The Algorithm Knows Best — or Does It?
Grammar: Cleft sentences and inversion for emphasis
A Level 5 English lesson exploring technology.
What's in this lesson
A Level 5 (advanced) ESL lesson on technology, practising cleft sentences and inversion for emphasis. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary and discussion questions.
From the reading: The Algorithm Knows Best — or Does It?
In 2009, Netflix launched a competition with a $1 million prize for anyone who could improve its recommendation algorithm by just 10 percent. What made this remarkable was not the money — it was the premise. A company worth billions had concluded that a mathematical formula could understand human desire better than any programmer, editor, or viewer could themselves. The winning team eventually succeeded, yet Netflix quietly shelved most of their work. The reason? Users rarely watched the films the algorithm most confidently recommended.
Vocabulary
- inadvertently
- optimise
- sharpened
- transformative
- at odds with
- by no means
- no small feat
- on the grounds that
- understand
Discussion questions
- Do you trust a machine recommendation more than a friend's?
- Has an algorithm ever surprised you in a genuinely good way?
- Should platforms decide what content you see next?
The Algorithm Knows Best — or Does It?
Grammar: Cleft sentences and inversion for emphasis
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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