As far as I know; In fact; It is hard to say; To my mind; In my opinion I believe; I suppose.

Part I

1. Who made the greatest contribution to the development of the modern computer?

2. What was the very first calculating device?

3. What is the abacus?

4. How did W.Oughtred contribute to the problem of calculation?

5. When did calculators more sophisticated than the abacus and slide rule begin to appear?

6. Whom was the first adding machine designed by?

7. Why can the Pascaline be considered the first business machine?

8. How did Leibniz improve Pascal’s machine?

9. What device can be called the first practical information-processing device? Why?

10. What important lessons did the Jacquard loom provide?

Part II

1. When was the automatic computer invented?

2. Why did Babbage want to design a device for calculating mathematical tables?

3. What kind of machine was the Difference Engine?

4. How long was the Difference Engine being constructed?

5. What was the Babbage's reason for abandoning the project?

6. What was the dissimilarity between the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine?

7. What can you say about the Analytical Engine?

8. How long did Baggage work on the Analytical Engine?

9. Why didn't he complete it?

10. Who wrote the demonstration program for the Analytical Engine?

Ex. 22. If you think a statement is false, change it to make it true. (TIP: You should replace only one word in each sentence.) Go back to the text if necessary.

Part I

1. The abacus was devised in Babylonia in about 500 A.C.

2. The abacus consists of a circular frame with thin parallel rods strung with beads.

3. Blaise Pascal (the French mathematician and philologist) built the adding machine in 1642.

4. Gottfried Leibniz made improvements on Pascal's digital calculator.

5. The calculators of Pascal and Leibniz were reliable, because the component parts could not be manufactured with required precision at that time.

6. The Jacquard loom was the first device to use punch machines for inputting data.

7. Punch cards enabled the Jacquard loom to choose any pattern automatically.

8. It can be said that, in the Jacquard loom, a programmer was invented before the computer.

Part II

1. A computer that was completely out-of-date in conception was designed by Ch. Babbage.

2. The idea of mechanical calculating mathematical spreadsheets first came to Babbage in 1812 or 1813.

3. Babbage wanted to use electricity to automate the creation of logarithm tables.

4. At that time, steam was a reliable and unexplored source of energy.

5. In 1854, a Swedish writer built a working Difference Engine based on Babbage's ideas.

6. The Analytical Engine consisted of four basic components: the mill, the store, the keyboard and the printer.

7. The store of the Analytical Engine was to be large enough to hold 1,000 50-digit numbers.

8. The Analytical Engine was successfully completed.

Ex. 23. Fill in the gaps with the required word or phrase to complete each sentence.

The first mechanical calculator was the ___. Pascal designed the first adding machine for ___. The Step Reckoner invented by Leibniz could be used for ___. The Jacquard loom was invented for automatic ___. The ___ tables of the 19th century were full of mistakes. The Difference Engine could ___ equations and led to another ___, the Analytical Engine, which included the key parts of a computer system: an input device, a ___, a control unit, a memory, and an output device. Ada Lovelace helped to develop instructions for carrying out ___ on Babbage machine.

computations logarithm processor calculating machine weaving of cloth calculating taxes abacus extracting square roots

Ex. 24. Look through the text and fill in the gaps with the proper dates and names. Arrange the sentences in chronological sequence.

1. Ada King wrote the demonstration program for the Analytical Engine in ___.

2. The abacus remained the only means of calculation up to ___.

3. In ___, a Swedish printer built a working ___ based on ___'s ideas.

4. The calculator designed by Pascal was called the ___.

5. The Jacquard loom was invented by ___ in ___.

6. In ____, Babbage abandoned the Difference Engine.

7. ___ designed a special gearing system to enable multiplication on Pascal’s machine.

8. In 1823, ___ obtained a government grant to build the___.

9. In ___, a calculating machine called the Step Reckoner was invented by ___.

10. Augusta Ada King was the daughter of the famous English poet ___.

11. The ___ was the first device to use punch cards for inputting data.

12. The first mechanical calculator was the ___.

13. After the invention of logarithms, ___ constructed the first slide-rule in ___.

14. The idea of mechanical calculating mathematical tables first came to ___ in ___.

15. Babbage worked on the ___ for nearly 40 years.

16. ___ is recognized as the world’s first programmer.

17. The abacus was devised in ___ in ___.

18. ___ built the first adding machine in 1642.

TEXTS FOR ADDITIONAL READING

Ex. 25. Read and translate the texts, using a dictionary. Write a summary of one of the text. Make use of the phrases given in UNIT TWO.