1 Look at the sentences about gadgets that we use every day. Read the text and decide if each sentence is correct. If it is correct, write A. If it is incorrect,
write B.
1 The first microwave oven was small and easy to use.
2 Everyone wanted to buy the first microwave oven.
3. Calculators that we can put in our hand were invented in 1967.
4 A kind of calculator was invented more than 4,000 years ago.
5 The first battery was smaller than a washing machine.
10
BRAM
Build it, use it!
We've got many things in our homes that we have used all our lives. But do you
know how they were invented? Or when they were first built? Here are three items
that almost all of us use every day.
We all know what a microwave oven does, but do you know how it was invented? In
1946, a man named Dr Percy Spencer was doing some tests. He noticed something
unusual – a piece of chocolate in his pocket was cooked. How did this happen? He
did some more tests and discovered a way to cook food with microwaves'. Then he
built his first oven, which was quite big and difficult to use. No-one wanted it at first,
but smaller ones were soon built.
Calculators as we know them today were invented in 1967. That was when the first
calculator that you could hold in your hand was made. Before that they were as big
as a small room! But a kind of calculator has been around for more than 4,000 years.
It's called an abacus and it was used in China, Egypt and many other parts of the
world. It was made from wood and of course it was very different from the calculators
we use today.
These days, we use batteries for many different things – for example radios, clocks
and phones. But when was the first battery made? In 1800, a man named
Alessandro Volta discovered a way to keep electricity in a safe place and use it later.
This became the first true battery. Like the microwave and the calculator, it was very
large. It wouldn't even fit inside a washing machine! But over time, the battery
became smaller and now it can fit inside an MP3 player.