGUE – COURAGE – COME – GRADE – GREEN -
INTERGRATE – LUCK – MAKE – PERSUADE – PROFIT – REAL –STANDARD
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My twitter followers suggested that the electronics industry should stop cranking out so many models. Just look at Rolex, they say.
Sounds good on paper — or on Twitter. Unfortunately, electronics aren’t watches. They’re expected to explode in functions each year, to leapfrog what before. Your son might be proud to receive your 30-year-old Rolex — but a 4-year-old cellphone would just embarrass him.
Another enthusiastic group proposed designing gadgets to be more modular — popping a newer, faster chip into your old cellphone, for instance.
This proposal, too, is . What’s in it for the manufacturers? It’s much more for them to sell you a whole new gadget. Besides, there’s more to a gadget than its processor. The current iPhone, for example, has not just a different chip than the previous model but also a different screen, battery, interior electronics and connectors. Everything into one device.
A third, equally doomed suggestion: rely on software , not new hardware, to add new features each year. Sure, but many manufacturers already do that. Apple’s annual software updates for the iPhone and iPad add new features to previous years’ models.
, my Twitter focus group did come up with suggestions that would take us to a gadget world — without denying the public its “new every two” or depriving the manufacturers of their profits. For example:
• “Include prepaid recycling envelopes with new gadgets, like HP does with ink cartridges, to recycling instead of trashing,” wrote @megazone.
• the industry to use more recyclable materials, like biodegradable plastics.
Well, the government could get involved. After all, the European Union manufacturers their cellphone power cords only after it was mandated. Companies adopting sustainable materials like corn or soy oil for their plastics could earn tax breaks.
