Playful Inventions Linguahouse [PDF]

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Play and great inventions Lesson code: VGTR-A6KF-XX3M

ADVANCED

1 Warm-up Do you like discovering or creating things? Why/why not?

2 Key vocabulary Study the sentences below and match the underlined words to their definitions. 1. He thought the invention was frivolous. It was of no use to anyone. 2. The man could craft amazing sculptures from very small pieces of wood. 3. The idea was preposterous. They would never be able to make it work. 4. Some people find that going for a walk helps trigger creative thoughts. 5. The inventors of the product are going to modify it so it will work better. 6. The inventor wanted to encode the device so that it would be more secure. 7. The rocket's trajectory was clearly visible in the sky. 8. There was no one in the vicinity. It was completely deserted. a. cause (something) to start b. change (something) to improve it c. make (objects) by hand with skill d. the area directly around a place e. the curved path that an object takes after it has been thrown or launched f. turn information into code g. unreasonable or ridiculous h. without any real purpose

3 Before you watch

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You are going to watch writer Steven Johnson talk about how some of the world's most important inventions are linked to play. Decide if each of the statements on the next page are `T' (True) or `F' (False), and then watch the first part of the talk to confirm or correct your answers according to the speaker. There is a glossary on page three that contains some of the more unusual vocabulary from the talk.

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1. Early flutes were made from animal bones. 2. The invention of the computer is solely the result of military technology. 3. The invention of the typewriter is linked to a musical instrument. 4. Music boxes have existed for over a thousand years. 5. Early robots could play musical instruments. 6. Paper was the original material used to provide the code that made programmable machines work.

4 Adverbs Choose the correct adverb from the talk to replace the words in bold from the sentences below. eventually

exclusively

roughly

specifically

surprisingly

1. They thought there were approximately 2000 people at the conference, but they weren't sure exactly. 2. The man took the long route purposely to avoid the traffic. 3. The restaurant had an area that was only for members, where the service was much faster. 4. In the end the couple moved to Australia, as they had always wanted to live near the ocean. 5. It is unexpectedly common for people not to have breakfast. Many people don't find the time for it.

5 Find the words Find a word or phrase in the transcript which means... 1. died (idiom, section 0:15): 2. spread over (phrase, section 0:15): 3. developed from something that existed in the past (phrasal verb, section 1:50): 4. the concept that was the reason for the creation of something (phrase, section 1:50): 5. thought of a plan unexpectedly (phrase, section 1:50): 6. a big development in something which happens quickly (phrase, section 3:34): 7. at the point where a situation or historical time is most full of activity (phrase, section 2:54): 8. group of people with a lot of money and influence in a society (noun, section 3:56):

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9. stiff paper with holes in which represent information (noun, section 4:59):

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6 Collocations Match the verbs on the left to the words on the right to make collocations from the text. 1. crack

a. alive

2. press

b. cloth

3. stay

c. codes

4. weave

d. innovation

5. encourage

e. levers

7 Talking Point Now watch the last part of the talk (from 5:36) and discuss any of the questions below. 1. Do you agree that `necessity isn't always the mother of invention'? Why/why not? 2. Are you surprised at what the speaker says about the origins of the computer? Why/why not? 3. What have you created or discovered because you were playing?

GLOSSARY This glossary contains words that you may be interested to know but are not used in everyday speech.

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a mammoth = an animal similar to an elephant covered in hair that is now extinct a griffon vulture = a large vulture that is found in Europe, Asia and Africa a clavichord = an early keyboard a harpsichord = a musical instrument similar to a piano that was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries garments = pieces of clothing a loom = a piece of equipment for making cloth

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3- Before you watch

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0:15 Roughly 43,000 years ago, a young cave bear died in the rolling hills on the northwest border of modern day Slovenia. A thousand years later, a mammoth died in southern Germany. A few centuries after that, a griffon vulture also died in the same vicinity. And we know almost nothing about how these animals met their deaths, but these different creatures dispersed across both time and space did share one remarkable fate. After their deaths, a bone from each of their skeletons was crafted by human hands into a flute. 0:53 Think about that for a second. Imagine you're a caveman, 40,000 years ago. You've mastered fire. You've built simple tools for hunting. You've learned how to craft garments from animal skins to keep yourself warm in the winter. What would you choose to invent next? It seems preposterous that you would invent the flute, a tool that created useless vibrations in air molecules. But that is exactly what our ancestors did. 1:20 Now this turns out to be surprisingly common in the history of innovation. Sometimes people invent things because they want to stay alive or feed their children or conquer the village next door. But just as often, new ideas come into the world simply because they're fun. And here's the really strange thing: many of those playful but seemingly frivolous inventions ended up sparking momentous transformations in science, in politics and society. 1:50 Take what may be the most important invention of modern times: programmable computers. Now, the standard story is that computers descend from military technology, since many of the early computers were designed specifically to crack wartime codes or calculate rocket trajectories. But in fact, the origins of the modern computer are much more playful, even musical, than you might imagine. The idea behind the flute, of just pushing air through tubes to make a sound, was eventually modified to create the first organ more than 2,000 years ago. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of triggering sounds by pressing small levers with our fingers, inventing the first musical keyboard. Now, keyboards evolved from organs to clavichords to harpsichords to the piano, until the middle of the 19th century, when a bunch of inventors finally hit on the idea of using a keyboard to trigger not sounds but letters. In fact, the very first typewriter was originally called "the writing harpsichord." 2:54 Flutes and music led to even more powerful breakthroughs. About a thousand years ago, at the height of the Islamic Renaissance, three brothers in Baghdad designed a device that was an automated organ. They called it "the instrument that plays itself." Now, the instrument was basically a giant music box. The organ could be trained to play various songs by using instructions encoded by placing pins on a rotating cylinder. And if you wanted the machine to play a different song, you just swapped a new cylinder in with a different code on it. This instrument was the first of its kind. It was programmable. 3:34 Now, conceptually, this was a massive leap forward. The whole idea of hardware and software becomes thinkable for the first time with this invention. And that incredibly powerful concept didn't come to us as an instrument of war or of conquest, or necessity at all. It came from the strange delight of watching a machine play music. 3:56 In fact, the idea of programmable machines was exclusively kept alive by music for about 700 years. In the 1700s, music-making machines became the playthings of the Parisian elite. Showmen used the same coded cylinders to control the physical movements of what were called automata, an early kind of robot. One of the most famous of those robots was, you guessed it, an automated flute player designed by a brilliant French inventor named Jacques de Vaucanson. 4:29 And as de Vaucanson was designing his robot musician, he had another idea. If you could program a machine to make pleasing sounds, why not program it to weave delightful patterns of color out of cloth? Instead of using the pins of the cylinder to represent musical notes, they would represent threads with different colors. If you wanted a new pattern for your fabric, you just programmed a new cylinder. This was the first programmable loom.

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4:59 Now, the cylinders were too expensive and time-consuming to make, but a half century later, another French inventor named Jacquard hit upon the brilliant idea of using paper-punched cards instead of metal cylinders. Paper turned out to be much cheaper and more flexible as a way of programming the device. That punch card system inspired Victorian inventor Charles Babbage to create his analytical engine, the first true programmable computer ever designed. And punch cards were used by computer programmers as late as the 1970s. 5:36 So ask yourself this question: what really made the modern computer possible? Yes, the military involvement is an important part of the story, but inventing a computer also required other building blocks: music boxes, toy robot flute players, harpsichord keyboards, colorful patterns woven into fabric, and that's just a small part of the story. There's a long list of world-changing ideas and technologies that came out of play: public museums, rubber, probability theory, the insurance business and many more. 6:10 Necessity isn't always the mother of invention. The playful state of mind is fundamentally exploratory, seeking out new possibilities in the world around us. And that seeking is why so many experiences that started with simple delight and amusement eventually led us to profound breakthroughs. 6:32 Now, I think this has implications for how we teach kids in school and how we encourage innovation in our workspaces, but thinking about play and delight in this way also helps us detect what's coming next. Think about it: if you were sitting there in 1750 trying to figure out the big changes coming to society in the 19th, the 20th centuries, automated machines, computers, artificial intelligence, a programmable flute entertaining the Parisian elite would have been as powerful a clue as anything else at the time. It seemed like an amusement at best, not useful in any serious way, but it turned out to be the beginning of a tech revolution that would change the world. 7:17 You'll find the future wherever people are having the most fun.

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Play and great inventions - Key A

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1- Warm-up Encourage a short discussion. 2- Key vocabulary

1. h

2. c

3. g

4. a

5. b

6. f

7. e

8. d

3- Before you watch Before they do the activity, draw students attention to the glossary on page three for vocabulary that may be of interest to them, but is not necessary for them to learn. Play the video until 5:35 after students have done the activity.

1. 2. 3. 4.

T F - The computer's history is complex, it has both military and musical origins. T - The first typewriter was called the `writing harpsichord'. T - Three brothers in Baghdad designed an 'automated organ', which was basically a giant music box. 5. T - `Automata' - early robots, could play the flute. 6. F - Metal cylinders were used first, paper came later which was cheaper and more flexible. 4- Adverbs Students can work alone and then check in pairs for this exercise.

1. roughly

2. specifically

3. exclusively

4. eventually

5. surprisingly

5- Find the words Students can work in pairs and then check with the teacher.

1. met their deaths 3. descend from 5. hit on the idea 7. at the height of 9. punched card

2. dispersed across 4. the idea behind 6. a massive leap forward 8. elite

6- Collocations

1. c

2. e

3. a

4. b

5. d

7- Talking Point Play the talk from 5:36. Monitor students conversations. Make a note of any typical errors and write up any useful language on the board.

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Review your flashcards at least 3-5 times a week for 20 minutes to keep the material fresh in your memory.

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If students aren't sure what the phrase in question one means, explain that the original phrase was thought to have been written by Plato as "necessity is always the mother of invention." This means that we invent things because we need to, usually to solve a problem.

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