Урок по теме «Inventions»

Imagine you can invent something. What will you invent? Why?

WHY PEOPLE INVENT

People invent for various reasons. Many people hope to make money from their inventions. Others invent to satisfy their curiosity or an urge to create. However, the greatest spur to invention has been to satisfy the needs of people.

Economic needs have led to most inventions. These inventions include not only the thousands of devices and machines used in agriculture, business, and industry, but also many kinds of processes and products.

An economically successful invention may create an economic need for additional inventions. An example is the flood of additional inventions that revolutionized the British textile industry during the 1700’s. Is 1733, John Kay, an English clockmaker, invented a weaving machine called the “flying shuttle”. It allowed weavers to produce cloth much faster than spinners could supply them with thread. The textile industry had to find many more spinners or speed up the spinning process. During the 1760’s and 1770’s, three inventors – James Hargreaves, Sir Richard Arkwright, and Samuel Crompton – produced a series of inventions that enabled workers to spin thread much faster. The textile industry had much more thread available man weavers and weaving machines to make cloth. Then, during the mid- 1780’s, Edmund Cartwright, another English inventor, invented a steam-powered loom. This loom wove cloth so quickly that weavers could keep up with the large amounts of thread spun on spinning machines. The new spinning and weaving machines enabled textile manufacturers to produce great quantities of cotton cloth at lower costs. As a result, they could sell the cloth at reduced prices, thereby creating a large new market for it. The demand for raw cotton increased, and so a new problem arose. Raw cotton contains seeds that must be removed before the cotton can be used on spinning machines. Workers removed the seeds by hand. It was a slow process. Then, in 1793, the American inventor Eli Whitney built his cotton gin. This machine could remove the cottonseeds as fast as 50 people working by hand. The cotton gin enabled the cotton growers to meet the demands of the spinning and weaving machines

Military needs also have always stimulated invention. A nation at war encourages its inventors, engineers, and scientists to create new weapons that will be more destructive than those of the enemy. But wars have also led to many inventions that have had valuable peacetime uses. World War (1939-1945) stimulated more research and invention than any other war. The war produced the most destructive single weapon ever used in warfare – the atomic bomb. Yet many inventions that came out of the war have benefited people. Nuclear energy, first used in the atomic bomb, now provides power for industry. The war also stimulated the development of radar, an invention that plays an important role today in aviation and in weather forecasting.

Social needs have also brought about thousands of inventions and discoveries. Many of them have prolonged life. Others have made life easier and more comfortable. Many inventions have helped people in the battle against diseases. Others have helped make possible the discovery of new drugs and techniques to treat illnesses. Scientists could never have made significant advances in the fight against infectious diseases without the compound microscope. Zacharias Janssen, a Dutch optician, invented the compound microscope about 1590. In 1853, Charles Pravaz, a French physician, invented the hypodermic syringe, which enables doctors to easily administer drugs under the skin. In the mid 1900’s, John E. Salk and Albert B. Sabin, two American doctors, developed vaccines that help prevent poliomyelitis.

Inventions that make our life easier and more comfortable include the many appliances and products in our homes. The vacuum cleaner, patented by several inventors around 1900, is one of the large numbers of devices that reduce housework. Canned foods and commercially frozen foods help make the planning and preparation of meals easier. Clarence Birdseye, an American inventor, developed the quick - freezing process of preserving food in the 1920's.

An invention must satisfy some need in one of the groups named above, or people will ignore it. A large number of inventions have never come into use because they failed to fill a need.

VOCABULARY

I. Guess the meaning of the following words and word-combinations. Check yourself using a dictionary:

to make money from inventions, to satisfy one's curiosity, an urge to create, the greatest spur to invention, to satisfy some need, to ignore something, to come into use, to produce great quantities of something, at lower costs, to reduce prices, to meet smb's demands, to have valuable peacetime uses, to create destructive weapons, to provide power for industry, to ease threats to health, to prolong life, to battle against infectious diseases, a compound microscope, a hypodermic syringe, to administer drugs under the skin, to develop vaccines, to prevent a disease, an appliance, to reduce housework, canned food, commercially frozen foods, the quick- freezing process.

1. Say if the title matches the main idea of the text.

2. Suggest another possible title.

3. Which sentences give the main idea of the text? Read them and translate into Russian.

B. Scanning

I. Complete the sentence with the correct word. Write the letter of your answer:

1. People invent for many d.

2. If an invention fails to fill a need, it never comes into _______.

3. The war also stimulated the development of _______.

4. The hypodermic syringe enables doctors to easily administrate drugs under_______.

5. Economically successful invention creates an economic need for additional _______.

6. Many inventions help in the battle against _______.

7. Some inventions help us reduce _______.

8. Some people invent to satisfy their _______.

9. Many inventions that came out of the war have benefited people ________.

10. The greatest spur to invention is to satisfy people's ________

1. invention
2. needs
3. enormously
4. reasons
5. curiosity
6. use
7. the skin
8. housework
9. radar
10. disease

1. There are various reasons for people to invent.
2. The greatest spur to invention has been people's curiosity.
3. Even, if an invention fails to fill a need, it conies into use.
4. Military needs have led to most inventions.
5. An economically successful invention can create an economic need for additional inventions.
6. War and the threat of war have always stimulated inventions.
7. Inventions for military needs are never used in peacetime.
8. Social needs are connected with medicine and our everyday life.
9. Some inventions provide laborsaving assistance in the home.
10. A lot of inventions aid students in school or help workers perform various tasks.

II. Compose 10 questions on the text. Retell the text using these questions as an outline.

1. Which reasons that make people invent are the most important?
2. What would you invent for? Why?
3. How do inventions push us forward?

WRITING

1. Люди всегда старались изменить мир, в котором они живут.
2. Люди изобретают по различным причинам.
3. Некоторые люди изобретают с целью сделать деньги на своих изобретениях.
4. Другие изобретают, чтобы удовлетворить свои потребности в творчестве.
5. Изобретения должны удовлетворять различные потребности людей.
6. Потребности можно разделить на три группы: экономические, военные и социальные.
7. Многие изобретения так никогда и не были использованы, потому что не отвечали потребностям людей.

RESEARCH

Choose any invention. Try to find out which reason it had. Report your ideas in class.