TEXTS FOR READING AND TRANSLATION.

Text 1

Read and translate the text with the help of the dictionary:

Scanners.

Dynamic Pro 30: The Compute Scanning System

Envisions flat-bed Dynamic Pro 30 is a powerful color scanner that is not intended for the causal user. This single-pass scanner is capable of producing 30-bit color images at up to 2 .400 dots per inch (dpi) with quality that is comparable to expensive drum scanners. With the included transparency adapter, the Dynamic Pro 30 also does double duty: it can scan slides and paper images with equal fidelity.

The scanner which is based on the UMAX Power-Look system is easy to set up and use. People can use either the included SCSI host adapter or any similar product that provides an Advanced SCSI Programming Interface (ASPI). The scanner’s manual provides ample explanation and photos that will help guide even the SCSI novice. The manufacturers installed the Dynamic Pro 30on a system equipped with an Adaptec 2840 VL-Bus SCSI host adapter. A Windows-based set up program guides the user through installation of a Twain driver and supporting software. The user select either the Twain driver for the Envisions SCSI adapter or the generic ASPI-compatible driver.

Whenever the user request his application to acquire an image, the Dynamic Pro 30 software manifests itself as a large control panel. There are controls that let you choose either reflective or transparent image, color depth, scan resolution from 75 to 2.400 dpi, and the image dimensions. Graphic arts professionals will appreciate the program’s controls for adjustment of scanner highlight, contrast, gamma values and lamp intensity. The user can tell the scanner to flip, rotate, invert or reverse an image, or to do color adjustment and balancing while it is scanning. To make color separations the user can only the red, green or blue components of an image.

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All the user needs is a computer with a lot of memory and hard disk space to hold the images that the user scan and edit.

Text 2

Read and translate the text with the help of the dictionary:

Scanners.

Scan a line at a time

The Data Pen, from I.R.I.S. America, is a hand–held scanner that looks a highlighter. This scanner accurately transfers text from the printed page directly into any Windows application. Unlike most scanners the Data Pen takes in text one line at a time.

The Data Pen works best on flat surfaces, with printed or typed text. The user must be sure the brightness switch on the Data Pen is set to the correct option: bold text, normal text or light text. If the switch is improperly set, accuracy will suffer and scanning speed will be below the claimed 100 characters per second.

The Data Pen’s optical character recognition is highly accurate. It’s perfect for small jobs, such as scanning a few lines of text from an invoice or for students who need to put notes into a laptop. One of the most interesting potential uses is scanning a business card, which the Data Pen did with few errors, missing only a capital letter and a space between numbers in the ZIP code.

The most difficult aspect is Data Pen’s confusing manual. The Data Pen requires a bi-directional parallel port, which was not pointed out anywhere in the materials. The scanner software must be reconfigured to enable – printing a potential source of confusion.

Text 3

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HP office Jet: Desktop Triple-Play Peripheral

If you’ve got a typical small office, you have a computer, a printer and a fax machine. The Hewlett-Packard Office Jet combines a plainpaper fax, ink jet printer and a copier into one convenient package that can save space.

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The office Jet looks as if someone sawed off the front panel of a fax machine and grafted it onto an HP Desk Jet 520 ink jet printer. It produces high-quality 600-by 300-dot per inch resolution output.

The front panel includes a scanner (with a 20 sheet input tray) as well as buttons that you can use to configure the printer and fax, to send faxes and to make copies. If a fax is received while the printer is out of ink or paper, the machine will store up 24 pages of incoming faxes for later printing.

In addition to faxing documents, you can also copy them; the office Jet prints the scanned images instead of sending them out through the phone line. You can make from 1 to 99 copies, and reduce the image by as much as 70 per cent.

The print quality on duplication paper was surprisingly good and excellent on high-quality paper, where it looked as good as the output from many laser printers. Output for images with lots of dark or black areas tended to be a bit too dark, but there was little or no banding. Photo mode, copies of photographs were as good as or better than copies made on a personal photocopier.

Text 4

Read and translate the text, use the dictionary:

Pointing Devices.

Glide Point: Finger Navigation.

Traveling executive nightmare number 37

While you’re finishing tomorrow’s presentation on you flight home, your notebooks pointer locks in place, and no amount of playing with the trackball frees it. After you open the trackball to clean the actuator wheels, the ball slips out of your fingers and rolls down the aisle. Sud-dently , you’re flying in coach and your ball is riding in first class. Cirque Corp’s Glide Point Portable, an unique nonmechanical pointing device, rules out such airline ball games and lets you sleep easy.

The flat Glide Point Portable (3.4 by 2.7 by 0,5 inches) represents the latest thinking in pointing devices. To control the pointer, just run your finger across or just above the unit’s motion-sensitive surface. Clicking is accomplished by tapping one of the two mechanical buttons at the bottom of the unit or by tapping the Glide Point’s surface. Long, slow movements across the screen may require you to lift and reposition your finger. It takes a few minutes to become familiar with the Glide Point and just a day or so to become truly comfortable.

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The Glide Point identifies and tracks the center of your finger by detecting changes in the electrical field above the unit’s surface. There are no moving parts in the unit, so it is unlikely to stick the way most trackballs do. In more than a month of daily use, we had no significant problems.

The units connects to a PS/2 mouse port via a 3-foot cable and can comfortably be used next to the computer, above the computer’s keyboards, or even in your opposite hand. The Glide Point includes a 6-foot extension cable for desktop users.

Text 5

Read and translate the text with the help of the dictionary:

Color Printers

Printer manufacturers began to produce monochrome printers. And now they produce color printers. There are some kinds of printers:

-micro Marctm Colour Printer. This flexible color/black and white inkjet printer adds vivid color to any work. Windowstm /DOS compatible -micro Lazertm Pro 600 Printer. A feature packed, high performance 600 dpi printer. 8 pages per minute, 6 MB memory, two 250-sheet paper

trays. Mac/Windows/DOS compatible. Now available optional multi-net- work interface..

-New 12 ppm microLazer Power Pro Printer. Ideal for heavy graphics printing. 12 pages per minute, a turbocharged processor, 600 dpi, 67 scalable fonts. Mac/Windows/DOS compatible. Optional multi-network interface available.

-micro Writertm Printer. An entry-level, laser-quality printer for small business and home users, 300 dpi, 5 pages per minute.

-New 12 ppm microLazer Pro E. Ideal for volume intensive small work groups. 12 pages per minute, 600 dpi, Adobe Memory Boostertm . Mac/Windows/DOS compatible. Optional multi-network interface available.

-8920 Forms Printer. A heavy duty dot matrix printer for up to 9-part business forms. Adjustable 18 pin printed, five print speeds, zero tear-off for form wast elimination. Windows/DOS compatible.

dpi – dots per inch

Text 6

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Microsoft Natural Keyboards

Really, the way the Microsoft Natural keyboard fits you, it would be more accurate to ask you to try it on than try it out. What we have here is an entirely new kind of keyboard – a design that fits you like your most comfortable clothes. And promotes a more natural posture for comfortable computing.

But there’s much more to say about this keyboard. After all, it’s the result of extensive ergonomic and usability research.

We started by watching how people work, taking note of their natural body positions. How they type. And how they use Windows. Our findings, to be honest, were incredibly on elinghtening. We discovered there’s a lot of room for improvement in the standard elinghtening typewriter-keyboard. And that it could fit today’s computer environment better than it currently does. So we proceeded with a redesign. The result? A responsibly designed, split-keypad, gently sloping keyboard that fits more closely to the natural position of you hands and wrists. And one that is more comfortable, if a bit odd-looking.

With this innovative new design, we were able to encourage a straighter positioning of the wrist. Which helps to relax the forearm. Which then helps to relax the shoulder. All of which makes for a more natural typing position.

So we gave the keys a nice, soft touch and feel. What’s more, new keys and software simplify access to the Windows operating system. Like three new Windows function keys, a simple keyboard manager and mouse cursor accelerators.

Microsoft.

Text 7

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Pentium Notebooks

The newest Intel Pentium CPU was made expressly for notebooks. A 75-MNz version that could operate on a 50-MNz bus would ship in 1994. A 90-MNz version that had a 60-MNz data bus was available in 1995.

Toshiba is the first mainstream player to design cutting-edge features into its notebooks to make the best use of these Pentium chips. To reduce heat and keep the size and weight of the units down, Toshiba’s forthcoming Pentium notebook will use a paper-thin tabautomated bonded (TAB) version of the Pentium chip instead of the bulky ceramic pin-grid array

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(PGA), which encases the chip used in desktop systems. The smaller TAB package bonds easily to the motherboard and doesn’t need a noisy, bulky fan to keep it cool.

Toshiba’s new notebook will also an advanced form of DRAM called extended-data-out (EDO). EDO will provide performance comparable with that of a secondary cache, that is why Toshiba can save engineering time and manufacturing dollars. Notebooks can also save on battery power. EDO DRAM which is known as hyper-page-mode (HPM) DRAM, replaces fast-page-mode (FPM) DRAM in the Toshiba notebook. The result is a significant speed improvement. HPM will replace fast-page mode because it’s 38 percent faster.

Text 7

Read and translate the text, using the dictionary:

CMOS Memory

CMOS is used in PCs to store information such as the amount of installed memory, disk types, boot up diagnostics and the real-time clock data. Here’s how to access it.

To most of us, the CMOS configuration screen is no stranger. We enter all sorts of useful system information into this screen, but we can’t seem to get this information from CMOS later. CMOS also contains a wonderful clock with a built-in-alarm, which we don’t get to use. It contains boot diagnostic results that we aren’t allowed to see.

CMOS stands for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor – a type of transistor logic used as memory. Unlike the standard dynamic RAM (DRAM) used for main memory in PC-compatible system, CMOS RAM is static. DRAM, which is generally composed of two NMOS (negative metal-oxide semiconductor) transistors and one capacitor for each bit of data, will lose its memory after a short time. To avoid this, the PC continually reads and rewrites your system’s memory, doing what’s called a memory refresh. CMOS RAM is a combination of two NMOS transistors and two PMOS (positive metal-oxide semiconductor) transistors connected in such a way that no capacitor is needed. CMOS will hold onto its memory identifinitely as long as it’s connected to a small power source (usually a battery). CMOS memory takes up a lot of silicon real estate, and is much more expensive than DRAM.

CMOS memory is used on IBM-compatible machines to store system information that needs to be preserved even when the computer is turned off.

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CMOS memory is accessed by manipulating two I/O ports. The first port 70h – is a byte port used to set the address into CMOS memory. Port 70h is write only, so you can’t use it to read the current address in the CMOS memory. The second – port 71h – is used to read and write to the addressed data byte. If not handled correctly, memory access using ports 70h and 71h can create some messy problems.

Text 9

Read and translate the text, use the dictionary:

Delphi: a Promise of Power

Delphi is a visual programming environment targeted at professional developers who want an easy-to-use, object-oriented RAD tool that doesn’t compromise on power or performance. Delphi is still in early beta testing, but it looks highly promising.

Delphi also includes a true compiler. The user will be able to generate standalone machine-language EXE files or DLLs that can be called by other applications. Delphi applications will have a significant performance advantage over tools such as Visual Basic or Powersoft’s Builder, since these product generate pseudo-code programs that must be partially interpreted at runtime. Delphi automatically complies individual components as you add them to your interface . Delphi has a good use of experience with compilers and debuggers. The product is chock full of programming aids that takes full advantage of the GUI environment. Aside from state-of-the-art testing and debugging tools, Delphi adds an innovative twist to visual programming with two-way code generation. While many visual programming tools will generate source code from a visual object, Delphi goes further by automatically regenerating visual objects when you edit the source code.

While you can use Delphi to develop high-performance executables, you can also generate your-own custom controls for reuse with Delphi or with other development tools.

Veteran Borland language users will find the transition to Delphi’s environment especially easy. Delphi has the same editor and debugging kernel found in Borland’s C++4.0, and Delphi’s compiler is a superset of the one used in Borland’s Pascal 7.0.

Delphi’s powerful object-oriented language, its ability to use and subclass existing controls, and its capability of generating true machine-lan- guage executables add up to a formidable array of features, Delphi will be a fine addition to the growing number of high-performance, object-orient- ed development tools available for Windows.

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Lexical Test

I. True or False.

1. A computer is a device that accept data, then performs mathematical or logical operations that manipulate or change the data, and finally produces new results from that data.

2.By analog we mean a computer that uses the binary arithmetic system as the basic for its operation.

3.Software is a term used to describe equipment for a computer.

4.A program is series, or sets, of instructions.

5.A computer system is one that consists of only hardware and software components.

6.Software stores and manipulates data and executes instructions

provided by the hardware component.

7.Information is what the computer delivers after processing data.

8.Integrated circuits are also called chips.

9.Peripheral devices allow the user to interact with the computer.

10.Volatile memory retains its integrity even when the electricity is

shut off.

II. Multiple Choice

1. What do we call the process of giving the computer instruction? a) Instructing b) Programming c) Writing d) Inputting

2. The two types of operations a computer performs are

a)analog and binary b) reading and writing c) mathematical and logical d) ones and zeroes

3. A digital computer means

a)it continuously measures changing values

b)it operates on a system of ones and zeroes

c)it is mainly used for business

d)it is mainly used for research.

4.A person who instructs the computer in specific tasks is called a a) user b) technician c) programmer d) processor

5.The device used to produce the finished product is usually the a) printer b) monitor c) system unit d) keyboard

6.The term we use to describe programs and instructions written for the computer is

a) hardware b) software c) analog d) digital

7.A computer system is one that consists of hardware, software and a) CPU b) people c) peripheral devices d) data

8.System software works between the

a) user and hardware layers

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b)hardware and application software layers

c)peripheral devices and the CPU

d)the user and system layers

9. Memory is the general term used to describe

a)the size of the CPU

b)a computer’s peripheral devices

c)a computer’s storage

d)a computer’s output device

10. A common auxiliary storage device is the a) disk drive b) mouse c) keyboard d) CPU

11. A computer with a CPU designed to process eight bit bytes is called

a) an eight bit machine b) an eight byte machine c) a sixteen bit machine d) a sixteen byte machine

12. Processed data is still just data until

a) the CPU stores it in main memory b) it is stored in auxiliary storage c) it is processed by the CPU d) people turn it into useful information

13. The component of the computer system that provides the instructions for processing data is the

a)hardware b) software c) CPU d) ALU III. Matching

a.These occur when computers have been improperly programmed.

b.Includes respect for someone else's machine and private files, and honoring copyright laws by not making unauthorized copies of programs.

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c. This is used as an auxiliary storage device for large amounts of

data.

d. An area in which information plays a significant role in everyday

life.

e.This is one of operation a computer performs.

f.This memory is long-term.

g.Bytes are sometimes grouped to form the logical units.

h.These are two types of software.

i.The basic language of computer hardware comprised of ones and

zeroes.

j.Software frequently comes on this type of media.

k.A group of eight bits is referred to as this.

l.This is the volatile memory included on the motherboard.

TEXTS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Text 1.

Phones to the Fore

Try working when the telephone is constantly ringing. That is bad enough. Then try working when the telephone never rings. You will probably go out of business. The arrival of faxes, e-mail and computer networks does not alter the fact that the humble telephone and the telephone wire are the lifeline of all businesses.

Experts say that 80 per cent of processes that are critical to business depend on the telephone. Neil McLochlin, head of a business continuity working group at British Telecom, says: ‘It is not just about answering the telephone, it is about data, information and accessibility. You must be online and accessible to your customers.’

Roger Giblet, a communications consultant at Telecom Potential, which specializes in business continuity, goes further: ‘For any business continuity plan, the effective and immediate management of telephone communications is critical. In an emergency, not only is regular telephone traffic jeopardized but the levels of calls ae likely to escalate, exacerbating the situation and fuelling the crisis.’

‘Whether or not the building is evacuated or the switchboard is incapacitated, if callers can’t get through then business may be lost. By planning to maintain vital communications, you can avoid unnecessary threats or risks.’

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Companies such as Telecom Potential work with clients to determine the types of calls normally received, the different telephone numbers they use and which are the most valuable or important. It then designs a system to segregate the calls in an emergency, answering the most important.

British Telecom can provide a telehousing service where systems and information can be duplicated and housed off the premises. However, Mr. McLochlin says that it may not be necessary to rent or buy a separate building given the trend towards flexible working. He says ‘Many people no longer have a specific place of work. Before, all information was stored only at the place of work. Now it is managed on networks, so by using the phone at home or mobiles, staff can conduct business in a seamless way. The implications of a disaster in one location are less because of that.’

Answer the following questions:

1. What is the lifeline of all business?

2.Why must you be online and accessible to your customers?

3.What kind of work does Telecom Potential do?

4.British Telecom cannot provide a telehousing service, can it?

5.How can staff conduct business?

6.Are the implications of a disaster in one location less or more

because of that?

Text 2.

Taking Democracy into the Digital Age

Costa Rica, the oldest democracy in central America, is amplifying the voice of the people by moving its voter registration and electoral system into the 21st century. The republic, which has the largest number of computers per capita in the region, is hoping a marriage of technology and democracy will strengthen its civic institutions and safeguard citizens’ ‘stakes’ in their society. To then end, the country’s electoral tribunal has been working with Unisys as its technology partner to put in place a new $4.7m personal identification and voting system for citizens, which includes ‘biometric’ ID cards containing digitized fingerprint and signature images.

Officials say the solution helps electoral authorities verify each voter’s identity, ensuring the integrity of the election process, with the aim of making the voting system more efficient, flexible, and secure. All citizens over 18 among Costa Rica’s population of 3.5m must register to vote and personal ID cards are used for almost everything which requires official validation.

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The new cards will have images of the holder’s face, fingertips, and signature electronically captured, comparing the fingerprint images against the entire database to make sure only one record exists for each citizen.

The country is taking its civil register as the basis for its new electronic electoral register, with the intention that all new births will be registered using computer terminals in hospitals themselves, connected to a national database to maintain up-to-date census data. About 6,000 computers have been installed in rural schools, with the aim of a further 5,000 by the end of this year, which would then cover all the country’s schools.

The first step in a huge changeover, ahead of the presidential election in January this year, meant electoral authorities had to convert every one of the existing 2m voter ID photographs to a digital format. Tribunal officials processed 50,000 images per day until the deadline was met, allowing new electoral rolls in each of Costa Rica’s 429 electoral districts to be prepared.

Unisys brought together a broad array of technologies to carry out the transition work, including a fingerprint search match sub-system by identicator; a Datacard ID card production subsystem; Unisys PCs and servers; Hewlett-Packard optical image storage jukebox and document scanners; an Oracle relational database; Microsoft Windows; Symbol technology bar, code readers; Hitachi video cameras and Inforite signature pads.

One aim of the system is to enable citizens to vote from whatever precinct is most convenient for them, not just the one in which they are registered. The voting cards can also incorporate a chip which could then store more of an individual’s personal information such as banking or health details.

In May, Unisys joined Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government to work with researchers «to help federal, state and local government identify and implement information technology applications that are strategic or transformational in nature».

Answer the following questions:

1. How is Costa Rica amplifying the voice of the people?

2.What does a new personal identification and voting system for citizens include?

3.What does the solution help verify?

4.What will the new cards have?

5.Why did Unisys bring together a broad array of technologies?

6.What is the aim of the system?

7.Why did Unisys joined Harward University’s Kennedy School of

Government?

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Text 3.

Online World Adds a New Dimension (Part I)

It may seem like a 1990s concept, but there is nothing new about distance learning. Harold Wilson, the UK prime minister pioneered the ‘University of the Air’ – later to become the Open University – in the 1960s to provide remote learning for degree courses. Since then, audio tape, video tape and CD-Rom have enhanced the original paper and book materials to make distance learning far more widespread.

Computer networks – specially Internet and intranet technology – have recently added an online dimension to distance learning. While there are still some reservations about distance learning over the Internet – particularly about its effectiveness and the level of supervision – there is a clear trend towards increased use of the technology.

‘I think there are three distinct waves evident in the progress of distance learning,’ says David Burrows, group manager for skills and services development at Mictosoft UK. ‘The first is simple publication of training information on the web, which is now well established. The second wave, now under way, involves producing bespoke training with companies like Netg, using it as a delivery mechanism. The third wave is the most exciting because this gets into using the interactivity of the Internet to provide mediated training with things like video-conferencing and virtual tutors.’

British Telecom has devised a base framework for distance learning. Launched this February, Solstra is the result of two years’ research and development based on input from a panel of experts. ‘We assembled a team of around 35 training experts drawn from academia and corporate human resource departments to see where the network could contribute,’ explains Mick Durham, manager of the Solstra distance learning development program. ‘This focus group provided the input we needed to create Solstra.’

BT’s research showed that there were three clear areas where networking technology could offer organizations the opportunity to improve training and, more importantly, create the conditions for a genuine ‘learning organization.’ Mr. Durham says training was obviously identified as one area. ‘But we also saw two other areas in job support – where employees can plug into short courses relevant to a specific job task – and the area of knowledge management.’

The focus group recognized that the nature of the online training content should be more modular and needed to be surrounded by support material that would allow students to pursue their own path through the training material.

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Answer the following questions:

1. Is there anything new about distance learning?

2.What has recently added an online dimension to distance learning?

3.What distinct waves are there in the progress of distance learning?

4.What is the result of two year’s research and development?

5.What did British Telecom show?

6.How could students pursue their own path through the training material?

Text 4.

Online World Adds a New Dimension (Part II)

British Telecom has devised a base framework for distance learning. Launched this February, Solstra is the result of two years’ research and development based on input from a panel of experts. ‘We assembled a team of around 35 training experts drawn from academia and corporate human resource departments to see where the network could contribute,’ explains Mick Durham, manager of the Solstra distance leaning development program.

Mr. Durham says that Solstra Administrator supplies the mechanisms to monitor employees’ progress, carry out assessments and award appropriate accreditation to those who have completed course modules successfully. ‘This is where companies can really save money and get some real benefits.

Not only organizations can control the delivery of training content to employees, they can use Solstra to monitor personal development,’ he adds. ‘This is becoming increasingly important where legislation requires companies to meet compliance criteria – and prove that their employees have received the proper training.’

Paul Pestell, training manager for distance learning at Ford in the UK, has been closely involved in the development of Solstra and is testing it in a ‘live’ environment. ‘We are still testing it for the purposes of making it available across our company intranet. It is a long process and, inevitably there is some resistance because of unfamiliarity with the approach. Everybody sees its potential – but they don’t want to rush in too quickly.’ Mr. Pestell says Solstra is Ford’s first attempt at using the intranet as a delivery method for distance learning. The long term possibilities are considerable, however. ‘At the moment we have CD-Rom and Laser-disk based training – but the Internet is fairly new. But because its Internet based, we can potentially deliver training materials to any Ford installation in the world.’

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Solstra also provides a flexible framework for Ford to combine existing training media like CD-Rom with the intranet-based materials. This is particularly important for some of the training courses that Ford uses, involving large amounts of training materials. ‘The web also gives Ford a lot more options when it comes to employees making their choices clear. What we have discovered with the web-based systems is that we can use it to help employees decide for themselves how they receive training.’

Distance learning does not necessarily work for everyone so Ford has built in links on the web pages to let people register for classroom training if they wish. Mr. Pestell expects to be able to explore the administration features of Solstra even further – and use it to monitor distribution of training and other sorts of information.

Answer the following questions: 1. The result of what is Solstra?

2.How can Solstra be used?

3.What purposes is Ford still testing Solstra for?

4.How can Ford deliver training materials to any its installation in the world?

5.What is particularly important for some of the training courses that Ford uses?

6.How does Mr. Pestell expect to be able to explore the administration features of Solstra?

Text 5.

Computer Games

Battle with an alien spacecraft. Win the World Cup for your country. Use your skill and cunning to find your way through ancient castles. Yes, this is the exciting world of computer games! It’s not all about violence: there’s a game to suit everyone, from problem-solving to sports, and more and more are appearing in shops, cafes and clubs. The most popular game last summer was World Cup 90, a realistic football contest for two players. You choose your international team and, using your skill and tactics, control your team to win the Cup. If football isn’t for you, you could join the Turtles, or test your driving skill in Hard Driving.

Few people know more about computer games than Jon Ritman, a well-known British programmer. He has written Match Day, a football program, Batman and Head Over Heels – both arcade adventures. So how does Jon write a computer game?

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It takes a lot of careful and logical planning. At first he doesn’t know what the characters or story will be. ‘You think of the type of game you want to write and then find a story. It could be sports, an adventure, anything. Then you have to work out each section of the game very carefully. Computers are like children – you have to give them very careful instructions so they know what to do.’

Each instruction is very simple. It is the combination of instructions, in a very long list, that makes footballers score goals and spacecraft fly in computer games. This list of commands is what people refer to as a ‘program’. The computer understands it in the form of numbers, but there are different languages through which human words are translated into numbers for the computer. Sometimes the instructions tell the computer to show something on the screen. The screen has hundreds of little dots on it which are called pixels. Each pixel has a number so that the computer can recognize it. If you give the computer the number that means ‘red’ and the number of a dot it will make that dot red. Repeat instructions like this thousands and thousands of times, and you have a computer game. It’s as simple as that!

Answer the following questions:

1. What kinds of computer games are appearing more and more in shops, cafes and clubs?

2.Who knows everything about computer games?

3.How does Jon write a computer game?

4.What instructions do you have to give computers?

5.How does the computer understand the program?

Test 6.

Business Keen to Help Pay for New Scientific Network

A new high-speed research link is on the way – more than a thousand times faster than the present Internet and aimed at a research world hungry for greater speed.

The US government has wisely decided to allow the private sector to raise a significant portion of the $1bn needed for a new high-performance Internet. It will be used by US universities and research centers. Through Department of Defense funding, the US government was largely responsible for the original Internet. At the time the Internet was being built, more than 20 years ago, there was little interest from the private sector. Companies failed to see the importance of what is now commonly called the ‘Information Superhighway.’

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But now with the Internet a key commercial component in new markets such as electronic commerce, information services, and even telephone applications, the commercial value of a much faster Internet is easily seen. Internet 2, like the Internet, is designed primarily to offer highspeed communications between more than 100 universities and research centers within the US.

Offering potential speeds of more than a thousand times that of the current Internet, Internet 2 will aid collaboration among researchers for which the Internet is just too slow. Recruiting the private sector was easy. The government promised to award large contracts to participants in the project. And it was able to secure large contributions from key industrialists. Cisco Systems, which makes network equipment for Internet use, pledged $15m and other IT companies have also promised large sums. US private sector companies not only win good publicity from such a high profile project, but learn from the process and apply those lessons and technologies to their bread-and-butter markets.

So far, Internet 2 has made good progress. The first stage of the highspeed Internet 2 network was demonstrated recently at a conference in San Francisco. About 500 representatives of US research organizations and corporations involved in building the network witnessed a demonstration of a key part of the Internet 2 called Abilene. At a cost of $500m, Abilene will handle the communications between different sectors of Internet 2.

Although a private network, Internet 2 may be opened up to public use at some time in the future when its performance lags behind the needs of its users. In this way, the US government will ensure that a critical national resource, a high speed digital network, provides the infrastructure for future businesses and services.

Answer the following questions:

1. What has the US government wisely decided to allow?

2.Why was there little interest from the private sector 20 years ago?

3.Where is the commercial value of a much faster Internet easily

seen?

4.What is Internet 2 designed for?

5.Recruiting the private sector wasn’t easy, was it?

6.Where was the first stage of the high-speed Internet 2 demonstrated?

7.What will the US government ensure in the future ?.

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Use the table to retell newspaper articles:

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