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Read the text (study reading). Choose one word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the original sentence if substituted for the word in bold type
LANDMARK INVENTIONS OF THE MILLENNIUM
The last 1,000 years have produced an (1) incredible number and variety of scientific and technological (2) breakthroughs – but which of these were the most important? Narrowing a list of the thousands of inventions to the ten greatest requires some (3) exact criteria. The qualifying inventions either provided (4) radically new ways to do an important job, or they made possible tasks that were previously unimagined. Their (5) impact was felt, if not (6) right away then (7) eventually, by a large portion of humanity. These developments have (8) enabled significant new technological innovations and scientific discoveries. And finally, they have had an (9) enduring effect on the world.
The inventions that meet these criteria, in (10) chronological order, are the compass, the mechanical clock, the glass lens, the printing press, the steam engine, the telegraph, electric power, wireless communication, antibiotics, and the transistor.
Missing from this list are many extremely significant technological advances, including the airplane, telephone, automobile, and computer. In many cases these inventions were (11) omitted because they are based on earlier developments and breakthroughs.
In considering the ten most significant inventions of the past 1,000 years, a (12) subtle distinction must be made. The difference between “invention” and “discovery” is not as (13) clear as one might think. A discovery can be as simple as the observation of a (14) previously unnoticed phenomenon, while an invention is human-devised machine, tool, or apparatus that did not previously exist. For example, ancient people discovered that drops of water and certain gemstones distorted light in a predictable way. (15) However, it was not until medieval times that others tried to reproduce this effect by applying new glass-shaping technology to the formation of lenses – the (16) basic elements of spectacles, microscopes, telescopes and cameras. (17) Similarly, people knew about and studied electricity as a force of nature for thousands of years, but it was the technological (18) leap of mass-producing electricity and (19) delivering it to homes and factories in the early 20-th century that (20) transformed the world.
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