II. Read and correct these false statements (use the paragraph ”crTs and lcDs “ to help you).

1. The images shown on a monitor are not generated by the video card.

2. All visible colours can be made from mixing the three primary colours of red, yellow and blue.

3. Typical CRT-based displays occupy less space than LCD displays.

4. Active-matrix LCDs do not use a technology called thin film transistor or TFT.

5. The size of the screen is measured horizontally.

III. Match each term with the correct definition.

1. phosphors a). the frequency at which a monitor renews its image, measured in Hz

2. LCD screen b). a flat-panel display which works by emitting light through a special liquid

3. pixel с). the space between a display's pixels

4. dot pitch d). the smallest element in a displayed image

5. refresh rate e). materials that emit light and produce colours when they are activated by an electron beam

ІV. Complete these sentences with words from the paragraph ”Big screens”.

1. If you intend to set up a..............................................................., consider getting a very big

screen, a DVD recorder and a good set of speakers.

2. A................................ .............takes digital images and displays them on a screen or wall.

3. The company announced plans to expand its........................................................ (DLP) cinema technology, which has thrilled test audiences with its dazzling colours and pin-sharp images.

4. In a................................TV, a large box contains both the projector and the screen built in.

5. The gas mixture in a................................................................is not dangerous.

Text IV Multimedia

I. Read and ranslate the text.

A multimedia system

Multimedia refers to the technologies and applications that integrate different media: text, graphics, sound, video and animation.

Its power resides in interactivity, hypertext and hypermedia. Multimedia software is usually interactive, so you can choose what you want to watch, listen to or write. Hypertext means that you can click on a word and jump to another screen with more information; hypermedia is similar, but works with sounds and images (e.g. the Web).

An IT student says: “I use multimedia for extracurricular activities. I download music from the Net and burn music onto CDs - I copy songs onto CDs. I talk with my friends on the Messenger. I also retouch digital pictures and edit video clips. To run multimedia software you need a fast CPU, expandable RАМ and a large hard disk. But what marks a computer out as a multimedia PC is its audio and video capabilities: a sound card, a microphone, a decent pair of speakers, a high-quality monitor and a DVD writer; and its performance depends on all these components working in harmony.”

Recognizing file formats

• To identify the type of file, an extension is added to the filename when it is saved on disk.

Common text extensions: .pdf (portable document format), .doc (MS Word document), .rtf (rich text format), .htm or .html (hypertext markup language for Web files)

• Video refers to recording, editing and displaying moving images.

Common formats: .avi (audio video interleave), .mov (QuickTime movie), .mpg (mpeg - moving picture experts group)

• Graphics include charts, photos, drawings, buttons, etc.: .gif (graphics interchange format), .jpg (jpeg - joint photographic experts group), .tif (tagged image file)

• Animations are made up of a series of independent pictures put together in sequence

to look like moving pictures.

Common formats: .gif for animated gifs, .swf for Flash files

• You can hear sound such as songs, movie soundtracks and speeches. Common

audio formats: .wav (Windows wave audio format), .ra (RealAudio file) .mp3 (compressed music files)

• Files compressed with Winzip have a .zip extension.

A popular format used to compress and distribute movies or DVDs or over the Net is DivX, a digital video codec (COmpress, DECompress).

Applications

■ In public places (e.g. museums and stations), there are information kiosks that use multimedia.

■ In education, it is used in presentations and computer-based training courses.

■ On the Web, audio and video are integrated into web pages. For example, RealPlayer supports streaming, which lets you play sound (e.g. from radio stations) and video files as a continuous stream while they are downloading.

■ In virtual reality, users interact with a simulated world: doctors train using virtual surgery; pilots use flight simulators to do their training; people visit virtual exhibitions, etc.

■ You can play games on a computer or video games on a dedicated machine, called a video console, which you connect to a TV set. You can also play games on the Net; some websites have a multiplayer facility that enables lots of people to play the same game at the same time.