Vocabulary

spreadsheet - электронная таблица

relevant - соответствующий

detect - определять

plug in - подключать

enable - давать возможность

share - делить, совместно использовать

delay - задержка

superhighway – информационная супермагистраль

attachment - приложение

Exercises

Ex.1 Find the answers to these questions in the following text.

1. What is the difference between software and hardware?

2. What is a virus?

3. How can peripherals be defined?

4. What is connectivity used for?

5. What is FTP?

6. What can be attached to the documents and e-mails?

7. What are various ways of using the Internet?

Ex.2. Give definitions to the following words, the text can help you. Rephrase the sentences, if necessary.

• Computer

• Operating system

• Handheld computers

• Smart cards

• Website

• Information superhighway

• Telecommute

• Videoconferencing

Unit 2: New Technologies

Text A

• Read and translate the text, using vocabulary provided below:

The rapid development of technology in our modern world stimulates researches in the field of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is a branch of research that has gained much momentum in recent years due to its wide application of its principles and products. Every year a variety of microchips are created and improved, the scientists are inventing new ideas to improve and simplify our lives. Innovations based on using new nanomaterials are taking place in different fields of science. Let us take a close look at some of them:

World’s Smallest Computer

Scientists at the University of Michigan, UK, have come out with what they claim as world’s smallest computer that measures just one square millimetre. The computer is so tiny that it could fit into human’s eyeball.

 The developers of the device claim that they have used third generation Phoenix chip that supports the device work at low power consumption. With just about one square millimetre size, the device is packed with a pressure sensor, a battery, and a microprocessor among other equipments.

 Further, the device has a wireless radio connected to antenna that would transmit data to external device. The radio is developed in such a way that it requires no tuning to set frequency for connecting it to other wireless devices.

 This is the first true millimetre-scale complete computing system, in which all the components are low-power and fit on the chip. The nano device will take many years to get launched for commercial purposes. Once launched it is reported to address several issues and to be useful for medical purposes.

Innovative Way of Producing Electricity

Bloom Box, a new innovation by Bloom Energy to produce electricity, can keep running the power on an average of up to 10 years, and is now available for big industries.

According to sources, the unit can run on almost any fuel such as fossil fuel. It is, in fact, a reverse process for producing electricity from fossil fuels or hydrocarbons.

Moreover, the Bloom Box can be completely relied upon as the unit keeps running equipments like solar power generation or wind power making, whose function depends on the climatic conditions. Bloom Box is almost like a battery except for that Bloom Box can run up to 10 years.

World’s Smallest Transistor

A team of scientists at the University of Manchester has produced the world’s smallest transistor, which measures little bigger than a molecule. The transistor is the first true electronic nanocomponent, which is one atom thick and ten atoms wide. The development of the small transistor is a revolutionary step, which may enable silicon chips to continue to get smaller and could also double the processing speed of some chips.

Several years ago researchers led by Professor Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov discovered ‘graphene’, world’s thinnest material which is one atom thick and can be viewed as a plane of atoms pulled out from graphite. It is from graphene that the world’s smallest transistor is created. The graphene material is a highly stable and conductive material even when it is cut into gadgets one nanometer wide. According to the researchers, the smaller the size of the transistor, the better they perform.

Nanotechnology will be a very significant branch of research to improve our society in the future.