C1 Advanced Parte 1 · Ejercicio 2: multiple choice cloze

The museum of things that did not work

On the third floor of a technical museum in Copenhagen there is a room that visitors often (1) by accident. It contains, among other things, an electric razor powered by a hand crank and a bicycle with square wheels. All of them were patented, and none of them ever reached the (2) .

The curator, Ida Lund, is (3) that the room should not be read as a joke at the inventors expense. Most of the objects, she points out, failed for reasons that had nothing to (4) with the quality of the idea. Some arrived too early; others were simply too expensive to manufacture at the time.

The collection has (5) an unexpected following among engineering students, who are brought here in their first year. The point, according to one lecturer, is to (6) home the fact that a working prototype proves very little. Students who spend an afternoon among these objects tend to (7) fewer assumptions later.

Ida Lund is aware that the room could easily (8) sentimental, and she resists any attempt to add explanatory panels about persistence and courage. The objects, she says, are quite eloquent enough on their own.