СОР № 1 Английский язык 10ЕМН класс Breakthrough technologies

Breakthrough technologies

Задание:

Skim the text Top five inventions and discoveries made by accident. In pairs, discuss the following questions.
 Do you agree with the order inventions and discoveries?
 Which invention or discovery is the most important for you?

Top five inventions and discoveries made by accident
1 Penicillin
The laboratory of Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming was extremely untidy. One day in 1928, he came back from holiday and saw that mould had grown on a dish containing bacteria. Howaver this wouldn’t have been significant if Fleming hadn’t noticed one important thing: that no bacteria were growing in the areas covered by mould. In later experiments, Fleming proved that the mould could kill the bacteria that cause human infections. Using this discovery, Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain later developed penicillin for use as a medicine. In 1945, the three scientists shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine.
2 Sticky notes
In 1968 Spencer silver an American research chemist, wanted to invent a strong glue. Instead, he created a weak glue that stuck to objects but could be taken off again. A few years later a colleague of Silver’s, Arthur Fry was singing in church. His bookmarks kept falling out of his songbook and suddenly he remembered Silver’s glue. He successfully tried the glue on his bookmarks and later developed his idea into sticky notes.
3 The microwave oven
While Percy Spencer was working on radar research in 1946, he made an interesting discovery. He was testing a magnetron (a tube which produces microwaves) when he noticed a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. Spencer did some experiment and found out that microwaves can cook food much more quickly than conventional ovens, because the food is cooked from inside, not by warming the air around it. If Spencer hadn’t invented the microwave, modern eating habits might have been very different. Today more than 90% of households in the US have a microwave oven.
4 Safety glass
In 1903 the French scientist EdouardBenedictus broke glass a flask by accident. To his surprise he saw that the glass had broken our best into many small pieces but the pieces had stayed together. He found out that liquid plastic in the flask had evaporated and left a thin film of plastic inside. By chance, in the same week Benedictus read a newspaper article about how many drivers get cut by broken glass in car accidents. He realised that he had made a useful discovery.
5 Cellophane
Swiss chemist Jacques E Brandenburger worked for a textile company. When he saw wine spilt on a restaurant tablecloth, he was inspired to make a tablecloth that wouldn’t stain. He used a waterproof spray but the experiment didn’t work; the tablecloth became too stiff. Brandenburger noticed, however that the thin plastic film came off the cloth easily. Today his discovery, cellophane, is used for wrapping up food.

Решение:

Sample answer: I would change the order as follows penecilin, safety glass, microwave oven, sticky notes and cellophane because sticky notes are not that important. Penecilin is the most important invention to my mind as it can be used in medicine