II. Find out if the following statements to the text a are true or false.

A New wave of education is learning at any time, in any place and even without going to class.

B One of the main attractions of such studying is the Web which gives you a possibility to save the money with online courses.

C Developing the interpersonal relationships is not important.

D No one believes that education can be taught via the Web and social skills can be gained from joining sports teams, summer camps, or just hanging out.

E Virtual classroom certainly places pressure on students: to become computer literate or be left behind in life.

F The creative approach to studying has rarely been the main concern in the design of educational systems.

G Computer technology can make individualized attention a real possibility.

H Computer technology will allow for the individual creative growth in students.

III. Fill in the gaps with suitable words.

1. Imagine you can _____ at any time, in any place and can complete your studying without ever going to class. 2. If you are interested in any _____, then head to the university and click yourself a degree. 3. The Internet is a powerful _______. 4. You need some computer _____ to pay for your new jeans with your debit card, or check to see if the library has the book you want. 5. The educational systems are _____ to develop flexible, inquiring minds. 6. Developing students' proper social behaviour has always exceeded the concern to develop students' ______. 7. The _____ technology will allow for the individual creative growth in students. 8. The Internet will provide amazing opportunities for the _____ of our society. 9. Computer technology provides _____ to unlimited amounts of knowledge and programs designed to help people learn and understand.

IV. Topics for discussion.

1. Which way do you prefer to study – in traditional university classrooms or in modern virtual ones?

2. What do you think is more important – the social skills or the computer ones?

V. Read the text and translate it into Ukrainian. Put ten questions to the text. Render it in English. Give the title to the text.

Text B

The processor (really a short form for microprocessor and also often called the CPU or central processing unit) is the central component of the PC. This vital component is in some way responsible for every single thing the PC does. It determines, at least in part, which operating systems can be used, which software packages the PC can run, how much energy the PC uses, and how stable the system will be, among other things. The processor is also a major determinant of overall system cost: the newer and more powerful the processor is, the more expensive the machine will be.

John von Neumann in his "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC", written in 1945, first organised the computer system into four main parts: the Central Arithmetical unit, the Central Control unit, the Memory, and the Input/Output devices.

Today, more than half a century later, nearly all processors have a "von Neumann" architecture.

The underlying principles of all computer processors are the same. Fundamentally, they all take signals in the form of 0s and 1s (thus binary signals), manipulate them according to a set of instructions, and produce output in the form of 0s and 1s. The voltage on the line at the time a signal is sent determines whether the signal is a 0 or a 1. On a 3.3-volt system, an application of 3.3 volts means that it's a 1, while an application of 0 volts means it's a 0.

Processors work by reacting to an input of 0s and 1s in specific ways and then returning an output based on the decision. The decision itself happens in a circuit called a logic gate, each of which requires at least one transistor, with the inputs and outputs arranged differently by different operations. The fact that today's processors contain millions of transistors offers a clue as to how complex the logic system is. The processor's logic gates work together to make decisions using Boolean logic, which is based on the algebraic system established by mathematician George Boole.

Modern day microprocessors contain tens of millions of microscopic transistors. Used in combination with resistors, capacitors and diodes, these make up logic gates. Logic gates make up integrated circuits, and ICs make up electronic systems. Intel's first claim to fame lay in its high-level integration of all the processor's logic gates into a single complex processor chip – the Intel 4004 – released in late 1971. This was 4-bit microprocessor, intended for use in a calculator. It processed data in 4 bits, but its instructions were 8 bits long. Program and data memory were separate, 1KB and 4KB respectively. There were also sixteen 4-bit (or eight 8-bit) general purpose registers. The 4004 had 46 instructions, using only 2,300 transistors in a 16-pin DIP and ran at a clock rate of 740 kHz (eight clock cycles per CPU cycle of 10.8 microseconds).

For some years two families of microprocessor have dominated the PC industry - Intel's Pentium and Motorola's PowerPC. These CPUs are also prime examples of the two competing CPU architectures of the last two decades - the former being classed as a CISC chip and the latter as a RISC chip.

VI. Fill in the blanks with suitable words: logic, switches, electricity, via, MOSFET, off, transistor.

1. Logic gates operate … hardware known as a switch - in particular, a digital switch. In the days of room-size computers, the … were actually physical switches, but today nothing moves except the current itself. 2. The most common type of switch in today's computers is a transistor known as a … metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor. 3. This kind of … performs a simple but crucial function: When voltage is applied to it, it reacts by turning the circuit either on or … . 4. Millions of MOSFETs act together, according to the instructions from a program, to control the flow of … through the logic gates to produce the required result. 5. Each … gate contains one or more transistors, and each transistor must control the current so that the circuit itself will switch from off to on, switch from on to off, or stay in its current state.