4、Sample Idea to Lighten the Load

     There are so many different plastic cards that adults have to carry around—library cards, savings cards for different bands, credit cards, just to name a few... So why not have one card to replace them all?

     Scott Barnhill, an 11-year-old fifth-grade student in the US, has come up with an idea for a "Security One Card".

      Sound smart? The US Patent Office thought so, and it approved (批準(zhǔn)) a patent for his idea in April.

      Here's an example of how Barnhill's idea would work.

      Let's say you have the three cards mentioned above. Instead of carrying them all, you could have just one by having additional magnetic strips (磁條) added to it.

      The magnetic strips can be added to any plastic card, even a blank one.

      Companies could add their information to one of the strips. For instance, you could ask a library to add a strip to your bankcard.

     Barnhill has a lot of hobbies, including designing websites. He got the idea at the age of 9 when he saw his father using a key card to enter their hotel room. He thought, "the hotels are wasting money with the key cards." So, instead of using a hotel-issued key card, guests could use their credit cards, if the hotel added a special magnetic strip. At check-out, the strip would simply be removed.

     Now that he has his patent, his next step is a letter-writing campaign to get support from major credit card companies.

     "I'm going to be writing letters to credit card companies to ask if they can co-operate, I hope they'll give me money every time someone puts a strip on the back of another card, or every time the idea is used," Barnhill said. "I'll write the letters and see what they say. If the say no, I'll ask someone else, another credit card company. "

     He is hoping to make money from his patent and has decided it would be better to collect royalties (專利使用費) if the idea takes off rather than sell his patent.

     "The ATM person who invented that sold it outright (全部的), and if he'd chosen royalties he'd get like 2 cents for every transaction (交易) and he'd be a billionaire now," Scott said.

1. The advantage of "Security One Card" is that it ________.

    A. could remove the burden of taking all kinds of plastic cards

    B. would be very safe to carry one card in hand

    C. could save your money

    D. could have a lot of magnetic strips on it

2. The immediate cause of Scott's invention was that ________.

    A. he found even a hotel issued its own cards--key cards

    B. he realized it's a big waste to make so many plastic cards instead of only one

    C. he found that adults have to carry around so many plastic cards

    D. he realized it would be a good chance to make big money

3. To use a "Security One Card", one has to________.

    A. add additional magnetic strip to it

    B. pay Scott Barnhill a lot each time a magnetic strip is added

    C. add his information to a magnetic strip

    D. get the permission of the organization that issues a card before adding a magnetic strip to a "Security One Card"

4. The underlined phrase "takes off" in the last paragraph but one probably means

    A. makes money                             B. wins a lot of support

    C. is worth a lot                            D. is practical

5. From the story, we can see Scott is ________.

    A. more interested in money                           B. a boy with a lot of ideas

    C. creative, perseverant and smart                D. far-sighted