Inventions

1. English file Pre-
Intermediate
Unit 10C – The Passive

2. • Lead in photos – showing different nationalities (5 mins)
• Vocabulary building – Nationality adjectives (5 mins)
• Discussion questions – things associated with countries (10 mins)
• Pronunciation focus – confused sounds – listening (10 mins)
• Listening – Famous inventions – which thing? (5 mins)
• Listening – Famous inventions – what details? (5 mins)
• Grammar – the passive – highlighting – making sentences (10 mins) 50
• Grammar – the passive – presenting grammar (10 mins)
• Grammar – the passive – exercises – (15 mins) 75
• Famous inventions quiz (10 mins)
• Speaking practice – describing photos (10 mins)
• Speaking practice passives quiz (10 mins)
• Listening practice- women inventors – predicting (5 mins)
• Listening practice- women inventors – checking predictions (5 mins)
• Listening practice- women inventors – comprehension (5 mins)

3. ?

4. •What things is your country famous for?
•Is there anything famous that was
invented in your country? What?
•What inventions couldn’t you live without
in your daily life? (Not Internet or smartphones)
•What things do you think of when you
hear the names of the different
countries?

6. English English
Brazilian Brazilians
Russian Russians
Turkish Turkish / Turks
Argentinian Argentinians
Polish Polish / Poles
Japanese Japanese
Spanish Spanish

9. Guns
Glasses
The hot-air
balloon

10. Stamps
The saxophone
Dynamite
The watch
The mobile phone
Lego
CDs

12. The thirteenth century
Guns
Guns were invented by the Chinese. The first guns were
quite large, like small cannons. The oldest gun that still
exists today was made in about twelve eighty.
Glasses
Glasses were invented by the Italians in about twelve
eighty-six. Sunglasses were invented even earlier, in the
twelfth century.

13. The eighteenth century
The hot-air balloon
The hot-air balloon was invented by two
French brothers, Joseph and Jacques
Montgolfier. The first flight with people was
in seventeen eighty-three, and the balloon flew
three kilometres, over Paris.

14. The nineteenth century
Stamps
Stamps were invented by an English teacher, Rowland
Hill. The first stamp, from eighteen forty, was called
the Penny Black, and it showed the head of the young
Queen Victoria.
The saxophone
The saxophone was invented by a Belgian musician in
eighteen forty-six. His name was Adolphe Sax.
Saxophones were first used mainly in military bands,
but are now used in all kinds of music.

15. Dynamite
Dynamite was invented by a Swedish scientist called Alfred
Nobel. The Nobel Prize is named after him. Since its invention,
it has been used all over the world for demolition, for making
tunnels, cutting canals, and building railways.
The wristwatch
The wrist watch was invented by the Swiss. The first one was
made for a Hungarian countess by Patek Philippe in eighteen
sixty-eight, a company which still makes luxury watches today.

16. The twentieth century
Mobile phone
The mobile phone was invented by the Americans. It
was first produced by the company Motorola. On the
third of April nineteen seventy-three, Martin Cooper,
a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first
mobile telephone call. His phone weighed one point
one kilos.

17. The twentieth century
Lego
Lego was invented by a Danish businessman, Ole Kirk Christiansen.
The name Lego comes from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means
‘play well’. Twenty billion pieces of Lego are produced every year.
CDs
CDs were invented by a Dutch company, Philips. Sony also worked on
CDs, and they were designed to play seventy-four minutes of music
because that was the length of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony the
Sony boss’s favourite piece of music.

19. 2. The first stamp was called the Penny Black.
3. Twenty billion pieces of Lego are produced every year.
4. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax.
5. The Nobel Prize is named after the inventor of dynamite.

20. 1. Yes
2. b
3. a

24. 1. Many of the things we use every day were invented by
women.
2. In the UK most children are educated in state schools.
3. DNA was discovered by Watson and Crick in 1953.
4. This morning I was woken up by the neighbour’s dog.
5. Cricket is played in the summer in the UK.

25. 6. The songs on this album were written last year.
7. Millions of toys are made in China every year.
8. Carols are songs which are sung at Christmas.
9. These birds aren’t usually seen in northern Europe.
10. The London Eye was opened on 31 December 1999…

27. 1. St Paul’s Cathedral was designed by Christopher Wren.
2. This olive oil is produced by a small Italian company.
3. Antarctica was discovered by the Russians in 1820.
4. The Star Wars films weren’t directed by Spielberg.

28. 5. Sunflowers was painted by Van Gogh in 1888.
6. Glass wasn’t invented by the Chinese.
7. The Harry Potter books were written by J.K. Rowling.
8. Skoda cars are made in the Czech Republic.

30. The inventor of the Game Boy, Gunpei Yokoi, was originally Nintendo’s
________. The President of the company walked by and was impressed
by a toy he created out of boredom, leading to an amazing career.
cleaner
A) cleaner
B) receptionist
C) plumber

31. The upside-down ketchup bottle earned
its inventor Paul Brown $___ million.
13
A) 3
B) 13
C) 23

32. Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the chocolate chip
cookie sold the idea to Nestle Toll House in return
for ______________________.
free chocolate for life.
A) free chocolate
for life
B) $2 million
C) An expensive
car

33. Thomas Jefferson invented the ______________ and used
the first one while writing the Declaration of Independence.
swivel chair
A) ball point
pen
B) notebook
with tear out
pages
C) swivel chair

34. Whoopee cushion was invented by a ___-year old
Roman Emperor, who used it frequently on guests.
14
A) 14
B) 18
C) 21

35. The inventors of Bubble Wrap, Alfred Fielding and
Marc Chavannes, were originally trying to make
__________________, which was a failure.
3D wallpaper
A) 3D wall
paper
B)comfy
carpet
C) disposable
cushions

39. The six inventions are:
• the dishwasher,
• disposable nappies,
• windscreen wipers,
• the life raft,
• solar heating,
• and CCTV.

41. 1. They were inventors.
Nappies were made of cotton.
In 1951, an American company bought her invention.
2. Her servants often broke plates and glasses when they were
washing up.
The first customers were hotels and restaurants.
3. She got the idea in 1903 on a trip to New York.
They had to open their windows to see where they were going.

42. 4. She was a nurse.
She lived in a dangerous neighbourhood.
Her husband helped her with her invention.
You could push a button to contact a security company.
5. They were used on the Titanic. Nearly 200 survivors had used her invention.
6. She was Hungarian-American. Her nickname was ‘the Sun
Queen’.
In 1948 she designed the first house to be heated by the sun.

46. b,a
b,b,a
c,b
c,c
c,a