5. Choose the ending to each question:

1. Computers can be defined as devices which accept information in the form of instructions,

A) can it? B) don’t it? C) cannot they? D) doesn’t it?

2. The program, which tells the computers what to do and the data, which provide the information, are kept inside the computer in a place called memory,

A) isn’t they? B) are they? C) do they? D) aren’t they?

3. Programs and characters perform mathematical and/or logical operations on the on the information,

A) do they? B) doesn’t they? C) aren’t they? D) don’t they?

4. The basic idea of a computer is that we can make the machine do what we want by inputting signals,

A) isn’t it? B) are it? C) don’t they? D) do they?

5. Computers can perform arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and exponentiation,

A) doesn’t it? B) don’t it? C) cannot they? D) can it?

6. Some of the most common methods of inputting information are to use terminals, diskettes, disks and magnetic tapes,

A) aren’t they? B) doesn’t they? C) do they? D) don’t they?

7. The computer’s input device (a disk drive or tape drive) reads the information into the computer,

A) doesn’t it? B) doesn’t they? C) aren’t they? D) don’t they?

8. A computer can solve a series of problems and make thousands of logical decisions without becoming tired,

A) doesn’t it? B) don’t it? C) cannot they? D) cannot it?

9. There are times when a computer seems to operate like a mechanical “brain”,

A) are there? B) doesn’t there? C) aren’t there? D) are they?

10. A computer cannot do anything unless a person tells it what to do and gives it the necessary information,

A) doesn’t it? B) can it? C) cannot they? D) don’t it?

6. Ask general questions to the following sentences:

1. The cores are capable of being in one or two possible states on or off. 2. It is considered that computers have many remarkable powers. 3. However most computers, whether large or small, have three basic capabilities. 4. A computer is a machine with an intricate network of electronic circuits. 5. The machine is capable of storing and manipulating numbers, letters, and symbols. 6. Second, computers have a means of communicating with the user. 7. For outputting information two common devices used are: a printer, and a cathode-ray-tube display. 8. It can find the solution to a problem in a fraction of the time it takes a human being to do the job. 9. Computers have circuits which can make decisions. 10. A computer can replace people in dull, routine tasks, but it works according to the instructions given to it. 11. Its achievements are limited by the minds of human beings.

Text B

The use of computers

Computers have been described as machines that think. This is an oversimplification. Computers are machines that are capable of very rapid and accurate calculations, but they do need instruction from human beings.

Nearly everything we do in the modern world is helped and controlled by computers, the complicated descendants of Babbage's simple machine. Computers are being used more and more extensively in the world today, for the simple reason that they are far more efficient than human beings. They have much better memories and can store huge amounts of information and they can do calculations in a fraction of the time taken by a human mathematician. Great advances have been made recently in the techniques of programming computers to act in remarkably intelligent ways.

The application of computers relieved us of much detailed routine mental effort. Machines are thus freeing the human mind, in the same way as the muscles were freed over 100 years ago.

In fact, computers can do many of the things we do, but faster and better. No man alive can do hundreds of thousands sums even hundreds of millions sums in one second but an advanced computer can do calculations in an astonishingly short time. They can pay wages, reserve seats on planes, control machines in factories, work out tomorrow's weather and can do a lot of other things. Let's look now at some of the ways in which computers concern people in their daily lives and work.

Computers spread into industry, commerce, the government service. Automatic computing opened the way to new and much more effective methods of engineering design, recordkeeping and management. The computer may even make possible entirely new ways of conducting a business. The major airlines maintain up-to-the minute records in a central computer of all seats sold thus permitting the maximum sale for each flight without risk of overselling.

Scientific research, in many fields, is now dependent on computers, either for working out the implications of a theory for handling the very large amounts of data obtained from certain experiments. Astronomers have been able to test theories about the structure of starts by following their consequences on a computer. Physicists have been able to sort out the tracks made by millions of high-energy particles and so to obtain statistics and to pick out the rare cases that added to our basic knowledge.

Medical scientists with the help of computers deduced the structure of large molecules and so have begun to understand the mechanism by which heredity is transmitted. In police, for example, work speed is often essential, so computers are ideal for helping catch criminals. Police inspectors are now able to find out details of car ownership and driving licenses. There are systems for storing finger-print information and even information about people's appearance.

Computers serve the arts as well as the sciences. They are a great help to scholars in any subject. It's now possible for a scholar to find a book or article he needs very quickly, which, when millions of new books are published each year, is quite an advantage. So computers can help us to deal with the knowledge explosion in many ways.

Thus, not only a great deal of human mental drudgery is avoided, but more difficult calculations or forms of process control can be undertaken with the help of computers. And of course this is a positive side and great advantage.