Vocabulary

detect (1ine 6) - recognize

dithering ((1ine 14) - a process which makes the transition between shades seem smoother

retouching (1ine 15)-making minor changes in a photograph

a mildly posterrzed effect (1ine 34) - a slightly crude image

there's a bottom line (1ine 50) - it is expensive

hefty (1ine 58)-large

Task 1 Answer the following questions about the text:

1. How many distinct shades of colour can the human eye see?

2. What is:

a a pixel?

b a bit?

с a byte?

d a greyscale display?

3. Roughly how many different colour shades can be generated from 24-bit colour?

4. If your machine has 24-bit colour and a one million-pixel display, how much memory will you need to drive the screen?

Task 2 Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) in relation to the information in the text. If you think a statement is false, change it to make it true.

1  If a computer can generate more than 200 distinct shades of colour, the human eye will see a perfectly smooth progression of shades.

2  Everybody should have a computer that can show true shades on its screen.

3  A group of eight binary numbers is called a byte.

4  Under certain circumstances, 8-bit colour can provide more than 256 colours.

5 32-bit colour offers 256 times as many shades of colour as 24-bit colour.

6  To run 24-bit colour, you need three times as much memory to drive the screen as you do to run 8-bit colour,

Task 3 Use the information in the text to complete the dialogue in your own words.

A _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________ ?

В Yes, I'd like to find out a little about 24-bit colour.

A _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________ ?

В Well, first of all, I'd like to know what sort of quality it will give me on my monitor.

A _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________ ?

В As many as that? What add-ons do I need?

A _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ ?

В How much memory will I need to drive the screen?

A _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

В It's a high-resolution screen. A _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________ ?

В That's a lot! I use colour mainly for linework and picture-placing. Do you think it's worth buying 24-bit colour?

Task 4 Write a summary of the text. You should aim to limit your summary to about 150 words, Start by underlining the important ideas in the text. Try, where possible, to combine more than one idea in each sentence.

Task 5 Put five questions to the sentences underlined in the text.

Task 6 Translate four paragraphs (beginning ' To get the full...' and finishing ‘…you can't show them on the screen’ lines 36 - 49) into your own language.

UNIT NINE: ONLINE SERVICES

Task 1 Answer the following questions:

1. What online services are available in your country?

2. What kind of facilities do online services provide?

Task 2 Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (T) in relation to the information in the text which follows. If you think a statement is false, change it to make it true.

1  Most people choose an online service because of the price or the number of available files.

2  Everybody has one service which he/she likes more than all the others.

3  You should judge each service according to whether it is better or worse overall than the service you are currently using.

4  Eventually, all services will be accessible from the service you are using.

5  McGraw-Hill is owned by BIX.

6  Tammy Ray and Jeanette Shearer think the BIX service is average.

7  French Minitel users have free access to an English-language version of CompuServe, although they cannot use the e-mail facility.

8  DELPHI'S Hobby Shop now has two special-interest areas: one on classic vehicles, and one on new cars and

technology.

I'm frequently asked which online service is 'best', but the answer is there is no best. Rating a particular service over another is entirely subjective. Price is important to some people, while the number of files available for download is important to others.

5 Because of these and so many other different judgments, there can be no absolute. It all comes down to individual needs and preferences.

Still, users tend to be fiercely loyal to their ‘home’ online service - which is usually the first online service they ever used. They tend to judge all other online services based on this first service

10 – often preventing themselves from seeing the advantages of a specific service. For my part, I like all the services I use and I'm on two dozen.

Each offers one or more products or features that either do not exist elsewhere or are superior to the same features on other services.

15 And I've a really subjective reason for being on one service - I use it to send monthly articles to magazines in Japan.

So, the real answer to the question is simple: the best online service is the service that has what you want and is easy for you to use. The point? Keep an open mind when checking out an online

20 service. Judge it based on what it offers and how it meets your needs - not in comparison to what you're used to using. (It takes a couple of sessions to shake preconceived notions of what an online service 'should' be.) Eventually, we're all going to be interlinked, no matter which service we use, in what DIALOG'S Richard Ream calls a

25 'network of networks'.

Until then, most of us have to go to more than one service to find everything we need.