Post-Reading Activities

Task 1

Vocabulary Development

Look back in the text and complete these sentences with the words: combat, attacks, impact, participate, anonymous, confidential, hostile, launch. Each word is only used once.

1. He told her that the news about the new system was still _______ . She was not allowed to talk to reporters.

2. Everyone in the group is expected to _______ in the workshops.

3. He will _______ a new computer company tomorrow.

4. To _______ cyber crime he suggested the company tried the InfraGard program.

5. He gave away half of the money he had made from designing the new computer program to the university but he remained _______ because he never told the university who he was.

6. _______ on computer systems can harm information stored in computers or even destroy it.

7. When the manager came to the factory, he was greeted by _______ workers because they hated him for his rude behaviour.

8. Computers have had a huge _______ upon the worldwide economy.

Task 2

Decide which statements are true and which are false.

1. The FBI has developed the computer program InfraGard.

2. It is thought that computer thieves take approximately $1.6 trillion dollars out of the world economy every year.

3. The number of cyber crime cases has doubled since 1998.

4. Companies have to pay the FBI to use InfraGard.

5. Janet Reno believes that high-tech companies and the FBI have to work together to help stop Internet crime.

6. If they use InfraGard companies have to share all their information with the public.

7. The program helps companies communicate with each other about Internet crime like computer viruses or computer hacking.

8. InfraGard did not begin as a trial project. Instead, it was used in all the FBI offices immediately.

9. InfraGard is a program that helps communication between companies by offering coded e-mail and a Web site that is meant to be secure from hackers and computer criminals.

10. Last fall companies found out about unfriendly computer programs called "zombies" because of the InfraGard system.

11. Several zombies stopped people receiving information service from Yahoo! by swamping it with huge amounts of data.

Task 3

Discuss these questions.

1. Hacking could be described as a form of electronic trespassing. Can you think of any situations where it would be acceptable to hack into another computer?

2. What sorts of crimes are committed using computers?

3. Write a list of rules for protecting the information on your computer safe.

Text 2 the first hackers

Pre-Reading Activities.

Think over these qestions

1. Do you know who hackers are?

2. How could you have protected important information in your computer from a hacker?

Reading Activities.

Read the text and define new words from the context.

Nouns: freshman,access to, authority, reign, pride, innovation,

bogus, endeavor, exhilaration, insights.

Verbs: to encompass, to promote.

Adjectives: bonaflde, awe-inspiring, mere, efficient.

The first "hackers" were students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who belonged to the TMRC (Tech Model Railroad Club). Some of the members really built model trains. But many were more interested in the wires and circuits underneath the track platform. Spending hours at TMRC creating better cir­cuitry was called "a mere hack." Those members who were interes­ted in creating innovative, stylistic, and technically clever circuits called themselves (with pride) hackers.

During the spring of 1959, a new course was offered at MIT, a freshman programming class. Soon the hackers of the railroad club were spending days, hours, and nights hacking away at their com­puter, an IBM 704. Instead of creating a better circuit, their hack became creating faster, more efficient program — with the least number of lines of code. Eventually they formed a group and cre­ated the first set of hacker's rules, called the Hacker's Ethic. ) Steven Levy, in his book Hackers, presented the rules:

• Rule 1: Access to computers — and anything, which might teach you, something about the way the world works — should be unlimited and total.

• Rule 2: All information should be free.

• Rule 3: Mistrust authority — promote decentralization.

• Rule 4: Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, race, or position.

• Rule 5: You can create art and beauty on a computer.

• Rule 6: Computers can change your life for the better.

These rules made programming at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory a challenging, all encompassing endeavor. Just for the exhilaration of programming, students in the AI Lab would write a new program to perform even the smallest tasks. The program would be made available to others who would try to perform the same task with fewer instructions. The act of making the computer work

.--more elegantly was, to a bonafide hacker, awe-inspiring.

(5) Hackers were given free reign on the computer by two AI Lab professors, "Uncle" John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, who realized that hacking created new insights. Over the years, the AI Lab created many innovations: LIFE, a game about survival; LISP, a new kind of programming language; the first computer chess game; The CAVE, the first computer adventure; and SPACEWAR, the first video game.

Post-Reading Activities.

Task 1 Decide which statements are true and which are false:

1. Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach. Those who cannot teach, HACK.

2. The first hackers were interested in railroad circuity.

3. The first hackers studied at MIT.

4. The point of a hackers’ work was to create a faster and smaller code.

5. Hackers had their own Ethic Code.

6. TMRC stands for Toy Machinery Railroad Car.

7. Hackers sabotaged the work of the AI LAB.

8. An elegant computer was, to a real hacker, awe-inspiring.

9. At AI Lab hackers wrote a comuter program for every other task.

10. Hackers were quite prolific in innovations.

11. Hackers were given free reign on the two AI Lab professors.

Task 2: Vacabulary development.

Put the proper words into sentences:

programming, insights, innovation, ethic, instructions, exhilaration, endeavor, awe-inspring, encompass, freshmen, authory, bogus, mistrust.

1. Decentralization results in … to the chief

2. Holding the door for a lady is the question of …

3. This still life isn’t Picasso; it’s a …

4. The report you’ve presented doesn’t … some of the problems.

5. If you can survive both in the jungle and the desert, a … Indian you are.

6. The … in how hardware works is obligatory for a good programmer.

7. Each … is another step to a new technological revolution.

8. In 1961 the Soviet Scientists’ … to conquer the space was a success.

9. … without any reason proves one’s carelessness.

10. Iron grip boss expects you to carry out all his … .

11. Annually MIT gains over 5000 … .

12. … should cause … terror in your heart.

Text 3

Computers in Education

Pre-Reading Activities

Think over these questions.

1. How are computers used in your school?

2. What do you think the following terms mean?

1. further education

2. open learning

3. flexible learning