Grammar

Read the text and circle the correct answers.

Inventions and discoveries by accident!

The invention or discovery of something is not always the result of careful experiments. Sometimes, luck can help scientists (1) finding / find new things. Below are some famous examples.

Gravity: (2) Discover / Discovering the law of gravity is probably the most famous example. Isaac Newton (3) sat / was sitting under an apple tree when an apple (4) fell / was falling on his head. He realised that something made apples fall straight to the ground. That was gravity!

Penicillin: Alexander Fleming came back from his holiday. He (5) was cleaning / cleaned his laboratory when he (6) discovered / was discovering something at the window. That was penicillin! Since then, doctors (7) used / have used penicillin around the world to save millions of lives

Popsicles: In 1905, 11-year-old Frank Epperson decided (8) to make / making himself a soft drink. When he finished (9) make / making the drink, he left it outside with the wooden stick inside it. That night, the drink froze in cold weather and thanks to this 'accident', popsicles were later invented!