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Quantum computing: one speech, 8 exercises

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This month’s topic is cybersecurity, so I’ve chosen to work with a speech on a relevant subject, namely quantum computers and cryptography.

Today, I want to show you how many different exercises you can do based on a single speech (or part of a speech).

The exercises have different objectives: some of them focus on comprehension & analysis, others on reformulation or other aspects of output. You won’t want to do them all!

“In the war for information, will quantum computers defeat cryptographers?”

Exercise 1

The aim of this exercise is to work on note-taking (consecutive) skills.

Take notes from this (well delivered) speech.

Do you have symbols for the following concepts?

computer

quantum computer

cryptography

code breaker

secret

private

Exercise 2: summary

The purpose of this exercise is to work on analysis, active listening, comprehension, and output.

Choose a section of the speech to listen to, as it’s too long to retain in your memory! Two or three minutes is enough. You can always go through the whole speech in sections.

The aim of the exercise is to listen, then summarise what you’ve heard (in English if you have a B, in your mother tongue if you’re working on analysis and comprehension from English as a C language).

Exercise 3: identifying structure

The aim of this exercise is to work on listening and analysis skills.

  1. Listen to the whole speech, noting down the ‘skeleton’. This might look like a mind map, or you might write down the speech’s structure in bullet point form.
  2. If you like, use this skeleton to try to reproduce the speech’s arguments (in English or in your mother tongue).

Exercise 4: improvising

The aim of this exercise is to work on active listening, comprehension, and reformulation skills.

Listen to the speech, then answer the following questions out loud (in English or in your mother tongue):

  • How will quantum computers help society in the future?
  • Why is it necessary to encrypt communications?
  • Should the use of quantum computers be regulated? Who should get to use them?
  • Someone once said that the development of quantum computers could lead to a ‘quantum apocalypse’. What do you think was meant by that? Do you agree?

Exercise 5: gap filling (idioms)

The aim of this exercise is to work on comprehension/analysis and reformulation skills. The focus is on idioms.

Fill in the blanks (in your mother tongue if you’re sight translating as you go along, or in English if it’s a B language for you).

I’m in the business of safeguarding secrets. And this includes your secrets.

Cryptographers are the first ______________ in an ongoing war that’s been raging for centuries. A war between code makers and code breakers. And this is a war on information.

The modern battlefield for information is digital, and it wages across your phones, your computers, and the internet.

Our job is to create systems that scramble your emails and credit card numbers, your phone calls and text messages, and that includes those saucy selfies, so that all this info can only be descrambled by the recipient it’s intended for.

Now until very recently, we thought we’d won this war __________. Right now, each of your smartphones is using encryption that we thought was unbreakable, and it was gonna remain that way.

We were wrong. Because quantum computers  are coming, and they’re going to change the game completely.

Throughout history, cryptography and code breaking has always been this game _______________.

And so the stories go on throughout the centuries. Cryptographers improve their encryption, and then code breakers fight back and they find a way to break it. This war’s gone back and forth through the centuries, and it’s been pretty _________.That was until the 1970s, when some cryptographers made a huge breakthrough.

They discovered an extremely powerful way to do encryption, called public key cryptography. Now unlike all the prior methods used throughout history, it doesn’t require that the two parties that want to send each other confidential information have exchanged the secret key beforehand.

This is the basis of modern encryption.

And the fact that all of the computing power on the planet combined can’t solve it, that’s the reason we cryptographers thought we’d found a way to __________ of the code breakers for good.

Perhaps we got a little cocky.

Cos just when we thought the war was won, a bunch of 20th century physicists __________, and they revealed that the laws of the Universe, the same laws that modern cryptography was built upon, they aren’t as we thought they were.

And isn’t that always the way life seems to go? Just when you think you’ve got everything covered, you’ve got __________, a bunch of physicists come along and reveal the fundamental laws of the universe are completely different from what you thought, and this _____________.

See, in the teeny tiny subatomic realm, at the level of electrons and protons, the classical laws of physics, the ones that we all know and love, they go out the window, and it’s here that the laws of quantum mechanics __________.

In quantum mechanics, an electron can be spinning clockwise and anticlockwise at the same time, and a proton can be in two places at once.

It sounds like science fiction, but that’s only because the crazy quantum nature of our universe, it hides itself from us. And it’s stayed hidden from us until the 20th century. But now that we’ve seen it, the whole world is _____________ to try to build a quantum computer, a computer that can harness the power of this weird and wacky quantum behaviour.

I’m in the business of safeguarding secrets. And this includes your secrets.

Cryptographers are the first line of defence in an ongoing war that’s been raging for centuries. A war between code makers and code breakers. And this is a war on information.

The modern battlefield for information is digital, and it wages across your phones, your computers, and the internet.

Our job is to create systems that scramble your emails and credit card numbers, your phone calls and text messages, and that includes those saucy selfies, so that all this info can only be descrambled by the recipient it’s intended for.

Now until very recently, we thought we’d won this war for good. Right now, each of your smartphones is using encryption that we thought was unbreakable, and it was gonna remain that way.

We were wrong. Because quantum computers  are coming, and they’re going to change the game completely.

Throughout history, cryptography and code breaking has always been this game of cat and mouse.

And so the stories go on throughout the centuries. Cryptographers improve their encryption, and then code breakers fight back and they find a way to break it. This war’s gone back and forth through the centuries, and it’s been pretty neck and neck. That was until the 1970s, when some cryptographers made a huge breakthrough.

They discovered an extremely powerful way to do encryption, called public key cryptography. Now unlike all the prior methods used throughout history, it doesn’t require that the two parties that want to send each other confidential information have exchanged the secret key beforehand.

This is the basis of modern encryption.

And the fact that all of the computing power on the planet combined can’t solve it, that’s the reason we cryptographers thought we’d found a way to stay ahead of the code breakers for good.

Perhaps we got a little cocky.

Cos just when we thought the war was won, a bunch of 20th century physicists came to the party, and they revealed that the laws of the Universe, the same laws that modern cryptography was built upon, they aren’t as we thought they were.

And isn’t that always the way life seems to go? Just when you think you’ve got everything covered, you’ve got your ducks in a row, a bunch of physicists come along and reveal the fundamental laws of the universe are completely different from what you thought, and this screws everything up.

See, in the teeny tiny subatomic realm, at the level of electrons and protons, the classical laws of physics, the ones that we all know and love, they go out the window, and it’s here that the laws of quantum mechanics kick in.

In quantum mechanics, an electron can be spinning clockwise and anticlockwise at the same time, and a proton can be in two places at once.

It sounds like science fiction, but that’s only because the crazy quantum nature of our universe, it hides itself from us. And it’s stayed hidden from us until the 20th century. But now that we’ve seen it, the whole world is in an arms’ race to try to build a quantum computer, a computer that can harness the power of this weird and wacky quantum behaviour.

Exercise 6: gap filling 2

The aim of this exercise is to work on comprehension/analysis and reformulation skills.

There’s a variety of words and expressions to deduce in this text. Some of them are collocations. Some require anticipation skills. Some of the gaps can be filled in many different ways (especially the adjectives) to make a plausible, grammatically correct sentence, even if it doesn’t carry exactly the same meaning as the original text.

Fill in the blanks (in your mother tongue, or in English if it’s a B language for you).

I’m in the business of ___________ secrets. And this includes your secrets.

Cryptographers are the first line of defence in an__________ that’s been raging for centuries. A war between code makers and code breakers. And this is a war on information.

The modern ____________ is digital, and it wages across your phones, your computers, and the internet.

Our job is to create systems that scramble your emails and credit card numbers, your phone calls and text messages, and that includes those __________ selfies, so that all this info can only be descrambled by the recipient it’s intended for.

Now until very recently, we thought we’d won this war for good. Right now, each of your smartphones is using encryption that we thought was ___________, and it was gonna remain that way.

We were wrong. Because quantum computers  are coming, and they’re going to change the game completely.

Throughout history, cryptography and code breaking has always been this game of cat and mouse.

Back in the 1500s, Queen Mary of Scots thought she was sending __________ letters that only her soldiers could __________. But QE of England, she had code breakers that were all over it. They decrypted Mary’s letters, saw that she was attempting to assassinate QE, and subsequently chopped Mary’s head off.

A few centuries later, in WWII, the Nazis communicated using the Enigma code, a much more ___________ encryption scheme that they thought was unbreakable. But then good old Alan Turing, and same guy who invented what we now call the modern computer, he built a machine and used it to break Enigma. He deciphered the German messages and helped to bring Hitler and his third Reich to a halt.

And so the stories go on throughout the centuries. Cryptographers improve their encryption, and then code breakers ____________ and they find a way to break it. This war’s gone back and forth through the centuries, and it’s been pretty neck and neck. That was until the 1970s, when some cryptographers made a huge ________________.

Perhaps we got a little ____________.

Cos just when we thought the war was won, a bunch of 20th century physicists came to the party, and they __________ that the laws of the Universe, the same laws that modern cryptography was built upon, they aren’t as we thought they were.

It sounds like science fiction, but that’s only because the crazy quantum nature of our universe, it hides itself from us. And it’s stayed hidden from us until the 20th century. But now that we’ve seen it, the whole world is in an arms’ race to try to build a quantum computer, a computer that can harness the power of this weird and _____________quantum behaviour.

These things are so ____________ and so powerful that they’ll make today’s fastest supercomputer look useless in comparison. In fact, for certain problems that are of great interest to us, today’s fastest supercomputer is closer to an ___________ than to a quantum computer. That’s right, I’m talking about those little wooden things with the beads.

Quantum computers can ____________ chemical and biological processes that are far beyond the reach of our classical computers, and as such, they promise to help us solve some of our planet’s biggest problems.

They’re going to help us ________ global hunger, to ___________ climate change, to __________ for diseases and pandemics for which we’ve so far been unsuccessful. To ___________ superhuman artificial intelligence, and perhaps even more important than all of those things, they’re going to help us _____________ the very nature of our universe.

But with this incredible potential comes an incredible ____________.

Let me put it this way: if quantum computing was a spear, then modern encryption, the same unbreakable system that’s protected us for decades, it would be like a __________ made of tissue paper.

Anyone with access to a quantum computer will have the _________to unlock anything they like in our digital world. They could _________ from banks and control economies. They could _________hospitals or __________ nukes, or they could just ___________ and watch all of us on our webcams, without any of us knowing that this is happening.

So late last century, some really ___________ physicists had this ingenious idea, to instead build computers that are _____________ the ideas of quantum mechanics.

I’m in the business of safeguarding secrets. And this includes your secrets.

Cryptographers are the first line of defence in an ongoing war that’s been raging for centuries. A war between code makers and code breakers. And this is a war on information.

The modern battlefield for information is digital, and it wages across your phones, your computers, and the internet.

Our job is to create systems that scramble your emails and credit card numbers, your phone calls and text messages, and that includes those saucy selfies, so that all this info can only be descrambled by the recipient it’s intended for.

Now until very recently, we thought we’d won this war for good. Right now, each of your smartphones is using encryption that we thought was unbreakable, and it was gonna remain that way.

We were wrong. Because quantum computers  are coming, and they’re going to change the game completely.

Throughout history, cryptography and code breaking has always been this game of cat and mouse.

Back in the 1500s, Queen Mary of Scots thought she was sending encrypted letters that only her soldiers could decipher. But QE of England, she had code breakers that were all over it. They decrypted Mary’s letters, saw that she was attempting to assassinate QE, and subsequently chopped Mary’s head off.

A few centuries later, in WWII, the Nazis communicated using the Enigma code, a much more complicated encryption scheme that they thought was unbreakable. But then good old Alan Turing, and same guy who invented what we now call the modern computer, he built a machine and used it to break Enigma. He deciphered the German messages and helped to bring Hitler and his third Reich to a halt.

And so the stories go on throughout the centuries. Cryptographers improve their encryption, and then code breakers fight back and they find a way to break it. This war’s gone back and forth through the centuries, and it’s been pretty neck and neck. That was until the 1970s, when some cryptographers made a huge breakthrough.

Perhaps we got a little cocky.

Cos just when we thought the war was won, a bunch of 20th century physicists came to the party, and they revealed that the laws of the Universe, the same laws that modern cryptography was built upon, they aren’t as we thought they were.

It sounds like science fiction, but that’s only because the crazy quantum nature of our universe, it hides itself from us. And it’s stayed hidden from us until the 20th century. But now that we’ve seen it, the whole world is in an arms’ race to try to build a quantum computer, a computer that can harness the power of this weird and wacky quantum behaviour.

These things are so revolutionary and so powerful that they’ll make today’s fastest supercomputer look useless in comparison. In fact, for certain problems that are of great interest to us, today’s fastest supercomputer is closer to an abacus than to a quantum computer. That’s right, I’m talking about those little wooden things with the beads.

Quantum computers can simulate chemical and biological processes that are far beyond the reach of our classical computers, and as such, they promise to help us solve some of our planet’s biggest problems.

They’re going to help us combat global hunger, to tackle climate change, to find cures for diseases and pandemics for which we’ve so far been unsuccessful. To create superhuman artificial intelligence, and perhaps even more important than all of those things, they’re going to help us understand the very nature of our universe.

But with this incredible potential comes an incredible risk.

Let me put it this way: if quantum computing was a spear, then modern encryption, the same unbreakable system that’s protected us for decades, it would be like a shield made of tissue paper.

Anyone with access to a quantum computer will have the master key to unlock anything they like in our digital world. They could steal money from banks and control economies. They could power off hospitals or launch nukes, or they could just sit back and watch all of us on our webcams, without any of us knowing that this is happening.

So late last century, some really brainy physicists had this ingenious idea, to instead build computers that are founded on the ideas of quantum mechanics.

Exercise 7: register

Take the text of one of the gap filling exercises, and reformulate it to make it more formal (the speaker is quite conversational in places).

OR

Exercise 8: register/reformulation

Use the video for a reformulation exercise (English>English).

You could choose to reformulate in a more formal style, or you could simply choose to look for synonyms and paraphrases.

Complex vs complicated

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Have you ever wondered what the subtle distinction is between these two adjectives? Or perhaps you’ve even used both of them in the same sentence (This is a complex, complicated procedure’) without really knowing what the difference is. Let’s see if we can disambiguate.

Dictionary definitions

My first port of call when writing RyR posts is usually the dictionary (several dictionaries, in fact: one British English, and one American English).

In this case, the dictionary is largely unhelpful.

It defines complex as ‘difficult to understand or explain because of having many different parts’, and complicated as ‘involving a lot of different parts, in a way that is difficult to understand’.

In other words, you might expect them to be synonymous.

However, in practice, they have different connotations (at least, I think so!).

Complex

Complexity is about how many parts there are to a system (or argument, thought process, etc.).

For this reason, things are often described as complex when they are highly technical or intellectually demanding.

However, although it may sound counterintuitive, a system might simultaneously be both complex and straightforward (although not simple, because simple is the opposite of complex).

Let’s imagine you’ve designed a board game with lots of rules; or a management structure for an organisation that has many parts to it. These things could still be straightforward in the sense that they are easy to explain, or the rationale behind them is very clear.

Complicated

To me, the word complicated implies a value judgement.

When you say something is complicated, you mean that you are finding it hard to understand, or you would struggle to explain it to someone else.

Complicated refers to to difficulty, rather than degree of detail.

In a way, there is an implied ‘too’ in there: complicated means ‘too difficult’.

This is why the word complicated collocates well with adverbs such as overly, excessively, or unnecessarily.

Because of the implicit value judgement (complicated = ‘I find this hard to follow’), I would argue that complicated is a little derogatory.

The book’s plot was so complicated I got bored.

The rules of this board game are really complicated.

Description vs opinion

From what I’ve written so far, perhaps you will be able to see why the word complex is usually descriptive, whereas complicated expresses an opinion.

Here are some typical examples of the word complex:

She underwent a complex surgical procedure.

The question of who is legally responsible is a complex issue.

If you’re in a meeting situation and you want to use a word that is descriptive and neutral, in a reasonably high register sentence, then go with complex.

Compare the example sentences (from the Cambridge Dictionary) for complicated:

His lecture was complicated and difficult to follow. (judgement/negative opinion).

Our lawyer guided us through the more complicated questions on the form. (i.e. difficult to understand – perhaps the language was difficult)

The road system was so complicated that we had to stop several times to find our bearings. (i.e. difficult to grasp)

Your conclusion is good, but the final sentence is too long and complicated. (value judgement/opinion)

Overlap

Sometimes things can be both complex and complicated.

For example, the workings of a machine might be complex – with a lot of moving parts – and complicated – hard to understand unless you are a mechanic or engineer.

If you’re trying to work out where the difficulty comes from (from the complexity of the system/argument/machine or from its being complicated), ask yourself whether the relevant factors are internal or external.

Complexity is generally something internal, i.e. it’s part of the design of an object, whereas there are many external factors that could contribute to something being complicated. For example, someone could have complicated ideas because they’re very roundabout, or their explanations are illogical or use difficult language. A question on a form could be complicated because you need various bits of information such as your social security number and passport number, so you can’t find the answer quickly. The rules of a game might sound complicated because every time someone plays their turn, there are too many steps involved and it’s easy to lose track. A relationship could be complicated because there’s a lot of history or baggage involved (i.e. previous events that have made emotions run high).

I hope these examples have made it easier for you to distinguish between these two words.

Synonyms

The list of synonyms of complicated backs up the idea that it’s a word that expresses a negative opinion:

  • difficult
  • hard
  • arduous
  • convoluted
  • intricate
  • perplexing
  • problematic
  • troublesome
  • entangled
  • puzzling
  • abstruse
  • Byzantine
  • labyrinthine
  • recondite

Synonyms of complex include:

  • complicated
  • convoluted
  • composite
  • multiple
  • elaborate