MUSCLE POWER

1. Did you ever spend time on a treadmill or exercise bike and speculate about how all that energy could power more than your bike?

Could you imagine what else you could power while working out?
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2. A new book by Tamara Dean, called The Human-Powered Home (New Society Publishers, 2008) is a compendium of household devices gathered from a unique collection of experts on human power.

What household devices use pedal-power? Could some others use it too?
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3. Most of us are familiar with hand-cranked juicers and grain or coffee mills, treadle sewing machines and push lawn mowers (which are becoming popular again).
But what about a pedal-powered television or computer?

What do you think would be advantages and shortbacks of such devices? Would they be more or less expensive than the existing ones?

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS:
1. For this reading / discussion task students should fold the paper after each paragraph, without reading the next. Pairs discuss each question after the paragraph and report to the class.

2. Try to change the interrogative sentences in the text into affirmative so that the meaning is not changed.

3. Try to change all the questions in the text into statements without changing the message