- •Exercises
- •IV. Translate into Russian paying attention to the «-ed»-forms.
- •VI. Read the text without a dictionary.
- •VII. Topics for discussions.
- •Exercises
- •The Present Simple Passive
- •IV. Discuss what computers can do in the following areas.
- •V. Write a short paragraph summarizing your discussion. Then ask one person from your group to give a summary of the group's ideas to the rest of the class.
- •VI. Read the text and retell it. Computer Applications
- •Unit III
- •Exercises
- •III. Mind the translation of the word «operate».
- •IV. Translate the sentences paying attention to the infinitives.
- •V. Complete the following sentences with relative pronouns «who»,«that», «which».
- •VI. Decide if the sentences are true or false.
- •VII. Speak about the features of the computer that you would like to have.
- •Bits — Basic Units of Memory
- •Bytes and Characters
- •The ascii Code
- •Kilobytes, Megabytes and Gigabytes
- •Exercises
- •IV. Translate the Following Sentences.
- •V. Read the text and render its contents.
- •Input device. Point and click!
- •Exercises
- •IV. Here are some basic mouse actions. Match the terms in the box with the explanations below.
- •V. Discussion Points.
- •Unit VI output device. The monitor
- •IV. Translate the sentences paying attention to the Gerund.
- •V. Rewrite these sentences about what you should do to protect your eyes. Use modal verbs: «must», «should», «ought to».
- •VI. Answer the questions.
- •Unit VII optical disks: pros and cons
- •Exercises
- •Unit VIII graphical user interface
- •Exercises
- •Unit IX programming languages
- •What is programming?
- •Exercises
- •IV. Read the text and find answers to these questions.
- •V. Read the passage and complete it with the verbs in brackets in the correct form. A Short Description of basic
- •VI. Speak on the advantages and disadvantages of the low-level and higher-level languages.
- •VII. Make up a summary of the text.
- •Basic features
- •Of database programs
- •Exercises
- •Unit XI word-processing facilities
- •Exercises
- •I. Match words and expressions meaning the same.
- •IV. Translate into Russian.
- •V. Make a summary of the text using the expressions given below.
- •Unit XII the postscript revolution
- •Exercises
- •IV. Translate the attributive groups.
- •V. These statements about PostScript are all false. Read and cor rect them.
- •VI. What is a PostScript? Choose the correct answer.
- •VII. Read the passage below looking for the main idea of scanners. Scanners
- •VIII. Think and say about.
Exercises
/. Mind the translation of the words «because» and «because of».
because — так как, потому что because of — из-за, вследствие
Mice are widely used in modern computers because they can do things that are difficult to do with the keyboard.
Windows is very attractive because of its multitasking ability.
It is very important to have a good user interface because people want to have easily operated devices.
A few years ago only experts could work with computers because of the complex access to the computer system.
Graphical interfaces are useful because they stimulate users to be more creative.
Macintosh interfaces are successful because of their easy interaction with the computer.
//. Translate the following sentences into Russian, paying attention to the infinitive constructions.
A computer is considered to be the «heart» of an electronic control system.
Graphic images are supposed to represent an object or task.
Personal computers (PC) appear to solve complex problems.
The cursor controlled by the mouse is known to move around the screen.
///. Find answers to these questions.
What does the abbreviation «GUI» stand for?
What is the contribution of Macintosh computers to the development of graphic environments?
What does the acronym «WIMP» mean?
What computing environments based on graphics are mentioned in the text?
How do your run a program on a computer with a graphical interface?
Can you give two reasons for the importance of having user-friendly interfaces?
Unit IX programming languages
Unfortunately, so far computers cannot understand either ordinary spoken English or any other natural language. The only language they can understand directly is called machine code: central processors operate on codes which consist of a series of binary digits (Is and Os). In this form, the instructions are said to be in machine code.
However, machine code as a means of communication is very difficult to write. For this reason, we use symbolic languages that are easier to understand. Then, by using a special program, these languages can be translated into machine code. For example, the so-called assembly languages use abbreviations such as ADD, SUB, MPY to represent instructions. These mnemonic codes are like labels easily associated with the items to which they refer.
Basic languages, where the program is similar to the machine code version, are known as low-level languages. In these languages, each instruction is equivalent to a single machine code instruction, and the program is converted into machine code by a special program called an assembler. These languages are still quite complex and restricted to particular machines.
To make the programs easier to write and to overcome the problem of intercommunication between different types of machines, higher-level languages were designed such as BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN or PASCAL. These languages are all problem-oriented rather than machine-oriented and can all be converted into the machine codes of different types of computers. Programs written in one of these languages (known as source programs) are converted into a lower-level language by means of a compiler (generating the object program). On compilation, each statement in a high-level language is generally translated into many machine code instructions.
People communicate instructions to the computer in symbolic languages and the easier this communication can be made the wider the application of computers will be. Scientists are already working on Artificial Intelligence and the next generation of computers may be able to understand human languages.