Unit 1 What is a computer? The role of a computer in our life. Reading and comprehension

Exercise 1. Read the text. Answer the questions.

Text 1

A computer can be described as an electronic machine which can be used to store, process and display data. Computers are electronic and digital. The actual machinery of the computer, the wires, transistors and circuits, is called the hardware and the instructions and data are called the software.

The potential uses of computers are almost infinite, and this section mentions some of the most common current uses of computers in everyday life.

Computers have changed the way we do everyday things, such as working, shopping and looking for information. We design houses with the help of PCs; we buy books or make flight reservations on the Internet; we use gadgets that spring to life the instant they are switched on, for example the mobile phone, the music player, or the car ignition, all of which use microchips.

Computers have many uses for individuals. People use the Internet to explore their personal hobbies and interests, and to find information on an enormous variety of topics. Millions of people also use the Internet to access goods and services, such as booking a holiday or a flight, ordering books and DVDs or doing their banking online. Buying and selling goods at online auction sites such as eBay is also very popular.

We also use the Internet to make contact and keep in touch with people all over the world using email, voice email, text and voice chat and Internet telephony, where the user's PC acts as a telephone (Voice over Internet Protocol (often called VoIP or IP Telephony) is the sending of voice conversations over the Internet.). It is also common to send email attachments such as photos to family and friends.

In the world of leisure, computer games are very popular and multimedia (using more than one medium, such as text plus audio or video) DVDs and CD-ROMs as well as online gaming are used both for leisure and education. Buying and downloading online music in the form of MP3 files is also very popular as is listening to the radio and watching TV programmes and listening to podcasts. A podcast is an MP3 audio programme, such as a radio show, that can be downloaded to an MP3 player or a computer. Using an MP3 player or portable digital audio device, the user can listen to podcasts whenever and wherever he or she likes.

Many Internet users actually add to the Internet by making and maintaining their own homepages using HTML, the language used to create web pages, or specialized web creation software. Other users write and publish blogs. A blog is a website where a user creates and regularly updates a journal that often reflects the views of the writer. It can include text, photographs, video, audio files and links. The term is a shortened form of weblog. The activity is called blogging and individual entries are called blogs. The person who posts blogs is called a blogger.

People using home computers also use PIMs (personal information managers) to organize personal information such as addresses, or to write notes and lists of tasks to do.

With the appropriate hardware and software, a PC can do almost anything you ask. It's a magical typewriter that allows you to type and print any sort of document. It's a calculating machine that makes financial calculations. It's a filing cabinet that manages large collections of data. It's a personal communicator that lets you interact with friends. It's a small lab that helps you edit photos and movies. And if you like electronic entertainment, you can also use it to relax with games.

In schools, colleges and universities, students use word-processing programs to write essays and projects, presentation software to organize and present information, and databases to find books and information. The Internet is also an important educational tool, and is used in distance learning. Other common uses of computers in education are email and online learning, which uses the Internet as a medium for instruction and educational development.

A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a software system designed to help teachers in the management of educational courses for their students by creating a virtual classroom, a virtual place on the Internet where teachers and students can meet and use electronic learning tools such as videoconferencing, online classrooms, whiteboards, chat rooms and so on.

Teachers can create materials for the virtual classroom by using templates and then publishing them. Typically these might be quizzes and exercises such as gap fills, multiple-choice and true/false questions for the learners to use. The system can often follow a student's progress by recording his or her results. Although VLEs are often used for distance learning they can also be used to supplement the face-to-face classroom.

Kids use PCs to do homework, access information via the Internet for research, communicate with pals, play video games and collect digital music. Parents, too, use the PC for communication and entertainment but also let it handle mundane tasks like balancing the checkbook, monitoring investments, preparing tax returns. With the advent of more powerful PCs with greater storage capacity, families are digitizing home movies and photos are stored on the home computer.

Many people now work at home, and they communicate with their office by computer and telephone. This is called 'teleworking'. E-commerce (business conducted on the Internet) is becoming an ever more important part of our lives. Through its website, a company can offer computer users the opportunity to order and pay for goods and services using their credit cards on the Internet.

Companies use spreadsheet programs to do their accounts, word processing to write letters, presentation programs to organize and present information and databases to compile lists of customers. Graphics and desktop publishing (DTP) programs are extremely important tools in professions such as publishing and advertising. Companies can also use computer-assisted design (CAD) programs to design and test new products without actually having to build a working model.

PIMs (personal information managers) are also commonly used in business, enabling users to make notes, arrange appointments and index names and other details of business contacts.

Computers have allowed companies to reduce the amount of paper they use, to deal with information more efficiently and to exchange and publish data more easily. Theoretically, computers reduce the amount of paper used in an office, although many people argue that printing is now so easy that more paper is used in the office than ever before.

Alan Simpson “English for IT and the Internet”

S.R. Esteras and E.M.Fabre “Professional English in Use”

1. What is a computer?

2. What is software and hardware?

3. What can we do with the help of a computer at home? at work?

4. What do you use a computer for?

5. What is online auction? What sites do you know?

6. How can we use PC during our studies?

7. What is a virtual class? Do you think it is effective?

8. What are the ways of studying? Speak about advantages and disadvantages of each.

9. Do you agree that computers have changed the way we do everyday things?

10. Why do we say that it is impossible to imagine our life without computers?