The invention had no practical application.

12. bear (bore, borne) 忍受; 带有, 具有

I couldn't bear to listen any longer, so I left the room.

bear doing 表示习惯性动作 bear to do sth. 表示一次具体动作

This letter bears french stamp.

13. mess: n.杂乱,脏东西 v.无所事事, 混日子,胡闹

There is a lot of mess to clear up.

14. but monitored carefully, the snakes proved to be no trouble and all went according to plan.

monitor: vt.监听，收听：监视

15. I collected the passive snakes and the next day we released them all back into the wild.

passive: adj. 被动的，消极的；不抵抗的；不活跃的

He played a passive role in the marriage.

Step II sentences

1. The first thing I tried to do was to see if there were products that might help me, but there only seemed to be powders designed to kill snakes. P20

2. Between the outside and inside walls of the bowl there is some jelly, which freezes hard when cooled. P20

3. The criteria are so strict that it is difficult for new ideas to be accepted unless they are truly novel. P21