Giải Sách bài tập Tiếng Anh 10 trang 80 Cumulative Review 5: Units I-8

Invented by accident

A. MICROWAVE OVEN

This useful kitchen device was invented by an electronics genius called Percy Spencer. Spencer had been in the Navy, where he had taught himself how to be an engineer. When he left, he got a job at Raytheon, an important company in the arms industry. In 1945, Spencer was experimenting with radar when something strange happened. He noticed that a bar of chocolate in his pocket had melted. Spencer worked out that it was the microwaves from the radar that had heated the chocolate. Spencer continued investigating the effects of microwaves on food and developed the microwave oven. The first machine was sold just a year after Spencer had made his discovery. 

B. VELCRO

Velcro was invented by a Swiss engineer called George de Mestral. In 1948, Mestral was out walking with his dog when he noticed that the dog was covered in small green balls. The balls were the seeds of a plant which was common in the area. Mestral wanted to know what made these balls stick to his dog's fur, so he looked at one of them under his microscope. He saw that it had a lot of tiny hooks. Mestral realised that this technique could be used to make two strips of material stick together. He experimented with a variety of materials for years until the invention of nylon, which was perfect for his idea. The first Velcro was finally produced in 1955. 

C. PLAY-DOH 

The children's toy Play-Doh actually started life as a cleaning product. It was made by an American company called Kutol Products and it was used to clean wallpaper. Sadly, the wallpaper cleaner did not sell very well, so Kutol Products began losing money. That is, until the company realised that its product was being used for a different purpose. Children tad started using it to make Christmas ornaments in the shape of people and animals. Kutol Products adapted their product almost overnight by taking out the cleaning ingredient and adding colours and a nice smell. They also gave it a new name. Play-Doh went on to become one of the best-selling children's toys ever. 

D. SUPERGLUE

In 1942, Dr Harry Coover of Eastman-Kodak Laboratories was trying to find a new material to use for making part of a gun. He was disappointed to see that his latest effort, a substance called cyanoacrylate, was a complete failure because it stuck to everything it touched. Coover threw it away and forgot about it. Six years later, he came across cyanoacrylate once more when his company was developing a new design for part of a plane. Again, the substance stuck to everything in sight. But this time, Coover realised that the substance might be useful, because it didn't need heat to make it stick. Coover carried on experimenting with cyanoacrylate in his lab, and it appeared in DIY stores as superglue sixteen years after he had first used it.

Reach for the sky!

It is incredible what inventors can come up with these days. In the past, people said that it (1) _____ impossible to make a flying motorbike, but a California-based company called Aerofex (2) ______ just that. The Aero X hoverbike runs on normal petrol and it (3) ______ two people to ride up to three metres above the ground at a speed of 70 km/h. The first model (4) ______ back in 2012, but experts (5) _____ the company that it looked very ugly. Since then, the design (6) ______ so that now it looks like something out of the film Star Wars. It has taken so long to produce because this kind of vehicle has always been considered (7) ______ dangerous. You (8) ______ have a pilot's license to use the hoverbike, but all riders will have to do a training course before they buy one. The Aero (9) ____ around $85,000 and can be reserved on the company’s website for $5,000. But if you (10) ______ one, you'll have to be quick, because they are sure to be very popular.