Toys and Lego Lesson 7 of the technology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: the lesson at school .
0 A Lego brick begins as a handful of plastic grains, melted and squirted at huge pressure into a steel mould, cooled in seconds and dropped out finished: this is called injection moulding. 1 The moulds are so exact that a brick made in 1958 still clicks onto one made today, which is why your grandad's old bricks fit your new set. 2 Most plastic toys, from action figures to board game pieces, are made the same way, and one expensive steel mould can make millions of copies. 3 Before a toy reaches a shop, testers pull, drop, chew-test and even burn samples on purpose, and a mark like CE or UKCA shows the maker says it meets the safety rules. 4 Small bricks, caps and burst balloon pieces are a real choking danger for babies and toddlers, so toys for little ones have no small parts and eyes that cannot be pulled off. 5 Injection moulding pushes hot melted plastic into a closed metal mould, cools it and pushes the part out; the same mould is used millions of times. 6 A good steel mould can cost more than a car, because it must be shaped extremely precisely and last for millions of parts. 7 Lego bricks are made so precisely that a brick from 1958 still fits a brick made today; Lego has factories in Denmark, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Mexico, China and Vietnam. 8 Small bricks, caps and burst balloon pieces are a choking danger for babies and toddlers, so they must be kept away from little ones. 9 Teddy bears are sewn inside out from machine-cut pieces, turned, stuffed with fibre blown in by a machine and stitched shut; toys for little ones have eyes locked on from inside so they cannot be pulled off. 10 The teddy bear is named after US President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. 11 A CE or UKCA mark shows the maker says the toy meets safety rules on small parts, sharp edges, chemicals and fire; testers pull, drop, chew-test and burn sample toys on purpose, and fake toys may skip the tests. 12 Dolls and action figures are moulded in parts, painted by machines and by hand, sometimes with tiny stamping pads one colour at a time, and clicked together. 13 A remote-control car's controller sends radio signals that a receiver in the car turns into commands for small motors; different cars use different channels so they do not control each other. 15 Shop slime is a gooey mix of glue-like chemicals and water that holds a shape for a moment but flows slowly, neither properly solid nor liquid; never eat it, and wash your hands after. 16 Board game boards are printed on paper glued to cardboard, and cards are printed on big sheets and cut out; Monopoly has been printed in dozens of languages. 17 Balloons are made by dipping balloon-shaped formers (solid shapes to coat) in liquid latex, the sap of rubber trees; they shrink over a few days because the gas slowly escapes through the rubber. 18 A 3D printer melts plastic string and lays it down layer by thin layer following a computer drawing; its nozzle gets very hot, so adults handle it. ← previous Pencils, paper and school thingsnext → How a car is built↑ back to Technology This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/7-toys-and-lego/