Unit 2 – Innovation and Inventions

I. Speaking

Dialog 1 The Beer Thingamajig

A. Situation
1. What inspires you?
2. Share your ideas with the class.

PFC Oxburger and PFC Winger are having a football game party…
Oxburger: The fridge is loaded with slammin’
brewskis and we are ready to enjoy some
frothy cold ones in front of the game!
Winger: Nice beer hat, Ox. How’d you think of it?
Oxburger: I was sitting around wishing I wouldn’t run
out of beer so fast and needed a way to keep my hands free. Suddenly,
inspiration hit. I just attached some straps onto each side of this helmet, a
doodad for the double straw action, and voila! Double Duty Drinking Device!
Winger: I’m impressed Ox, I wish I had a hat like that.
Oxburger: Never fear, my friend. I made a hat for you, too. It’s a giant beer mug!
Winger: Hey, this hat makes me look like a total cretin! I want one like yours.
[“Your beer is running dangerously low!”]
Winger: What the… Who the heck was that?!
Oxburger: Oh, I made a talking beer mug with sensors and voice recordings. Check it
out when you chug the rest of the beer.
[“Danger! Danger! Your beer is empty! Refill immediately!”]
Winger: You’re a real nutjob, Oxburger. Get me some beer so this thing will shut up.
Oxburger: No need to get up from the couch. Watch this… just a click of my remote
and… (ka-piiiing!!!) (crash!) Oops! I need to adjust the aim of that… sorry.
Winger: Oww! That beer can just hit me in the head. Who threw it at me?
Oxburger: Oh, that’s my latest contraption, The Beer Thingamajig.
Winger: Wish I had one of your helmets. What the hell is that thingamabob?
Oxburger: It’s a Thingamajig. I rigged up a little elevator thingy in my mini-fridge, which
brings up a can of beer and loads it onto a catapult, which then
automatically launches it across the room—still needs a little adjusting.
Winger: That explains all the dents in the wall. When it comes to beer, Ox, you really
are something. If only you could apply your genius to your job.
B. Words and Expressions
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Words
brewski frothy doodad cretin
sensor chug nutjob thingamajig
thingamabob rig up thingy catapult
Expressions
Suddenly, inspiration hit. Never fear, my friend.
This hat makes me look like a total cretin! Chug the rest of the beer.
That’s my latest contraption. I rigged up a little elevator thingy.
You really are something.
If only you could apply your genius to your job.

Word Smart! – If we don’t know or can’t remember the

name of something, especially a technological piece, we
use words such as doodad, doohickey, thingy,
C. Activities thingamabob, thingamajig, etc. Some unnamable things
are called devices, gizmos, gadgets, or widgets.
Fluency Extension
Activity 1
1. Answer the following questions about the dialog with a partner.

1. What are Oxburger and Winger doing?

2. Why did Oxburger make his hat?

3. Explain how his hat works.

4. What kind of hat did he give to Winger? How does he like it?

5. Who or what does Winger hear talking about his beer?

6. How does that beer mug work?

7. What hit Winger in the head?

8. What is the Beer Thingamajig?

9. How does it work?

10. Oxburger is a genius when it comes to beer. Which is your favorite of Oxburger’s
beer devices?

2. Share your answers with the class.

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Conversation Practice
Activity 2
1. Decide what the following devices are called and what they do. Work with a partner.

1. 2. 3. 4.

A: What the heck is that doohickey/doodad/thingamabob?

B: I call it the __________.

A: I’ve never seen anything like it. What does it do?

B: First, it __________. And it also __________.

A: How does it work?

B: Well, it’s got this __________ which __________. And then it __________.

2. Share your answers with the class.

Communication Skill Building

Activity 3
1. Look at the following group of pictures. Are there any improvements or devices you could
create to enhance their usage? Can you combine any of them to create a new device?

2. Work with a partner to create a name

and use for your new device.

3. Share your answers with the class.

Dialog 2 The Wacky Widget

A. Situation

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1. What do you think is the best invention ever?

2. Share your ideas with the class.

Jon and Josh need to review some new products for their client…
Josh: Hi, Jon. Are you ready for the meeting?
Jon: Hi, Josh. I’ve got my thinking cap on. I am good to go.
Josh: Okay… we need to review these product ideas for the
Kawakami line. Did you bring the portfolio in addition to
your thinking cap?
Jon: Sure did. I’ll tell you, there sure are some wacky
widgets in here. You won’t believe what some of them
are. I also came up with a sales pitch for some of them as well. But it wasn’t easy.
Josh: Okay, shoot ‘em at me.
Jon: Here goes Wacky Widget One. Don’t you hate wearing glasses in the rain? Well,
with the Umbrella Glasses, you won’t have that worry anymore. After pushing these
little levers on the sides, little umbrellas pop up!
Josh: Ha-ha. That’s a cute doodad—umbrellas for glasses. I don’t think that’ll ever sell,
though. You’d look like a complete wacko wearing those.
Jon: See if you can guess what this dojigger is.
Josh: Hmm… Looks like a fork with some kind of electronic whatchamacallit on it. Does it
cool your fork while you eat hot food?
Jon: Close, but no cigar! It’s a Rotating Spaghetti Fork! By pushing this button here, it’ll
start rotating to twirl your troublesome spaghetti noodles around your fork! No
muss, no fuss. Not a bad idea, eh?
Josh: I can just imagine it in the classiest of restaurants. I think my idea was better.
Jon: Actually, I like your idea, too. Maybe you can develop one on your own. Get a
patent and you’ll be a rich man.
Josh: Jon! Get real! That idea is as about as useful as a solar-powered flashlight!
Jon: Yeah, well, um… Next on the list are these slippers. Suppose you saw a bug on the
floor. Let’s consider how to solve this problem. Oh, look! You’ve got extendable
handles on the backs of your slippers! Smack! No more bugs. It’s great!
Josh: Jon! Those are just for girly-men. These are the worst products ever!
Jon: I don’t know… I kinda like them even if they are a little way-out.
B. Words and Expressions
Words
thinking cap widget sales pitch lever

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doodad wacko dojigger whatchamacallit

rotate twirl troublesome patent
solar power extendable way-out
Expressions
I’ve got my thinking cap on. You won’t believe what some of them are.
I came up with a sales pitch for them. Shoot ‘em at me.
Don’t you hate wearing glasses in the rain? See if you can guess what this dojigger is.
Some kind of electronic whatchamacallit. Not a bad idea, huh?
By pushing this button here, it’ll start rotating. Suppose you saw a bug on the floor.
Let’s consider how to solve this problem.

C. Activities
Fluency Extension
Activity 1
1. Answer the following question about the dialog with a partner.

1. What does Josh mean by “I’ve got my thinking cap on?”

2. What is the Kawakami line?

3. What is a ‘wacky widget’?

4. What is the sales pitch for the Umbrella Glasses?

5. What does Josh think of them?

6. What is the Rotating Spaghetti Fork?

7. What did Josh think it was for?

8. What are two of Josh’s ideas for a crazy gadget?

9. What is the final wacky widget mentioned?

10. What does Jon think of the products? Josh?

2. Share your answers with the class.

Conversation Practice
Activity 2
An inventor is someone who thinks up a new device or idea that helps to accomplish a task

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or solve a problem. Work with a partner to create a new device or idea. Your idea must be
something new.
1. Think of a problem that affects the environment, people, business, etc.

2. Answer the following questions with your partner.

A. What is the problem? How does it affect you?

___________________________________________________________________
B. How will your invention solve the problem? What will it do?
___________________________________________________________________
C. What is the name of your invention?
___________________________________________________________________
D. What will be your product’s slogan?
___________________________________________________________________
E. Who is your target audience?
___________________________________________________________________

3. Present your inventions to the class.

Communication Skill Building

Activity 3
Planting the Seeds of Innovation: Ideas for improving your life.
1. Write down five ideas for each of the following columns.

What fascinates me People I admire If I had more time…

2. Look for new connections that might turn into ideas to improve your work or free time.

3. Work with a partner to brainstorm your ideas; how can you bring them into your life?

4. Share your ideas with the class.

Dialog 3 The Zany Zinger

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A. Situation
1. What is the most complicated machinery you know about?
2. Share your ideas with the class.

Feldman and Tiffany Sakamano are talking about new product ideas from Jon and Josh…
Sakamano: So what did the Twinkle Twins come up with for the
Goldberg Zinger Project?
Feldman: Well, they sure were innovative, but I think they may
have been drinking some beer along the way.
Sakamano: Why? What do you mean?
Feldman: Well, Goldberg did ask us to create some complicated
machines to solve some simple problems…
Sakamano: So what’s the problem?
Feldman: Well, I think Jon and Josh went a little overboard. Check these out!
Sakamano: I can’t wait to hear what those two came up with…
Feldman: Zing One: the Automatic Picture-Taking Device. First, you sit on a cushion
filled with air in front of a camera. By sitting on the cushion, air blows out
through a tube, which starts a sailboat sailing across a bucket of water.
Sakamano: This sounds a bit strange…
Feldman: It gets crazier… The sailboat pushes a lit cigar into a balloon, which causes
it to explode. After hearing the loud report, a gopher, thinking he’s been
shot, leaps and falls over backward onto the remote, taking your picture!
Sakamano: Whoa, that’s the zaniest zinger I’ve ever heard of!
Feldman: Just wait, it keeps getting better. Get a load of this… Zing Two: The Self-
Activating Automatic Beer Fetcher. First, sit on the sofa and turn on the TV.
The loud sound of the TV wakes up a gerbil in a cage. The gerbil goes into
his exercise wheel and starts running, as gerbils like to do. The spinning
wheel generates electricity, which powers up a hairdryer on a table.
Sakamano: This is good… The hairdryer heats up a block of ice and the melted ice runs
into a delicately balanced bowl, which tips over onto a sleeping cat that has
its tail tied to the refrigerator door. The cat runs and opens the door, causing
a beer to fall out onto a ramp, which rolls across the floor to you.
Feldman: Hmm… Jon and Josh seem to have a penchant for small, furry animals…
Sakamano: Those two buffoons are always trying to sneak a little rodent in somewhere.
B. Words and Expressions

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Words
cushion bucket report (sound) gopher
zany fetch gerbil power up
ramp penchant for buffoon rodent
Expressions
They sure were innovative. I think they went a little overboard.
Get a load of this… They have a penchant for…
I think they may have been drinking some beer along the way.

C. Activities
Fluency Extension
Activity 1
1. Discuss the following quotes with a partner. What do they mean? How do they relate to
you? Why do you think they made these remarks? Which one is your favorite?

1. Do not fear mistakes. There are none. – Miles Davis

2. To accomplish great things we must dream as well as act. – Anatole France

3. You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise
above it to the next level. – Albert Einstein

4. If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong. – Charles Kettering

5. Genius is infinite painstaking. – Michelangelo

6. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and
magic in it. – Goethe

7. What is now proved was once only imagined. – William Blake

8. The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away. –
Linus Pauling

9. The greatest invention in the world is the mind of a child. – Thomas Edison

10. Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else
has thought. – Albert Szent-Gyorgi

2. Do you know who any of the above people are?

3. Share your ideas with the class.

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Conversation Practice
Activity 2
1. Talk about the following Goldberg Machines with a partner. How do they work? What are
the steps? What is the goal? What do you think the name of it is?
1.

2.

2. Share your ideas with the class.

Communication Skill Building

Activity 3
1. Look at the following group of pictures. Work with a partner to construct a Goldberg
Contraption using these items and other ideas of your own. Sketch out your ideas and
write down the steps. What does it do? Name your contraption.

2. Share your ideas with the class.

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Language Review I

Prepositions with Verb + ing

Form: preposition + verb (+ing), + past/present/future tense phrase
preposition + being + past participle + past tense phrase
with + subject + verb (+ing), + past/present/future tense phrase
Use: This pattern is often used to avoid repeating the subjects, to show when
something happened, the method used, a result, or a reason for something.
Examples: While living in Spain, I was able to learn another language and culture.
By studying hard, I was able to speak fluent Spanish in one month.
Before being sent to Spain by my company, I didn’t know a bit of Spanish.
With me living overseas, my family never gets to see me for Christmas.
Notes: These phrases can be used at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.

1. Change the following sentences or sentence pairs so there is only one subject. Use the
words in parentheses if provided.
Example: Because Jim moved to Spain, he hasn’t had time for any hobbies. (with)
With Jim moving to Spain, he hasn’t had time for any hobbies.
1. After I was hit in the face with a snowball, I had to go to the hospital. (being)
____________________________________________________________
2. If you put the lamp on top of the shelf, you will have better light. (by)
____________________________________________________________
3. I studied all night for the exam. I also drank a lot of coffee. (while)
____________________________________________________________
4. I went to work early. I didn’t eat breakfast. (without)
____________________________________________________________
2. Complete the following sentences with a preposition and verb + ing. Use the words in the
box and change the verb forms.
arrive after play since bite before
1. __________ in the snow, you should put on your mittens.

2. __________ being __________ by the dog, I couldn’t work for three days.

3. __________ home this evening, I’ve been feeling a little sick.

3. You can keep your necktie flattened by piling books on it overnight. Discuss any other
household hints that you know using by + verb (+ing). Share your ideas with the class.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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II. Reading
Reading 1 Rube Goldberg

A. Pre-Reading Task
1. What did you think about the Goldberg Machines you read about in Dialog 3?
2. Share your ideas with the class.

B. Reading
Reuben Lucius Goldberg (1883 – 1970) was an engineer,
inventor, author, and sculptor. He was born in San Francisco,
where he became interested in art while helping a friend with a
magazine delivery route. He became obsessed with line drawings
and learned to draw by tracing from books. Unfortunately, his
father discouraged his artistic endeavors and sent him to study
engineering in university. After graduating in 1904, armed with his
engineering degree, he went to work helping design the San
Francisco sewer system.
Rube became depressed by the “lethargy of the city employees” and realized he did
not want to be sitting behind the same desk for forty years. After six months, he shifted gears
and went to work as an office clerk in the sports department of a San Francisco newspaper.
Rube’s job was to sweep the floors and file pictures, but he would also submit cartoons,
which usually ended up in the wastebasket. However, his persistence paid off when he got
his lucky break by being hired to sketch athletes during sporting events.
Rube eventually moved to New York to work for some of the large newspapers as a
cartoonist. He created crazy characters such as Boob McNutt and Lala Palooza, which led to
the series “Sideshow”, featuring Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts. This series, which
became nationally syndicated, featured many wacky inventions that eventually became
known as Rube Goldberg Machines.
A Rube Goldberg Machine is a deliberately complex apparatus that performs a
simple task, such as polishing shoes, in a very complex fashion, often using a series of chain
reactions. His machines often used simple household items such as balls, buckets, cups,
rods, coat hangers, string, and the occasional animal, connected in absurd but logical ways.
In 1914, he created his first contraption: the Automatic Weight Reducing Machine.
This machine used such components as a donut, a bomb, wax, a balloon, and a hot stove to
trap an overweight person who had to lose weight before wriggling away free.

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Let’s consider how

Rube would sharpen a
pencil: open a window and
fly a kite with its string
attached to a small cage.
The string lifts the door
allowing moths to escape
and eat a flannel shirt
hanging from the ceiling. As
the shirt becomes lighter, it lowers a shoe, which is attached to it. The shoe steps on a lever,
which heats an iron that burns a hole in a pair of pants. The smoke enters a hole in a potted
tree that smokes out an opossum that jumps into a basket. The basket pulls a rope and lifts
a cage, which allows a woodpecker to peck on the pencil, thus sharpening it. By the way, an
emergency knife is included in case the opossum or woodpecker gets sick and can’t work.
Rube Goldberg’s cartoons of crazy contraptions were largely influenced by the
machine age that was beginning at the dawn of the 20 th century. Electricity, running water,
telephones, and automobiles were changing the way of life for people at home and work.
Many complex types of machinery were being invented at that time to simplify life. New
mechanical inventions were flooding the patent office, with inventions that ranged from the
useful, such as the automatic bread slicer, to the slightly off-the-wall, like the automatic hat
tipper and motorized shoe polisher.
Rube was fascinated by the advancement of technology and saw the humorous side
of the way that people would naturally choose a more difficult way of completing a goal
rather than by doing so simply and directly. His machines parodied that in that they did the
opposite of what machines were supposed to do: make difficult things easy. A Rube
Goldberg Machine made easy things, such as opening a garage door or wiping your mouth
with a napkin, extremely difficult.
In 1930, Webster’s Dictionary added the term Rube Goldberg to its listings, defining
it as “accomplishing by extremely complex, roundabout means what seemingly could be
done simply.” In 1948, Rube won a Pulitzer prize for a cartoon warning of the dangers of
atomic weapons. Rube Goldberg’s legacy represents the best in innovation, inventiveness,
humor, and creative thinking; an inspiration for us all.

C. Post-Reading Task
1. Brainstorm a wacky or innovative title for this reading.
2. Share your ideas with the class.

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D. Words and Expressions

1. obsessed
adj. having or showing excessive concern with something
Elvis was obsessed with cheeseburgers—he ate five of them every day.
2. trace
v. to copy by following the lines of the original drawing on a thin paper placed upon it
Rufus created his amazing artwork by tracing famous drawings and then painting over them.
3. endeavor
n. purposeful activity intended to do or accomplish something
Rufus’ artistic endeavors came to stop when they found out he was copying other artworks.
4. sewer
n. a waste pipe that carries away sewage or surface water
Jimmy flushed his pet alligator down the toilet, which grew into a seven-foot monster that
haunted the sewers of New York.
5. lethargy
n. inactivity; showing an unusual lack of energy
Rodney let lethargy take over his life, so he became fat and lazy.
6. shift gears
idiom. to change directions in one’s way of thinking, career, etc.
Elvis shifted gears, faking his death, and becoming a bartender in the Bahamas.
7. submit
v. to give something to someone; to turn something in to someone
All of the students except Rodney submitted their homework to the teacher on time.
8. sketch
v. to make a quick or rough drawing
Rufus resumed his artistic endeavors by sketching his fellow prisoners on his cell walls.
9. syndicate
v. to sell articles, programs, etc. to several publications or broadcasting stations
Goldberg hit the big time when his cartoons were syndicated and seen all over the nation.
10. apparatus
n. equipment designed to serve a specific function
This scuba apparatus enables divers to breathe under water.
11. parody
v. to imitate or misrepresent somebody's style, usually in a humorous way
Weird Al Yankovic became famous for parodying other people’s songs.
12. roundabout
adj. indirectly
Hank made his point in a very roundabout way—it took him about two hours.
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E. Comprehension
Answer the following questions about the text.

1. How did Rube Goldberg get his start in art?

2. What did his father think about it? What did he have Rube do?

3. Why was Rube dissatisfied by his first job?

4. How did Rube get his start in the newspaper biz?

5. What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?

6. What was the inspiration for his machines?

7. What did the Rube Goldberg Machines parody?

8. How many steps are there in the Automatic Pencil Sharpener?

9. Why was a knife included in the Automatic Pencil Sharpener?

10. What are two special things that happened to him? What is Rube’s legacy?

F. Discussion
1. What do you think about Rube Goldberg Machines?

2. Can you imagine how the Automatic Weight Reduction Machine worked?

3. What is an automatic hat tipper? Why would it be useful?

4. In 1930, Webster’s added Rube Goldberg to its listings. Why do you think they did this?

5. In 1995, Rube’s Self-Operating Napkin was put on a US postage stamp. Can you figure
out how it works?

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Reading 2 Chindogu: The Art of Unuselessness

A. Pre-Reading Task
1. Do you have any idea what the title of this reading means?
2. Share your ideas with the class.

B. Reading
What can you do if you are frustrated with close calls from pedestrians and swerving
cars and buses while commuting on a bicycle? You could do what Coryn Kempster did:
create a Hairy Bike, which is a hooded jumpsuit covered with long, wavy tentacles made out
of fiber-optic cables. Kempster’s bike is a finalist in MIT’s annual Unuseless Competition.
Kempster’s Hairy Bike is an example of chindogu, the
Japanese art of ‘unuseless’ inventions. Chindogu was made up by
Kenji Kawakami in the 1980s, and literally translates into ‘strange
tool’. A chindogu is an invention that may appear to solve a common
problem but isn’t quite worth using, nor is it quite useless; it actually
makes a task more difficult or time consuming; or it is utterly
ridiculous, such as an umbrella masquerading as a necktie.
So, what exactly are chindogu, you may ask. Well, they are neither useful, political,
patented, or for sale. However, they are somewhat serviceable, mostly silly, and always
analog. Like the Zen of invention, they are designed to be “both profound contradictions and
simple tools to awaken the mind.” As Kawakami says, “Basically, chindogu is the same as
the Industrial Revolution in Britain. The one big difference is that while most inventions are
aimed at making life more convenient, chindogu have greater disadvantages than precursor
products, so people can’t sell them. They’re invention dropouts.”
Kawakami began dreaming up zany doohickeys and gadgets while he was editing a
popular home shopping magazine, probably as an anarchic antidote to the late 20 th century
consumer culture. “In the modern, digital world, everything is so quick,” says Kawakami
while picking up paper and electronic dictionaries to illustrate. “With the electronic one, it
only takes two seconds to find a word, but it gives up no mental or spiritual satisfaction. Yet if
you use your own hands to find it, you can enjoy the process. It’s a spiritual act.”
“We can suppose that for every inspired notion that advanced the human situation,
there must have been at least as many duds,” Kawakami wrote in his book, The Big Bento
Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions. So how does an invention dud become a chindogu?
There are ten tenets that Kawakami has laid down for the design of chindogu:
1. A chindogu cannot be for real use. In the spirit of chindogu, a gadget must be
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almost completely useless. Take, for example, the Portable Commuter Seat, which slides
between the thighs of two “more conventionally seated” passengers on a crowded subway
train and props you above them. Not something you could get away with actually using.
2. A chindogu must exist. Even though you wouldn’t actually use the chindogu, it
must be made. You must be able to hold it in your hand and think, “I can actually use this…
almost,” such as chopsticks with a noodle-cooling fan attached.
3. Inherent in every chindogu is the spirit of anarchy.
Chindogu have broken free from the chains of usefulness and
conservative utility. Using a crawling baby to dust your floors flies
in the face of the conventions of modern society!
4. Chindogu are tools for everyday life. They are not
specialized tools for specialized jobs; they are available to anyone who needs them.
5. Chindogu are not for sale. Who would buy them anyway?
6. Humor must not be the sole reason for creation.
Chindogu are fundamentally problem-solving gadgets. Humor is a
by-product. The Noodle Hairguard is not intentionally humorous,
yet one would look completely foolish wearing it in a restaurant.
7. Chindogu are not propaganda. They have no issues
to push. They are innocent. They are not involved in politics.
8. Chindogu are never taboo. They do not offend, they
are not cruel or sick jokes, they are never vulgar.
9. Chindogu cannot be patented. Chindogu are offerings for the rest of the world.
As they say in Spain, mi chindogu es tu chindogu. (My chindogu is your chindogu.)
10. Chindogu are without prejudice. All should have a free and equal chance to
enjoy each and every chindogu—young and old, male and female, rich and poor.
“People need to laugh for no reason,” says producer Kirishima, who wants to bring
chindogu to television. Perhaps the Anywhere Office can do just that; it’s a wooden desktop
that hangs from the neck, giving you the ultimate office mobility. Why chindogu? “Cause
when you’re laughing and smiling, you’re alive,” says Kirishima.

C. Post-Reading Task
1. Which of the chindogu mentioned in the text causes you to smile the most?
2. Share your ideas with the class.

D. Words and Expressions

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1. frustrated
adj. disappointed by failure or obstacles
Many poets are frustrated by their failure to get published.
2. close call
n. something achieved or escaped by a narrow margin
That close call with the speeding truck almost killed us all!
3. masquerade
v. to pretend to be someone or something that you are not
Rufus was masquerading as an artist but in reality he was just copying other people’s work.
4. analog
adj. mechanical
I prefer digital clocks to analog clocks because the ticking drives me crazy! Tick! Tick! Tick!
5. contradiction
n. opposition between two conflicting forces or ideas
Some people say that Military Intelligence is a contradiction of terms.
6. anarchy / anarchic (adj.)
n. a state of lawlessness and disorder
There was total anarchy after the government was overthrown.
7. antidote
n. a remedy that stops or controls the effects of a poison
Luckily, Herman was saved because he had an antidote for the special poison he drank.
8. dud
n. something or someone that is a failure
All the bombs they dropped on the village were duds, so no one was hurt except Jim, who
got squashed by one.
9. spiritual
adj. concerned with or affecting the spirit or soul
Dewey felt his life had no meaning, so he decided to go on a spiritual journey in the desert.
10. tenet
n. a set of rules or beliefs held by members of a certain group or practice
Rufus was thrown out of the art group for breaking all the tenets set down by the leaders.
11. by-product
n. a secondary and sometimes unexpected consequence
Hundreds of dead mice were the by-products of Herman’s scientific experiment.
12. vulgar
adj. rude; tasteless; low class
Eastwood was not invited to the party because of his penchant for telling vulgar jokes.
E. Comprehension
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Answer the following questions about the text.

1. What is the Hairy Bike? Why was it created?

2. What does chindogu mean?

3. What kind of necktie is mentioned? How would you use it?

4. Is it possible to have a digital chindogu?

5. How is the art of chindogu similar to Zen?

6. How is chindogu different from the Industrial Revolution in Britain?

7. How did Kawakami get started in the art of chindogu?

8. Why did he start making chindogu? What is his philosophy behind it?

9. What’s the difference between paper and electronic dictionaries, according to

Kawakami?

10. Why does Kirishima like chindogu? Why do you think he wants to bring it to television?

F. Discussion
1. Would you use any of the chindogu mentioned in the reading? Why or why not?

2. An elderly Kobe resident lost his house in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. He now
creates chindogu as a form or post-quake therapy. What do you think of chindogu?

3. Consider the following quote from Kawakami: “Being free is the most important thing in
life. Chindogu is the symbol of freedom. A free soul is needed to think of chindogu…”
What do you do that gives you a feeling of freedom?

4. Discuss the following chindogu.

Language Review II

Verb + wh-clause
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 Unit 2 – Innovation and Inventions

Form: subject + verb + wh-word + verb phrase

subject + verb + wh-word + to-infinitive
subject + verb + object + wh-word + verb phrase
Use: Some verbs can be followed by a clause beginning with a wh-word (how,
what, when, where, which, who, why, and also whether). Some verbs
can be followed by a wh-word and a to-infinitive (except why). Whether has
a similar meaning to if, but unlike if, it can be followed by a to-infinitive.
Whether suggests there are other possibilities.
Examples: Let’s consider how Rube Goldberg might sharpen a pencil.
Can you please explain how to construct such a contraption as that?
He taught me how to create such a wacky contraption as that one.
Here are some verbs that can be followed by a wh-word.
arrange check choose determine discover discuss
find out forget guess learn plan remember
say see talk about think about understand wonder
These verbs need an object before the wh-word.
advise inform instruct notify remind teach
tell show warn

1. Fill in the blanks with an appropriate verb and wh-word from the list below. You may need
to change the form of the verb. Add an object if necessary. More than one combination
may be possible.
who tell decide told check where whether
when know which teach remember how what

1. I don’t __________ __________ machine to use for that task.

2. Please __________ __________ you want to meet for dinner.

3. Can you __________ __________ the meeting is being held?

4. We need to __________ __________ to cancel the picnic because of the weather.

5. Rube __________ __________ to construct that contraption.

6. I couldn’t __________ __________ I was supposed to bring to the party.

7. Jim __________ __________ was coming to the party.

2. Share your answers with the class.

III. Writing and Presentation

My Favorite Wacky Widget
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 Unit 2 – Innovation and Inventions

A. Preparation
1. Read this information:
In this unit, you have learned about Rube Goldberg Machines and the art of
chindogu. You have also learned how to plant the seeds of innovation, how to create
gadgets, and how to solve problems or make improvements to already-existing products.
Prepare a presentation on any invention of your choosing, either an existing one or
an imaginary one. Use the grammar points and vocabulary you have learned. You may want
to use some rhetorical questions as well.

2. Think about the information above and make notes for your presentation:

The Invention…
_______________________________________________________________________

The Problem it Solves…

_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

How it Works…
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

The Benefits…
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

B. Presentation
Use your notes and the information above to give your presentation.
Example Have you ever wondered how to drink coffee in the rain? Well, check out
this gadget…

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