Invention, inspiration, closet, bulb, nap, wax, phonograph, genius, perspiration.

Warming up

Today we are going to read about one of the most outstanding American inventors. Before reading look at the photo and answer the questions:

What is the difference between the discovery and the invention?

Who is the man in the picture?

What is he famous for?

Do you know any stories about him?

There are a lot of stories about him. This is one of them:

Reading

Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was born in 1847. He was sick a lot when he was young. Edison’s mother taught him lessons at home and only studied the things he wanted to know. At age ten, he read his first science book. After he read the book, he built a laboratory in his house. Soon, Edison started to invent things. He was interested in the telegraph and electricity. At age twenty-three, he made a special telegraphic machine and sold it for a lot of money. It is said that he planned to ask two or three thousand dollars for his invention. He was invited to the meeting of businessmen who were interested in buying his invention and was very nervous to name a price.

“It is no use asking us a big price” – said one of the businessmen, – “we’ve already decided how much we will pay. Forty thousand dollars is our limit.” With this money, he was now free to invent all the time.

Edison started his own laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey. He hired mechanics and chemists to help him. He worked day and night. Once, he worked on forty-five inventions at the same time. Edison did not sleep very much, but he took naps. He often fell asleep with his clothes on. One day, he even fell asleep in the closet!

Did you know Edison invented wax paper, fire alarms, the battery, and motion pictures? All his inventions were the result of hard work. But his favorite invention was the phonograph, or a record player. He invented the phonograph in 1876. His other famous invention was the light bulb. Edison died in 1931, at the age of eighty-four. He had over 1,300 inventions to his name! Many people say that Edison was a genius – one of the smartest people in the world! According to him, the idea that a genius works only by inspiration was absurd. “Genius is 2 percent inspiration and 98 percent perspiration,” – he often said.

Milanda Brokal, Introduction the USA “A Cultural Reader”

Reading comprehension

1. Complete the sentences with one of the following words:

Invent hired closet nap laboratory light bulb

Edison liked to _______________ things.
Edison worked in his _______________ day and night.
When you take a short sleep, it is a _______________.
A place where you hang your clothes is a _______________.
Edison paid chemists and mechanics to work for him. He _______________ them.
When the lamp in your house does not work, you may need to change the _______________.

II. Choose right answer.

When Edison was a boy, he ______.

a. made a lot of money

b. built a laboratory in his house

c. invented motion pictures

In his laboratory at Menlo Park, Edison ______.

a. worked day and night

b. slept most of the time

c. did not work

Edison invented ______.

a. only a record player

b. his name

c. more than 1,300 things

III. Number the sentences 1 through 7 to show the correct order.

_____ He died in 1931, at the age of eighty-four.

_____ With this money he started to invent.

_____ Edison was ten when he read his first science book.

_____ In 1876, he invented the phonograph.

_____ After that, he built a laboratory in his house.

_____ When he was twenty-three, he made a lot of money.

_____ He started his own laboratory at Menlo Park.

IV. Complete the sentences with the Past Tense forms of the verbs in brackets.

EXAMPLE: Edison started his own laboratory in Menlo Park (start).

Edison __________ the light bulb (invent).
When he was twenty-three, he __________ a special machine (make).
He __________ this invention for a lot of money (sell).
Edison __________ chemists to help him (hire).
Edison __________day and night (work).
He often __________ naps (take).

Read the article about one more inventor and his invention:

Who was ... Thomas Adams?

Love it or hate it, the sight ofgumbeing chewed, stretched and snapped is a worldwide phenomenon. New Yorker Thomas Adams (1818 – 1905) is regarded as the farther of chewing gum – though he wasn’t its inventor.

The ancient Greeks chewed gum from resin, as did American Indians. Early American settlers combined it with beeswax to make gum. And the ancient Mayans chewed “chicle” from the sapodilla tree. Chicle formed the basis of Adams’s “Tutti-Frutti”, the world’s first mass-produced chewing gum. It was an improvement on the “penny gum” then for sale – a mix of paraffin wax and beeswax.

A business and inventor, Adams first tried, unsuccessfully, to sell glass and then photographs. He was looking for a business idea when he met the exiled former president of Mexico, Antonio de Lopes de Santa Anna, in the mid-1860s. Santa Anna, who had a large supply of chicle, suggested Adams try turning it into synthetic rubber products. This did not work, however. Frustrated, Adams decided to throw his chicle into the East River. But before he did this, he saw a girl selling penny gum, reminding him of chicle’s original use. So he put a piece in his mouth – and it tasted good. That same year, 1869, he patented Tutti-Frutti, building a factory in 1871 to produce it. His advertising slogan was “Adam’s New York Gum No. 1 – snapping and stretching”. In 1881, Adams introduced the first chewing gum vending machines. By 1889, his company, Adams & Sons, had built a monopoly, after taking over the six biggest producers in the US and Canada. From then on, the firm produced Chiclets chewing gum, still produced today, by Cadbury Adams.

Business Spotlight, 2/08

Try to give the explanation of the following words from the text:

Resin, to chew, sapodilla tree, exile, frustrated, vending machines.

SPEAKING PRACTICE

On/offline activity

I. Work in groups

What other famous inventors or scientists do you know?

II. Divide into groups of 3 or 4 people and find the information from the Internet about other famous inventors, constructors, engineers and present the information on:

1. the name of the inventor;

2. the country this invention was made in;

3. what the thing was made for;

4. how it is used now;

5. how it influenced our life.

Recommended resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288456,00.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Stepanovich_Popov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Kalashnikov

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

Work in groups of three or four.

Homework

Do grammar test and be ready for revision test.

Lesson 3

ACTIVE VOCABULARY

I. Match the words and their suitable definitions given below:

Invention, to explode, dynamite, powerful, closet, iron, bulb, fortune, phonograph, discovery, genius, to carry out, research:

something that someone has made, designed or created, that did not exist before;

subsidiary room in an apartment house;

the lighting or heating device;

the first device for mechanical record and reproduction of a sound;

outstanding abilities, talent,

to do a particular piece of work;

the detailed study of something in order to discover new facts;

something that is found, or something new that is learned;

a large sum of money; good luck;

a hard heavymetal that is used for making steel;

with a lot of physical strength or force;

a substance that is used for causing explosions;

to burst with a lot of force and a loud noise, usually in a way that causes a lot of damage

II. Give synonyms or close meanings to the following words and word combinations:

Industrialist, bankrupt, to manage, idealist, cheerful, sad, mankind, native land, explosive, explosion, peacetime, weapon, landmine, plenty, skill, imaginative, luck will, outstanding, promotion.

Reading

Look at the photo and answer the questions:

Who is this man?

Where is he from?

What is he famous for?

What fund did he establish?

What do you know about Nobel Prize Winners this year?

Read the following text and try to understand it:

Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel, the great Swedish inventor and industrialist, was a man of many contrasts. He was the son of a bankrupt, but became a millionaire, a scientist who cared for literature, an industrialist, who managed to remain an idealist. He made a fortune but lived a simple life, and although cheerful in company he was often sad and remained alone. A lover of mankind, he never had a wife or family to love him; a patriot of his native land, he died alone in a foreign country. He invented a new explosive, dynamite, to improve the peacetime industries of mining and road building, but saw it used as a weapon of war to kill and to injure people.

He was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833 and moved to Russia with his parents in 1842. His father was an inventor, he invented the landmine and got plenty of money for it but then, quite suddenly went bankrupt. Most of the family went back to Sweden in 1859. Four years later Alfred came there too, beginning his own study of explosives in his father’s laboratory. He never studied at University, but studied privately and by the time he was twenty was a skillful chemist and excellent linguist having mastered Swedish, Russian, German, French and English. He was imaginative and inventive, but he had better luck in business and showed more financial sense. He was quick to see industrial openings for his scientific inventions and built up over 80 companies in 20 different countries.

His greatest wish was to see an end to wars, and thus peace between nations; and he spent much time and money working for the cause until his death in Italy in 1896. His famous will, in which he chose to provide prizes for outstanding work in physics, chemistry, physiology, medicine, economics, literature and promotion of world peace is a memorial to his interests and ideals. Nobel’s ideals which he expressed long before the threat of nuclear war have become the ideals of all progressive people of the world.

According to Nobel’s will the capital was to be safely invested to form a fund. The interest of this fund is to be distributed annually in the form of the prizes to those who, during the previous year, did the work of the greatest use to mankind within the fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, economics, literature and to the person who has done the most for brotherhood between nations, for the abolition or reduction of permanent armies and for the organisation and encouragement of peace conferences.

Since Nobel’s death in 1896 many outstanding scientists, writers and public figures from different countries have become Nobel Prize winners.

T. Polyakova, E. Sinyavskaya, English for Engineers, Moscow, 2006.

Reading comprehension

I. True or False?

Alfred Nobel had deep knowledge in different fields of science.
He studied at the University where he learned languages.
He got interested in chemistry and by the time he was twenty became a skillful chemist.
His father was a very successful businessman and died very rich.
Alfred Nobel was a man of imagination and at the same time showed great financial and business sense.
Nobel was very happy in his private life.
He was always cheerful and lived the life of a very rich man.
He spent much time and money for the cause of peace and brotherhood between nations.
His famous will in which he left money to provide prizes for outstanding work in Science and Peace is a memorial to his ideals.

II. Form sentences matching word groups on the left and on the right with but and make the necessary changes. You will see that Nobel’s life was really full of contrasts.

Example:

To be a millionaire (but) to live a simple life

He was a millionaire but lived a simple life.

to be an industrialist to live more than 20 years in Russia

to be cheerful in company to be sad in private

to love all mankind to be a skillful chemist and an excellent

linguist

to invent dynamite BUT to show great business and financial science

improve peacetime industries

to be a Swede not to have a wife or a family to love him

to be a patriot of his native country to die alone in a foreign land

never to study at school or University to see it is used as a weapon to kill people

to be a man of imagination to remain an idealist

III. Choose the information from the text about:

Alfred Nobel’s father;
Nobel’s interests and activity;
The contrasts in his life;
Alfred Nobel as a scientist;
Alfred Nobel’s will;

6. Nobel prize winners

and make a brief retelling in oral or written form.

LISTENING

We were talking about scientists and inventors, about their achievements and inventions in the last lessons. Today we are listening to a text about a scientist and an inventor. Before listening try to guess the meaning of the following words and word combinations from the text:

To carry out, discovery, nephew, quarrel, fortune, iron, powerful, dynamite, to explode.

Listen to the story "Uncle Philip" and be ready to answer the following questions.

1. Who was Uncle Philip? What did Uncle Philip do for a living?

2. What was he famous for?

3. Who did he send for when he was dying?

4. What did he say to Tom?

5. What was written in the letter?

6. Why did Uncle Philip decide to act in this way?

7. Can you think of any plan for opening the box?

SPEAKING

Retell the story.

You are Tom. Tell us what you know about your uncle and his decision to leave his fortune to you.

Homework

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