...

T: Well, from these pictures we can see that there lies differences between a discovery and an invention. There are certain rules or questions you should pay attention to while distinguishing them. Did it exist in the past? Is it created or developed by people? An invention is something that is created by a human being, such as the lightning rod. To the contrary, a discovery merely makes known something that already existed in nature, such as the discovery on the New Continent by Columbia. OK. Let's go on with some other questions of this part. You may talk with your partner first before we have a check five minutes later.

Show the following.

What modern inventions do you know? Describe them to your partner and how useful they are in life today.

S1: Adidas 1 is the thinking shoes with a built-in microprocessor that decides how soft or firm the wearer needs the support. It has been chosen by Popular Science magazine as the best recreation invention of 2004. It is very comfortable to wear it all day without worrying about your toes being hurt and you can adjust the height and stiffness according to your demands whenever you want and wherever you go. Thus it is a very practical choice for both the young and the old when having exciting sports outdoors or resting at home during holidays.

S2: Camera phones have opened up a new way to communicate. Because many of them look like regular cell phones, you can snap pictures as discreetly as any spy and, with the push of a few buttons, pop them into an e-mail or upload them to the Web in less than a minute. No wires or computer hookups necessary. To be sure, most camera phones end up taking pictures of friends, family, babies and pets. But they have also been used to snap pictures of VIPs at private parties, copy recipes from cookbooks at bookstores and even document crimes in progress. But with an estimated 80 million camera phones sold in 2003, 6 million in the U.S. alone-the cat may already be out of the camera bag. Like it or not, these camera phones have been very popular and widely used by people even today.

S3: A kind of robot heart called AbioCor was invented in 2001. On July 2, 2001, the 59-year-old grandfather and retired librarian Robert Tools became the first human to get one. It's been long since the operation, and Tools' new heart is still beating. He can walk a city block without stopping and he's even making plans for the future. Though not everybody needs a new heart, hundreds of thousands eventually may. Nor will an artificial heart rid the world of sickness or poverty or terror. But sometimes it really helps.

T: Very good! I am glad to see that all of you have known so many modern inventions both at home and abroad and you have thought a lot about them. It's certain that modern discoveries and inventions do have great effects on people's life and can always represent the advanced science and technology, so you should learn to distinguish them and make good use of them.

Step Ⅱ Talking

T: Suppose you are working for a mobile company. It is your job to suggest new ways