Text c:howard aiken (1900 – 1973)

He built the Mark I, the first working dig-ital computer. A brilliant inventor, he was not a good fortune-teller. Said Aiken in l947: "There will never be enough problems, enough work for more than one or two of these computers”

Howard AikenA Step Toward Today

In 1944, Harvard University physicist Howard Aiken built the forerunner of today's computer.

Aiken's Mark I was the first working digital binary computer. It used thousands of electrical switches that clicked on and off to compute data. When it was running, the switches sounded like the clicking of knitting needles.

Howard Aiken grew up poor in Indianapolis, Ind. He had to work his way through school, but he made it through Harvard.

Aiken, like Charles Babbage, had a prickly personality. While his computer, the Mark I, was being built, he drove the workers like slaves.

For 16 years the Mark I was used to solve the complex equations needed to aim the

U.S. Navy's big guns. But it was much slower than later computers, which use electronic components instead of switches.

Vocabulary:

message – сообщение, послание

highway - магистраль

digital computer – цифровая вычислительная

машина

device - устройство

submarine – подводная лодка

engine - машина

to store - хранить,вмещать

digit number – однозначное число

to take apart – разбирать на части

eventually - со временем

mean - плохой

to yell - кричать

forerunner – предшественник

railroad - железная дорога

flashing light - сигнальный свет

lighthouse - маяк

fortune-teller - предсказатель

binary - двоичный

switch - переключатель

to click on (off) – включаться (выключаться) со щелчкомto compute - вычислятьdata - данные

knitting needle - спица (вязальная)prickly - колючийto drive - перегружать работойslave - раб

equation - уравнениеto aim - целитьgun – орудие

Exercise 1. Complete the sentence according to the text.

1. Howard Aiken thought ...

1. there would never be enough work for computers.

2. that computers would be a part. of our future.

3. that people wouldn't do without computers in the nearest future

2. Howard Aiken was …

1. a good fortune-teller.

2. right as far as future application of computers was concerned.

Exercise 2. Chose the sentences which doesn't correspond to the text

1. Harvard University physicist H. Aiken built the forerunner of today's computer.

2. The first working digital binary computer used thousands of electrical switches.

3. Aiken's Mark was quicker than later computers with electronic components.

Exercise 3. Choose the proper answer to the question according to the text.

For what purpose was the Mark I used ?

1. The Mark I was used the U S Navy.

2. The Mark I was used to solve the complex equations in the Universities.

3. The Mark I was used for making electronic components.

Text d : steve wozniak (born in 1950) and steven jobs (born in 1955)

Working out of a garage, the young video game fanatics invented the Apple computer in 1976. The age of home computers was born.

One of Atari’s early employees was 19 -year-old Steven Jobs. He and a friend, Steve Wozniak, who worked for another computer company, both loved video games.

Jobs and Wozniak dreamed of a personal computer, one that could do more than play games. From this dream, Apple Computer Company started in family garage.

In 1977 Jobs and Wozniak sold their first Apple II, which launched the personal computer industry. By 1985 they had sold more than two million Apple II’s.

The Apple II was more than a toy. People could use it to write letters, keep financial records and teach their children. And, yes, they could play games on it.The Apple II evolved into today's high- tech Macintosh computers. These computers popularized the use of the mouse, the hand-controlled device that moves the cursor on a computer display.