CROSSROADS Language StudioÊs Newsletter May,May , 2023

It has often been said that there are nolimits to human imagination. For millennia,
inventors, scientists and others have been
coming up with ideas that have profoundlychanged the way we live; take the mobile
phone as just one recent example. And yet, forevery successful invention that has made it toa production line, there are probably tens, even
hundreds, of thousands of patents for every
conceivable type of contraption still waiting toget onto the market. Some of these may be
worthy of development, perhaps in the future,but it is safe to say that many will never makeit that far.
Here are a few examples that hold patentrights but are wistfully sitting in limbo filed
away in a patent office somewhere hoping to be“discovered” by a venture capitalist/investor;and it’s easy to see why.
Take, for example, the Fork Timer. It
was patented in 1995 in the USA. The
idea is to help you with your dieting byslowing down your intake of food. After you
place some food in your mouth, a red lighton the handle comes on. You then haveEllato
wait until the light turns green before
taking another morsel of food using thisfork. You see, according to the inventor,
Janisslowing
down your intake of food can help
Patent No: 5,421,089
you lose weight.
US Patent Issued June 6, 1995
As everyone knows, a dog’s life is much
shorter than a human’s, perhaps seven times
shorter. So how are dogs, or their owners, goingto keep track of “dog time” with respect to theirlife expectancy? A Doggy Watch, of course. It
works by multiplying the durationof seconds, minutes and hours bya factor of 7, so 24 hours of normal
human time equals 168 hours ofdog time, 1 week equals 7 weeks,etc. For Fido, time flies, but you
always knew dogs had their own
Patent No: 5,023,850
sense of time, right?

US Patent Issued June 11, 1991

Now, you know how much you hate licking
stamps and envelopes to moisten
the adhesive agent on themwhen sealing an envelope
or affixing a stamp. This
invention frees your tongue
from the indignity of everPatent No: 4,300,473
having to do this again. As you US Patent Issued Nov.17, 1981
push this contraption’s “tongue” out with theplunger, it passes over an internal wet pad, getsmoist and, voila, instant wet tongue!
Okay, you don’t like going to the golf range
to practice your tee shots, but when it comes toa friendly round on the golf course, you cannever get the length you want off the tee.
Here’s the answer: the Ball Spring-loader.
It’ll get you from one end of thefairway to the other in asingle shot; and as abonus, it converts to anormal putter once
you get onto theUS Patent Issued 1987
green. Now, that’s mystyle of golf….
“Inventions’ like these seem to be totally ridiculous,
but consider some of Leonardo da Vinci’sconcepts, say his flying machines. From today’s
perspective, he was a genius, years ahead of histime, but what did people think of his ideas 500
or so years ago when he first came up withthem? A flying machine? Was he off his rocker?
He never actually built one ofhis “flying machines” and thismay have been seen as proof
that he was not a little crazy.
Yet, today every one of his
concepts for air travel, andmore, is in use, so, who’s to
say that some day, “dog-time”
won’t be useful….
TOP: Leonardo’s flying machine
BOTTOM: His helicopter

NET LESSONS: Too busy to come to CROSSROADS?
…. Try our lessons on the net!
Check out these crazy patents: www.newsweek.com/30most-bizarre-inventions-history-1539218

Joshua Says: Many of you want English skills in order to visit foreign countries
where English is spoken. For those who fit into this category, there is an inconvenient
problem, the cost. 30 years ago, Japanese people could easily head off for a holiday
overseas, but these days, with a weak yen and high inflation in most overseas
destinations, the cost is problematic. On the other hand, Japan can expect to receive
many foreign tourists here for the same reasons. Is this a new incentive to study?
Junko Says: Your brain is changed in many ways depending on what you
do, feel or think. Amazingly, the human brain can respond to stimuli and can“change” over a person’s lifetime, forming new neuronal networks. Improving
your cognitive abilities, such as learning to speak in English, is also said toform new neuron networks in the brain. This is another reason to set yourmodest English study goals for the new term.
Marek Says: Speaking of last-minute inventions, Russia has almost all but
run out of long-range missiles and, as we know “necessity is the mother ofinvention”, so the Russian engineers repurposed old IIWW era bombs and stuckwings and GPS chips on them to make them glide for up to 40km, when dropped
from a plane, hitting their targets with deadly accuracy. They’re cheap as chips(pun intended) and almost impossible to shoot down by modern anti-air artillery.
L'Academie française a dévoilé les nouveaux mots 2023. En voici un petit lorilège: 1)
ghoster: comme un fantôme (ghost, on ne répond plus aux messages. 2) la complosphère; les groupes sur leWeb qui parle de complots. 3) avoir un crush; il y a quelqu'un qu'on aime beaucoup!! 4) le flexoffice: travailler
à la maison, au bureau, à l'hôtel, comme on veut, à l'heure qu'on veut. 5) c'est instagrammable: c est assez joli
pour pouvoir prendre une photo et la publier sur les réseaux sociaux. 6) Chiller: se reposer 7) Écoanxiété:
sentiment de peur et d’angoisse face au réchauffement climatique Et mon préféré; boboiser: devenir bourgeois
bohème. Un bobo désigne une personne aisée et cultivée, affichant son anticonformisme. ( comme moi !)bohème. Un bobo désigne une personne aisée et cultivée, affichant son anticonformisme.

Mandcy dit: :ACROSS
1 fastening or attaching
5 absurdly humorous
7 abstract ideas
9 "there you are!"11 process of ingesting food
12 proceed despite risk
13 a device
16 1,000 years
17 in a state of disregard or forgotten
18 humiliation, shame
19 a small quantity of something
20 deeply and completelyDOWN
2 between the tee and the16green on a golf course
3 gives an inventor sole rights
to an invention
4 continuance of time
6 exchanges or replaces
8 sadly, pensively
10 a substance that bonds
14 a pushing action tool
15 to make wet

123456781091112131415171819(print version here)20Adverbs. Fill in the gaps with the most appropriate adverbs from the list below.
always, constantly, eventually, never, carefully, diligently, surely, usually,slowly, ever, seriously, rarely, reluctantly, suddenly, hesitantly, calmly, politely,endlessly, unfortunately, poorly, finally, cheerfully, anxiously, tentatively

Harry ________ drives ________ and ________ on his way to work. Even so, he________ arrives late. During the day he works ________ and ________ completes
his assigned tasks with time to spare. And he has ________ missed a day’s work
since joining our company. But last week he called to saythat he had been in a traffic accident on his way towork. It was not a serious accident, but he needed togo, ________, to the police station to fill out areport; he would ________ be back at work the nextday. It has now been over a week since he called
and he still hasn’t turned up for work. We have tried________ to reach him by phone, but he never answers our calls. We became________ worried about him, so our boss ________ decided to send someone to hisapartment to find out if he ________ intended to return to work, or not. I was,________, chosen for the job.
As I ________ approached the door of his apartment, I heard someone singing,________. I ________ knocked on the door, After a short moment of silence, Harry________ open the door and ________ invited me inside. We exchanged greetings,________, than I ________ asked him “what’s going on?”“Oh”, he said. “After I had the accident and while I was filling out a report forthe police, I ________ had an epiphany”. He went on to say he couldn’t see thepoint of continuing to work in the same ________ boring job, so he decided to chuck
it in and follow his dream of ________ becoming an opera singer! Well, great foryou Harry, but how can I explain this to my boss?
RAT E L E P A T H I CDAOR E V E R B E R A T I O NIEINF U N D A M E N T A LCTGUITDTN O T I O NERTMNARADTNC A P A B L ETIASND I S P O S A L
SCP U L S E SCRMEEFAE
II N S T I N C T I V E L YLMSTDRKLISISE N T I T YSEENNESNCTI N D I G E N O U SLast Month’s Puzzle Solution

ACROSS
3 communicate without words orsignals
5 repetition of a sound6 basic, essential
9 vague idea
12 having ability
13 make use of
16 rhythmic contractions andexpansions
17 by feeling, not conscious thought
19 something having a distinct
existence
20 native (people)

DOWN
1 help growing up
2 start of something momentous
4 accidental
7 aware without conscious control
8 greater or better than the standard
10 movement from one position toanother11 blocks from consideration
14 statement believed to be true
15 having consciousness and feelings
18 related by blood or marriage

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