Internet and e-mail

Here’s a list of some possible advantages (pros) and disadvantages (cons) of the Internet.

pros	cons
e-mail, instant messaging (1), chat rooms (2), news groups (3)	ISP (9) charges can be high for heavy users
e-commerce (4) (e.g. Internet banking, travel booking)	downloading (10) and uploading (11) times can be slow
ability to send files as attachments (5)	spam (12) can be annoying
fun of just browsing (6) and surfing the Web (7)	cookies (13) track your activities on the Web
ability to transmit graphic images (8) and sound files	many sites contain pornography and other offensive material (14)

(1) a kind of e-mail where both people are online at the same time

(2) an online conversation between a group of people on topics chosen by them, where you can enter or leave the ‘room’ at any time

(3) a website where people with shared interests can get news and information

(4) all kinds of business done on the Internet

(5) files you send at the same time as e-mail messages

(6) looking at different websites, with no particular goal

(7) moving from one website or one web page to another, usually looking for something

(8) technical term for pictures, icons, diagrams, etc.

(9) Internet Service Provider: a company that offers users access to the Internet and services, e-mail, shopping sites, etc., usually for monthly fee

(10) bringing files to your computer from the Internet

(11) sending files from your computer to the Internet or to another Internet user

(12) unwanted advertisements and other material sent to you by e-mail from companies

(13) a kind of program that is sent from the Internet to your computer, often without your knowledge, which can follow and record what you do, which websites you visit, etc.

(14) material such as pornography, or extreme political views, or material that encourages hate and violence against people

E-mail and Internet Communications

I’ve bookmarked the CNN home page as I use it regularly to get the latest news. [put it in a list of websites I can Access immediately]

If you subscribe to newsgroups, you often get hundreds of messages. [become a member of]

Some ISPs allow you to screen out unwanted mail. [prevent from reaching you]

Our server [central computer that distributes e-mail and other services to a group of users] at work was down [not work] yesterday so I didn’t get your message till today.

Some hacked into our company server and destroyed all our files. [accessed it illegally]

Do you have good anti-virus software? It’s worth updating it frequently. [protection against computer viruses]

She must have changed her e-mail address – the e-mail I sent her bounced. [came back to me]

That file you sent me as an attachment was unreadable. The text was completely garbled. [just a series of meaningless letters and numbers]

1. Use the correct words to fill the gaps in these sentences. You are given a paraphrase of the meaning in brackets.

1. I sent a photo of my house by e-mail to my friend in Canada, but it took ages to … (transfer from here to there) and I spent 20 minutes … (connected to the Internet).

2. I’ve had your message in my … (a place where unread e-mails are stored) for two days but haven’t had time to read it yet.

3. I had a lot of trouble to … (add to the programs already on my computer) that new software I bought.

4. How do I … (restore something accidentally rubbed out) on this computer?

5. I write my e-mails … (while disconnected from the Internet) and then connect to send them.

2. Look at these expressions taken from magazine articles and advertisements for computers and Internet services. In your own words, say what the words in bold mean.

1. A new law has given e-signatures the same legal status as handwritten ones.

2. E-learning will become more and more common as an alternative to traditional learning.

3. We have e-enabled everything you need to study on the Internet.

4. E-books are beginning to seriously compete with traditional books.

5. The dotcome economy has attracted hundreds of new businesses hoping to make a fortune.

Make sure you know how to read web addresses aloud. For example, for BBC news you can access http://news.bbc.co.uk/ which is read as H-T-T-P, colon, double-slash, news-dot-BBC-dot-co-dot-UK, forward-slash. Note that ‘co’ is read as [kou], ‘org’ and ‘com’ are normally read as [o(r)g] and [kom].