Be an inventor

    The biggest secret about inventing is that anybody can do it! Perhaps this sounds crazy, but it's true. Maybe you have the wrong idea about inventing, so read on to discover the truth.

Wrong idea number 1:____

    Well, inventing means creating something “new”, but the idea could come from something that already exists.____ 

Wrong idea number 2: Inventors are born, not made.

    There are a lot of factors that make invention possible. Take Mozart, for example. He was born with a special talent for music.____His father was a music teacher, and Mozart practiced for hours every day, from the time he was in kindergarten.

    ____Very successful creators don't give up when they get something wrong. As one inventor said, “A failure is the right answer to the wrong question!”

    Wrong idea number 3: Inventors are always old people.

____ Here is an example of a young inventor: Louis Braille went blind when he was a child. When he was 15, he invented a system of reading and writing for blind people that is still used in most countries today.

A. Everyday things can give people lots of ideas.

B. An invention has to be something completely new.

C. But other factors were also important for his creativity.

D. As a young man, George Nissen invented the trampoline (蹦床).

E. Don't believe that you can't invent something when you are young.

F. Thomas Edison said that being an inventor was “99% hard work and 1% inspiration”!

G. The Wright brothers, for example, got the idea for building a “flying machine” from watching birds.