Have you ever thought about inventing something? Did you worry that your idea was too strange or unrealistic? Well, maybe you should think again. [*] Strange or unrealistic ideas never stopped Arthur Pedrick. Pedrick was a British inventor. Originally a government clerk, he spent his retirement in the 1960s and 1970s developing new and unusual ideas. Some of these ideas contradicted basic physics, but that didn’t stop Pedrick. One of his strangest ideas was a plan to connect huge tubes from the continent of Australia all they way to Antarctica, a distance of 10, 000 Km! These tubes would carry giant ice balls from Antarctica to Australia. This ice would then melt in the Australian desert, and the water would be used in irrigation. Another of Pedrick’s inventions was a radio-controlled golf ball. A golfer could change the speed and direction of the golf ball by small flaps, controlled by computer chips. Using radio waves, the golfer could also find lost golf balls. Arthur Pedrick had thousands of bizarre ideas for inventions, most of which were never built. Though many of Pedrick’s inventions were never developed, a lot of other strange ideas were. In 1989, a company designed and sold a theft-prevention device for expensive cars. As part of this device, several tubes were attached to the bottom of a car. If someone tried to steal the car, super hot flames would come out of the tubes and burn the car thief. Some people who were not thieves, however, were seriously injured, when they accidentally set off the device by walking past the car. Other strange inventions include underwear for dogs and pens with drinkable ink. The underwear keeps dogs from making a mess when they go out for a walk. Also, if you are ever thirsty during a test, a pen with drinkable ink would be very handy! If you have an idea that seems a little out in left field, don’t let that stop you from trying it. You’ 11 be in good company. Summary: Most inventions are for useful things that help people in everyday life. Some inventions, however, are just weird ideas that run counter to【41】______. Some of the world’s weirdest ideas for inventions came from a man named Arthur Pedrick. Pedrick’s inventions included【42】______ that carried ice from Antarctica to Australia and radio wave-controlled【43】______. Not all weird inventions came from Pedrick, however. Every year many people design products that could be considered unusual. Things like【44】______made for dogs and pens【45】______ are good examples.

Robots are useful in exploring space because they can work in the conditions which exist in space. Such robots usually look like boxes with wheels. Though these robots are useful, however, they are extremely expensive—they break easily and they cannot do very many tasks. Because of these problems, scientists have been working on a new and unusual kind of robot. These new robots will look and move like snakes, so they have been given the name ‘snakebots’. [*] The way a snake is shaped allows it to do special things, such as getting into very small spaces, like cracks in rocks. Snakes can also push themselves underground, and climb up different kinds of objects, like rocks and trees. Such abilities account for the usefulness of robots designed like snakes, because they will be able to do these things, too. Such robots would be much more effective than regular robots with wheels. Wheeled robots easily get stuck and fall over, but snakebots would not have these problems. They could go almost anywhere and so would be useful for exploring the different environments of other planets. Since they can carry tools, snakebots would be able to work in space, as well. They could, for example, help repair the International Space Station. How do you make a robot shaped like a snake? A snakebot is put together like a chain, made of about thirty parts, or modules. Each module is basically the same—they all contain a computer and a wheel to aid movement. The computer in the ’ head’ of the snake makes the modules work together. If one module fails, another can easily take its place. Snakebot modules can also carry different kinds of tools, as well as cameras. Since each module is actually a robot in itself, each module can work apart from the rest if necessary. The snakebot design is much simpler than that of most common robots. Thus, snakebots will be much less expensive to build. One of the robots sent to Mars cost over a hundred million dollars to build. However, snakebots cost as little as a few hundred dollars to make and could therefore save enormous amounts of money on future space missions. With their versatility and affordability, snakebots will be the way of the future; at least as far as space robots are concerned. Summary: It is much easier to send robots, rather than people, into space, but scientists have found that robots with wheels are not the most【46】______ones. This is because there are many problems associated with today’s robots: they are very expensive, they【47】______and cannot do many tasks. In fact, for exploring places with lots of obstacles to go over or under,【48】______work better than wheeled robots. They are made of separate parts, or【49】______, each of which is actually a robot in itself. Snakebots can go almost anywhere and do many different kinds of tasks. It looks as though robots shaped like snakes will be the way of the future owing to their【50】______.

The Wai Wai are a tribe of about 250 people who live in the Amazon jungle. This tribe has had little contact with the modern world. In fact, their nearest neighbour, another tribe of native people , live so far away that it takes three weeks to walk from one village to the other. [*] One of the few Western people who have visited the Wai Wai is Colonel John Blashford-Snell of the Scientific Exploration Society. In March 2002, he spent two months visiting the tribe and giving them medical help. On the last day of his visit, the village priest approached Colonel Blashford-Snell to ask him a favour. As the colonel explained, ’ He wanted a grand piano to put in the village church. I said, “ Do you have any idea what a grand piano looks like?“ He said he had seen pictures of one in a book. I told him that I didn’t think he’d ever be able to play a piano, and he replied, “ No, no, we are musical people. “ Then he said, “ God moves in mysterious ways. “ And so I took up the challenge. Back in England, Colonel Blashford-Snell was offered a 360 kilogram grand piano as a gift from the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London. Next, he needed to find a way to get the piano to the village deep in the Amazon jungle. First, Colonel Blashford-Snell and his team flew the piano as far into the jungle as they could by helicopter, but getting the piano from there to the village was no easy feat. With the help of a few people from the tribe, they put the piano on a sledge and pulled it several miles through the jungle to a river using ropes. Then they loaded the piano into two dugout canoes and started up the river. Finally, they arrived at the base of the mountain where the village is situated, and with the help of more tribe members, they were able to carry the piano to the top of the mountain, and thus the piano arrived at its new home in the Amazon rain forest! Six months later, Colonel Blashford-Snell went to visit the tribe, and took two piano tuners with him because he knew the heat and dampness in the jungle would have a bad effect on the pian-o. After clearing out the insects nesting inside the piano and making extensive repairs, the Wai Wai, in cooperation with the piano tuners, recorded a CD to raise money for the tribe. The CD included a variety of hymns sung by the Wai Wai, a West Side Story medley, and the Beatles classic ’ With a Little Help from My Friends’. Summary: When Colonel Blashford-Snell was visiting the Wai Wai people in the Amazon, one of the tribes people approached him and asked him to do the tribe a【R1】______. They wanted a grand piano. The colonel agreed to help them, and was given a piano when he got back to London. Using a helicopter, a【R2】______and two dugout canoes, he transported the piano to the tribe’s village. Six months later, the colonel returned to the Amazon with【R3】______. After clearing out the insects that were【R4】______in the piano and making extensive repairs, the tuners helped the Wai Wai tribe record a CD. The Wai Wai hopes this CD, which includes a Beatles song and a medley from a musical, will help their tribe【R5】______.