Japan 2020

What do you think the world will be like in the year 2020? In Japan several projects are already on the drawing board.

The Government in Japan has set up twenty-six research cities or 'technopolises' to study new technologies. Scientists and entrepreneurs will live in these cities, and each city will carry out research of a different kind. For example, in Hiroshima they will study ecology, and in Kagoshima they will develop new bioceramics. The Japanese government will spend over $2.5 billion on each city over the next thirty years.

At Marinopolis, in Ohio Prefecture, they are already working on new ways of farming fish. They hope that one day they will be able to train fish to come to the fishermen. They will play underwater music to young fish when they are feeding, and then they will put them into the sea. When the fish are bigger, the fish farmers will sail out to sea and play the music, and the fish will come to the nets.

Private businesses will pay for research and development costs as well. Japan is interested in space and space travel, and Seishi Suzuki, director of the Shimizu Corporation, will build a space hotel. He hopes that his first guests will arrive there in 2015, and he already has a promotional video showing what the hotel will look like. His guests will stay in air-conditioned rooms and will take photos of the Earth from their windows

Lesson 9

The problems of inventors

Grammar : The Complex object

Preliminary exercises

Do exercises from Macmillan English grammar in use.

Exercise 1. Define what the function of object is in the sentences.

1. The students of our group saw a new film yesterday. They said it was very interesting. 2. The dean's assistant told us to do all our work in time. 3. Our laboratory has been equipped with modern devices. 4. The students were informed at the meeting that they would have their practical training in Almaty. 5. We asked the dean if he was busy. 6. The new student asked when our lec­tures would begin. 7. He also asked to show him where the chem­istry laboratory was. 8. He wanted to know whether we had already had our industrial training. 9. I did not know then if I should see him again. 10. We didn't know whether it would be possible to use a computer for our work.

The problems of inventors

Before you start

1. Chose at least 5 most important words to your mind from the box to describe an inventor? Can you add more words?

imagination, money, knowledge in economics, skills, abilities, business(-)like manner, efficiency, (good) breeding, education, talent, good health, mental and physical activity, honesty, ambition …

2. Read the text again and decide if the sentences (1-5) below are

true (T) or false (F):

1. Birdseye Seafood, Inc. was a big success.

2. The inventor of Coca-Cola became rich.

3. Karl Gerhardt didn't realize the potential of aspirin.

4. Edwin Armstrong loved the competition of the business world.

5. It takes more than just a good invention to make money.

The problems of inventors

Many of the modern world's most famous discoveries and inventions were not made by scientists, but by amateur inventors. Often, these inventors had such unusual ideas that they were laughed at. But people like these, working on their own, gave us many of the things we use every day.

Clarence "Bob" Birdseye, who invented frozen foods, was both a successful inventor and a good businessman. But it took him years to overcome the biggest problem of successful inventions -convincing people to try something new and different. Birdseye first tried to freeze fish. After years of experimenting with the process, he started Birdseye. Seafood, Inc. But the company soon went bankrupt. Even though the process worked, people didn't believe that frozen fish could possibly be good. It took a long time, but people finally accepted frozen food. By the end of his life, Birdseye, who was a completely self-taught inventor, had 100 patents that he sold for a total of 22 million dollars.

Few inventors were as successful as Birdseye. Some, like the original owners of Coca-Cola, didn't realize the potential of their discoveries. The son of the inventor of Coca-Cola sold the recipe for $2,300. Today the product is worth billions of dollars. In 1853, Karl Gerhardt invented aspirin, but he didn't know what to do with it. Fifty years after his invention, a German company discovered that it was a painkiller and has since made millions selling it. Edwin Armstrong invented FM radio, but he spent his whole life trying to protect his invention. Competitors stole his patents, and companies cheated him out of money. Finally, he became so frustrated with his failures that he ended his life by jumping out of a window.

Most great inventors, like Gerhardt and Armstrong, made little or nothing from their inventions. The first person with a new idea may get attention, but he also gets the problem of an untried idea. In business, it is sometimes better to be second.