She looked at a machine that could only do sums and saw something amazing: that one day it might make music and pictures too.
This is a talking lesson. So before you read anything, the floor is yours.
How many machines with a computer inside do you use every day? What is your favourite thing to do on a phone or a computer? And do you think a machine could ever be creative, like an artist? Just talk — tell me what you think.
A few short facts. After each one, you do the talking.
Ada Lovelace was born in England in 1815. Her father was the famous poet Lord Byron, but he left the family when Ada was only a baby. She never really knew him. Her mother was worried that Ada might become a dreamer like her father, so she made sure Ada studied a lot of mathematics. This was unusual for a girl at that time.
When she was a young woman, Ada met a clever inventor called Charles Babbage. He had an idea for a big machine called the “Analytical Engine”. It was a kind of mechanical computer. It was never fully built, but Ada understood it deeply — perhaps even better than Babbage himself.
Ada loved numbers, but she also loved to imagine. She put the two things together in her own way and called it “poetical science”. Sadly, she died young, of cancer, when she was only 36 — but her ideas were far ahead of her time.
She liked to call her way of thinking “poetical science” — a mix of cold mathematics and warm imagination.
In 1843, Ada translated an article about Babbage's machine from French into English. But she did much more than translate. She added long notes of her own — and her notes were longer than the original article!
She was asked to translate, but she wrote far more than that. Why do you think she did so much extra? What does that tell you about her?
In one note, she wrote a step-by-step method for the machine to follow. Many people call this the first computer program. Some historians are not sure, and they still discuss it today. But everyone agrees that Ada saw further than anyone else.
Here is her truly big idea. Everyone else looked at the machine and saw a fast calculator — something for numbers. Ada saw something more. She understood that the machine could work with any symbols, not only numbers. So, she imagined, one day a machine like this might make music or draw pictures. She imagined the modern computer about a hundred years before it was built.
She looked at a machine that could only count and dared to imagine that one day it might create.
Everyone else saw a calculator. Ada saw music and pictures. Why do you think she could see something the others could not? Talk it through.
In your own words, tell me Ada's big idea, as if you were explaining it to a friend who has never heard of her. What did she see that nobody else could?
Eight words and phrases for talking about ideas, machines and imagination. Tap a card to see the meaning and an example.
Pick any four of these words and say four full sentences out loud — about Ada, about a machine you use, or about your own life. Don't move on until you've used all four.
This lesson is mostly you talking. These phrases will help you give your opinion, talk about the future, and tell your own story.
Use one phrase from each box above, one after the other: first give me an opinion about machines, then say something about the future, then tell me a little story from your own past. Three phrases, three sentences — go.
Ada's story is about the past: how things used to be, and what people used to think. We can use used to and would to talk about past habits and old situations that are not true now.
We use used to + verb for something that was true in the past but is not true now. It works for habits and for situations (states).
People used to think a machine could only do sums. (They don't think that now.)
Ada used to study mathematics for hours. (a past habit)
Girls didn't use to learn much science. (a past situation, now changed)
We can also use would + verb for things that happened again and again in the past (repeated actions). But be careful: we do not use would for states (like be, have, know, like). For states, use only used to.
| Use it for… | Example |
|---|---|
| Repeated past actions — used to or would | Ada would write long notes about the machine. = Ada used to write… |
| Past states — used to only (not “would”) | She used to be curious. (NOT “would be”) |
1. Long ago, people ____ (think) machines could never be creative.
2. Ada ____ (study) maths for many hours when she was young.
3. Most girls ____ (not / learn) science in those days.
4. In Ada's time, women ____ (not / go) to university easily.
1. used to think
2. used to study
3. didn't use to learn
4. didn't use to go
1. As a child, Ada ____ (spend) hours dreaming and drawing. (action — both possible)
2. Her father ____ (be) a famous poet. (state — one answer only)
3. Babbage ____ (talk) to Ada about his machine for hours. (action — both possible)
4. She ____ (have) a strong imagination. (state — one answer only)
1. used to spend / would spend (both okay — an action)
2. used to be (state — “would be” is wrong here)
3. used to talk / would talk (both okay — an action)
4. used to have (state — “would have” is wrong here)
Finish each sentence so it is true about you. There are no “answers” here — just speak.
Tell me about how life used to be different when you were younger. Give me three sentences out loud: use “used to” at least twice and “would” at least once. For example: “When I was a child, I used to… and every summer we would…”
Three speaking tasks. Take your time — the timer is just there to help you keep going, not to rush you. Try to use used to and would, and the phrases from the earlier tabs.
Ada lived in a world with no computers and no phones. Think about your own childhood, or your parents' time.
How did life use to be different? What did people use to do that they don't do now? Use at least three sentences with “used to” and “would”.
Ada looked at a machine and imagined music and pictures. What do you imagine for the future?
Picture life in 50 years. What will machines be able to do? Use phrases like “one day, machines might…” and “in the future, I think…”.
Ada mixed numbers and imagination — her “poetical science”. Tell me about a clever or creative person you admire.
Who are they? What did they use to do? Why do you find them interesting? Give your opinion clearly.
“People used to think…, but one day a machine might…”