Clothes that change colour

A new thread developed for the military will make it possible to change the colours of your clothes to suit yourself, whenever you please.

At Massachusetts Institute of Technology, professor Yoel Fink and his colleagues have developed an innovative process to combine extremely thin layers of two materials, a plastic and a glass. The result: a new fibre that can reflect all the light that hits it, from any direction. Within the next two years, the U.S. Army plans to weave Fink's new thread into uniforms, to make an optical bar code that will help our soldiers distinguish friend from foe on night patrol, or during the smoke and confusion of a fire fight.

But Fink's thread could also enjoy a major commercial future in fashion. You might leave home for work in a business-like gray or navy, and switch to a livelier purple or pink in time for your evening out. M.I.T. graduate student Shandon Hart, who collaborated with Fink on the new thread, envisions clothing made from the fibre and equipped with a tiny, lightweight battery pack. When you want to change your suit or dress from, say, black to red, you flick a switch on the pack to zap the fabric with an electric change. Like a radio antenna that lengthens or shortens to tune to a frequency, the thread changes thickness—and your outfit changes colour.

Timothy M. Gunn, chair of Parsons' design department, believes that "what professor Fink has done is incredibly revolutionary. Think what the club scene, celebrity dressing, MTV and the Oscars will look like." Gunn predicts that the fashion industry "might start by using the thread in accessories, to change the colour of a bag or a hat or a scarf. For men, I can see it used to make jackets and even possibly shoes. And imagine how easily you could transform a room—just by changing something simple like a table cloth."

Question 1 (2 points) Indicate whether these sentences are true or false. Justify your answers with evidence from the text. a. The new fibre has been designed by the military.
b. The thread is already being used by the U.S. Army.
c. You’ll need batteries in order to change the colour of your clothes.
d. Colours change depending on how thick the thread becomes.

Question 2 (2 points) Answer the following questions in your own words.
a. What benefits will the new fibre have for solddiers?
b. How might the fashion industry apply the new thread to its products?

Question 3 (1.5 points) Find words or phrases in the text that correspond in meaning to the words and definitions given.
a. to identify (par.2)
b. to imagine (par.3)
c. material (par. 3)

Question 4 (1.5 points) Complete the following sentences without changing the meaning. a. Yoel Fink and his colleagues have developed an innovative process.
An innovative ..............................................
b. "What professor Fink has done is incredibly revolutionary.“
T. M. Gunn said ..........................................
c. I flicked a switch on the pack because I wanted to change the colour of my clothes. If I hadn´t ...................................................

Question 5 (3 points)Write a short essay (about 120-150 words) on the following topic:
Will fashion change much in the future? What will people be wearing in 2050?