Vocabulary

Pong – понг (электронная телевизионная игра)

craze - повальное увлечение

to scale down - уменьшать

circuitry - схема

hit - успех

to bounce - подпрыгивать

back and forth - взад и вперед

knob - кнопка

cabinet - ящик радиоприемника

to hit – ударять

inch-long – длиной в один дюйм

paddle - ракетка

to tinker - возиться

soldering-iron – паяльник

creation – творение

Inc.= Incorporation - корпорация

to launch - начинать

financial - финансовый

record - отчет

to involve - развиваться

high-tech - высокоразвитая техника

to popularize - популяризировать

mouse - мышка

hand-controlled - управляемый вручную

cursor - стрелка, курсор

Exercise 1. Choose the sentence according to the text.

a) During the 1950's and 1960’s computers improved very little.

b) The videogame craze began in 1962.

c) Only big businesses, universities and the military had computers in the 60’s.

Exercise 2. Complete the sentence according to the text.

Two players sat in front of a TV screen and …

a) hit the ball with a point of light on the screen

b) hit the knobs on a cabinet

c) manipulate the ball with the help of inch-long "paddles".

Exercise 3. Choose the sentence which doesn't correspond to the text.

1. Bushnell created his first. Pong games with the help of the latest technology.

2. Bushnell loved to tinker with machines.

3. In 1972 Bushnell founded Atari Inc. in Sunny vale, Calif., to build Pong games.

4. He built his first Pong Games with his own two hands and a soldering iron.

Exercise 4. Choose the proper answer to the question according to the text.

How many Pong games were there in American homes by 1975?

1. 150,000

2. 1,500

3. 15,000

Text c:howard aiken (1900 – 1973)

He built the Mark I, the first working dig-ital computer. A brilliant inventor, he was not a good fortune-teller. Said Aiken in l947: "There will never be enough problems, enough work for more than one or two of these computers”

Howard AikenA Step Toward Today

In 1944, Harvard University physicist Howard Aiken built the forerunner of today's computer.

Aiken's Mark I was the first working digital binary computer. It used thousands of electrical switches that clicked on and off to compute data. When it was running, the switches sounded like the clicking of knitting needles.

Howard Aiken grew up poor in Indianapolis, Ind. He had to work his way through school, but he made it through Harvard.

Aiken, like Charles Babbage, had a prickly personality. While his computer, the Mark I, was being built, he drove the workers like slaves.

For 16 years the Mark I was used to solve the complex equations needed to aim the

U.S. Navy's big guns. But it was much slower than later computers, which use electronic components instead of switches.

Vocabulary:

message – сообщение, послание

highway - магистраль

digital computer – цифровая вычислительная машина

device - устройство

submarine – подводная лодка

engine - машина

to store - хранить,вмещать

digit number – однозначное число

to take apart – разбирать на части

eventually - со временем

mean - плохой

to yell - кричать

forerunner – предшественник

railroad - железная дорога

flashing light - сигнальный свет

lighthouse - маяк

fortune-teller - предсказатель

binary - двоичный

switch - переключатель

to click on (off) – включаться (выключаться) со щелчкомto compute - вычислятьdata - данные

knitting needle - спица (вязальная)prickly - колючийto drive - перегружать работойslave - раб

equation - уравнениеto aim - целитьgun – орудие

Exercise 1. Complete the sentence according to the text.

1. Howard Aiken thought ...

1. there would never be enough work for computers.

2. that computers would be a part. of our future.

3. that people wouldn't do without computers in the nearest future

2. Howard Aiken was …

1. a good fortune-teller.

2. right as far as future application of computers was concerned.

Exercise 2. Chose the sentences which doesn't correspond to the text

1. Harvard University physicist H. Aiken built the forerunner of today's computer.

2. The first working digital binary computer used thousands of electrical switches.

3. Aiken's Mark was quicker than later computers with electronic components.

Exercise 3. Choose the proper answer to the question according to the text.

For what purpose was the Mark I used ?

1. The Mark I was used the U S Navy.

2. The Mark I was used to solve the complex equations in the Universities.

3. The Mark I was used for making electronic components.