Taking Сomputer for Granted. Учебное пособие

UNIT 3

DO is used in many wide spread expressions, such as: He did his best and won the prize.

The accident isn’t his fault; it has nothing to do with him. How do you do.

Tell the truth and have done with it! You must do without much drink. This is all I have, will it do?

It won’t do you any harm …. This is the best I can do for you.

If DO precedes another verb, it emphasizes it and is often used when you invite smb to do smth: Do come to tea; do sit down; do take off your coat.

Sometimes it’s used to stress your absolute persuasion: I do know it! I do love you! I do understand it!

If MAKE precedes another verb it has a shade of compulsion:

I’ll make you do this work from the very beginning up to the end! Pay attention to the bare infinitive in this case.

3.Vocabulary training

1.Identification of words

Match the words in the left-hand column with their definitionsin the right-hand column, e.g. 1-9.

Taking Computer for Granted

2. Useful expressions

Invent sentences using the expressions from the left column:

3. Reading comprehension

Read the text, try to understand the topic, look for the logical sequence of the items and put them in the proper order. The first item is in the right position.

1.On May, 22, 1990, the critically accepted Windows 3.0 was released. Windows 3.0 had an improved program manager and icon system, a new file manager, support for sixteen colors, and improved speed and reliability.

2.Windows 2000 was based on Microsoft’s NT technology, and

Microsoft offered automatic software updates over the Internet. We can expect to see a greater user of speech and facial recognition in future versions of Windows. Computer users will soon control their computers without even touching a keyboard or mouse.

3.On August 24, 1995, Windows 95 was released in a buying fever so great that even consumers without home computers bought copies of the program. Windows 95 was considered very user-friendly. It was the first version of Windows that did not require MS-DOS to be installed beforehand.

4.Most important, Windows 3.0 gained widespread thirdparty support. Programmers started writing Windowscompatible software, giving users a reason to buy Windows 3.0. Three million copies were sold the first year, and Windows finally came of age.

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5.On June 25, 1998, Microsoft released Windows 98. It was the last version of Windows based on the MS-DOS kernel. Windows 98 has Microsoft’s Internet browser «Internet Explorer 4» built in and supports the new input devices like USB.

6.On April 6, 1992, Windows 3.1 was released. Three million copies were sold in the first two months. True Type scalable font support was added, along with multimedia capability etc.

4.Computer terms in use

A. Match the terms in the left-hand column with their definitions in the right–hand column, e.g. 5-7.

UNIT 3

B.Find out Russian equivalents of the computer terms given below. If it is beyond your grasp give at least Russian explanation:

OS. The software program, that controls the operating of a computer. It acts as an interface between the machine and the software applications. OS creates and organizes files and directories. It also controls the operation of peripheral devices. «OS» is an abbreviation. What does it mean?

Boot. Starting up an OS is booting it. If the computer is already running, it is more often called rebooting.

Address. A location of data, which is usually in main memory or on a disc. You can think of computer memory as an array of storage boxes, each of which is one bite in length. Each box has an address (a unique number) assigned to it. By specifying a memory address, programmers can access a particular byte of data.

Discs are divided into tracks and sectors, each of which has a unique address.

Format a disc. To prepare a storage medium, usually a disc, for reading and writing. When you format a disc, the operating system erases all bookkeeping information on the disc, tests the disc to make sure all sectors are reliable, marks bad sectors (those that are scratched) and creates internal address tables that it later uses to locate information.

Capture. A term for saving data in a computer.

Buffer. A temporary holding place reserved in memory. Browse. To look through files, directories etc on a computer system.

4. A bit of reading practice

Norbert Wiener (1894-1960)

Mathematician Norbert Wiener’s work in the area of communication theory led to the development of cybernetics, or the study of control and communication in animals and machines. His work also formed the basis for the branch of artificial intelligence research based on the processes of the human mind.

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Taking Computer for Granted

The son of a somewhat eccentric professor of Slavic languages and literature American mathematician Norbert Wiener’s inherent brilliance set him on intellectual path at an early age. Although his upbringing backfired to a certain degree, leaving him always somewhat skeptical of his abilities, Wiener’s work in mathematical theories would lead him to the founding of a new discipline – cybernetics, or the study of control and communication in animals and machines.

Wieners intellectual gifts exhibited themselves at an early age. Born in the college town of Columbia, Missouri, he was quickly recognized as a child prodigy and was reading fluently by age of three. He entered high school at nine, completing the four-year course in just two years, and went on to complete his undergraduate degree at Tufts University at age of 14. The following year, Wiener began postgraduates studies at Harvard University, earning his master’s degree in 1912 and his Ph.D. in mathematical logic one year later at the age of 19. He then traveled to England and attended Cambridge University, where he studied logic. Following his studies at Cambridge, Wiener attended the University of Gottingen in Germany.

On his return to the U.S., Wiener taught at Colombia, Harvard and Main Universities. Finding it difficult to focus entirely on academics, he also worked for a year as a stuff writer for Encyclopedia America, and for another year as a journalist for the Boston Herald. Although an ardent pacifist, Wiener also worked as a mathematician at the U.S. Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Maryland, where he helped formulate mathematical tables that were used to determine where guns should be aimed before firing. He was appointed professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1919, and remained on faculty there until 1960.

His scientific work at MIT sparked his interest in how information was transmitted and processed, both in humans and machines. As Wiener saw it, pure communication process involves similar, definable elements, whether they are conducted

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by machines or man. If those elements, or messages, once they were defined, could be rigorously controlled, then they could also be used to control both machines and human beings. And, by being able to modify behavior learning from these processes, both man and machine could evolve to higher levels functioning.

As Wiener continued his research, he coined the term cybernetics (from the Greek kybernetes for steersman).

Wiener’s work before and during World War II led to the publishing of Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and machine in 1948. In it he described a new way of looking at how the world functioned, based on his research on the way in which information is transmitted and processed. He saw a world that focused on information, not energy; and on digital or numeric processes. His theories not only laid the foundation for this new field of study, they also largely predicted the future development of computers. The book had an immediate impact; terms such as input, feedback and output, in common use today, were first introduced in Cybernetics. In subsequent books, he would theorize about a world where machines triumphed over their creators.

Wiener remained an active mathematician throughout his life. Although he is most noted as «the father of cybernetics», he also made many contributions to the fields of pure and applied mathematics, theoretical physics and theoretical engineering. Wiener’s work also formed the basis of another new scientific field – artificial intelligence – which amplified many of his theories on the relationship between man and machine in its search to develop a machine that could think.

Read and try to understand the given above text. Answer the questions:

1.What do you think about the artificial intelligence. Is it possible to create something like that? In case of your positive or negative answer prove your point of view.

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Taking Computer for Granted

2.Don’t you think that our modern computers symbolize movement towards the artificial intelligence? How can you prove your point of view?

3.Suppose, let’s say, in ten or twenty years the computer market will offer you instead of a computer an artificial intelligence. What would be your attitude to it?

4.No doubt, an artificial intelligence will essentially change people’s life. Can you predict in what way? You have a free hand to stir up your unrestricted fantasy.

5.Vocabulary peculiarities

Read, translate, remember.

A sharp turn

We left our friend Tom in a black mood because his sweetest «computer dream» didn’t come true. The main stumbling block, his Dad, was absolutely convinced that «this box would induce Tom to take to computer games and miss his classes; then he would fail his exams and would have to repeat the year». Tom knew that if his Dad had made up his mind everyone might have just as well give in without any fuss because his opinion was set in stone. It was a blind alley and there was no way out of it.

On a sudden … a lucky event turned the «routine course» of Tom’s life to a new favorable direction. Now it looks like things will pan out for him well. You’ll find out what happened while looking over the phone conversation between the two old friends, Tom and Jack.

Taking Computer for Granted

Make up sentences using these phrasal verbs and expressions.