2. Answer the questions:

1. What funny invention do you like? Why?

2. What invention is the most silly? Why?

3. What invention is the most original, creative? Why?

4. What inventions had been made by the end of the XX-th century?

5. Which of these world’s inventions had been made shortly before your birth: a

microwave oven, a mobile phone, a calculator, a vacuum cleaner, a camera,

a computer, a video, a dishwasher, a washing machine, a player, a karaoke,

a television?

Text B. Five inventors

1. Read these five texts and ask questions.

Motor Car (late 19th Century).

With television, the car is probably the most widely used and most useful of all leisure-inspired inventions. German engineer Karl Benz produced the first petroldriven car in 1885 and the British motor industry started in 1896. Henry Ford was the first to use assembly line production for his Model Т car in 1908. Like them or hate them, cars have given people great freedom of travel.

Photography (early 19th Century).

Leonardo da Vinci had described the camera obscura photographic principle as early as 1515. But it was not until 1835 that Frenchman Louis Daguerre produced camera photography. The system was gradually refined over the years, to the joy of happy snappers and the despair of those who had to wade through friends' endless holiday pictures.

Telephone (1876).

Edinburgh-born scientist Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention of the telephone in 1876. The following year, the great American inventor Thomas Edison produced the first working telephone. With telephones soon becoming rapidly available, the days of letter-writing became numbered.

Electricity.

The name came from the Greek word for amber and was coined by Elizabeth I's physician William Gilbert who was among those who noticed that amber had the power to attract light objects after being rubbed. In the 19th century such great names as Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy, Alessandro Volta and Andre Marie Ampere all did vital work on electricity.

Aeroplane.

The plane was the invention that helped shrink the world and brought distant lands within easy reach of ordinary people. The invention of the petrol engine made flight feasible and the American Wright brothers made the first flight in 1903.

2. Work in pairs and discuss them.

3. Give a brief description of different kinds of inventions.

4. Work in pairs. A different history of inventors.

Text D. Historical Facts about Glasses and Sunglasses

1. Read the text and discuss about:

a) Origins and History of Eyeglasses.

b) History of Sunglasses.

c) How glasses are made?

The earliest technology of magnification of images dates back to around 1000 A.D. The first visual aid instruments were reading stones. Those who had invented them observed that a convex shaped glass could magnify the image of a small object.

These reading stones were developed to help monks in reading and writing. The monks with presbyopia used reading stones that were placed on the reading material as magnifying glasses.

In the 9th century Abbas IbnFirnas developed a way to produce very clear glass and he is said to be the first to use corrective lenses. These glasses could be shaped and polished into round rocks.

The Venetians started to make reading stones out of glass that were placed on the reading material. They later learned to produce them with glass lenses that could be held in front of the eye instead of being onto the text. The first spectacles with its frame and sidebars were probably made in 1268 in Pisa, Italy, but it was not known who invented them.

The paintings by Tomasso da Modena in 1352 represent the earliest artistic representation of eyeglasses. His paintings showed monks reading and copying manuscripts, one using magnifying glass while another had glasses that were perched on his nose.

By the 1400s, Florence, Italy became a leader in sale, production and innovation of high quality eyeglasses. It has already been documented that vision declined after the age of 30 and the concept of five-years glasses were made in Florence. Prescriptions were changed every five years as the glasses user aged .

Later, eyeglasses were being exported from Italy to other parts of Europe. They could be found in different styles, compositions, and cost and they were most certainly affordable and considered a necessity by every level of society.

In the 17th century, Germany became a major player in the history of eyeglasses as it started producing some of the finest looking frames for eyeglasses, while Italy continued to produce the best quality lens. Over time, the construction of spectacle frames also evolved. Early eyepieces were designed to be held in place either by hand or by exerting pressure on the nose (pince-nez).

The earliest spectacles were made from quartz lenses which were designed to be held in place either by hand or by placing on the nose ( pince-nez) which of course was a problem, since noses have different shapes and sides.

The modern style of glasses was developed in 1730, when London optician Edward Scarlett devised rigid side pieces that rest atop the ears. This kind of eyeglasses is still in use today.

The history of sunglasses can be traced back ancient China and Rome. The earliest sunglasses were much different to those worn today with a completely different purpose. The credit of creating the first sunglasses for public sunglasses goes to James Ayscough from England in 18th century.

There are a number of different materials which are important in the production of eyeglass lenses, including the actual round pieces of plastic, adhesive tape, liquid with a lead base alloy, metal and various dyes and tints.