Your techno world

Technology makes our everyday lives easy. Mobile phones, computers and cars are modern inventions but some inventions are thousands of years old.

Did your alarm clock wake you up this morning? Levi Hutchins invented the first alarm clock in the USA in 1787. Did you brush your teeth? The Chinese developed toothbrushes at the end of the fifteenth century. What about make up 6, 000 years ago!

Did you have a bowl of cereal this morning? Did you read the TV pages in the newspaper? People didn’t watch TV three hundred years ago but the Americans published the first daily newspaper in 1690 and John Harvey Kellogg sold the first box of cornflakes in the USA in 1897.Think about the battery in your mobile phone. The Persians didn’t have mobiles but they made the first battery 2, 000years ago.

What about your journey to school? Did you ride a bicycle? A German built the first bicycle in 1817. And finally, you probably like chewing gum. Well, the ancient Greeks chewed gum, too – about 2, 000 years ago!

Exercise 4. Build dialogue in pairs using information from the text. Follow the model:

Model: Who invented the alarm clock?

Levi Hutchins invented the alarm clock.

· the toothbrush

· make up

· the daily newspaper

· breakfast cereal

· the battery

· the bicycle

· chewing gum

Exercise 5. Read the article again and put invention in order:

Past Present

1816 1897

bicycle breakfast cereal

Exercise 6. Translate into English:

1. Люди не дивилися телебачення 300 років тобі.

2. Перша батарея була придумана персами близько 2 тисяч років тому.

3. Леві Хатчінс винайшов будильник в 1787.

4. Древні єгиптяни використовували макіяж ще 6 тисяч років тому.

5. Коли була надрукована перша щоденна газета?

6. Китайці винайшли зубну щітку ще в кінці 15 століття.

7. Ти любиш жувальну гумку? А відомо тобі, що вона вже існує понад 2 тисячі років,

8. Перший велосипед винайшли німці в 1817 році.

*Exercise 7. In groups discuss the article, answering the following:

1. Which facts did you know?

2. Which facts did you find surprising/ interesting? Why?

3. What inventions make your life easy?

4. What is the most important invention of mankind?

*Exercise 10. Read and translate the text:

IPad

Have you heard of the iPad? It’s the latest gadget from Apple. What can it do? And is it as good as they say it is?