Text D. Edison

 

1.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.

2.It is no use asking us a big price,” said one of the businessmen, “we have already decided how much we will pay. Forty thousand dollars is our limit.”

With this money Edison established a workshop and began his career as a professional inventor at the age of twenty-two.

3. Edison did not have any education. He went to school only for three months. Then he left it because the teacher considered him a dull boy. His mother became his teacher. The boy loved books and his mother said that he had a wonderful memory. When he first visited a public library and saw a lot of shelves with books he decided that he would read all the books and then he would know everything in the world. He measured the shelf and decided to read a foot of books every week.

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

It is told that he planned to ask three thousand dollars for his invention, though he secretly decided he would sell it for two thousand if necessary. He was invited to a meeting of businessmen who were interested in buying his invention, but when he was asked to name the price he was very nervous and quite unable to speak.

5.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.

 

B. Say what you have learnt about:

the way Edison studied;

Edison’s attitude towards work

C. Discuss: What was Edison’s idea of a genius?

Do you agree with Edison’s opinion?

Why “yes”? Why “no”? Use the table” Agreements, disagreements” given below.

Agreements:	Disagreements:
I (quite) agree	I can’t accept
I think so too	I don’t agree
I agree to a point/in a way	I disagree (there)
Exactly	I’m afraid I can’t agree
Quite so	Not at all
I couldn’t agree more	Nothing of the kind
That’s just what I think	I wouldn’t say that

 

Exercise 2. Agree or disagree with the following statements. Give your arguments. Use conversational formulas from the table “Agreements. Disagreements”.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Man’s unique resource is his ability to think and create.

War may be a stimulus to invention.

The wheel is the basis of so many modern machines that it has been rated the most important invention ever made.

A nation that encourages change is more inventive than one that has high respect for the tested and tried ways of the ancestors

 

Exercise 3. Study the table “Inventions”.

Add some facts about Russian inventors.

Choose one invention and make a short report. Present information on:

the name of the person it was designed by;

the country this invention was made in;

what this thing was made for;

how it is used now;

how it influenced our life;

how it may be developed further

Hold a mini-conference “Inventors and their Inventions”.