Ill person.

Expert system programs have been written to look for oil, for

teaching in schools, and to help chemists and other scientists in their

work. Since 1981 Japanese scientists have been planning to make the

fifth generation of computers.

30

Every year, new and more powerful transistors are appearing. It is now possible to build computers that follow millions of commands every second. The fifth generation of computers will be high-speed computers, with even better expert systems which are easier to program. Scientists are now working on machines that can

be programmed in natural language. This means that a programmer will be able to talk to his computer in English or Arabic or French or Japanese. The computers will understand real languages and work with commands in these languages. This will mean that anyone can program a computer. The computers will be able to decide for themselves on the best way to do the work. When they know what you want, they might use a better program than yours to find the

answer.

Fifth generation computers will be able to do three important things. They will be able to store hundreds of different expert systems, each one full of useful data. They will be able to use this date to give the answers to very difficult questions. And, most important, they will be able to 'talk' with their users in a real language

like Arabic or English.

The race for the fifth generation computer was started by the Japanese in 1981. They said that this computer should be ready within ten years. Now, many other computer scientists from all over the world have joined the race. They are all working to build the fifth generation computer.

2) Search the text for the English equivalents of the words and word-combinations listed below:

-полно, много

-выполнять очень трудные работы -перегревались -числа и ответы пропадали -это было начало

-когда пришло время транзистора -были гораздо лучше -составлять программы -это дало уверенность -производители

-правильные вещи произойдут в нужное время -большое количество данных - было возможно -из-за большого числа транзисторов

31

• работать на высокой скорости

• определенный предмет

• например

• вероятно

• выполнять миллионы команд

• ученные всего мира

III Comprehension Check:

1) Answer the following questions:

1. How many stages in computer development are mentioned in the text?

2. What is the centre of each electronic device? What are the latest achievements in computing? What is an expert? What is an Expert System? What were Expert system programs written for?

6. What is the speed of the fifth generation computers available now

7. What are the prospects in the development of computers?

2) Find equivalents for the word-combinations in the left column.

1. many

2. supercomputer

3. to improve

4. achievement

5. to increase

6. to differ

7. it requires

8. nowadays

1. to make faster

2. a lot of

3. at present

4. to make better

5. to be different from

6. a computer which does all operations simultaneously

7. it takes

8. advancement

3) Give a summary of this article in English and saу what computers would you like to have if you were a computer collector and why.

Новое в музейном деле: пора коллекционировать старые

компьютеры.

Том Карлсон - это коллекционер антикварных компьютеров. Да удивительно, но уже прошло довольно много лет с изобретения ЭВМ, можно начинать их собирать, любоваться ими и вытирать невольную слезу при взгляде на

286-е машины.

Том Карлсон - поэт, ибо полагает, что музей его - то самое "место, где можно остановиться и вспомнишь старые добрые дни персональных компьютеров». Его спросили: «В чем ключ к счастью?». Он ответил: «Всегда ожидать чего-то интересного в электронной почте». Маньяк. Наверняка у него глаза красные от постоянного глядения в мониторы.

Собственно музей находится в американском Уильмсбурге, его виртуальное воплощение по адресу:

www.ncsc.us/fun/user/tcc/cmuseum/cmuseum.htm

За три года Том собрал 98 машин (десяток первых

Мас'ob, Tandy, Amiga), но вы всегда сможете помочь ему пополнить коллекцию. Наверняка во многих наших НИИ или школах до сих пор стоят ископаемые «Агаты». Достаточно послать фото и описание машины смотрителю музея по адресу: tcarlson@ncsc.dni.us, чтобы на следующий день ваш уникальный экспонат увидели обалдевшие пользователи всего мира.

4) Fill in the blanks with one of the words or word-combinations from the box.

invented, calculus, basis, analog, beads, abacus, device, reduces, vacuum tubes, experiments, advancement, count, devised, designed, digital, saves, slide rule, logarithm tables, figure out, calculating, calculating machine, mathematicians.

32

33

Let us take a look at the history of the computers that we know today The very first calculating ... used was the ten fingers of a man's hands. This in fact, is why today we still ... in tens and multiples of tens. Then the ... was ..., a bead frame in which the ... are moved from left to right. People went on using some form of abacus well into

the 16th century, and it is still being used in some parts of the world because it can be understood without knowing how to read.

During the 17th and 18th centuries many, people tried to find easy ways of .... J.Napier, a Scotsman, ... a mechanical way of multiplying and dividing, which is how the modern ... works. Henry Briggs used Napier's ideas to produce ... which all ... use today. .., another branch of mathematics, was independently invented by both Sir Isaac Newton, an Englishman, and Leibnitz, a German mathematician.

The first real ... appeared in 1820 as the result of several people's .... This type of machine, which ... a great deal of time and ... the possibility of making mistakes, depends on a series of ten-toothed gear wheels. In 1830 Charles Babbage, an Englishman, ... a machine that was called «The Analytical Engine». This machine, which Babbage showed at the Paris Exhibition in 1855, was an attempt to cut out the human being altogether, except for providing the machine with the necessary facts about the problem to be solved. He never finished this work, but many of his ideas were the ... for building today's computers.

In 1930, the first ... computer was built by an American named Vannevar Bush. This device was used in World War II to help aim guns. Mark I, the name given to the first ... computer, was completed in 1944. The men responsible for this invention were Professor Howard Aiken and some people from IBM. This was the first machine that could ... long lists of mathematical problems, all at a very fast rate. In 1946 two engineers at the University of 34

Pennsylvania, J. Eckert and J. Mauchly, built the first digital computer using parts called .... They named their new invention ENIAC. Another important ... in computers came in 1947,when John von Newmann developed the idea of keeping instructions for the computer inside the computer's memory.