Joy English · Level B2 · Historyjoy-english.com
The invention of the telephone
Name:Date:
Follow a historical account in a lecture.
Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.
Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/the-invention-of-the-telephone
Words to know
- patent
- An official right to be the only one to make an invention.
- inventor
- A person who creates something new.
- switchboard
- Equipment used to connect telephone calls by hand.
Answer key
- Alexander Graham Bell received the first patent for the telephone in the nineteenth century.“Nineteenth” or “19th” are both accepted.
- However, several other inventors were working on similar ideas.The stress in “inventors” is on “ven”.
- Early telephones could connect just two fixed points.The -ed of “fixed” is a t sound.
- Operators connected calls by hand at a switchboard.“By hand” means done by a person, not automatically.
- It took decades before most homes had a telephone.The stress in “decades” is on “dec”.