Unit 3. Inventions And Discoveries. Passive Voice

Read and match.

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed one of the first successful electric light bulb.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was a Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who moved to the USA and created the first telephone.

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) was a Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist. His best-known discovery is antibiotic penicillin.

Charles Babbage (1791-1871) was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer. Babbage created the concept of the first mechanical computer – Calculating machine.

In 1842 the Countess Ada Lovelace invented the algorithm for the Calculating machine of Charles Babbage. Later, computer language «Ada» was named after her.

The Wright brothers, Orville (1871-1948) and Wilbur (1867-1912), were two American brothers, inventors, and aviation pioneers who are created the world’s first successful airplane and made the first controlled flight, on December 17, 1903.

Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the Theory of evolution.

Karl Benz (1844-1929) was a German automobile engineer who created the world's first gasoline engine and the car with such an engine in 1885.

Henry Ford (1863-1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company. Although Ford did not invent the automobile, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford.

Marie Salomea Sklodowska-Curie (1867-1934) was a physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields.

Match inventors to their inventions.

Read and complete.

History of the Computer Mouse

Today we can’t imagine our life without computers. Adults and children use different examples of computers, laptops and their new ‘brothers’ -              [tablets, engine, flash drives] . But work of the most personal computers depends on the devices. One of them is a well-known computer mouse.

Computer mouse is a mechanical manipulator, which converts the movements on the surface into the movements of a cursor on a computer           [headhones, screen, PC] . Its name is an acronym for ‘Manually Operated User Signal Encoder’

Computer Mouse was created by American inventor Douglas Engelbart in 1964.

Douglas Engelbart invented not only computer mouse, but also many other devices. He invented sign ‘@’, videoconferencing and teleconferencing on the computer. He has more than 45 patents to his name.

Mr. Engelbart started making drawings of mouse in 1961.

The first computer mouse ‘was born’ in a scientific laboratory at the Research Institute at Stanford University with partial sponsorship by NASA.

The first computer mouse was called ‘Indicator position X and Y’. It was wooden with two metal discs. It also had three buttons the same size.

NASA did not appreciate the invention because it needed gravity, but there is no gravity in space.

However, the           [discovery, engine, invention] was demonstrated at the exhibition in San Francisco December 9, 1968.

Mass production began in 1981, when the button was           [replacing, replaced, replaces] by the wheel.

The first optical mouse was          [created, creates, creating] in 1982 by the company ‘Mouse Systems’.

Read and choose the correct answers.

History of the Computer Mouse

Today we can’t imagine our life without computers. Adults and children use different examples of computers, laptops and their new ‘brothers’ - tablets. But work of the most personal computers depends on the devices. One of them is a well-known computer mouse.

Computer mouse is a mechanical manipulator, which converts the movements on the surface into the movements of a cursor on a computer screen. Its name is an acronym for ‘Manually Operated User Signal Encoder’

Computer Mouse was created by American inventor Douglas Engelbart in 1964.

Douglas Engelbart invented not only computer mouse, but also many other devices. He invented sign ‘@’, videoconferencing and teleconferencing on the computer. He has more than 45 patents to his name.

Mr. Engelbart started making drawings of mouse in 1961.

The first computer mouse ‘was born’ in a scientific laboratory at the Research Institute at Stanford University with partial sponsorship by NASA.

The first computer mouse was called ‘Indicator position X and Y’. It was wooden with two metal discs. It also had three buttons the same size.

NASA did not appreciate the invention because it needed gravity, but there is no gravity in space.

However, the invention was demonstrated at the exhibition in San Francisco December 9, 1968.

Mass production began in 1981, when the button was replaced by the wheel.

The first optical mouse was created in 1982 by the company ‘Mouse Systems’.

True or False?

Douglas Engelbart created the first computer mouse in the USA.       [True, False]

The first computer mouse was made of plastic.       [True, False]The first computer mouse was demonstrated in San Francisco.       [True, False]

The first computer mouse had two metal wheels.       [True, False]

NASA used mouse for a long time.       [True, False]