9 Year Old Girl Develops Apps for Apple
Pre
discussion questions
Would
you like to make apps for smartphones?
What
ability do you think you need to make smartphone apps?
Not so many years ago, Apple didn’t
allow anyone under
18 to attend its annual worldwide developer conference.
Brilliant under-age programmers used to devise ways to sneak in.
Today, Apple has a scholarship program that
invites young programmers to apply for a scholarship to the show.
This year, 350 scholarship winners are
attending the WWDC show including about 120 kids under 18, Apple says.
One of these exceptional young
people is 9 year-old Australian girl: Anvitha Vijay.
Vijay coded her first app at age 7,
self-teaching herself by watching how-to-code videos on YouTube and elsewhere
on the web
Vijay has created a few apps. She even has
one available on the App store, called
Smartkins, This is an app for kids The app has over 100 different
animal names and sounds The app lets kids even record their own thoughts and
sounds.
Vijay has impressed Apple so much, that she got to meet CEO Tim Cook.
Cook always meets the teen developers who come
to the show. But what was different is that Cook called Vijay out
in the audience.
In the first few minutes of the show, he pointed her out in the audience. He said, “I met her and she is going to make one heck of a developer.”
Try
to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest
meaning from the choices in the right. Some of the answers are very close and
have similar meaning. The meaning of these words is how they are used in the
reading. Some of these words have different meanings in the dictionary
depending on how they are used.
The
answers are below the table.
Brilliant
|
A
|
1
|
To move very carefully and secretly
|
devise
|
B
|
2
|
To name a person, to get someone’s
attention
|
Sneak
|
C
|
3
|
Very intelligent, like a genius
|
exceptional
|
D
|
4
|
To show, “look at that”, make someone see
|
Impressed
|
E
|
5
|
Impressive, a thing that is excellent
|
Called out
|
F
|
6
|
More than excellent, very rare or unusual
|
Point out
|
G
|
7
|
To do something very well so that others
notice or see, very noticeable
|
One heck of
|
H
|
8
|
To think
of a way to do something, a plan
|
A=3, B=8, C=1, D=6, E=7,
F=2, G=4, H=5
Some
example sentences using the new words or phrases from the meaning of how they
are used in the reading to help you understand better.
1.
He was a brilliant man; he invented many things in his lifetime.
2.
We need to devise a way to pay for this expensive plan.
3.
The cat sneaked around at night stealing trash.
4.
She was exceptional at everything she tried; for example in study, sports
and even music. She was always the best at each one.
5.
My boss was impressed with the hard work that I
did.
6.
Mr Lee called out my friend from the 1000 students as the one who had
improved the most last year.
7.
The tour guide pointed out the places we needed to
visit in the city.
8.
It was one heck of a beautiful day.
Some
questions using the new words/phrases. Try to use the words/phrases in your
answer.
1.
Describe someone you know that
is brilliant at something.
2.
How do you think that under
aged app developers devised ways to
get into the Apple event?
3.
Why would some people in the
story try to sneak into the event? Have
you ever tried to sneak into class
because you were late?
4.
If you could be exceptional at one thing, what would
you like to be exceptional at?
5.
What do you find impressive about the girl in today’s
story? If you go to a job interview, how do you impress?
6.
How do you think Anvitha felt
when she was called out?
7.
What things would you point out to a visitor to your city?
8.
Describe one heck of a fun time you had.