ADDITIONAL READING

TRANSLATE THE TEXTS AND DO THE EXERCISES BELOW:

TEXT 1.

COMPUTERS IN OUR LIFE.

A computer is a useful servant which always performs what it is told to do. A computer is a logical electronic device. Helping people in many respects it can’t be intelligent itself. There is a joking story about a computer and a student, who once wrote a program to be solved by means of this computer. It was rather complicated, but the student relied on his electronic friend and believed in success. The computer had been working for an hour before the final result was obtained, but it wouldn’t give the answer. The student was perplexed. He tried it again and again, but no answer came. And then it occurred to him, why the computer didn’t obey him: he had forgotten to tell the computer to print out the result that had been just computed.

With the direction of a man the up-to-date computers can compose music, write poetry, translate languages, play chess and do many other various activities. Usually we make a mistake speaking about “bad” or “good” computers. In most cases everything depends on the program makers and users who can be either skilled and competent or poorly educated and not creative.

TEXT 2.

TRANSISTORS.

The first transistors appeared in 1947 replacing vacuum tubes. The first transistors disappointed its designers. They were not very convenient in usage and they cost much. But there was one great advantage the transistors had: the power consumption (потребление энергии) was low. Some years later the transistors were improved and soon became indispensable because of their long life and great reliability. Transistors are also used in radio and hearing-aid circuits (системы для слуховых аппаратов). But the main role of transistors was in promoting the whole technology in microelectronics. The evolution of electronic technology can be called a real scientific revolution. Now all the efforts of scientists working in the field of electronics are given to reducing the size of electronic products as well as their cost while simultaneously increasing the rate of their work.

TEXT 3.

COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE.

Computers used for different purposes virtually do not differ in structure. Being different in size or purpose computers are alike (быть похожим) in architecture. Any computer system consists of three basic elements: the inputoutput ports; the memory and central processing unit (процессор). Let’s see the function of each. Input means the path whereby information is fed into the computer. Output unit is designed for taking the information out of the computer by such means as punch cards (перфокарты), magnetic tapes and terminals. The central processing unit controls the operation of the entire system by issuing (посылать) commands to other parts of the system.

When required it reads information from the memory, interprets instructions, writes the results back into the memory. It performs both arithmetic and logical operations. As we have already mentioned, the architecture of the computers does not differ much, but still there are some differences: in early computers a processor was made of thousands of vacuum tubes, the computers of today are based on transistors invented much later.

TASK 1.

Write out and translate all the International words from the text.

TASK 2.

Translate the following word combinations:

Different size; memory system; data processing; input-output unit; to take the information out; to control the entire system; to perform operations; to interpret instructions.

TASK 3.

a)Name all the units of the computer.

b)Find in the text the information about the control unit and its role.

TASK 4.

Write out all the Past Participles and Gerunds from the text.

IT IS INTERESTING TO KNOW…

The first general European currency* was a taler* which was made of silver and was used as the only money unit in all European countries. The taler existed up to the beginning of the 19-th century. In Scotland it had another name and was called a dollar.

After conquering American continent the dollar has become the currency of European immigrants who settled in North America. So, we can say that euro and dollar have one and the same great grandfather*.

Currency – валюта

Taler – талер

Great grandfather – прадедушка

The research into electric phenomena showed that the temperature of lightning electric charge is 30.000.000 C (thirty thousand degrees Centigrade). It means that it is six times hotter than that of the Sun.

Lisa Meitner, an Austrian physicist, announced the splitting of the atom after a long work in the laboratory which was organized by her at the very beginning of the 20-th century. Her discovery confirmed the beginning of the “atomic age”. It is interesting to know that Lisa Meitner was the first woman in the history of science who earned her doctorate (докторская степень) in physics.

Have you ever seen lightning flash? Of course, you have. Weren’t you surprised to know that the flash was quite far away from you? This fact can be explained by the definite sound speed in the air which is approximately equal 330 meters per second.

By the way, not only air carries sound waves. These waves can travel in different gases, solids and liquids as well. There is a physical law declaring that the more density the material has, the higher is the speed of sound waves in it.