Past, Present and Future Inventions- Vocabulary and Speaking

3D movies

Air conditioning

Answering machine

Anti-virus software

Automatic pencil

(= Mechanical pencil)

Ball bearing

Ballpoint (pen) (= A biro)

Bar code

Blutack

Breathalyser

Bulletproof vest

Chain saw

Clocking in machine

Cloud seeding

Correcting fluid (=Tippex)

Date stamp

Dishwasher

DVD

Electric drill

Electric kettle

Electric pencil sharpener

Elevator

Email

Erasable pen

Eraser

Escalator

Freezer

Fridge (= Refrigerator)

Glue stick (= Pritt Stick)

GM food

GPS

Hard hat

Heart transplant

Highlighter pen

Hole punch

Hoover (= Vacuum cleaner)

Hybrid car

Industrial robot

Infrared night vision

Instant messaging

Internet

Jet foil

Jet ski

Keyhole surgery

Laptop (computer)

Laser eye surgery

Low energy light bulbs

Machine gun

Massage chair

Microscope

Microwave (oven)

Mouse

MP3 player

MRI scan

Nuclear power station

Nut and bolt

Pacemaker

Padlock

Paperclip

Photocopier

Pill battery

Pneumatic tyre

Pocket calculator

Post Its

Rechargeable battery

Reinforced concrete

Rubber band

Rubber gloves

Satellite

Scanner

Sellotape (= Scotch tape = Sticky tape)

Sewing machine

Shotgun

Shredder

Smoke detector/ Smoke alarm

Solar panel

Soldering iron

Stapler

Superglue

Tank

Taser (= Stun gun)

Thumbtack (= Drawing pin)

Tumble drier

TV remote control

Tweezers

USB flash drive (= USB = USB stick)

UV light

Vending machine

Video conferencing

Video game console

Welding torch

X ray

You think that you can invent one of the things on the list but the head of the funding committee (your partner) thinks it isn’t likely that your research will be successful. Try to persuade them to give you as much money as you can get.

You are both futurologists. One of you thinks that one of the things on the list will be invented (fairly) soon and the other thinks it will be invented far into the future if ever. Discuss until one of you run out of arguments or you reach a compromise position.

Imagine you have invented one of the things in the list but your boss won’t accept that that is a good idea. Roleplay trying to persuade him or her that it will be popular and profitable, and try to get as many people as you can on your team to develop it.

You are the government committee which must decide on the restrictions of use on one of the inventions. Decide what the restrictions should be, one of you arguing that there should be tighter restrictions and the other that there should be fewer or no restrictions.

You are the committee to award the Nobel Prize for Engineering and three of the things in the list are on the shortlist. Decide together which invention should be given the prize.

Pretend one of you is an inventor who has just retired and the other is an interviewer from a newspaper or engineering magazine. Roleplay an interview about the history of your invention.

Roleplay trying to sell one of the things on the list to someone who has never heard of it (because it is a new invention at the time you are speaking). Try to persuade them that it is worth trying.

Roleplay a phone conversation from someone who bought one of the products for the first time at your suggestion but isn’t happy with their purchase. Try to persuade them to keep using it.

You both claim to have invented one of the things in the list. Argue about how you developed what you did before your partner and so you should be credited with the invention.

It is twenty years after the invention of one of the things on the list. Argue about whether it was overall a good thing that it was invented or not, using your imagination about what the consequences were. You think it was a good idea and your partner disagrees.

One of you thinks that an invention above will have a huge impact, whereas the other thinks normal life won’t change much. Argue until you come to a compromise or one of you gives up.

(Wooden) barrel

Abacus

Airship

Barrel organ/ Player piano

Battering ram

Bellows

Bone tools

Bow and arrow

Bronze weapons

Candle

Cannon

Car phone

Carbon paper

Carpet sweeper

Clockwork toys

Horse-drawn carriage

Chimney

Magnetic compass

Crossbow

Dot matrix printer

Dumb waiter

Fax

Filofax

Flint tools

Floppy disk

Fountain pen

Gas lamp

Gunpowder

Harpsichord

Horse-drawn omnibus

Hovercraft

Iron weapons

Laser disk

Lava lamp

Mercury thermometer

Minidisc

Monocle

Moveable type

Movie film

Musket

Overhead projector (= OHP)

Papyrus

Parchment scroll

Pendulum clock

Pocket watch

PDA

Personal stereo

(= Walkman)

Pager (= Beeper)

Quill and ink

Radio cassette player

Record player

Reel to reel tape recorder

Rolodex

Slide rule

Space shuttle

Spear

Steam engine

Steam ship/ Paddle steamer

Sundial

The telegraph

Twin tub washing machine

Video cassette recorder

Windmill

Woodblock printing

(Film) camera

(Solid) wooden wheel

A medical cure for criminality

Androids/ Robots which are indistinguishable from people

Bionic limbs

Breeding of extinct animals such as dinosaurs

Chips in our brains

Warp speed (= Faster than light travel)

Cryonic suspension

Driverless taxis

Gravitational shielding (= Anti-gravity)

Flying cars

Human cloning

Growing of human organs

Human teleportation

A beam which can immobilise objects and people

Choosing your dreams from a menu

Ordinary clothes which are bullet proof

Satellite hotels

Invisibility/ Personal cloaking devices

Lightsabres

Limitless cheap electrical energy, e.g. from fusion reactors

Laser guns with the possibility of stun settings

Medicines which improve our intelligence

Personal force field shields

Time machines/ Time travel

Reading people’s minds

Virtual reality that is indistinguishable from real life

Replicators (= Machines that can scan and copy anything)

Reprogramming people’s minds

Robotic exoskeletons (= External artificial skeletons that makes you stronger)

Robots with feelings

Selecting characteristics of your future child from a menu

Self-replicating machines

Uploading our minds (personalities, memories, etc) into supercomputers