Words and expressions

Headquarters - штаб квартира

Major supplier - основной поставщик

Information processing - обработка информации

Communications systems - системы связи

wide variety - широкое разнообразие

Space exploration - исследование космоса

Industrial giant - промышленный гигант

Electric typewriter - электрическая пишущая машина

Global market - мировой рынок

Competitor - конкурент

Full line of computers - полная линия компьютеров

Profits - прибыли

Integrated circuits - интегрированные сети

Peripheral - периферия

Record losses - рекордные потери

supercomputer - суперкомпьютер

artificial intelligence - искусственный интеллект

Exercise 1

Ответьте на вопросы:

1. What can you say about the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)?

2. Is IBM a major supplier of information-processing products and systems, software and communications systems?

3. When and where IBM was founded?

4. In what industries are IBM products used?

5. Was the company incorporated in 1911 as Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company?

6. Did it absorb the International Business Machines Corporation in 1924 and assumed that company’s name?

7. Who was to begin to build the floundering company into an industrial giant?

8. Did IBM soon become the country’s largest manufacturer of time clocks?

9. When did IBM enter the computer field?

10. How did IBM distinguish itself in the late 1950-th?

11. When did IBM dominate the global market for mainframe computers?

12. Are Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, and Data General serious competitors for IBM? Prove it.

13. When did IBM introduce its first personal computer?

14. What company is the world’s largest manufacturer of integrated circuits?

15. When did IBM suffer record losses?

16. Did IBM computer defeated the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game chess match? When did it happen?

Exercise 2

Найдите в тексте английские эквиваленты следующих слов и выражений:

Производитель компьютеров; основной поставщик; информационные системы; сопутствующие поставки; услуги; во всем мире; широкое разнообразие; компания была основана; поглотила; промышленный гигант; продукция , изготавливаемая по заказу правительства; корпоративная политика; доминировать на мировом рынке; потенциал; персональный компьютер; по более низким ценам; спад в экономике; рекордные потери.

Exercise 3

Поставьте следующие предложения в вопросительной и отрицательной формах:

1. IBM is an American computer manufacturer.

2. The company is a major supplier of information-processing products.

3. Its products are used in a wide variety of industries.

4. The company was incorporated in 1911.

5. In 1951 the company entered the computer field.

6. The development of IBM’s technology was largely funded by contracts with the U.S. government’s.

7. From the 1960s until the 1980s IBM dominated the global market for mainframe computers.

8. In 1981 IBM introduced its first personal computer.

9. The company was also the largest manufacturer of integrated circuits.

10. The company suffered record losses in 1992.

11. The victory of supercomputer over Garry Casparov was recognized as a development of artificial intelligence.

Exercise 4

Расскажите, что вы знаете о компании IBM (основатели компании, основные вехи развития, производимая продукция, место в мировом компьютерном рынке и т.д.)