Text b.

Newton devoted all his time to science. While he was working at difficult questions he forgot everything else. On such days he kept to his room and did not allow anyone to disturb him. He was sitting half dressed on his bed all day long thinking over various problems. He ate only when the maid brought him some food and did not notice what he was eating.

One morning he was working very hard, and did not leave his room to go and have breakfast with the family. The housekeeper, however, sent one of the maids into his study with an egg and a saucepan of water. The maid had been told to boil the egg and stay while he ate it, but as he wished to be alone, Newton sent her away, saying that he was going to cook it himself. The maid left the egg near his watch on the table and told him to let it boil for three minutes. She returned soon after and saw that Newton was standing deep in thought, the egg in his hand, while his watch was boiling in the saucepan.

I. Make sure you know the following verbs. If you don’t know any of them consult a dictionary: to devote, to forget, to allow, to disturb, to remain, to bring, to leave, to send, to boil, to stay, to eat, to cook, to tell, to return, to see, to notice.

II. Translate the following word combinations: all his time, to keep to his room, half dressed, deep in thought, all day long, to work hard, a saucepan of water, to be alone, to send the maid away, to cook the egg himself, his watch.

III. Read Text B without a dictionary. Find the predicates in Past Continuous Active.

IV. Translate Text B.

V. Suggest a few headlines to Text B. Choose the best one among the headlines suggested by your fellow students.

VI. Answer the question: What was Newton going to eat and what was he cooking ?

Text c. Inventors and Their Inventions

Edison is known as one of the greatest inventors of his time. He invented so much that it is difficult to say which of his achievements is the greatest. He was an experimenter and a practical man more than a theoretician.

In 1868 Edison built his first patented invention - an electromagnetic device.

All his inventions were the result of hard work. He sometimes made thousands of experiments. According to his words the idea that a genius works only by inspiration was absurd. “Genius is 2 per cent inspiration and 98 per cent perspiration,” he often said.

Samuel Colt was an American. He lived in the 19th century. In 1836 he designed and patented a pistol. It was a pistol with a revolving barrel that could fire 6 bullets one after the other. It was the first pistol of its kind. Later there came many other pistols with 6 bullets.

Rudolf Diesel was a German engineer. He was born in 1858 and died in 1913. In 1897 he invented a new internal combustion engine. This engine is known as a diesel and it began a transport revolution in cars, lorries, trains and ships. The main advantage of diesels is that they run on rather cheap fuel.

Samuel Finley Morse was born in 1791. He died in 1872. He was a portrait painter. Then he became the inventor. For 12 years he tried to perfect the telegraph and he was a success. Later he invented the telegraphic dot-and-dash alphabet. Now it is known as Morse code. Morse code was not only one in America of that time. There were some others. But now we use Morse code all over the world.

Charles Makintosh lived from 1766 to 1843. He lived in Scotland and was a chemist by profession. He worked in a textile industry. In 1823 he developed a rubber solution. This rubber solution was used for raincoat production. Raincoats with this rubber solution didn’t allow water to penetrate. These raincoats were called makintoshes. Now people all over the world use them in spring and in autumn.

Charles Rolls was born in 1881 in Great Britain. He died in 1910. He was an aristocrat and businessman. He was especially interested in cars. Once he met another enthusiast of cars Henry Royce. Henry Royce was a famous car engineer. They decided to design the most comfortable and reliable car. At the beginning of the 20th century it seemed to be a fantasy. But they worked hard and at last in 1907 they created the world-famous Rolls-Royce car. It was so comfortable and reliable that one of the models of Rolls-Royce cars “Silver Ghost” hadn’t changed greatly for 20 years since 1907.

Gotlif Daimler and Charles Benz were two inventors. They lived in Germany. They were both interested in car production. At the end of the 19th century each of them designed a car. At the same time they organized two independent firms to produce them.

All the cars produced by the firm of Daimler were called “Mercedes”. Mercedes was a daughter’s name of one of the stockholders of the firm. This man saved the firm of Daimler from the financial crisis at the beginning of the 20th century. But after the World War I the firm of Daimler met financial difficulties again. This time it had to join the firm of Benz. Since that time all the cars produced by the firm “Daimler-Benz” have been called “Mercedes-Benz”.

I. Find in the following list the names of the inventors who gave their names to the things they created. Put them down in the chart.

E.Rutherford                       C.Makintosh S.Colt                                 S.Morse L.Landau                            W.Thomson R.Diesel                              C.Rolls H.Cavendish                        C.Benz  

	Inventor	Invention	Year of invention	Country
1
2
3
4
5
6

II. Read the text ‘Inventors and Their Inventions'. Find information to complete the chart.

III. Complete the chart.

IV. Find in the text the famous words of Edison proving his idea of a genius. Do you agree with him ?

V. Speak on the invention you consider the most important one. Use the plan below: 1) the invention you consider to be one of the greatest in the world; 2) the name of the person it was designed by; 3) the country this invention was made in; 4) what this thing was made for; 5) how it is used now; 6) how it influenced our life.

CO N V E R S A T I O N