Interview: it Manager

Combine the students' ideas on the board.

Listening

Task 3

Tom gives the dates of a number of developments in his own company. These dates are not the same as those listed in Task 1 as companies adopted the new technology at different times. Explain before students listen that Cray is a make of mainframe.

is combined with 1 think, and the speaker's intonation shows that he or she is fairly certain about this development. Go through the other expressions of certainty in each category; then ask students to say how certain they are about developments in the next ten years.

Task 6

What happened

started in computing, transistorized computer

1974 microprocessors came in

1980 first PCs

through the 80s enormous changes in hardware 1990 change from central to distributed

Key

Date 1965

computing early 90s first Cray

Complete this orally. Then set for an individual class-time task or for homework.

Computing words and abbreviations

Task 7

Once again you can use this task as a vocabulary progress test as it summarizes key lexis introduced in this and earlier units.

Task 4

Pre-teach air-conditioning, peak, reliable, unreliable. Part 1 contains useful lexis on change: grow, growth, drop, lift off, mushroomed, enormous, staggering changes.

Key

1. 16 kilobytes

2. magnetic tape

3. a megawatt a year

4. newer machines used much less electricity and did not require air-conditioning

5. the number of staff dropped

6. it was very unreliable

Task 5

Key

1/ 2/ 3/ 4X 5/ 6/ 7/ 8X

Language work

Write the examples from the interview on page 104 on the board. Ask students to group Tom's prediction as certain, fairly certain, and uncertain. Examples 2 and 2 fall in the first category, 3 and 5 in the second category, 4 in the third category. Expressing certainty is a matter of intonation as well as choice of modal verb or adverb. Although could often indicates uncertainty, in this example it

Key

Computer languages

Buses

address

control

data

C++ Delphi HTML Java

Provide further practice of the past passive using the few regular verbs presented in Task 2: develop, invent, introduce.

JavaScript Visual Basic

Task 8

Writing

Task 9

Number systems

binary

decimal

Machine cycle

decode execute store

This task provides practice in taking noun phrases to pieces to work out what they mean.

Key

1. a machine which is the size of an ant

2. a display which is mounted on the head

3. instruction which is assisted by computers

4. a future which is based on IT

5. design which is aided by computers

6. manufacturing which is aided by computers

7. an operating system which is based on characters

8. a disk which is protected against writing

hexadecimal