Английский язык для IT-специалистов 2 CONTENTS ВВЕДЕНИЕ...............................................................................................................................4 MEETING PEOPLE. PERSONAL INFORMATION .................................................................5 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS ................................................................................................10 APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER.......................................................................................13 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS ................................................................................................17 WEATHER AND HOBBIES....................................................................................................20 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS ................................................................................................25 THE TIME. SCHEDULES .......................................................................................................27 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS ................................................................................................38 COMPUTERS. APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS. COMPUTER USERS .............................41 SPECIALIST READING ......................................................................................................46 COMPUTER HARDWARE .....................................................................................................49 SPECIALIST READING ......................................................................................................55 INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICES ....................................................................................................57 SPECIALIST READING ......................................................................................................65 DATAPROCESSING AND STORAGE ...................................................................................67 SPECIALIST READING ......................................................................................................72 COMPUTER SOFTWARE.......................................................................................................74 OPERATING SYSTEMS .........................................................................................................78 SPECIALIST READING ......................................................................................................81 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE ..........................................................................................83 SPECIALIST READING ......................................................................................................86 WORD PROCESSING .............................................................................................................88 SPREADSHEETS ....................................................................................................................93 SPECIALIST READING ......................................................................................................96 DATABASES...........................................................................................................................98 SPECIALIST READING........................................................................................................102 COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA ...................................................................107 SPECIALIST READING ....................................................................................................115 LIST OF LITERATURE USED..............................................................................................117 3 ВВЕДЕНИЕ Английский язык можно по праву назвать профессиональным языком ITспециалистов. Многие не могут получить желаемую работу в IT-сфере по причине низкого уровня английского языка. Наша программа предназначена для специалистов и студентов, занятых в IT-сфере и изучающих английский язык в профессиональных целях, интересующихся современными информационными технологиями и желающих быть в курсе всех современных тенденций. Данный курс сочетает в себе необходимые знания современного разговорного и технического английского языка. Программа курса включает изучение профессиональной лексики, чтение аутентичных текстов, использование аудио- и видеоматериалов, которые помогают в короткие сроки сформировать ключевые навыки: монологическая и диалогическая речь, чтение, письмо, восприятие и понимание иноязычной речи на слух. 4 MEETING PEOPLE. PERSONAL INFORMATION Ex.1. Read and listen. Stand up and practice. Sandra: Hello. I’m Sandra. What’s your name? Hiro: My name’s Hiro. Sandra: Hello, Hiro. Ex.2. Read and listen. Stand up and practice. Remember I’m= I am Name’s= name is What’s= what is Sandra: John, this is Hiro Shiga. Hiro, this is John Mason. Hiro: Hello, John. John: Hello, Hiro. Ex.3. Read and listen. Stand up and practice. 1)- Hi, John. How are you? - Fine, thanks, Sandra. And you? - I`m OK, thanks. 2) - Hello, Hiro. How are you? - Very well, thanks, Sandra. And you? - I`m fine, thanks. Ex.4. Write am, is or are. I ___ Sandra. How ___ you? This ___ John. Ex.5. Listen and write. How are you? · · · · · · · · · · OK Fine, thank you ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ 5 Ex.6. Listen and repeat. Translate into Russian. Tired ____________ Happy ____________ Sleepy ____________ Sad ____________ Surprised ____________ Hungry ____________ Scared ____________ Thirsty ____________ Excited ____________ Hot ____________ Bored ____________ Cold ____________ Ex.7. Complete the conversations. Listen and check. - Hello. ________ name’s Anna. _______ your name? - Ben. - Hello. My ______ Carla. What’s ______ name? - ______ name`s David. Ex.8. Complete the conversations. Listen and check. - _______, Anna. _______ are you? - Fine, thanks, Ben. ______________? - _______ well, thanks. - Hi, Carla. _______ _______ you? - _______, thanks. ____________? - OK, _______. Ex.9. Number the lines in the conversation. Listen and check. □ Fine, thanks. □ I`m OK, thanks. And you? □ Hello. My name’s Rita. What`s your name? □ Hello, Tina. Hello, Mary. □ I`m Tina, and this is Mary. □ Hello, Rita. How are you? Ex.10. Look at the numbers 0-20. Listen and repeat. 11eleven 0 zero/ “oh” 12 twelve 1 one 13 thirteen 2 two 14 fourteen 3 three 15 fifteen 4 four 16 sixteen 5 five 17 seventeen 6 six 18eighteen 7 seven 19 nineteen 8 eight 20 twenty 9 nine 10 ten 6 Ex.11. Listen and write down the phone numbers you hear. 1. _______ 2. _______ 3. _______ 4. _______ Ex.12. Ask and answer. What’s your phone number? It’s … / My phone number is … Ex.13. Listen and repeat the numbers. 20 twenty 30 thirty 40 forty 50 fifty 60 sixty 70 seventy 80 eighty 90 ninety 100 a hundred. Pay attention! 21 twenty-one 22 twenty-two 23 twenty-three 24 twenty-four 25 twenty-five 26 twenty-six 27 twenty-seven 28 twenty-eight 29 twenty-nine Ex.14. Listen and repeat. How do you say these numbers? 26 29 35 47 58 64 Ex.15. Ask and answer. How old are you? I’m… / I’m … years old. Ex.16. Read the big numbers below. 100 one hundred 201 two hundred and one 259 two hundred and fifty-nine 1 000 one thousand 1 200 one thousand two hundred 1 750 one thousand seven hundred and fifty 20 300 twenty thousand three hundred 100 000 one hundred thousand 500 375 five thousand three hundred and fifty-seven 2 000 000 two million 7 Remember Words hundred, thousand and million are used in the singular. Ex.17. Listen and repeat Australia Brazil England France Italy Japan Spain the United States Ex.18. Listen and repeat Her name’s Sandra. She’s from Spain. His name`s Hiro. He’s from Japan. Ex.19. Read and listen. Stand up and practice. Hiro: Where are you from, Sandra? Sandra: I’m from Spain. Where are you from? Hiro: I`m from Japan. From Tokyo. Ex.20. Read, listen and repeat. What’s his name? What’s her name? Where’s he from? Where’s she from? Ex.21. Complete the conversation. Listen and check. Hello. I’m Sandra. What`s _______ name? _______ name’s Luis. Hell, Luis. Where are you _______? _______ from Spain. Where are you from? Oh, I’m from Spain, too. _______ from Madrid. Ex.22. Listen and write the countries. 1. Gerard: _______ Akemi: _______ 2. Charles: _______ Bud: _______ 3. Loretta and Jason: _______ Ex.23. Read the information. Complete the questions and answers. Listen and check. Name Amy Roberts Country England Address 18, Market Street, Manchester Phone number 0161 929 5837 Age 20 Job Student Married? No 1. What’s her ______________? Amy Roberts 8 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Where’s she _____________? What’s her ______________? What’s her ______________? How old is she? What’s _________________? Is she __________________? England 18, Market Street, Manchester 0161 929 5837 She`s _______. ______________________. No, she isn’t. Short answers Is she from England? Yes, she is. Is she married? No, she isn`t. Ex.24. Give short answers. Is she from London? _______________ Is she from Liverpool? _______________ Is she from Manchester? _______________ Is she 16? _______________ Is she 18? _______________ Is she 20? _______________ Is she a student? _______________ Is she married? _______________ Ex.25. Complete the sentences. Amy isn’t from the United States. She is from England. Her phone number _______ 0171 929 5837. It’s 0161 929 5837. She _______ 18. She _______ 20. She _______ married. Ex.26. Listen to the conversations. Complete the chart. Name Giovanni Tomba Country City/ Town Phone number Age Married? Ex.27 Give short answers. Is Giovanni from Italy? ________________ Is his phone number 06 944 8139? ________________ Is he married? ________________ Is Diana from the United States? ________________ Is she 29? ________________ Is she married? ________________ 9 Diana Black Remember Positive Negative Question I’m=I am You’re= You are I’m not=I am not You aren’t= You are not Am I? Are you? He’s= He is She’s=She is He isn’t= He is not She isn’t=She is not Is he? Is she? It’s= It is We’re= We are It isn’t= It is not We aren’t= We are not Is it? Are we? They’re= They are They aren’t= They are not Are they? Short answer (positive/negative) Yes, I am. /No, I’m not. Yes, you are. /No you aren’t. Yes he is. / No, he isn’t. Yes she is. / No, she isn’t. Yes, it is. /No, she isn’t. Yes, we are. No we aren’t. Yes, they are. / No, they aren’t. CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Ex. 1. Complete these dialogues with the words in the box. all is meet name’s Nice this too you Welcome What’s Natasha: Hi, my _________ Natasha. Khalid: Pleased to _________ you. I’m Khalid Ali. Natasha: Pleased to meet you, _________. Philip: Good morning. __________ your name? Ahmed: I’m Ahmed. And _________ are? Philip: My name’s Philip. _________ to meet you. Tim: Hi, everybody, _________ is Ingrid. All: Hi! Tim: Ingrid, this ________ Ahmed, Linda, Mohammed and Mansoor. Ingrid: Nice meeting you _________. Linda: Likewise. Tim: _________ to team and good luck. Ex. 2. Complete the questions. 1. ______________ name? 2. ______________ from? 3. ______________ phone number? 4. How old ______________? 5. ______________ job? 6. ______________ married? Ex. 3. Tick(ü) the correct sentence. 1. □ My name Sandra. □ My name’s Sandra. 10 2. □ What’s he’s name? □ What’s his name? 3. □ ‘What’s his name?’ ‘Luis.’ □ ‘What’s her name?’ ‘Luis.’ 4. □ He’s from Spain. □ His from Spain. 5. □ Where she from? □ Where’s she from? 6. □ What’s her name? □ What’s she name? 7. □ She’s name’s Ann. □ Her name’s Ann. 8. □ Are you from Spain? □ Is you from Spain? 9. □ He’s phone number is 766542. □ His phone number is 766542. 10. □ How old is she? □ How old she is? 11. □ She is no married. □ She isn’t married. 12. □ ‘Are you married?’ ‘Yes, I am.’ □ ‘Are you married?’ ‘Yes, I am not.’ Ex. 4. Match the questions and the answers. Where are you from? What’s her name? What’s his name? Where’s he from? How are you? How old are you? How old is she? Are you married? His name’s Luis. He’s from Madrid. Yes, I am. I’m 40. I’m from Brazil. Fine, thanks. Her name is Olga. She is 36. Ex. 5. Write the numbers. 42 _________________________________________ 138 _________________________________________________ 3 695 ________________________________________________ 6 322 243_________________________________________________________________ 67 _________________________________________ 643_______________________________________________ 65 _________________________________________ 463 482 __________________________________________________________________ 354 ____________________________________________________ 11 Ex. 6. Write the numbers. 11+11= twenty-two 65*5= ___________________ 76+5=___________________ 2458-56= ___________________ 100*10= ___________________ 1128/2= ___________________ 54+24-6= ___________________ 34+7*9= ___________________ 12 APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER Ex.1. Look at the adjectives in the box. Listen to a student explaining what they mean and put them into the right order. _ handsome _ good-looking _ beautiful _ pretty _ ugly _ lovely Listen again and answer the questions below. Which adjectives are opposites? _____________________ Which adjective also describes character? _____________________ Which adjective is used to describe men only? _____________________ Which adjectives are not used to talk about men?_____________________ Which adjective is negative? _____________________ Which adjective(s) describe you?_____________________ Ex.2. Use the presentation (“Appearance”) and give English equivalents. Молодой ________________________________________________________ Средних лет ________________________________________________________ Пожилой ________________________________________________________ Низкий ________________________________________________________ Среднего роста ________________________________________________________ Высокий ________________________________________________________ Толстый, с избыточным весом ___________________________________ Стройный, в хорошей физической форме ___________________________________ Худой ________________________________________________________ Тощий ________________________________________________________ Спортивный, атлетически сложенный ____________________________________ Вытянутое лицо ________________________________________________________ Круглое лицо ________________________________________________________ Овальное лицо ________________________________________________________ Квадратное лицо ________________________________________________________ Тонкие губы ________________________________________________________ Пухлые губы ________________________________________________________ Прямой нос ________________________________________________________ Длинный нос ________________________________________________________ Вздернутый нос ________________________________________________________ Усы ________________________________________________________ Борода ________________________________________________________ Родинка ________________________________________________________ Веснушки ________________________________________________________ Цвет лица ________________________________________________________ Бледный ________________________________________________________ Светлый ________________________________________________________ Восточного типа ________________________________________________________ Тёмный ________________________________________________________ Загорелый ________________________________________________________ 13 Серые глаза ________________________________________________________ Голубые глаза ________________________________________________________ Карие глаза ________________________________________________________ Зеленые глаза ________________________________________________________ Подбитый глаз, синяк под глазом _______________________________________________ Раскосые глаза ________________________________________________________ Узкие глаза ________________________________________________________ Большие глаза ________________________________________________________ Прямые волосы________________________________________________________ Кучерявые волосы ________________________________________________________ Волнистые волосы ________________________________________________________ Чёлка ________________________________________________________ Пучок ________________________________________________________ «Хвостик» ________________________________________________________ Коса ________________________________________________________ Африканские косички ________________________________________________________ Длина волос ________________________________________________________ Лысый, с лысиной ________________________________________________________ Короткие волосы________________________________________________________ Волосы до плеч ________________________________________________________ Длинные волосы ________________________________________________________ Светлые волосы ________________________________________________________ Тёмные волосы ________________________________________________________ Рыжие волосы ________________________________________________________ Седые волосы ________________________________________________________ Золотисто-каштановые волосы __________________________________________________ Русые волосы________________________________________________________ WordBox Bossy [`bɔsɪ]–распоряжающийся; тот, кто любит командовать Calm [`kɑ:m] – спокойный Clever [`klevə] – умный Friendly [`frendlɪ] – дружелюбный Generous [`dʒenərəs] – щедрый Honest [`ɒnɪst] – честный Horrible [`hɒrəbl] – ужасный Lazy [`leɪzɪ] – ленивый Nice [naɪs] – милый, приятный Polite [pə`laɪt] – вежливый Rude [ru:d] – грубый Serious [`sɪərɪəs] – серьезный Shy [ʃaɪ] – робкий Sociable [`səʊʃəbl] – общительный Stupid [`stju:pɪd] – глупый Talkative [`tɔ:kətɪv] – болтливый, разговорчивый 14 Ex. 4. Write down one word to characterise a person who does these things. Likes to give orders – bossy Doesn`t like to work – ____________________________ Always says “please” and “thank you” – ____________________________ Chats all the time – ____________________________ Knows many things – ____________________________ Always tells the truth – ____________________________ Gives his things to others – ____________________________ Has a lot of friends – ____________________________ Seldom smiles – ____________________________ Says bad words – ____________________________ Seldom shouts – ____________________________ Ex.5. Ask your partner what kind of friends he (she) likes. Example: Do you like serious or talkative friends? Ex.6. Look through the list of characteristics of people in the horoscope and find what the stars say about you. Are they true about you? 22 Dec. – 20 Jan. Capricorn [`kæprɪkɔ:n] Козерог People are serious and sociable, but they are shy. They work a lot, have got a lot of friends and want to have a good job. 21 Jan. – 9 Feb. Aquarius [ə`kwərɪəs] Водолей People are friendly and sociable, have a lot of clever and crazy ideas, like to be different. 20 Feb. – 20 March Pieces ['paɪsi z] Рыбы People are calm, a bit lazy. They help other people. They are good at art. 21 March – 20 Apr. Aries [`eəri:z] Овен People are generous and bossy. Sometimes they are rude. 21 April – 21 May Taurus [`tɔ:rəs] Телец People are careful and helpful. They like working in the garden and cooking food. 15 22 May – 21 June Gemini [`dʒemɪnaɪ] Близнецы People are clever and funny; interested in books. They like travelling and chatting with friends. They are talkative. 22 June – 23 July Cancer [`kænsə] Рак People are honest, not aggressive; have a sense of humour. They are interested in history. 24 July – 23 Aug. Leo [`li:əʊ] Лев People are honest and generous. They like nice clothes and buying presents for their friends. 24 Aug. – 23 Sept. Virgo [`vɜ:ɡəʊ] Дева People are critical, helpful and good friends. They like beautiful things around them. 24 Sept. – 23 Oct. Libra [`lɪ:brə] Весы People are friendly, energetic or lazy, but nice. Clothes are important for them. They like dancing. 24 Oct. – 22 Nov. Scorpio [`skɔ:pɪəʊ] Скорпион People are clever and brave, but not very honest. They always get what they want. They are good friends. 23 Nov. – 21 Dec. Sagittarius [ sædʒɪ`teərɪəs] Стрелец People are talented and brave. They always tell the truth. They love travelling and playing games. Ex.7. Think of the colour you like most. Read this chart. Do you have this personality? BLACK You are intelligent and like to discuss serious things. BROWN You are bossy and like to tell others what to do. BLUE You like outdoor games, and you like cold weather. GREEN You are friendly and like cold weather. PURPLE You are a little bit shy and you kike being alone. 16 PINK RED YELLOW WHITE You have so good sense of humour, you don`t take things too seriously. You are active, enthusiastic and have strong feelings. You are happy, friendly person, and you love being in the sun. You like things to be clean, you are very tidy, and you plan ahead. Ex.8. Speak about your personality. I like blue, and I enjoy outdoor games. I like purple, but I`m not shy. CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Ex.1. Fill in the table using the words from the box. curly red blue thin blond straight tall fat long slim brown short grey fit bald green Eyes Hair Body Ex.2. Find the opposite expressions in the columns below. thin short good-looking sun-tanned skin freckles all over the face fit pale skin ugly tall short straight hair fat thick long curly hair fair hair dark hair no freckles Ex.3. Add as many words as you know to the following groups. Positive characteristics of people Negative characteristics of people nice rude Ex.4. Each heading below summarises one of the paragraphs in the text. Read the text and match the headings to the correct paragraphs. 1. Ideas of beauty 200-300 years ago __ 2. The bigger the better __ 3. Pale is beautiful! __ 4. The importance of a long neck __ 17 5. The perfect modern woman __a __ 6. Showing your emotions __ 7. The world`s most handsome men __ You`re Gorgeous a) For many people, German-born supermodel Claudia Schiffer is the perfect beauty: tall and slim, blue-eyed, tanned and athletic-looking with long blond hair. No wonder people have described her as “The most beautiful woman in the world”. b) But people have not always had the same ideas about beauty. Until the 1920s, suntans were for poor people, ‘ladies’ stayed out of the sun to keep their faces as pale as possible. Five hundred years ago, in the times of Queen Elizabeth I, fashionable ladies even painted their faces with lead o make them whiter – a very dangerous habit as lead is poisonous! c) And people in the eighteens century would certainly not have thought much of Claudia Schiffer’s hair! Ladies in those days never went out without their wigs, which were so enormous – and so dirty – that it was quite common to find mice living in them! As for the ‘perfect beauties’ painted by Rubens in the seventeenth century, if they wanted to be supermodels today they would have to spend months on a diet! d) Ideas of beauty can be very different according to where you live, too. For the Paduang tribe in South-East Asia, traditionally the most important sign of beauty was a long neck ring, and each year they added new rings. By the time they were old enough to marry, their necks were about twenty-five centimeters long! e) And what about the ideal man? If you ask women today to name an attractive man, most mention someone like Russel Crowe, Mell Gibson or Denzel Washington: someone tall and strong, brave and ‘manly’. f) In the eighteenth century, however, ‘manliness’ was very different from what it is today. As well as wearing wigs, perfume and lots of make-up, a true gentleman showed his feelings by crying frequently in public. According to one story, when British Prime Minister, Lord Spencer Percival, came to give King George IV some bad news, both men sat down and cried! g) And even now, Russell Crowe might not find it so easy to attract women if he visited the Dinka tribe of Sudan. They have always believed in the saying that ‘big is beautiful’. Traditionally, each year, men compete to win the title of ‘fattest man’. The winner is sure to find a wife quickly: for a Dinka woman, if a man is fat, it is also a sign that he is rich and powerful! Ex.5. Are these statements true or false? 18 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Pale skin was more popular than tanned skin until the twentieth century. True Elizabethan make-up was not safe. _______ In the eighteenth century, fashionable ladies had mice as pets. _______ Women in Rubens’ time probably never went on diets. _______ Paduang women with short necks couldn’t get married. _______ In the eighteenth century it was OK for men to cry. _______ Dinka women from Sudan think that thin men are very ugly. _______ Ex.6. Find words in the text that mean: 1. (for hair) light-coloured or yellow blond 2. Pleasant to look at _______ 3. Having skin made darker by the sun _______ 4. Of more than average height _______ 5. (for skin) light-coloured _______ 6. Looking physically strong and good at sport _______ 7. Having the good qualities of a man _______ 8. Thin in an attractive way _______ 9. Having a lot of courage _______ 10. With blue eyes _______ Ex.7. Find the opposites to the words in the box below in the exercise above. Cowardly _____________________ Dark-haired _____________________ Fair-skinned _____________________ Fat _____________________ Short _____________________ Ugly _____________________ 19 WEATHER AND HOBBIES Ex.1. How many seasons are there in a year? What are they? Seasons: _______________; _______________; _______________; _______________. Ex.2. Read and guess what season it is: a) The season between spring and autumn, when the sun is hot. _____________ b) The season between winter and summer, when birds come back from hot countries. ____________ c) The season between autumn and spring, when it is cold and there is a lot of snow. _____________ Ex.3. These are the months of the year. What is the correct order? Listen and check. March June October April February December November May September August January 1. _________________; 2. _________________; 3. _________________; 4. _________________; 5. _________________; 6. _________________; 7. _________________; 8. _________________; 9. _________________; 10. _________________; 11. _________________; 12. _________________. Ex.4. Match the words and the symbols. sunny rainy windy 1 2 3 snowy 4 Which symbols can the following adjectives go with? 20 cloudy 5 foggy 6 July Hot warm cold cool wet dry Ex.5. Listen and complete the answers. ‘What`s the weather like today?’ ‘It`s _____________ and ____________.’ ‘What was it like yesterday?’ ‘Oh, it was _____________ and _____________.’ ‘What`s it going to be like tomorrow?’ ‘I think it`s going to be _____________.’ Pay attention! The question What … like? asks about a description. What`s the weather like? = Tell me about the weather. Ex.6. Watch the video and give the information about the weather. Northern Canada South America Parts of Europe Asia America Ex.7. This postcard describes a holiday with good weather or bad weather. Read it and underline the words for either good weather or bad weather. 21 Ex.8. Match the sentences with their translations. Nice weather today, isn’t it? Льет как из ведра. I think it will clear up soon. Погода становится теплее. I can’t stand windy weather. Думаю, скоро будет ясно. It rains cats and dogs. На небе – ни облачка. It looks like rain/snow. Кажется, дождь (снег) собирается. The sun is shining. Мне жарко. The weather is getting warmer. Милая погодка сегодня, не так ли? It's a fine day, isn't it? Не выношу ветреную погоду. There is not a cloud in the sky. Небо затянуто облаками. I'm hot. Какой сильный ветер дует! The sky is overcast. Хороший день, не правда ли? What a strong wind blows! Светит солнышко. Ex.9. Read and listen to three people from different countries. AL WHEELER from Canada We have long, cold winters and short, hot summers. We have a holiday home near a lake, so in summer I go sailing a lot and I play baseball, but in winter I often play ice-hockey and go ice-skating. My favourite season is autumn, or fall, as we say in North America. I love the colours of the trees – red, gold, orange, yellow, and brown. MANUELA DA SILVA from Portugal People think it`s always warm and sunny in Portugal, but January and February are often cold, wet, and grey. I don`t like winter. I usually meet friends in restaurants and bars and we chat. Sometimes we go to a Brazilian bar. I love Brazilian music. But then suddenly it`s summer and at weekends we drive to the beach, sunbathe, and go swimming. I love summer. TOSHI SUZUKI from Japan I work for Pentax cameras, in the export department. I don`t have a lot of free time, but I have one special hobby – taking photographs, of course! I like taking photographs of flowers, especially in spring. Sometimes, after work, I relax in a bar near my office with friends. My friend, Shigeru, likes singing pop songs in the 22 bar. This has a special name ‘karaoke’. I don`t sing – I`m too shy! Ex.10. Answer the questions. 1. Do they all play sports? 2. What do All and Manuela do in winter? 3. Do Manuela and Toshi like going to bars? 4. Where is Al’s holiday home? 5. When does Toshi like taking photographs of flowers? 6. What do Manuela and her friends do in summer? 7. Do you know all their jobs? 8. Why does Al like autumn? 9. Why doesn’t Toshi ding in the bar? 10. Which colours are in the texts? Ex.11. There are six mistakes about Al, Manuela, and Toshi. Correct them. Toshi comes from Japan. He Manuela comes from Al Comes from Canada. In has a lot of free time. He likes taking photographs and singing pop songs in bars. winter he plays ice hockey and Brazil. She likes sunbathing and sailing in summer. goes skiing. He has a holiday home near the sea. Ex. 12. Match the words with the pictures. Tick(ü) the things that you like doing. □ playing football_1_ □ dancing ______ □ skiing ______ □ watching TV______ □ going to the gym______ □ taking photographs_____ □ cooking______ □ playing computer games______ □ sailing______ □ listening to music______ □ swimming______ □ reading_____ □ eating in restaurants_____ □ going to the cinema______ □ jogging_____ □ sunbathing______ 2 3 4 1 5 8 6 9 7 11 12 13 10 15 14 Ex.13. Tell the other students what you like doing and what you don’t like. I don’t like watching TV, but I like reading very much. 23 16 Ex.14. Discuss in groups what you think your teacher likes doing. Choose five activities. - I think he/she likes cooking. - No, I think he/she likes eating in restaurants. Ex.15. Ask your teacher questions to find out who is correct. Do you like cooking? Do you like eating in restaurants? Ex.16. Say which of these things you are fond of, interested in, crazy about. Example: I am fond of music. I hate singing. Things or activities hate fond of interested in crazy about Music Sports Pop songs English Literature Drawing Knitting Collecting things Reading Singing Fishing Hiking Dancing Visiting places Growing flowers Doing nothing Playing computer games Ex.17. Make a list of things you can do in good weather and things you can do in bad weather. Good weather Bad weather Watching TV Sunbathing Ex.18. Answer the questions. What is your favourite season? Why? What do you do in the different seasons? 24 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Ex.1. Write the names of the months in order. April September March December June November May July October February August January Ex.2. Here are some weather words. Circle the words that you can find. Do you know the meaning of these words? Cloud fog hail rain sleet snow thunder wind rainbow storm dew H C L O U D A T R R S S N O W H H A L D J S T U A I E H D T E N I N E F E O S D L B T O W R R E J O H G D M K R C W S K R A I N Ex.3. Organize the words in the box into two columns. roller-skating gymnastics table tennis basketball jogging racing karate boxing badminton skateboarding baseball horse riding cycling golf activities roller-skating games table tennis 25 Ex.4. Read the text and underline hobbies people can have. Hobbies Different people like doing different things; different people have different hobbies. My brother is fond of collecting stamps. He has got a very good collection and he is proud of it. His stamps can tell you about different people and different countries. My brother often says that his hobby is popular with people of all ages. Collecting stamps is easy and interesting. It is real fun. You begin to learn many interesting facts about history and famous people when you start to collect stamps. At first people collect every kind of stamps. But soon they begin to make special collections. Sometimes they specialize in stamps of one subject only: for example, birds, animals, flowers or sports. Birds or sports is your theme. This kind of collecting is called thematic. My brother`s collection is thematic. His theme is fish. My best friend, Nelly, is a collector too. She is fond of collecting badges. Her collection is thematic. Her theme is sports. She keeps her badges on the wall. When you come into her room you can see them all there. My grandfather collected coins when he was a boy. Some people collect dolls. My uncle does. When he travels he always brings home dolls from different countries. Some people collect pictures, cups, toys, toy soldiers, books, pencils and many other things. But collecting things is not the only hobby people have. Some people are fond of travelling or gardening. Very many boys and girls are fond of sports and that is their hobby. My aunt’s hobby is taking pictures and my mother is fond of music. Ex.5. Find in the text the English words for: 1) Марки ____________________ 2) Гордиться _____________________ 3) Люди всех возрастов ______________________________ 4) Известные люди ______________________________ 5) Тематический ______________________________ 6) Значки ____________________________ 7) Монеты ______________________________ 8) Фотографировать _____________________________ 26 THE TIME. SCHEDULES Ex.1. Listen and repeat the numbers. First (1st) Second (2nd) Third (3rd) Fourth (4th) Fifth (5th) Sixth (6th) Seventh (7th) Eighth (8th) Ninth (9th) Tenth (10th) Eleventh (1th) Twelfth (12th) Thirteenth (13th) Fourteenth (14th) Fifteenth (15th) Ex.2. Say these numbers. Listen and check. 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th 25th 26th 27th 28th 29th 30th 31st Ex.3. Listen and write the numbers. The first of January The __________________________ of March The __________________________ of April The __________________________ of May The __________________________ of June The __________________________ of August The __________________________ of November The __________________________ of December Remember We say: The third of January We write: 3 January 3rd January January 3rd Ex.4. When is your birthday? It`s on the third of March. 27 Ex.5. Read the years. 1730 Seventeen thirty 1829 Eighteen twenty-nine 1919 Nineteen nineteen 1998 Nineteen ninety-eight 1900 Nineteen o[əʊ] o[əʊ] 2000 2001 2002 2004 2014 Two thousand Two thousand and one Two thousand and two Two thousand and four Two thousand and fourteen Ex.6. Listen and underline the years you hear. Say them. 1. 1426/1526 2. 1699/ 1799 3. 1818/ 1880 4. 1939/ 1949 5. 1951/ 1961 6. 2007/2010 Ex.7. Tell the class. I was born on the twentieth of July 1978. Ex.8. Listen and repeat. Write the times. 1. It`s nine o`clock. 1. It`s __________________________. 2. It`s nine thirty. 2. It`s __________________________. 28 3. It`s nine ________________. 3. It`s __________________________. 4. It`s __________________________. 4. It`s __________________________. 5. It`s __________________________. 5. It`s __________________________. Ex.9. Listen and draw the times. 1 2 3 4 5 6 29 Ex.10. Listen to the conversation. Work with a partner. Ask and answer questions about the clocks. - What time is it, please? It`s nine o`clock. Thank you very much. Remember What time is it? = What is the time? = Could you tell me the time? = What time is it by your watch? Ex.11. Look and remember. 6:05 – six (oh [ 'əu ]) five or five past six. 6:10 – six ten or ten past six. 6:15 – six fifteen or a quarter past six. 6:25 – six twenty five or twenty five past six. 6:30 – six thirty or half past six. 6:45 – six forty five or a quarter to seven. 6:50 – six fifty or ten to seven. 7:00 – seven o'clock. Ten past six. (BrE) Ten after six. (AmE) Десять минут седьмого. Ten to nine.(BrE) 30 Ten of nine. (AmE) Без десяти девять. Ex.12. Complete the times. Listen, check and repeat. It`s two thirty. 2:30 It`s half past two. It`s seven fifty. 7:50 It`s ten to eight. 3:35 It`s twenty-five to four. It`s ten fifteen. 10:15 It`s five-oh-five. 5:05 12:45 It`s quarter to one. Ex.13. Read and listen to the phone conversation. Answer the questions: a) What time is it in New York? b) What time is it in Sydney? Mr Edwards: Hello. John: Good morning! Is that Mr Adwards? Mr Edwards: Who is this? John: It`s John from New York. Mr Edwards: What time is it in New York, John? John: It`s 8.30 in the morning. Mr Edwards: Oh. Do you know what time it is in Sydney, John? John: Er, no. What time is it in Sydney, Mr. Edwards? Mr Edwards: It`s 11.30 …p.m. John: Oh, good evening, Mr. Edwards. Mr Edwards: Goodnight, John. Ex.14. Complete with Hello or Goodbye. Good morning. Good afternoon. = a) _____________ Good evening. Goodnight. = b) ___________ Ex.15. Listen to Lena talking about her school days. Circle the times. 1. I get up at 7.30/ 7.45. 2. I have breakfast at 8.00/ 8.15. 3. I go to school at 8.30/ 8.40. 4. I have lunch at 12.15/ 12.45. 5. I leave school at 3.30/ 4.15. 6. I get home at 4.30/ 4.45. 7. I go to bed at 11.00/ 11.30. Ex.16. Listen and repeat the questions. What time do you get up? What time do you have breakfast? Ex.17. Karl Wilk is 22 and he is a computer millionaire. He`s the director of netstore24.com, a 24-hour shopping site on the Internet. Read about his day. Look at the pictures. Write the times. 1. He gets up at six o`clock and he has a shower. 31 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. He has breakfast at ___________________. He leaves home at ___________________ and he goes to work by taxi. He has lunch (a Coca-Cola and a sandwich) in his office at ___________________. He usually works late. He leaves work at ___________________ in the evening. He sometimes buys a pizza and eats it at home. He gets home at ___________________. He never goes out in the evening. He works at his computer from ___________________ to ___________________. 8. He goes to bed at ___________________. 6:00 am 6:45 am 7:15 am 1:00 pm 8:00 pm 9:15 pm 9:30 – 11:30 pm 11:45 pm Ex.18. Underline the verbs in ex.17. Write them out. Listen and repeat. 1. Gets up, has; 2. _____________________; 3. _____________________; 4. _____________________; 5. _____________________; 6. _____________________; 7. _____________________; 8. _____________________. Pay attention! 1. Most verbs add –s. He Listens She Leaves It Walks 2. Verbs ending in –s, - ss, -sh, -ch add –es. He Watches She Washes It 3. Go, have and do are irregular. He Does 32 She It Goes Has Ex.19. Look at the adverbs of frequency. Listen and repeat. 90% 40% usually sometimes These adverbs usually come before the verb. We never go out in the evening. He usually goes to work by taxi. She sometimes has a cup of coffee. 0% never Ex. 20. Read the questions. Complete the answers. Use ex. 17. Listen, check and repeat. 1. What time does he get up? He ______________ up at 6.00. 2. When does he go to bed? He ______________ to bed at 11.45. 3. Does he go to work by taxi? _______, he does. 4. Does he have lunch in a restaurant? _______, he doesn’t. 5. Does he go out in the evening? No, he _______. Pay attention! 1. He gets up early. What time does he get up? Doesn’t= does not He doesn’t get up late. 2. Does he get up early? Yes, he does. Does he have lunch as home? No, doesn’t. These are short answers. Ex.21. Ask and answer the questions about Karl`s day. Use ex.17. Listen and check. 1. What time/have breakfast? -What time does he have breakfast? - He has breakfast at 6.45. 2. When/leave home? 3. Does/ go to work by bus? 4. Where/have lunch? 5. Does/usually work late? 6. Does/eat in a restaurant? 7. What/ do in the evening? Ex.22. Work with a partner. Ask and answer the questions about your day. - What time do you go to work? - I go to work at 8.15. § Do you have breakfast in the morning? § Yes, I do. Ex.23. Complete the table for the Present Simple. Positive Negative work don’t work I You 33 He She We They works doesn’t work Pay attention! Negative She go out in the evening. doesn’t He eat in a restaurant. Questions with question words What time he go to work? he have lunch? does Where When it leave? Yes/No questions and short answers Does he like football? Yes, he does. / No, he doesn’t. Does she speak English? Yes, she does. / No, she doesn’t. Ex.24. Karl has a sister, Katya. Her day is different. Complete the text with the verbs. Listen and check. gets gets up x2 has paints drinks cooks listens to goes x2 plays lives Katya is 25. She’s an artist. She lives in a small house in the country. She usually ________ at ten o’clock in the morning. She never ________ early. She ________ coffee and toast for breakfast and then she ________ for a walk with her dog. She ________ home at eleven o’clock in the evening. Then she ________ dinner and ________ a glass of wine. After dinner, she sometimes ________ music and she sometimes ________ the piano. She usually ________ to bed very late, at one or two o’clock in the morning. Ex.25. Is the sentence about Karl or Katya? Write he or she. 1. He’s a millionaire. 2. She’s an artist. 3. _______ lives in the country. 4. _______ doesn’t have a dog. 5. _______ get’s up very early. 6. _______ works at home in a studio. 7. _______ doesn’t work in an office. 8. _______ doesn’t cook. 9. _______ loves wine. 10. _______ loves computers. Ex.26. Correct the sentences about Katya and Karl. Listen and check. 1. She lives in the town. She doesn’t live in the town. She lives in the country. 34 2. He get’s up at ten o`clock. ___________________________________________________________________. 3. She has a big breakfast. ___________________________________________________________________. 4. He has a dog. ___________________________________________________________________. 5. She works in an office. ___________________________________________________________________. 6. He cooks dinner in the evening. ___________________________________________________________________. 7. She goes to bed early. ___________________________________________________________________. 8. They go out in the evening. ___________________________________________________________________. Ex.27. Complete the questions and answers with do, don’t, does or doesn’t. 1. ‘_______ you like ice-cream?’ ‘Yes, I ___________.’ 2. ‘_______ she work in London’ ‘Yes, she ___________.’ 3. ‘Where _______ he work?’ ‘In a bank’ 4. ‘_______ you go to work by bus?’ ‘No, I ___________.’ 5. ‘_______ she go to bed early?’ ‘No, she ___________.’ 6. ‘_______ they have a dog?’ ‘Yes, they ___________.’ 7. ‘_______ he speak German?’ ‘No, he ___________.’ 8. ‘______they live in the United States?’ ‘No, they ___________.’ Ex.28. Match a verb in A with a line in B. Listen and check. A B A B go in restaurants get up dinner have the piano go early eat beer listen to TV drink shopping watch in an office play at home cook music stay a shower work to bed late Ex.29. Look at the questionnaire. Listen and practice the questions. LIFESTYLE QUESTIONNAIRE Do you …? get up early have a big breakfast walk to school/work go to school/work by bus watch TV in the evening go shopping at the weekend eat in restaurants drink vine usually □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ sometimes □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ 35 never □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ go to bed late □ □ □ Ask your partner and complete the questionnaire. Tick(P) the correct column. - Do you get up early? § Yes, usually. § Yes, sometimes. § No, never. Tell about you and your partner. Helen usually gets up early. I never get up early. Ex.30. Listen and order the days. Listen and repeat. Wednesday Friday Tuesday 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Saturday Thursday Monday ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ ______________ Sunday Ex.31. Answer the questions. 1. What day is it today? 2. What day is it tomorrow? 3. What days do you go to work? 4. What days are the weekend? 5. What days do you like? 6. What day`s don`t you like? Ex.32. Write the correct preposition in the boxes. Listen and check. in on at Sunday Monday Tuesday Saturday evening Thursday morning Friday afternoon nine o`clock ten thirty twelve fifteen the weekend the morning the afternoon the evening Ex.33. Write the correct preposition. Then answer the questions. Do you have English lessons … 1. _______ nine o’clock? 2. _______ Sunday? 3. _______ the evening? 4. _______ Monday morning? 36 5. _______ the weekend? Yes, we do. No, we don’t. Ex.34. Complete the questions. Ask and answer them with a partner. Do you … · have a shower ______ the morning/ evening? · get up early ______ Sunday morning? · go to work ______ Saturday? · eat in restaurants ______ the weekend? · watch TV ______ the afternoon? · stay at home ______ Friday evening? 37 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Ex.1. Match the numbers and the words. 12th tenth 14th fifth 4th ninth 3rd 6th thirteenth 9th first 11th sixth nd th eleventh 2 fourteenth 5 fifteenth th th th 10 eighth 13 second 7 third th st th 8 twelfth 1 seventh 15 fourth Ex.2. Write the years. 1. 1980 nineteen eighty 2. 2000 _______________________________________ 3. 1999 _______________________________________ 4. 1848 _______________________________________ 5. 2002 _______________________________________ 6. 1987 _______________________________________ 7. 1815 _______________________________________ 8. 2020 _______________________________________ 9. 1945 _______________________________________ Ex.3. Write the times. It`s eight o’clock. Ex.4. Answer the questions. Write true answers about you. 1. What time do you get up? I get up at _______________. 2. What time do you have breakfast? ___________________________________________________________________. 3. What time do you go to work/school? ___________________________________________________________________. 4. What time do you have lunch? ___________________________________________________________________. 5. What time do you get home? 38 ___________________________________________________________________. 6. What time do you go to bed? ___________________________________________________________________. Ex.5. Write the sentences again with the words in brackets. 1. Marta has breakfast at 7.45. (usually) Marta usually has breakfast at 7.45. 2. Marta goes to work by bus. (never) ___________________________________________________________________. 3. She has a sandwich in her office. (usually) ___________________________________________________________________. 4. She leaves work at 5.30. (usually) ___________________________________________________________________. 5. She works in the evening. (never) ___________________________________________________________________. 6. She goes to a restaurant in the evening. (sometimes) ___________________________________________________________________. Ex.6. Put the words in the correct order to make questions. 1. Sue/ get up/ does/ what time ? What time does Sue get up? 2. Live/ where/ Sue/ does? ___________________________________________________________________. 3. Breakfast/ does/ have/ she? ___________________________________________________________________. 4. Go/ when/ she/ does/ to the concert hall? ___________________________________________________________________. 5. She/ usually have/ does/ lunch/ where? ___________________________________________________________________. 6. She/ sometimes do/ does/ in the afternoon/what? ___________________________________________________________________. 7. Dinner/ have/ does/ she/ what time? ___________________________________________________________________. 8. Usually go out/ in the evening/ she/ does/ with friends? ___________________________________________________________________. Ex.7. Make the sentences negative. 1. Andreas lives in Britain. Andreas doesn’t live in Britain. 2. Andreas leaves work at one forty-five. ___________________________________________________________________. 3. Andreas goes to work by taxi. ___________________________________________________________________. 4. Andreas eats toasts for breakfast. ___________________________________________________________________. 5. Andreas gets home at four thirty. 39 ___________________________________________________________________. 6. Andreas speaks French. ___________________________________________________________________. 7. Andreas works in a bank. ___________________________________________________________________. 8. Andreas has three children. ___________________________________________________________________. Ex.8. Complete the sentences. Use do, does, don’t or doesn’t. 1. ‘Does he have breakfast?’ ‘No, he doesn’t.’ 2. We speak Spanish, but we ___________ speak French. 3. ‘__________ you like beer?’ ‘No, I __________.’ 4. ‘__________ they usually go out in the evening?’ ‘Yes, they __________.’ 5. ‘__________ he live in Spain?’ ‘Yes, he __________.’ 6. He __________ have an American car. He has a Japanese car. 7. She usually goes to bed at twelve o`clock. She __________ go to bed early. Ex.9. Write the sentences in your language. 1. She leaves home at eight forty-five. ___________________________________________________________________. 2. ‘Does Michael live in Manchester?’ ‘No, he doesn’t.’ ___________________________________________________________________. 3. ‘Where does Thomas live?’ ‘In Oxford.’ ___________________________________________________________________. 4. Maria doesn’t go to work by bus. ___________________________________________________________________. 5. He never stays at home in the evening. ___________________________________________________________________. Ex.10. Write the days of the week. 1. o d m y n a = Monday 2. r y f a d I = ______________ 3. d y e t a s y = _______________ 4. t y u s h d r a = ______________ 5. d u s a y n = ______________ 6. d w y s e e a d n = _____________ 7. a d t y r s u a = ______________ Ex.11. Complete the sentences with in, on, or at. 1. _______ summer I play tennis _______ Sundays. 2. The train leaves Paris _______ 4 p.m. 3. He likes playing football _______ weekends. 4. My brother’s birthday is _______ March. 5. They often eat in a restaurant _______ Fridays. 6. Vancouver is very cold _______ winter. 40 COMPUTERS. APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS. COMPUTER USERS Ex.1. Read and tick (P) the computer uses mentioned. □ art □ home □ banking □ hospitals □ libraries □ engineering □ film-making □ shopping □schools □ television advertising Computers are part of our everyday lives. They have an effect on almost everything we do. When you buy groceries at a supermarket, a computer is used with laser and barcode technology to scan the price of each item and present a total. Barcoding items (clothes, food, and books) require a computer to generate the barcode labels and maintain the inventory. Most television advertisements and many films use graphics produces by a computer. In hospitals, bedside terminals connected to the hospital`s main computer allow doctors to type in orders for blood tests and to schedule operations. Banks use computers to look after their customers’ money. In libraries and bookshops, computers can help you to find the book you want as quickly as possible. Study these nouns. Remember! Articles a supermarket technology a computer money Supermarket and computer are countable nouns. We say a supermarket and supermarkets. Technology and money are uncountable nouns. They have no plural and you cannot use them with a or an. Study this paragraph. Computers have many uses. In shops a computer scans the price of each item. Then the computer calculates the total coast of all the items. We use a plural noun with no article, or an uncountable noun, when we talk about things in general. Computers have many uses. Information technology is popular. We use a/an when we mention a countable noun for the first time. In shops a computer scans the price of each item. When we mention the same noun again, we use the. The computer calculates the total coast. We use the with countable and uncountable nouns to refer to specific things. The price of each item. The total cost of all the items. The speed of this computer. 41 Ex.2. Read and listen to the recordings and note the actual uses described. User Actual use Primary school teacher Open University student Girl (Louise), aged 6 Artist Primary school teacher. We`ve got a new program with 3D graphics to encourage young children to tell stories. We tried it out last term and now we use it regularly. There’s a mat in front of the monitor, like a carpet. There are pressure pads under the mat. When the children stand on them, they can move about inside pictures on the screen. If they stand on the right, they, er, can move to the right, and so on. The good thing is that it works better if there are more children on the mat. This encourages them to work together. What I like about this program is that if you ask the children what they’ve been doing, they don’t say, ‘We’ve been working with the computer’, they say ‘We’ve been telling stories’. The computer doesn’t get in the way of learning, it’s just a tool. We don’t get that reaction when we sit them down at a keyboard. Open University student. I’ve had a computer for about, oh, three years now. I’m an OU student doing a degree in mathematics. I work full time so I study at home in the evenings and at weekends. Some Saturdays there are tutorials I can attend in town but mostly I work alone. I use the computer to write my assignments. I also use the Internet to email my tutor if I have any problems with the course work. There’s help group too on the Web made up of other students doing my course… not just here in the UK but around the world. We can chat about assignments and help each other out id we’re in difficulty. 42 Louise, aged 6 Well, I make cards for my friends. I made one for Mary’s birthday last week. I use Word and you go into clipart. Then these things come up on the screen. And you can click on any one like animals and two people with a heart, and a star and a hat. I’ve got CD-ROMS. I like Splat the Cat and Pets 3. You click on Go to the Adoption Centre, then you go to Pick a Pet and you can choose what you want, a cat or a dog. And you can give it a name and feed it. The one I’m going to adopt is a cat. … And you’ve got to give your cat a name. but first I’ll take its picture, then I’ll save. Artist I paint figures in imaginary interiors. Erm, they represent myths. I work in acrylics although I also make woodcuts. Erm, I keep photographs of most of what I’ve done apart from the work I’ve destroyed … the ones I didn’t like. I’ve scanned in about a third of these photographs, around 100 paintings, to make a CD. I’ve organized the paintings into themes and added a sound track so that each group of paintings is accompanied by music. Erm, I’ll send the CD to dealers. In the past it would have been slides, I’m also going to start my own website to try to sell directly. The difficult thing is trying to get people to visit your site. Ex.3. Listen to the recording again to find the answers to these questions: 1. How does the story-telling program encourage children to work together? 2. In what way is the children’s reaction to this program different from other uses they make of computers? 3. What is OU student studying? 4. What opportunity has she to meet other students? 5. What can you do with Pets 3? 6. What does Louise do with clipart? 7. How did the artist display work to dealers in the past? 8. What it the difficulty in selling through a website? Ex.4. Read the text and match the words with the correct meanings. WHAT IS A COMPUTER? A computer is an electronic machine which can accept data in a certain form, process the data, and give the results of the processing format as information. First, data is fed into the computer’s memory. Then, when the program is run, the computer performs a set of instructions and processes the data. Finally, we can see the results (the output) on the screen or in printed form (see Fig. 1 below). A computer system consists of two parts: hardware and software. Hardware is any electronic or mechanical part you can see or touch. Software is a set of instructions, called a program, which tells the computer what to do. There are three basic hardware sections: the central processing unit (CPU), main memory and peripherals. Perhaps the most influential component is the central processing unit. Its function is to execute program instructions and coordinate the activities of all the other units. In a way, it is the ‘brain’ of the computer. The main memory (a collection of RAM chips) holds the instructions and data which are being processed by the CPU. Peripherals are the physical units attached to the computer. They include storage devices and input/output devices. 43 Storage devices (hard drives, DVD drives or flash drives) provide a permanent storage of both data and programs. Disk drives are used to read and write data on disks. Input devices enable data to go into the computer’s memory. The most common input devices are the mouse and the keyboard. Output devices enable us to extract the finished product from the system. For example, the computer shows the output on the monitor or prints the results onto paper by means of a printer. On the rear panel of the computer there are several ports into which we can plug a wide range of peripherals – a modem, a digital camera, a scanner, etc. They allow communication between the computer and the devices. Modern desktop PCs have USB ports and memory card readers on the front panel. 1. Software 2. Peripherals a) The brain of the computer b) Physical parts that make up a computer system c) Programs which can be used on a particular computer system d) The information which is presented to the computer e) Results produces by a computer f) Input devices attached to the CPU g) Section that holds programs and data while they are executed or processed h) Magnetic device used to store information i) Sockets into which an external device may be connected 3. Main memory 4. Hard drive (also known as hard disk) 5. Hardware 6. Input 7. Ports 8. Output 9. Central processing unit (CPU) Ex.5. Listen and label the pictures with words from the box. laptop desktop PC PDA mainframe _____________________ ______________________ _____________________ ____________________ _____________________ 44 tablet PC Ex.6. Listen again and decide whether these sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. 1. A mainframe computer is less powerful than a PC. 2. A mainframe is used by large organizations that need to process enormous amounts of data. 3. The most suitable computers for home use are desktop PCs. 4. A laptop is not portable. 5. Laptops are not as powerful as desktop PCs. 6. Using a stylus, you can write directly onto the screen of a tablet PC. 7. A Personal Digital Assistant is small enough to fit into the palm of your hand. 8. A PDA does not allow you to surf the Web. 45 SPECIALIST READING Ex.1.Read the text. computer literacy [kəm'pju:tə 'litərəsi] — компьютерная грамотность problem-solving device — устройство, обеспечивающее решение задачи be aware of [bɪə'wɛərɔv] — понимать, сознавать opportunity [ɔpə'tju:nɪtɪ] — возможность basics ['beɪsɪks] — основы application [əpli'keɪʃn] — применение; использование to restate [rɪ'steɪt] — пересмотреть, переосмыслить significant [siɡ'nɪfɪkənt] — значительный achievements [ə'tʃi:vmənts] — достижения computing [kəm'pju:tiŋ] — вычисление; счет; работа на компьютере to embrace [imb'reɪs] — охватывать dimension [dɪ'menʃn] — измерение instruction [ɪn'str kʃn] — команда, инструкция, указание to direct the operation — направлять работу to process [prou'ses] — обрабатывать subscription magazine [səb'skrɪpʃnmæɡə'zi:n]— журнал по подписке data processing system ['deɪtə prə'sesiŋ 'sɪstəm] — система обработки данных store manager ['stɔ: 'mænədʒə] — директор магазина to have much in common — иметь много общего COMPUTER LITERACY Informed citizens of our information-dependent society should be computer-literate, which means that they should be able to use computers as everyday problem-solving devices. They should be aware of the potential of computers to influence the quality of life. There was a time when only priviliged people had an opportunity to learn the basics, called the three R's: reading, writing, and arithmetics. Now, as we are quickly becoming an information-becoming society, it is time to restate this right as the right to learn reading, writing and computing. There is little doubt that computers and their many applications are among the most significant technical achievements of the century. They bring with them both economic and social changes. "Computing" is a concept that embraces not only the old third R, arithmetics, but also a new idea — computer literacy. In an information society a person who is computer-literate need not be an expert on the design of computers. He needn't even know much about how to prepare programs which are the instructions that direct the operations of computers. All of us are already on the way to becoming computer-literate. Just think of your everyday life. If you receive a subscription magazine in the post-office, it is probably addressed to you by a computer. If you buy 46 something with a bank credit card or pay a bill by check, computers help you process the information. When you check out at the counter of your store, a computer assists the checkout clerk and the store manager. When you visit your doctor, your schedules and bills and special services, such as laboratory tests, are prepared by computer. Many actions that you have taken or observed have much in common. Each relates to some aspect of a data processing system. Ex.2. Answer the questions. 1. What does "a computer-literate person" mean? 2. Are you aware of the potential of computers to influence your life? 3. What do the people mean by "the basics"? 4. What is the role of computers in our society? 5. What is "computing'? 6. What is a program? 7. Prove that we all are on the way to becoming computer-literate. 8. Give examples of using computers in everyday life. Ex.3. Read, translate and remember. an information-dependent society __________________________________ a computer-literate citizen__________________________________ an everyday problem-solving device__________________________________ to be aware__________________________________ to influence the quality of life __________________________________ to have an opportunity __________________________________ to learn the basics __________________________________ to learn computing__________________________________ the most significant technical achievements __________________________________ to embrace computer literacy __________________________________ to prepare programs __________________________________ to direct the operations of a computer __________________________________ to be on the way of becoming computer-literate __________________________________ to process information __________________________________ to have much in common __________________________________ a data processing system __________________________________ Ex.4. Do the questionnaire. Check your answers. Do you agree with the description of yourself? HOW COMPUTER LITERATE ARE YOU? 1. How old were you when you first used a computer? a) over 20 b) between 10 and 19 c) under 10 2. How long did it take you to save, copy, print and delete a file? a) I was able to learn this very quickly. 47 b) I’m still useless at doing these things. c) I could do these things after I read the instructions. 3. How good are you at searching for information on the Internet? a) I haven`t got a clue how to do this. b) I usually manage to find what I want, but not always. c) I’m quite good at doing this and I can always find what I want. 4. Do you know how to download software or music from the Internet? a) I have no idea how to do this. b) I find this quite easy to do. c) I think I know how to do this, but I haven’t done it for a while. 5. How good are you at using new computer equipment or software? a) I’m able to use most new stuff after a very short time. b) I find it difficult to use anything new unless someone shows me. c) I’m not good at using new stuff, with or without help. Answers 1 a) 0 points b) 1 point c) 2 points 2 a) 2 points b) 0 points c) 1 point 3 a) 0 points b) 1 point c) 2 points 4 a) 0 points b) 2 points c) 1 point 5 a) 2 points b) 1 point c) 0 points 9-10 points: You’re very computer literate and you probably spend a lot of free time in front of a computer screen in the evenings. May be you should turn your computer off and go out with your friends a bit more often! 5-8 points: You know how to use a computer and you probably have to use one at work or for your studies. You’ve learned what you need to know, but that’s all. May be you should try and learn one or new things that you can do with your computer. 0-4 points: Obviously computers aren’t very important to you. You can probably manage to turn it on and check your e-mail, but not much else! May be you should think about doing a course so that you can improve your computer skills. 48 COMPUTER HARDWARE Ex.1. Listen to two colleagues and complete this dialog. Bob: What do you think? Which _____________ is better for the sales team? Daisy: I’m not sure. This computer has a _____________ memory and I think it has a ____________ processor. Bob: And the other one? Daisy: Well, it is _____________. Bob: And ______________. Daisy: Yes. You’re right. Lighter and smaller. Bob: But the bigger one is _____________. Daisy: So what is our decision? Bob: I’m not sure. Let’s go for a coffee and discuss this again. Remember! Comparatives We use comparative adjectives to compare two people or things. big The new monitor was bigger than the old For short adjectives bigger monitor. we add –er (than). Be careful of fast Your processor is faster than mine. faster spelling easy It`s easier to use than the other one. easier For long adjectives difficult more/less This version is more difficult to use than the old version. we use more/less difficult (than). expensive more/less His computer is less expensive than hers. expensive reliable more/less I think you should buy that CPU. It is more reliable than the one you have. reliable Some comparatives bad That screen resolution is much worse than worse are irregular. before! good I really like this mouse. It’s so much better better than the old one. Ex.2. Make the comparative form of these adjectives. Listen and check your answers. Example: long – longer 1. Light ___________________ 2. Efficient ___________________ 3. Long ___________________ 4. Wide ___________________ 5. Heavy ___________________ 6. Fast ___________________ 7. Dark ___________________ 8. Soft ___________________ 9. Hard ___________________ 10. Durable ___________________ Ex.3. Read the text and then answer the questions. 49 1. What are the main parts of the CPU? 2. What does ALU stand for? What does it do? 3. What is the function of the system clock? 4. How much is one gigahertz? 5. What type of memory is temporary? 6. What type of memory is permanent and includes instructions needed by the CPU? 7. How can RAM be increased? 8. What term is used to refer to the main printed circuit board? 9. What is a bus? 10. What is the benefit of having expansion slots? WHAT IS INSIDE A PC SYSTEM? Processing The nerve centre of a PC is the processor, also called the CPU, or central processing unit. This is built into a single chip which executes program instructions and coordinates the activities that take place within the computer system. The chip itself is a small piece of silicon with a complex electrical circuit called an integrated circuit. The processor consists of three main parts: - The control unit examines the instructions in the user’s program, interprets each instruction and causes the circuits and the rest of the components – monitor, disk drives, etc. – to execute the functions specified. - The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) performs mathematical calculations (+, -, etc.) and logical operations (AND, OR, NOT). - The registers are high-speed units of memory used to store and control data. One of the registers (the program counter, or PC) keeps track of the next instruction to be performed in the main memory. The other (the instruction register, or IR) holds the instruction that is being executed. The power and performance of a computer is partly determined by the speed of its processor. A system clock sends out signals at fixed intervals to measure and synchronize the flow of data. Clock speed is measured in gigahertz (GHz). For example, a CPU running at 4Ghz (four thousand million hertz, or cycles, per second) will enable your PC to handle the most demanding applications. RAM and ROM The programs and data which pass through the processor must be loaded into the main memory in order to be processed. Therefore, when the user runs a program, the CPU looks for it on the hard disk and transfers a copy into the RAM chips. RAM (random access memory) is volatile – that is, its information is lost when the computer is turned off. However, ROM (read only memory) is non-volatile, containing instructions and routines for the basic operations of the CPU. The BIOS (basic input/output system) uses ROM to control communication with peripherals. RAM capacity can be expanded by adding extra chips, usually contained in small circuit boards called dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs). Buses and cards The main circuit board inside your system is called the motherboard and contains the processor, the memory chips, expansion slots, and controllers for peripherals, connected by 50 buses – electrical channels which allow devices inside the computer to communicate with each other. For example, the front side bus carries all data that passes from the CPU to other devices. The size of a bus, called bus width, determines how much data can be transmitted. It can be compared to the number of lanes on a motorway – the larger the width, the more data can be travel along the bus. For example, a 64-bit bus can transmit 64 bits of data. Expansion slots allow users to install expansioncards, adding features like sound, memory and network capabilities. Central processing unit (CPU) Control unit Main memory Arithmetic logic unit (ALU) Registers PC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 IR 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 bus Ex.4. Complete the diagram. 51 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 Ex.5. Listen to two people making enquiries in a computer shop. Do they buy anything? Ex.6. Listen again and complete the product descriptions. iMac Processor speed 2.33 GHz RAM ______________ Hard drive capacity ______________ DVD drive included? Yes Operating system ______________ Includes internet software Price ______________ MacBook Processor speed ______________ RAM ______________ Hard drive capacity ______________ DVD drive included? ______________ Operating system ______________ Includes internet software Price £1.029 Ex.7. Listen again and complete the extract from the conversation. Do you need any ____________________? Assistant: Um, yes, we’re looking for a Mac computer. Have you got any fairly basic ones? Paul: Yes, sure. If you’d like to come over here. Assistant: What different ______________ are there? Paul: At the moment we’ve got these two models: the iMac, which is a desktop Assistant: computer with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor ______________ at 2.33 gigahertz, and the portable MacBook, which has a processor ______________ at 2.0 gigahertz. Core Duo technology actually means two cores, or processors, built into a single chip, offering up to twice the speed of a traditional chip. So they’re both very ______________, then. And which one has more memory? Sue: I mean, which has more RAM? Well, the iMac has two gigabytes of RAM, which can be ______________ up to Assistant: three gigabytes, and the MacBook has one gigabyte, expandable to two gigabytes. It all depends on your needs. The iMac is ______________ for home users and small offices. The MacBook is more ______________ if you travel a lot. Ex.8. Look at the language functions in the box and then correct one mistake in each of these sentences. Describe which functions are being expressed in each sentence. Language functions useful to a sales assistant · Greeting and offering help Good morning. Do you need any help? · Giving technical specifications (specs) The MacBook has a processor running at 2.0 gigahertz. The iMac has two gigabytes of RAM. 52 They feature a camera built into the display. · Describing Both computers are very fast and reliable. · Comparing The MacBook is more practical if you travel a lot. PDAs are cheaper than laptops but laptops are more powerful. Language functions useful to a customer · Explaining what you are looking for We’re looking for a personal computer. Have you got any fairly basic ones? · Asking for technical specs What’s the storage capacity of the hard drive? Do they have a DVD drive? · Asking the price How much do they cost? How much is it? 1. The Ulysses SD is a power, expandable computer that offers high-end graphics at a low price. ______________ 2. A laptop is likely to be more expansive that the equivalent desktop, but a laptop is less practical if you travel a lot. ______________ 3. Where’s the storage capacity of the hard drive? ______________ 4. I’m looking a desktop PC that has good graphics for games. ______________ 5. Do you need the help? ______________ 6. And how many does the PDA cost? ______________ 7. This workstation is a Pentium processor with dual-core technology, 1,024 gigabytes of RAM, and 1 terabyte of disk space. ______________ Ex.9. Work in pairs. One of you wants to buy a computer, the other is the shop assistant. Use the prompts and product descriptions below to role play the conversation. Customer Shop assistant Greet the customer and offer help. Explain what you are looking for Show the customer two possible models. Ask for some technical specs. Give technical specs (describe the processor, RAM and storage capacity). Compare the two Ask about any further technical specs (DVD different models. drive, monitor, communications, etc.) Give the information required. Compare the two models. Ask the price. Answer, and mention any final details that might persuade the customer to buy the 53 computer. Decide which computer to buy or leave the shop. Dell desktop PC AMD Athlon at 2.4GHz 1GB RAM expandable to 4GB 320GB hard drive DVD+/-RW drive 17” LCD monitor £680 Toshiba Satellite Laptop 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor 2 GB RAM expandable to 4GB 160GB hard drive Super Multi drive 15.4” wide XGA Wireless LAN, Wi-Fi compliancy £1,099 Palm TX handheld Intel 312 MHz ARM-based processor 128MB Flash memory (non-volatile) Support for memory cards 320x480 TFT touch screen Wi-Fi and Blue tooth Lithium-ion battery £ 216 54 SPECIALIST READING Ex.1. Find the answers to these questions in the following texts. 1. What is one of the main causes of a PC not running at its highest potential speed? 2. What word in the text is used instead of ‘buffer’? 3. What device looks after cache coherency? 4. What is the main alternative to ‘write-through cache’? 5. When does a write-back cache write its contents back to main memory? 6. When is data marked as ‘dirty’ in a write-back cache? 7. What determines what data is replaced in a disk cache? CACHE MEMORY Most PCs are held back not by the speed of their main processor, but by the time it takes to move data in and out of memory. One of the most important techniques for getting around this bottleneck is the memory cache. The idea is to use a small number of very fast memory chips as a buffer or cache between main memory and the processor. Whenever the processor needs to read data it looks in this cache area first. If it finds the data in the cache then this counts as a ‘cache hit’ and the processor need not go through the more laborious process of reading data from the main memory. Only if the data is not in the cache does it need to access main memory, but in the process it copies whatever it finds into the cache so that it is there ready for the next time it is needed. The whole process is controlled by a group of logic circuits called the cache controller. One of the cache controller’s main jobs is to look after ‘cache coherency’ which means ensuring that any changes written to main memory are reflected within the cache and vice versa. There are several techniques for achieving this, the most obvious being for the processor to write directly to both the cache and main memory at the same time. This is known as a ‘write-through’ cache and is the safest solution, but also the slowest. The main alternative is the ‘write-back’ cache which allows the processor to write changes only to the cache and not to main memory. Cache entries that have changed are flagged as ‘dirty’, telling the cache controller to write their contents back to main memory before using the space to cache new data. A write-back cache speeds up the write process, but does require a more intelligent cache controller. Most cache controllers move a ‘line’ of data rather than just a single item each time they need to transfer data between main memory and the cache. This tends to improve the chance of a cache hit as most programs spend their time stepping through instructions stored sequentially in memory, rather than jumping about from one area to another. The amount of data transferred each time is known as the ‘line size’. If there is a cache hit then the processor only needs to access the cache. If there is a miss then it needs to both fetch data from main memory and update the cache, which takes longer. With a standard write-through cache, data has to be written both to main memory and to the cache. With a write-back cache the processor needs only write to the cache, leaving the cache controller to write data back to main memory later on. 55 HOW A DISK CACHE WORKS Disk caching works in essentially the same way whether you have a cache on your disk controller or you are using a software-based solution. The CPU requests specific data from the cache. In some cases, the information will already be there and the request can be met without accessing the hard disk. If the requested information isn’t in the cache, the data is read from the disk along with a large chunk of adjacent information. The cache then makes room for the new data by replacing old. Depending on the algorithm that is being applied, this maybe the information that has been in the cache the longest, or the information that is the least recently used. The CPU’s request can then be met, and the cache already has the adjacent data loaded in anticipation of that information being requested next. Ex.2. Match the terms in Table A with the statements in Table B. Table A Table B a) The process of writing changes only to the cache and not to main a) cache hit memory unless the space is used to cache new data b) cache controller b) The amount of data transferred to the cache at any one c) cache coherency time d) write-through c) The process of writing directly to both the cache and main memory at cache the same time e) write-back cache d) The processor is successful in finding the data in the cache f) line size e) Ensuring that any changes written to main memory are reflected within the cache and vice versa f) The logic circuits used to control the cache process Ex.3. Mark the following as True or False: a) Cache memory is faster than RAM. b) The processor looks for data in the main memory first. c) Write-through cache is faster than write-back cache. d) Write-back cache requires a more intelligent cache controller. e) Most programs use instructions that are stored in sequence in memory. f) Most cache controllers transfer one item of data at a time. g) Hardware and software disk caches work in much the same way. 56 INPUT-OUTPUT DEVICES Ex.1. Read the description of input devices and then label the pictures (1 – 8) with words from the text. Input devices are the pieces of hardware which allow us to enter information into the computer. The most common are the keyboard and the mouse. We can also interact with a computer by using one of these: a light pen, a scanner, a trackball, a graphic tablet, a game controller or a microphone. ________ _________________ ______________________ _________________ _____________ ________ _________________ ____________________ Ex.2. Listen to a computer technical describing three input devices. Write which devices he’s talking about. 1. _________________________; 2. _________________________; 3. _________________________. Ex.3. Listen again and complete these extracts. 1. This device is ______________ enter information into the computer. 2. …it may also ______________ function keys and editing keys ______________ special purposes. 3. This is a device ______________ the cursor and selecting items on the screen. 4. It usually ______________ two buttons and a wheel. 5. … the user ______________ activate icons or select items and text. 6. It ______________ detecting light from the computer screen and is used by pointing it directly as the screen display. 7. It ______________ the user ______________ answer multiple-choice questions and … . 57 Ex.4. Label the picture of a standard keyboard with the groups of keys (1-5). 1. Cursor control keys include arrow keys that move the insertion point up, down, right and left, and keys such as End, Home, Page Up and Page Down, which are used in word processing to move around a long document. 2. Alphanumeric keys represent letters and numbers, as arranged on a typewriter. 3. Function keys appear at the top of the keyboard and can be programmed to do special tasks. 4. Dedicated keys are used to issue commands or to produce alternative characters, e.g. the Ctrl key or the Alt key. 5. A numeric keypad appears to the right of the main keyboard. The Num Lock key is used to switch from numbers to editing keys. Ex.5. Match the descriptions (1-8) with the names of the keys (a-h). Then find them on the keyboard. a) Arrow keys 1. A long key at the bottom of the b) Return/enter keyboard. Each time it is pressed, it c) Caps Lock produces a blank space. d) Shift 2. It moves the cursor to the beginning of e) Tab a new line. It is also used to confirm f) Space bar commands. g) Backspace 3. It works in combination with other h) Ctrl keys. For example, you press this key and C to copy the selected text. 4. It removes the character to the left of the cursor or any selected text. 5. It produces UPPER CASE characters. 6. It produces UPPER CASE characters, but it doesn’t affect numbers and symbols. 7. It moves the cursor horizontally to the right for a fixed number of spaces. 8. They are used to move the cursor, as an alternative to the mouse. Ex.6. Match these key abbreviations with their full names. a) Alternative 1. Esc b) Page Up 2. Alt c) Delete 3. Ctrl 58 4. 5. 6. 7. d) e) f) g) Pgdn Pgup Ins Del Insert Escape Page Down Control Ex.7. Look at the statements (1-7) and correct the ones which are wrong. Example: This key moves the cursor down. It doesn’t move the cursor down. It moves the cursor up. If you are not sure, ask another student: What does this key do? This key moves the cursor down. This key moves the cursor to the right. This key inserts a character. This screen copies the screen display. This key moves the screen up. This key doesn’t have a fixed function. This key gives you all lower case letters. Ex.8. Complete this text about the mouse with verbs from the box. Click double-click drag grab select move control MOUSE ACTIONS A mouse allows you to ______________ the cursor and move around the screen very quickly. Making the same movements with the arrow keys on the keyboard would take much longer. As you _____________ the mouse on your desk, the pointer on the screen moves in the same direction. The pointer usually looks like an I-bar, an arrow, or a pointing hand, depending on what you are doing. A mouse has one or more buttons to communicate with the computer. For example, if you want to place the insertion point or choose a menu option, you just _____________ (press and release) on the mouse button, and the option is chosen. The mouse is also used to _____________ text and items on the screen. You can highlight text to be deleted, copied or edited in some way. The mouse is widely used in graphics and design. When you want to move an image, you position the pointer on the object you want to move, press the mouse button and ____________ the image to a new location on the screen. Similarly, the mouse is used to change the shape of a graphic object. For example, if you want to convert a square into a rectangle, you ____________ one corner of the square and stretch it into a rectangle. 59 The mouse is also used to start a program or open a document: you put the pointer on the file name and ____________ on the name – that is, you rapidly press and release the mouse button twice. Ex.9. Listen to an interview with Anne Simpson, an expert in voice input technologies and tick (ü) the features she mentions. Speech recognition systems: ¨need a good sound card and a microphone. ¨can take dictation with accuracy. ¨allow you to create and compile a computer program. ¨allow you to execute programs and navigate around menus using voice commands. ¨allow you to surf the Web by speaking. ¨allow you to design graphics. Ex.10. Listen again and answer these questions. 1. What do people usually use to communicate with a computer? 2. How do you get the best results from speech recognition software? 3. What rate of accuracy is possible with the software? 4. How can you train the software to be more accurate? 5. What kinds of words aren’t in the software’s dictionary? Ex.11. Discuss these questions. 1. What are the benefits of speech recognition software? 2. What kind of tasks would you find speech recognition useful for? 3. Who would benefit most from advances in speech recognition technology? 4. What is the future of this kind of technology? Do you think it will ever be possible to control your computer using only your thoughts? Ex.12.Read the text and answer the questions. THE EYES OF YOUR COMPUTER What does a scanner do? A scanner ‘sees’ images and converts the printed text or pictures into electronic codes than can be understood by the computer. With a flatbed colour scanner, the paper with the image is placed face down on a glass screen, as with a photocopier. Beneath the glass are the lighting and measurement devices. Once the scanner is activated, it reads the image as a series of dots and then generates the digitized image that is sent to the computer and stored as a file. The scanner operates by using three rotating lamps, each of which has a different coloured filter: red, green and blue. The resulting three separate images are combined into one by appropriate software. What does a digital camera do? A digital camera takes photos electronically and converts them into digital data (binary codes made up of 1s and 0s). It doesn’t use the film found in a traditional camera; instead it has a special light-sensitive silicon chip. Photographs are stored in the camera’s memory card before being sent to the computer. Some cameras can also be connected to a printer or a TV set to make 60 viewing images easier. This is usually the case with camera phones – mobile phones with a builtin camera. What does a camcorder do? A camcorder, or digital video camera, records moving pictures and converts them into digital data that can be stored and edited by a computer with special video editing software. Digital video cameras are used by home users to create their own movies, or by professionals in computer art and video conferencing. They are also used to send live video images via the Internet. In this case they are called web cameras, or webcams. 1. Which device is used to input text and graphic images from a printed page? 2. How does a scanner send information to the computer? 3. How do digital cameras store photographs? 4. What feature allows mobile phone users take digital video? 5. What kind of software is used to manipulate video clips on the computer? Ex.13. Listen to a conversation between Vicky Cameron, an Information Technology(IT) lecturer, and one of her students, and complete the student’s notes. 1. The technology used in scanners is similar to that used in a _____________. 2. The scanned image is sent to the ____________, where you can manipulate it. 3. To scan text, you need special software called ______________. 4. Flatbed scanners can scan ______________________. 5. Slide scanners are used to scan ______________ or film negatives. 6. Handheld scanners are used for capturing _______________. Ex.14. Complete these definitions with the words from the box. Then read the text and check your answers. resolution pixel aspect ratio colour depth video adapter plasma screen 1. ________________ - the smallest unit on a display screen or bitmapped image (usually a coloured dot) 2. ________________ - an expansion card that generates the video signal sent to a computer display. 3. ________________ - the width of the screen in proportion to its height 4. ________________ - also called gas discharge display 5. ________________ - the number of pixels contained in a display, horizontally and vertically 6. ________________ - the number of bits used to hold a colour pixel; this determines the maximum number of colours that can be displayed HOW SCREEN DISPLAYS WORK Displays, often called monitors or screens, are the most-used output device on a computer. They provide instant feedback by showing you text and graphic images as you work or play. 61 Most desktop displays use Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) technology, while nearly all portable computing devices, such as laptops, incorporate LCDs. Because of their slimmer design and lower energy consumption, LCD monitors (also called plat panel or flat screen displays) are replacing CRTs. Basic features Resolution refers to the number of dots and colour, known as pixels (picture elements), contained in a display. It is expressed by identifying the number of pixels on the horizontal and vertical axes. A typical resolution is 1024x768. Two measurements describe the size of your display: the aspect ratio and the screen size. Historically, computer displays, like most televisions, have had an aspect ratio of 4:3 – the width of the screen to the height is four to three. For widescreen LCD displays, the aspect ratio is 16:9, very useful for viewing DVD movies, playing games and displaying multiple windows side by side. High-definition TV also uses this format. The viewable screen size is measured diagonally, so a 19” screen measures 19” from the top left to the bottom right. Inside the computer there is a video adapter, or graphics card, which processes images and sends signals to the monitor. CRT monitors use a VGA (video graphics adapter) cable, which converts digital signals into analogue signals. LCD monitors use a DVI (digital video interface) connection. Colour depth refers to the number of colours a monitor can display. This depends on the number of bits used to describe the colour of a single pixel. For example, and old VGA monitor with an 8-bit depth can generate 256 colours and a SuperVGA with a 24-bit depth can generate 16.7 million colours. Monitors with a 32-bit depth are used in digital video, animation and video games to get certain effects. Display technologies An LCD is made of two glass plates with a liquid crystal material between them. The crystals block the light in different quantities to create the image. Active-matrix LCDs use TFT (thin film transistor) technology, in which each pixel has its own switch. The amount of light the LCD monitor produces is called brightness or luminance, measured in cd/m2 (candela per square metre). A CRT monitor is similar to a traditional TV set. It contains millions of tiny red, green and blue phosphor dots that glow when struck by an electron beam that travels across the screen and create a visible image. PCs can be connected to video projectors, which project the image onto a large screen. They are used for presentations and home theatre applications. In a plasma screen, images are created by a plasma discharge which contains noble (nonharmful) gases. Plasma TVs allow for larger screens and wide viewing angles, making them ideal for movies. Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are thin-film LED displays that don’t require a backlight to function. The material emits light when stimulated by an electrical current, which is known as electroluminescence. They consume less energy, produce brighter colours and are flexible – i.e. they can be bent and rolled up when they’re not being used. Ex.15. Read the text again and answer the questions. 1. What do CRT and LCD stand for? 2. How is the screen size measured? 3. What technology is used by active-matrix LCDs? 62 4. Which unit of frequency is used to measure the brightness of a display? 5. What substance produces light and colour when hit by electrons in a CRT monitor? 6. What are the three advantages of OLED displays? Ex.16. Listen to Tony Clark, an expert in computer ergonomics, talking to some office workers about health and safety. What health problems associated with computer use do the office workers mention? Ex.17. Listen again and complete the extracts. 1. Get a good chair, one that _______________________ your lower back and is _______________________ … 2. Make sure your feet rest firmly _______________________ of on a footrest. 3. Position the keyboard _______________________ your elbows, with your arms _______________________ the work surface … 4. … position the monitor at, or just below, _______________________. 5. You should sit at _______________________ from the front of the monitor, about 50 to 70 centimetres away. 6. …a kind of stand that lets you move the monitor _______________________ , so you can use it at the correct angle and height. Ex.18. Look at the box and complete health and safety guidelines with should/shouldn’t. Instructions and advice We use the imperative to give instructions. Get an adjustable chair. Don’t put your monitor in front of a window. We use should and shouldn’t + infinitive to give advice or to talk about what we think is a good or bad idea. You should look down at the monitor, not up. You shouldn’t use a monitor that’s fuzzy or distorts the image. We can also give advice by using set phrases like It’s a good idea to or It’s a bad idea to + infinitive. It’s a good idea to have a monitor with a tilt-and-swivel stand. 1. If you type a lot at your computer each day, you ______________ buy an ergonomic keyboard; it can help reduce the risk of repetitive strain injury. 2. You ______________ place your mouse within easy reach and support your forearm. 3. If you decide to build your own PC, protect yourself from electric shocks. You ______________ touch any components unnecessarily. 4. You ______________ always use a copyholder if you are working from documents. The best position is between the screen and the keyboard, or at the same height as the screen; this can reduce neck, back and eyestrain. 5. Irresponsible disposal of electronic waste can cause severe environmental and health problems. You ______________ just throw your old monitor or video system into the bin. 63 Ex.19. In pairs, practice giving advice about how to use a monitor safety using should/ shouldn’t or It’s a good/bad idea to. Look at these guidelines for help. 1. Don’t open the monitor. It’s dangerous. 2. Don’t stare at the screen for long periods of time. 3. Position the monitor at eye level or just below. 4. Leave enough space behind the monitor for unobstructed movement. 5. Don’t sit near the sides or back of CRT monitors. Use LCD screens instead – they’re free from radiation. 6. Keep the screen clean to prevent distorting shadows. Ex.20. Read the article and find the words with the following meanings. 1. Designs and images used in magazines, books, etc. ____________________________ 2. Output quality, measured in dots per inch ______________ 3. A particular colour within the colour spectrum ______________ 4. An ink powder used in laser printers and copiers ______________ 5. Set of characters that can be resized (enlarged or reduced) without introducing distortion ______________ 6. A rectangular pattern of black lines of magnetic ink printed on an object so that its details can be read by a computer system ______________ 7. Surface that carries a reproduction of the image, from which the pages are printed ______________ 8. In-between; middle ______________ Ex.21. Put the words in italics from the article into the correct column of the table. Connectors are linking words and phrases which join ideas and help us organize our writing. Giving examples Listing/Sequencing Giving reason/cause Ex.22. In pairs, choose the most suitable printer for each of these situations. Give reasons for your choices. 1. You want to print documents, web pages and occasional photographs at home. 2. A small company needs a printer which will be shared various users on a local area network (LAN). 3. A professional team of architects and engineers need to create accurate representations of objects in technical drawings and CAD. 4. A graphic arts business needs a printer to produce catalogues, brochures and other publications. 64 SPECIALIST READING Ex.23. Read the text and answer find the following. 1. The laws which ensure equal opportunities for people with disabilities in the USA and the UK 2. How to blind student interacts with the machine 3. The systems which type on the screen what is being said in meetings 4. The type of software which reads printed material, recognized the text and then sends it to the PC 5. The system which is activated by the user’s eye movements 6. The switch which can be used by someone with quadriplegia 7. The function of voice recognition devices COMPUTERS FOR THE DISABLED Computers have taken a dominant role in our society, meaning most jobs now require access to computers and the Internet. But what happens if a person is blind, deaf or motor-disabled? They needn’t worry. The latest assistive technology is designed to help them use computers and do their jobs in the office, learn at school, or interact with their families and home. In addition, new laws oblige companies to adapt the workplace to accommodate disabled people. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act make it legal for employers to discriminate against people with disabilities. To work effectively, most blind users need to have their computers adapted with technologies such as Braille, screen magnifiers, speech synthesis and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Braille keyboards have Braille lettering on keyboard overlays, allowing the blind user to easily identify each key. For output, there are printers, called Braille embossers, that produce tactile Braille symbols on both sides of a page at high speed. For someone with limited but usable vision, a screen magnifier may be appropriate. This type of software can enlarge text and images appearing on the screen by up to 16 times. A speech synthesis system is used to read aloud the work on the computer. It has a speech synthesizer, which produces the audio output, and a screen reader – the program which reads aloud text and menus from word processors, databases and the Web. OCR uses a flatbed scanner and specialized OCR software to read printed material and send the text to the computer. The PC can then produce a copy of the text in Braille, a magnified copy, or a version that can be read aloud by a speech synthesis system. Deaf computer users can overcome many communication difficulties with the aid of visual alerts, electronic notetakers and textphones. Visual alerts are indicators that alert the deaf user when they receive new mail or when there is a system error. So instead of hearing a sound, the user is alerted by a blinking menu bar or by a message on the screen. Electronic notetakers use software that types a summary of what is said in meetings onto the computer screen. Textphones allow the deaf to type and read phone conversations. They are also called TDDs (Telephone Devices for the Deaf)or TTYs (TeleTypewriters). They can be used in combination with relay services, 65 where an operator says what the text user types, and types what a voice phone user says. Deaf people can also communicate via SMS and instant messaging. Motor-impaired workers unable to type on a standard keyboard can employ expanded or ergonomic keyboards, on-screen keyboard, adaptive switches and voice recognition systems. On-screen keyboards are software images of a keyboard that appear on the screen and may be activated with a trackball, touch screen, screen-pointing device, or eye movements. In an eyegaze system, the keys on the virtual keyboard are activated by the user’s eyes when they pause on a key for two or three seconds. Switches come in many shapes and sizes. They are operated by muscle movements or breath control. For example, a pneumatic switch – known as a sip and puff – allows someone with quadriplegia to control the PC by puffing and sipping air through a pneumatic tube. People with quadriplegia can also use sip and puff joysticks. Finally, there’s voice recognition, which allows the computer to interpret human speech, transforming the word into digitized text or instructions. Ex.24. Complete the crossword with words from the text. ACROSS 2. An ___________________ keyboard presents a 2 graphic representation of a keyboard on the desktop screen and allows people with mobility impairments to type data using a joystick or a pointing device. 4. Visual ___________________ allow deaf users to be notified of incoming mail or error messages without hearing a tone. 6. A screen ___________________ makes the computer screen more readable for users with poor vision. 7. A system of reading and writing using raised dots, which enables blind people to read by touch. 1 3 4 5 6 7 DOWN 1. Unlike a standard telephone, a ___________________ has a small screen and a keyboard that transcribes a spoken voice as text. It is used for text communication via a telephone line, ideal for people who have hearing or speech difficulties. 3. A Braille ___________________ is an impact printer that prints text as Braille, by punching dots onto paper. 5. A speech synthesizer is used in conjunction with a screen ___________________ to convert screen contents into spoken words. 66 DATAPROCESSING AND STORAGE Ex.1. Read the text data processing ['deɪtəprou'sesɪŋ] — обработка информации (данных) to convert [kən'və:t] — преобразовывать; переводить (в др. единицы) to accomplish [ə'kɔmplɪʃ] —завершать, заканчивать; осуществлять, выполнять. to house ['haus] — помещать, размещать to improve [im'pru:v] — улучшать, совершенствовать to control [kən'troul] — управлять, регулировать; управление, регулирование to store ['sto:] — хранить, запоминать, заносить (размещать) в памяти storage ['stɔ:rɪdʒ] — запоминающее устройство, память; хранение resource [rɪ'sɔ:s] — ресурс; средство; возможность facility [fə'sɪlɪtɪ] —устройство; средство facilities — приспособления; возможности equipment [I'kwɪpmənt] — оборудование; аппаратура; приборы; устройства available [ə'veɪləbl] — доступный; имеющийся (в наличии); возможный display [dɪs'pleɪ] — дисплей; устройство (визуального) отображения; показ manner ['mænə] — способ, образ (действий) sequence ['sikwəns] — последовательность, порядок (следования) successively [sək'sesɪvlɪ] — последовательно data storage hierarchy [haiə'rɑ:kɪ] — иерархия (последовательность) запоминания информации (данных) to enter ['entə] — входить; вводить (данные); заносить, записывать comprehensive groupings — полные, обширные, универсальные образования meaningful ['mi:nɪŋful] — имеющий смысл; значащий (о данных) item ['aɪtəm] — элемент; составная часть record ['rekɔ:d] — запись, регистрация; записывать, регистрировать file ['faɪl] — файл; заносить (хранить) в файл set — набор; множество; совокупность; серия; группа; система data base ['deɪtə 'beɪs] — база данных related [rɪ'leɪtɪd] — смежный; взаимосвязанный; относящийся (к ч.-л.) DATA PROCESSING AND DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS The necessary data are processed by a computer to become useful information. In fact this is the definition of data processing. Data are a collection of facts — unorganized but able to be organized into useful information. Processing is a series of actions or operations that convert inputs into outputs. When we speak of data processing, the input is data, and the output is 67 useful information. So, we can define data processing as a series of actions or operations that converts data into useful information. We use the term data processing system to include the resources that are used to accomplish the processing of data. There are four types of resources: people, materials, facilities, and equipment. People provide input to computers, operate them, and use their output. Materials, such as boxes of paper and printer ribbons, are consumed in great quantity. Facilities are required to house the computer equipment, people and materials. The need for converting facts into useful information is not a phenomenon of modern life. Throughout history, and even prehistory, people have found it necessary to sort data into forms that were easier to understand. For example, the ancient Egyptians recorded the ebb and flow of the Nile River and used this information to predict yearly crop yields. Today computers convert data about land and water into recommendations to farmers on crop planting. Mechanical aids to computation were developed and improved upon in Europe, Asia, and America throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Modern computers are marvels of an electronics technology that continues to produce smaller, cheaper, and more powerful components. Basic data processing operations Five basic operations are characteristic of all data processing systems: inputting, storing, processing, outputting, and controlling. They are defined as follows. Inputting is the process of entering data, which are collected facts, into a data processing system. Storing is saving data or information so that they are available for initial or for additional processing. Processing represents performing arithmetic or logical operations on data in order to convert them into useful information. Outputting is the process of producing useful information, such as a printed report or visual display. Controlling is directing the manner and sequence in which all of the above operations are performed. Data storage hierarchy It is known that data, once entered, are organized and stored in successively more comprehensive groupings. Generally, these groupings are called a data storage hierarchy. The general groupings of any data storage hierarchy are as follows. 1) Characters, which are all written language symbols: letters, numbers, and special symbols. 2) Data elements, which are meaningful collections of related characters. Data elements are also called data items or fields. 3) Records, which are collections of related data elements. 4) Files, which are collections of related records. A set of related files is called a data base or a data bank. Ex.2. Answer the questions. 1. What is processing? 2. What is data processing? 3. What does the term of data processing system mean? 4. What basic operations does a data processing system include? 5. What is inputting / storing / outputting information? 6. What do you understand by resources? 7. How did ancient Egyptians convert facts into useful information? 8. When were mechanical aids for computation developed? 9. What does data storage hierarchy mean? 10. What are the general groupings of any data storage hierarchy? 68 Ex.3. Read, translate and remember. Системы обработки информации _______________________________ определение (термина) обработки данных_______________________________ совокупность фактов_______________________________ последовательность действий_______________________________ преобразование входных данных в полезную информацию__________________________ включать ресурсы_______________________________ завершить обработку данных _______________________________ обеспечивать ввод информации в компьютер_______________________________ ленты принтера_______________________________ расходовать в большом количестве_______________________________ размещать компьютерное оборудование _______________________________ нуждаться (требовать) в приспособлениях_______________________________ явление современной жизни_______________________________ на протяжении доисторического периода _______________________________ превращать информацию в выражения _______________________________ регистрировать отливы и приливы_______________________________ прогнозировать урожай зерновых культур_______________________________ механические средства вычисления _______________________________ ввод данных _______________________________ хранение данных _______________________________ первоначальная обработка данных _______________________________ дополнительная обработка _______________________________ выдача полезной информации _______________________________ напечатанное сообщение_______________________________ зрительное отображение_______________________________ последовательность запоминания информации_______________________________ записанные символы языка_______________________________ элементы информации; база данных _______________________________ набор взаимосвязанных файлов_______________________________ Magnetic storage Ex.4. Look at the pictures and descriptions below and find the following. The name of the hard drive on a PC platform 1. The type of hard drive that plugs into a socket at the back of a computer 2. The system that works in sequential format 3. The size and storage capacity of a floppy disk Magnetic A The A 3.5” tapes and portable inside floppy drive external of a drive A tape hard drive hard and External hard drives drive reads and writes drive diskette A floppy disk drive Most PCs have one are connected to the data on tapes. It is – uses 3.5” disks, which internal hard drive, USB or FireWire port sequential-access can store 1.44Mb of usually called C: of the computer. They i.e. to get to a data; it is usually drive. It is used to can be as small as a particular point on the 69 assigned to the A: drive. Floppy drives are becoming increasingly rare. store the operating system, the programs and the user’s files in a convenient way. A hard drive can hold hundreds of gigabytes of data. wallet but can have as much capacity as internal drives; they are typically used for backup or as secondary storage. tape, it must go through all the preceding points. Tapes can hold hundreds of gigabytes of data and are used for data collection, backup and archiving. Ex.5. Complete these sentences with words from the box. capacity storage archiving hold secondary 1. There are basically three types of magnetic _______________ device available to the computer user – hard drives, diskettes and tapes. 2. The _______________ of a 3.5” floppy disk is only 1.44Mb. 3. Hard drives can _______________ hundreds of times more data than floppy disks. 4. A portable hard drive is a good choice for _______________ storage. 5. Magnetic tapes are used for _______________ information that you no longer need to use regularly. Ex.6. Sue wants to buy a new drive. Listen to her conversation with the sales assistant. Does she buy anything? Listen again and answer the questions below. 1. What is the storage capacity of the Iomega eGo portable hard drive? 2. How much information can be stored on the Edge DiskGo model? 3. Which hard drive is good for mobile professionals? 4. How much does the Iomega eGo drive cost? 5. How much does the Edge DiskGo cost? Optical storage Ex.7. Paul wants to buy some blank disks. Listen to his conversation with the sales assistant. Decide whether these sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. 1. A DVD is an optical digital disc that can be used for video, audio and data storage. 2. The dimensions of a CD and a DVD are the same: 1.3mm thick and 13 cm in diameter. 3. The data on a DVD is read with a laser beam. 4. A basic DVD can hold 3.7 gigabytes. 5. You need a hard drive to read DVDs. 6. DVD-Video discs can hold full-length movies. 7. A DVD Writer is not compatible with old CD-ROMs. Note: disc (optical media); disk (magnetic storage media) Flash drives Ex.8. Listen to a salesperson at his stand at a customer electronics show describing two flash products to a potential customer. Which product (a or b) is the visitor most interested in? a. The Dragon flash drive b. The Dragon MP4 player Ex.9. Listen again and tick (ü) which features the salesperson mentions for each device. 70 Dragon MP4 player Dragon flash drive Features ¨ ¨ Back up computer data ¨ ¨ Transport files between PCs ¨ ¨ Audio and video playback ¨ ¨ FM radio tuner ¨ ¨ Voice recorder ¨ ¨ Games Ex.10. Listen again and answer these questions. 1. What is the storage capacity of the Dragon flash drive? 2. How do you connect it to the computer? 3. According to the sales person, what are the advantages of a USB flash drive over a DVD or an external hard drive? 4. Some portable media players are also known as MP4 players. Why? 5. What is the screen size of the Dragon MP4 player? 6. How long does the battery last? 71 7. SPECIALIST READING Ex.1. Read the text and decide whether these sentences are true or false. Correct the false ones. 1. A hard drive spins at the same speed as a floppy disk drive. 2. If you format a hard drive that has files on it, the files will be deleted. 3. Hard drives cannot be partitioned to run separate operating systems on the same disk. 4. Seek time and transfer rate mean the same thing. 5. Disk drives are not shock resistant, especially in operating mode. MAGNETIC STORAGE Magnetic storage devices store data by magnetizing particles on a disk or tape. A floppy disk is so called because it consists of a flexible sheet of plastic, coated with iron oxide – a magnetizable material. A floppy disk drive spins at 360 revolutions per minute (rpm), so it’s relatively slow. However, a hard drive spins at over 7,200 rpm and stores data on a stack of metal rotating disks called platters. This means you can store much more data and retrieve information much faster. New disks need to be formatted before you can use them, unless they come preformatted, the operating system organizes the disk surface into circular tracks and divides each track into sectors. The OS creates a directory which will record the specific location of files. When you save a file, the OS moves the read/write head of the drive towards empty sectors, records the data and writes an entry for the directory. Later on, when you open that file, the OS looks for its entry in the directory, moves the read/write heads to the correct sector, and reads the file in the RAM area. However, formatting erases any existing files on a disk, so do not format disks on which data that you don’t want to lose is stored. The OS allows you to create one or more partitions on your hard drive, in effect dividing it into several logical parts. Partitions let you install more than one operating system (e.g. Windows and Linux) on your computer. You may also decide to split your hard drive because you want to store the OS and programs on one partition and your data files on another; this allows you to reinstall the OS when a problem occurs, without affecting the data partition. The average time required for the read/write heads to move and find data is called seek time (or access time) and it is measured in milliseconds (ms); most hard drives have a seek time of 7 to 14ms. Don’t confuse this with transfer rate – the average speed required to transmit data from the disk to the CPU, measured in megabytes per second. How to protect your hard drive · Don’t hit or move the computer while the hard drive is spinning. Hard drives are very sensitive to vibration and shocks, especially when they are operating; when the read/write head touches the rotating disk, it can scratch and damage the disk surface. This is known as head crash. · You shouldn’t turn your computer off and on quickly. Wait at least ten seconds to ensure that the drive has stopped spinning. · Check your hard drive regularly for logical and physical errors. To check and repair a drive, you can use a disk diagnosis utility like Windows ScanDisk. 72 · To minimize the risk of data loss or corruption, you should install an up-to-date virus scanner. You should also back up your hard drive regularly. Ex.2. Match these words (1-5) with the definitions (a-e). a. A file system that defines the structure for keeping track of 1. Formatted the files 2. Directory b. The part of a drive that reads and records data on a disk 3. Read/write head c. To make a copy of data or software in case the original disk is 4. Head crash damaged 5. Back up d. Initialized; when the tracks and sectors on magnetic disks are set e. A serious disk malfunction; when the read/write head touches the rotating disk 73 COMPUTER SOFTWARE Ex.1. Read the text and answer the questions. COMPUTER SOFTWARE The units that are visible in any computer are the physical components of a data processing system, or hardware. Thus, the input, storage, processing and control devices are hardware. Not visible is the software — the set of computer programs, procedures, and associated documentation that make possible the effective operation of the computer system. Software programs are of two types: systems software and applications software. Systems software are the programs designed to control the operation of a computer system. They do not solve specific problems. They are written to assist people in the use of the computer system by performing tasks, such as controlling all of the operations required, to move data into and out of a computer and all of the steps in executing an application program. The person who prepares systems software is referred to as a systems programmer. Systems programmers are highly trained specialists and important members of the architectural team. Applications software are the programs written to solve specific problems (applications), such as payroll, inventory control, and investment analysis. The word program usually refers to an application program, and the word programmer is usually a person who prepares applications software. Often programs, particularly systems software, are stored in an area of memory not used for applications software. These protected programs are stored in an area of memory called read only memory (ROM), which can be read from but not written on. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. What is hardware? Give the definition of software. What are the types of software? What are systems software? What kind of tasks do systems software perform? Who prepares systems software? What are applications software? What problems do applications software solve? Ex.2. Read, translate and remember. видимые устройства __________________________________ система обработки данных __________________________________ аппаратное обеспечение __________________________________ набор компьютерных программ __________________________________ соответствующая документация __________________________________ эффективная работа __________________________________ системное программное обеспечение __________________________________ прикладное программное обеспечение __________________________________ системный программист __________________________________ 74 платежная ведомость __________________________________ переучет __________________________________ анализ инвестиций __________________________________ Ex.3. Identify these applications programs. a) Spreadsheet b) Game c) Wordprocessing d) Graphics e) Database Ex.4. Conduct a survey to find out who in your group: 1. Can name a spreadsheet program 2. Has used a spreadsheet 3. Can name a database program 4. Has used a database 5. Knows how to insert graphics into a document 6. Can name a wordprocessing program 7. Can centre a lone of text 8. Can disable the autocorrect Ex.5. Study these versions of OfficeSuite and decide which version provides the best value for the following users. The versions are listed from the cheapest to most expensive. OfficeSuit OfficeSuit OfficeSuit Standard Small Business Edition Professional · Wordprocessor · Wordprocessor · Wordprocessor · Spreadsheet · Spreadsheet · Spreadsheet · Presentation program · DTP · Database · Email · Email · DTP · PIM · PIM · Presentation program · Small business tools · Email · Small business tools OfficeSuit OfficeSuit Premium Developer · Wordprocessor · Wordprocessor · Spreadsheet · Spreadsheet · Database · Database · DTP · DTP · Presentation program · Presentation program · Email · Email · PIM · PIM 75 · Small business tools · Website editor · Image editor · Small business tools · Website editor · Image editor · Developer tools _______________ 1.A salesperson who wants to make presentations at conferences. _______________ 2.Ad administrative assistant who needs to write office correspondence and send and receive emails. _______________ 3. A programmer who wants to develop applications tailored to a company’s needs. _______________ 4.A company wanting to produce its own in-house newsletter. _______________ 5.A company wishing to develop its own website. _______________ 6.A company which wants to analyse all its sales records. _______________ 7.A promotion person who wants to able to edit complex graphics and incorporate them in brochures. _______________ 8.A company which wants to share documents on a local area network. Ex.6. Listen to two colleagues discussing software and complete this dialogue. Tim: What do you think about these three photo imaging packages? Simone: It’s a difficult choice. All three are very good but they have different strengths. Tim: I agree. Simone: Serif Image Plus has ______________ image ______________. Tim: OK. Simone: But Magic Extreme has the ______________ processing of images. Tim: You’re right. Also, Serif has ______________ special ______________. But what about Snap Pro? Simone: Well, it has the ______________ dubbing options. Tim: And Snap Pro is the best for ______________ photos. Simone: I’m not sure. Serif has ______________ efficient ______________. Tim: Which is the most expensive? Simone: Oh, Serif Image Plus. Tim: And the cheapest? Simone: Snap Pro. Tim: Let’s get Snap Pro then. Simone: I’m still not sure! Remember! Superlatives We use superlative adjectives to compare a person or thing with a number of other people or things. big The new monitor was the biggest in the For short adjectives the room. we add the + -est. biggest Be careful of fast Your version of the software is the fastest. the spelling fastest easy It`s the easiest to use. the easiest This version is the most difficult. For long adjectives difficult the we use the most/the most/least least. difficult expensive the His computer is the least expensive. most/least 76 reliable Some superlatives are irregular. bad good expensive the most/least reliable the worst the best I think you should buy that. It is the most reliable. That is the worst software I’ve ever used! I really like this website. It’s the best I’ve seen. Ex.7. Listen and repeat these sentences. Underline the superlatives and write the comparative degree for each of them. 1. We’ve got the best software. ____________________________ 2. Does it have the most reliable anti-virus software? ____________________________ 3. She has the cheapest computer. ____________________________ 4. They haven’t got the latest version. ____________________________ 5. Do you have the fastest processor? ____________________________ 6. Has it got Windows? ____________________________ 7. They have the latest software. ____________________________ 8. It has the biggest screen. ____________________________ 77 OPERATING SYSTEMS Ex.1. Work in pairs. Put these steps in reinstalling an operating system in the correct order. __ During the process, the computer will restart by itself several times. __ Near the end of the process, you can partition the hard drives. __ In the BIOS, set the first boot drive to DVD. Then reboot again. __ At the end of the process, the operating system will ask for the product key, time, date, network type and details for user accounts. __First, put the installation DVD into the optical drive. Then reboot the computer while you press the ‘F2’ key. The BIOS will now start. 1_ Before you start, back up everything. __Near the start of the process, it will ask you to agree to the licence terms. Ex.2. Find the words in ex.1 that match these definitions. 1. Start again _______________________ 2. Split a hard drive into parts that act like separate drivers _______________________ 3. Software built into a computer that controls how it starts up _______________________ 4. The drive that the computer reads first when starting up _______________________ 5. Software comes with this to show you are the owner _______________________ 6. Settings for a user _______________________ 7. Switch a computer off and on again _______________________ 8. A series of actions to do something _______________________ 9. Copy data to another place so that you don’t lose it _______________________ 10. Rules about how you can use software _______________________ Ex.3. Read the text and name the operating systems. An operating system (OS) is a set of programs that control the hardware and allow people and applications to communicate with the hardware. Typical functions of the OS are handling input/output operations, running programs and organizing files or disks. The OS also gives access to networks and allows multitasking: a user can run several programs (and do various tasks) at a time. The most popular operating systems are: · The Windows family – designed by Microsoft and used on most PCs. · Mac OS – created by Apple and used on Macintosh computers. · Unix – a multi-user system, found on mainframes and workstations in corporate installations. · Linux – open-source software developed under the GNU General Public License. This means anybody can copy its source code, change it and distribute it. It is used in computers, appliances and small devices. · Windows Mobile – used on most PDAs and smartphones (PDAs incorporating mobile phones). 78 · · Palm OS – used on Palm handheld devices. RIM – used on BlackBerry communication devices. Developed by Research in Motion. · The Symbian OS – used by some phone makers, including Nokia. These computer platforms differ in areas such as device installation, network connectivity or compatibility with application software. Ex.4. Match the labels to the four layers of this diagram with the help of the diagram caption. 1. Applications programs 2. User 3. Hardware 4. Operating system A CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM OF AN OPERATING SYSTEM Closes to the user are applications programs – software that helps a user compute a payroll or play a game or calculate the trajectory of a rocket. The Operating system is the set of programs between the applications programs and the hardware. Ex.5. Listen to a podcast interview with Bill Thompson, a program developer, and answer these questions. 1. Why is Windows so popular? Give two reasons. 2. Which Windows Vista edition is aimed at high-end PC users, gamers and multimedia professionals? Ex.6. Listen again and complete this fact file. Windows Vista Other features editions The user interface has _____________ is been redesigned with designed for users with basic needs, such new icons and new ______________. as email and internet access. It offers support for Home Premium is for the latest technologies, from advanced home DVD creation to computing and _______________. _____________. The Business edition is ideal for ______________. Internet and security Windows programs Internet Explorer is more reliable and secure. The most popular is still _____________, a suite that includes the ______________, Word; an email program; the Excel spreadsheet program; and the ______________ program, PowerPoint. The Security Centre includes an ______________ program called Windows Defender, and a firewall that protects your computer from _____________. 79 The Ultimate edition is the most complete. Ex.7. Try to find the commands from the list below which will have these actions. Unix write cp lpr ls mkdir date rm man grep rwho mv Action Unix command List all the files in a directory Delete a file Rename a file Copy a file Send a file to a printer Obtain help Create a directory Show date and time Show users on system Talk to other users on system Search for a string in a file 80 SPECIALIST READING Ex.1. Find the answers to these questions in the following text. 1. What did Linus Torvalds use to write the Linux kernel? 2. How was the Linux kernel first made available to the general public? 3. What is the programmer likely to do with source code? 4. Why will most software companies not sell you their source code? 5. What type of utilities and applications are provided in a Linux distribution? 6. What is X? 7. What graphical user interfaces are mentioned in the text? LINUX Linux has its roots in a student project. In 1992, an undergraduate called Linus Torvalds was studying computer science in Helsinki, Finland. Like most computer science courses, a big component of it and taught on (and about) Unix. Unix was the wonder operating system of the 1970s and 1980s: both a textbook example of the principles of operating system design, and sufficiently robust to be the standard OS in engineering and scientific computing. But Unix was a commercial product and cost more than a student could pay. Annoyed by the shortcomings of Minix (a compact Unix clone written asa teaching aid by Professor Andy Tannenbaum) Linus set out to write his own ‘kernel’ – the core of an operating system that handles memory allocation, talks to hardware devices, and makes sure everything keeps running. He used the GNU programming tools developed by Richard Stallman’s Free Software Foundation, an organization of volunteers dedicated to fulfilling Stallman’s ideal of making good software that anyone could use without paying. When he’d written a basic kernel, he released the source code to the Linux kernel on the Internet. Source code is important. It’s the original from which compiled programs are generated. If you don’t have the source code to a program, you can’t modify it to fix bugs or add new features. Most software companies won’t sell you their source code, or will only do so for an eye-watering price, because they believe that if they make it available it will destroy their revenue stream. What happened next was astounding, from the conventional, commercial software industry point view – and utterly predictable to anyone who knew about the Free Software Foundation. Programmers (mostly academics and students) began using Linux. They found that it didn’t do things they wanted it to do – so they fixed it. And where they improved it, they sent the improvements to Linus, who rolled them into the kernel. And Linux began to grow. There’s a term for this model of software development; it’s called Open Source (see www.opensource.org/ for more information). Anyone can have the source code – it’s free (in the sense of free speech, not free bear). Anyone can contribute to it. If you use it heavily you may want to extend or develop or fix bugs in it – and it is so easy to give your fixes back to the community that most people do so. An operating system kernel on its own isn’t a lot of use; but Linux was purposefully designed as a near-clone of Unix, and there is a lot of software out there that is free and was designed to compile on Linux. By about 1992, the first ‘distributions’ appeared. A distribution in the Linux-user term for a complete operating system kit, complete with the utilities and applications you need to make it do useful things – command interpreters, 81 programming tools, text editors, typesetting tools, and graphical user interfaces based on the X windowing system. X is a standard in academic and scientific computing, but not hitherto common on PCs; it’s a complex distributed windowing system on which people implement graphical interfaces like KDE and Gnome. As more and more people got to know about Linux, some of them began to port the Linux kernel to run on non-standard computers. Because it’s free, Linux is now the most widely-ported operating system there is. Ex.2. Match the terms in Table A with the statements in Table B. Table A Table B 1. A type of software development where any a. Kernel programmer can develop of fix bugs in the software. b. Free Software Foundation 2. The original systems program from which compiled c. Source code programs are generated. d. Open Source 3. A complete operating system kit with the utilities e. A distribution and applications you need to make it do useful f. X things. 4. A standard distributed windowing system on which people implement graphical interfaces. 5. An organisation of volunteers dedicated to making good software that anyone could use without paying. 6. The core of an operating system that handles memory allocation, talks to hardware devices, and makes sure everything keeps running. Ex.3. Mark the following statements as true or false: 1. Linux was created in the 1980s. 2. Minix was created by a university student. 3. Linux is based on Unix. 4. Minix is based on Unix. 5. Linux runs on more types of computer than any other operating system. 82 GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE Ex.1. Read the text and translate these terms and expressions into your own language. Use a dictionary or the Internet to help you. 1. User interface _______________ 2. Procedures _______________ 3. Commands _______________ 4. Tools _______________ 5. Desktop _______________ 6. Nested folders _______________ 7. Launch a program _______________ GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE The term user interface refers to the standard procedures that the user follows in order to interact with a computer. In the late 1970s and early 80s, the way users accessed computer systems was very complex. They had to memorize and type a lot of commands just to see the contents of a disk, to copy files or to respond to a single prompt. In fact, it was only experts who used computers, so there was no need for a user-friendly interface. In 1984, Apple produced the Macintosh, the first computer with a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). Macs were designed with one clear aim: to facilitate interaction with the computer. A few years later, Microsoft launched Windows, another operating system based on graphics and intuitive tools. Nowadays, computers are used by all kinds of people, and as a result there is a growing emphasis on accessibility and user-friendly systems. A GUI makes use of a WIMP environment: windows, icons, menus and pointer. The background of the screen is called the desktop, which contains labeled pictures called icons. These icons represent files or folders. Double-clicking a folder opens a window which contains programs, documents, or more nested folders. When you are in a folder, you can launch a program or a document by double-clicking the icon, or you can drag it to another location. When you run a program, your PC opens a window that lets you work with different tools. All the programs have a high level of consistency, with similar toolbars, menu bars, buttons and dialog boxes. A modern OS also provides access to networks and allows multitasking, which means you can run several programs – and do various tasks – at the same time. Ex.2. Label the interface features (a-j) on the screenshot of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system with words in bold from this list. · Desktop: the background screen that displays icons and folders · Window: a scrollable viewing area on the screen; it can contain files and folders · Icon: a picture representing an object; for example, a document, program, folder or hard drive icon · Folder: a directory that holds data, programs and other folders · Menu bar: a row of words that open up menus when selected · Drop-down (pull-down) menu: a list of options that appears below a menu item when selected 83 · Scroll bar: a horizontal or vertical bar that is clicked and dragged in the desired direction · Dock: set of icons at the bottom of the screen that give you access to the things you use most Ex.3. Study the description of the Windows Desktop and answer these questions about its features. 1) What does Outlook Express let you do? 2) Which feature shows you current programs? 3) How do you read the date? 4) Which background colour is most common? 5) Which feature lets you see which files are stored on your PC? 6) What is the program that helps you get on the Internet? 7) How do you delete files permanently? Start Button is the main starting point for most of your actions. Click once and you’ll see a list of programs and your most recently used documents. My computer icon lets you browse the files stored on your PC. Move the mouse pointer over this icon and double-click the left mouse button: a new window shows your hard disk, floppy disk and CD-ROM drive, as well as special Printer and Control Panel folders. Outlook Express button starts Microsoft Outlook Express, which lets you send electronic mail if you have Internet access. Recycle Bin or Wastebasket. When you delete files they go here, so you can easily retrieve them if you make a mistake. To delete the files permanently, you can empty the Recycle Bin. The Internet icon. The Internet Connection Wizard is a special program that helps you get on the Internet. You may also have an icon for the Microsoft Network –an Internet service you can subscribe to. The background of the Desktop can be a solid colour, a pattern or even a picture. Most new PCs have a solid green-blue background, while some may show the logo of your PC maker. The Taskbar shows you the programs that you are currently running and the windows you have open. To switch between different windows, click on their buttons on the Taskbar. Status/Time box. This box normally displays the current time, but it can also display other information. Pause the mouse pointer over the time for a moment and a pop-up box tells you the date. The box is also used very often by programs to show the status of tools such as the printer, modem or – on a notebook (a portable computer) – it might display the amount of battery power you have left. 84 Ex.4. Listen to help desk technician talking to an IT user. What information is the technician looking for? Ex.5. Listen again and number the instructions in the order you hear them. ¨ Choose ‘Properties’ from the menu ¨ Just select ‘Manage’ ¨ Select ‘Install date’ ¨ Choose the ‘Details’ tab ¨ Just right-click where it says ‘Disk 0’ ¨ Can you scroll up to the top? Ex.6. Complete this questionnaire for yourself. Do you know how to: Yes create a folder? start a program? shut down the system? adjust the speakers volume? arrange the icons? display the date? in Windows, show Tooltips? No TO MOVE A FILE 1. If you want to move a file that was saved in a different folder, locate and open the folder. 2. Right-click the file you want to move; then click Cut on the shortcut menu. 3. Locate and open the folder where you want to put the file. 4. Right-click the folder; then click Paste on the shortcut menu. Ex.7. Work in pairs. Take turns being an IT helpdesk technician and an IT user. Use these prompts to explain to your partner how to follow the steps for each action. How to view the amount of RAM and processor speed ‘Start’ button→ ‘Control Panel’→ ‘System and Security’ heading→ under ‘System’: ‘View amount of RAM and processor speed’ First, could you click on the ‘Start’ button? Sure. Then select ‘Control Panel’. A box will appear. OK. Click where it says ‘System and Security’, then ‘View amount of RAM and processor speed’, under ‘System’. B: Got it! Thanks very much. A: B: A: B: A: 1. How to open a program 2. How to save a file 3. How to change a program’s settings 85 4. How to delete a file. SPECIALIST READING Ex.1. Find the answers to these questions in the following text. 1. What developments are driving the development of completely new interfaces? 2. What has inspired a whole cottage industry to develop to improve today’s graphical user interface? 3. In what way have XML-based formats changed the user interface? 4. What type of computers are certain to benefit from speech technology? 5. Name a process where a mouse is particularly useful and a process where it is not so useful. 6. What facilities are multimodal interfaces likely to offer in the future? 7. What type of input device will be used to give vision to the user interface? 8. What development has led to an interest in intelligent agents? 9. List ways in which intelligent agents can be used. USER INTERFACES Cheaper and more powerful personal computers are making it possible to perform processorintensive tasks on the desktop. Break-throughs in technology, such as speech recognition, are enabling new ways of interacting with computers. And the convergence of personal computers and consumer electronics devices is broadening the base of computer users and placing a new emphasis on ease of use. Together, these developments will drive the industry in the next few years to build the first completely new interfaces since SRI International and Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center did their pioneering research into graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in the 1970s. True, it’s unlikely that you’ll be ready to toss out the keyboard and mouse any time soon. Indeed, a whole cottage industry – inspired by the hyperlinked design of the World Wide Web – has sprung up to improve today’s graphical user interface. Companies are developing products that organize information graphically in more intuitive ways. XML-based formats enable users to view content, including local and network files, within a single browser interface. But it is the more dramatic innovations such as speech recognition that are poised to shake up interface design. Speech will become a major component of user interfaces, and applications will be completely redesigned to incorporate speech input. Palm-size and handheld PCs, with their cramped keyboards and basic handwriting recognition, will benefit from speech technology. Though speech recognition may never be a complete replacement for other input devices, future interfaces will offer a combination of input types, a concept known as multimodal input. A mouse is a very efficient device for desktop navigation, for example, but not for changing the style of a paragraph. By using both a mouse and speech input, a user can first point to the appropriate paragraph and then say to the computer, ‘Make that bold.’ Of course, multimodal interfaces will involve more than just traditional input devices and speech recognition. Eventually, most PCs will also have hand writing recognition, text to speech(TTS),the ability to recognize faces or gestures, and even the ability to observe their surroundings. At The Intelligent Room, a project of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, researchers have given sight to PCs running Microsoft Windows through the use of video cameras. ‘Up to now, the PC hasn’t cared about the world around it,’ said Rodney 86 A. Brooks, the Director of MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. ‘When you combine computer vision with speech understanding, it liberates the user from having to sit in front of a keyboard and screen.’ It’s no secret that the amount of information – both on the Internet and within intranets – at the fingertips of computer users has been expanding rapidly this information onslaught has led to an interest in intelligent agents, software assistants that perform tasks such as retrieving and delivering information and automating repetitive tasks. Agents will make computing significantly easier. They can be used as Web browsers, help-desks, and shopping assistants. Combined with the ability to look and listen, intelligent agents will bring personal computers one step closer to behaving more like humans. This is not an accident. Researchers have long noted that users have a tendency to treat their personal computers as though they were human. By making computers more ‘social,’ they hope to also make them easier to use. As these technologies enter mainstream applications, they will have a marked impact on the way we work with personal computers. Soon, the question will be not ‘what does software look like’ but ‘how does it behave?’ Ex.2. Match the terms in Table A with the statements in Table B. Table A Table B 1. Software assistant that performs tasks a) GUI such as retrieving and delivering b) Multimodal interface information and automating repetitive c) Intelligent agent tasks d) TTS 2. Text to speech e) The intelligent Room 3. Graphical user interface 4. A project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Artificial Intelligence Lab 5. A system that allows a user to interact with a computer using a combination of inputs such as speech recognition, handwriting recognition, text to speech, etc. Ex.3. Mark the following statements as True or False: 1. Fewer people are using computers because computer functions are becoming integrated into other electronic devices. 2. Keyboards and mice will soon not be required for using personal computers. 3. There have been no improvements in interface design since the development of the GUI. 4. Speech recognition is likely to completely replace other input devices. 5. Computer speech and vision will free the user from having to sit in front of a keyboard and screen. 6. Intelligent agents will make computers seem more like humans. 87 WORD PROCESSING Ex.1. Look at this screenshot from Microsoft Word and translate the labeled features and functions into your own language. Ex.2. Complete these sentences with the correct features and functions above. 1. The Standard _______________ lists the icons to save or print a document, spell check, etc. The ______________ Toolbar is the area for changing font, alignment, indentation, etc. 2. A front consists of three elements: _______________, type style and type size. For example, Palatino bold at 10 points. 3. Type style refers to a visual characteristic of a typeface, for example B for _______________, I for _______________ and U for underlined. 4. If you need to change indentation – the space between the page margin and where the text aligns – you can click the Increase or Decrease _______________ buttons. 5. The _______________ and _______________ commands allow you to specify customized texts at the top and bottom of every page. Ex.3. Read the text and underline the advantages of word processing in the first paragraph and the disadvantages in the second. Write the number of each. Advantages ______ Disadvantages ______ WORD PROCESSING: FOR AND AGAINST People use word processors for writing all kinds of documents, such as letters, school papers and reports. Word processors have many advantages over handwriting and manual typewriters. Word processing is faster and easier than writing by hand and you can store documents on your 88 computer, which you cannot usually do on a typewriter. This makes it easier to review and rewrite your documents. You have more formatting choices with a wordprocessor, and the spelling, grammar and language tools are useful, too. You can also print copies of your documents, which look neater than handwritten ones. Many language students use word processors to improve their writing skills and because they help them feel proud of their work. Word processors do have disadvantages, however. First, it is not easy to read long documents on a computer screen. Second, sometimes the printer does not print an exact copy of what you see on the screen. Not all word processors can read each other’s files, which is another disadvantage. Finally, word processors do not always work well with e-mail. If you paste a word-processed letter into an e-mail it may lose a lot of its formatting. Many people use a text editor for the Internet, which is similar to a word processor but has fewer formatting features and cannot use graphics. Text editors, such as Notepad, use a simple coding system called ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange), as does e-mail. Ex.4. Decide if the sentences are True or False. 1. You can store letters on a manual typewriter. 2. You can change your documents easily on a word processor. 3. Printed documents look better than handwriting. 4. Improving your writing is more difficult with a word processor. 5. Word processors work well with e-mail. Ex.5. Match the words and phrases in bold from the text with the definitions. 1. By hand, not electronic _______________________ 2. The way a program organizes data _______________________ 3. A program used for simple text files _______________________ 4. The code that e-mail uses _______________________ 5. Things that a program has, or can do _______________________ 6. A program used for text and graphics _______________________ Ex.6. Work in groups. Which of these documents would you write by hand and which on a word processor? Say why. · A formal letter · An informal letter · An inspiration to a party · A birthday card · A shopping list · An application form · A note to your teacher/ friend · A school report · A ‘for sale’ notice Ex.7. Look at the table of word-processing tools and commands and their functions. Then answer the questions. 1. Which tool checks your spelling? _______________________ 2. Which edit command removes text to images? _______________________ 89 3. 4. 5. 6. Which format command changes the letter size? _______________________ Which file command opens a file or document? _______________________ Which insert command lets you put in an image? _______________________ Which view command shows the document as a printed page? _____________________ This command closes the open file. This editing command copies any highlighted text or images and keeps it in memory. We say anything copied is on the clipboard. This editing command deletes any highlighted text or image. Cut Formats, or changes, the type style and size of the characters. Font This view command makes the open document cover all of the screen. Full Screen This also hides the menu bar and the toolbar so that you cannot see them. The menu bar shows commands and tools in words; the toolbar shows them with icons. This tool opens a thesaurus to help you find synonyms and antonyms Language (similar and opposite words). Opens a file from one of the computer’s drives. Open Formats the paragraph settings to change the way the paragraph looks. Paragraph This editing command puts anything that is on the clipboard onto the Paste screen. Inserts a picture or image into your document. Picture Views the open document as it will look when it is printed. Print Layout Saves the open file or document. Save Saves the file to another location, with another name or in a different Save As format. Spelling and Grammar This tool checks the document or any highlighted text for spelling and grammar errors. You can insert many special characters with this command. Symbol This editing tool cancels the last command. It does not work with Undo every command. Close Copy Ex.8. Match the first part of the sentence (1-6) with the second part (a-f). a) in the Times New Roman font. 1. Typing letters with a word processor b) by using the thesaurus. 2. Many companies need people c) before you print out your document. 3. I can learn a lot of new words d) who can use a word processor. 4. People usually type business letters e) try clicking the undo button. 5. Check your spelling and grammar f) is easier and quicker than writing by hand 6. If you cut a sentence out by mistake, Ex.9. Listen to two friends, Anna and Ben, talking about how to move text in Word. How many steps are involved in carrying out the Cut and Paste task? Ex.10. Listen again and complete the dialogue. Anna: Ben, do you know how I can move this paragraph? I want to put it at the end of this page. Ben: Er… I think so. ________________, use the mouse to select the text you want to move. ____________________ choose the Cut command from the Edit menu. Anna: _________________________? Ben: Yes. The selected text disappears and goes onto the clipboard. _______________________ you find where you want the text to appear and you click 90 Anna: Ben: Anna: Ben: to position the insertion point there. Mm, OK. Is that _________________________? Yes, that’s it. If you make a mistake, you can choose Undo from the edit menu, which will reverse your last editing command. Brilliant! Thanks a lot. That’s OK, it’s my pleasure. Ex.11. Look at the box and then correct six mistakes in this dialogue. Giving instructions · To give instructions, we use the imperative form of the verb and sequence words such as first, next, then, after that, finally, etc. First, use the mouse to select the text. Then choose the Cut command from the Edit menu. Next, choose Paste from the Edit menu. Finally, check that the text has appeared in the right place. We can also use the Present Simple with you. Now you find where you want the text to appear and you click to position the insertion point. Following instructions · If you want to check that you have understood instructions, you can use expressions like: Like this? Is that right? · If you want to signal that you are ready to move on to the next step, you can use expressions like: OK, I’ve done that now. What next? · If you want to ask if the process is completed, you can use expressions like: Is that everything? Anything else? A: I need a photo for my curriculum vitae. How do I insert one into this Word document? B: Well, now choose Insert on the Menu bar. A: As this? B: Yes. From the Insert menu, select Picture. As you can see, this displays a drop-down menu with different options: Clip Art, From File, From Scanner, Chart, etc. Select From File and you’ll get a dialog box. A: OK. I’ve done that now. What last? B: OK. Now I navigate your hard drive’s contents and find the picture you want to insert. A: Right. I’d like to include this one. B: OK, good. Now click Insert and the photograph will be inserted into your document. A: Here it is. Is that write? B: Yes. First, right-click with the mouse and select Format Picture to adjust the size and other properties. A: Brilliant, thanks! 91 Ex.12. Complete these instructions for how to Copy and Paste in Word with verbs from the box. click(x2) select position right-click drag 1. First, _______________ the text you wish to copy. To select text, _______________ the mouse portion of the text that you want to copy. This part should then be highlighted. 2. Then _______________ on the Copy icon on the Standard Toolbar. This copies the selected text to an invisible clipboard. 3. Next, _______________ the cursor where you want the text to appear. 4. Finally, ______________ the Paste icon. This inserts the content of the clipboard at the insertion point. As well as the icons on the toolbar, you can use the keys Ctrl+C for Copy, and Ctrl+V for Paste. These options also come up if you ______________ the selected text. 92 SPREADSHEETS Ex.1. Answer the questions. 1. What is a spreadsheet? 2. What are spreadsheets used for? 3. Do you use spreadsheets? What for? What do you find easy/difficult about using them? Ex.2. Read the text and find the terms which correspond with these definitions. 1. Software which allows data to be displayed and managed in a table format ___________ 2. It goes up and down and has letter labels _________________ 3. It goes across and has number labels ________________ 4. An area in a spreadsheet which contains data _________________ 5. Mathematical equations that help you calculate and analyze data ________________ 6. Ready-to-use formulae that help you perform specialized calculations, e.g. SUM, AVERAGE, etc. SPREADSHEETS BASICS A spreadsheet program helps you manage personal and business finances. Spreadsheets, or worksheets, are mathematical tables which show figures in rows and columns. A cell can hold three types of data: text, numbers and formulae. Formulae are entries that have an equation which calculates the value to display; we can use them to calculate totals, percentages, discounts, etc. Spreadsheets have many built-in functions, pre-written instructions that can be carried out by referring to the function by name. For example, =SUM(D2:D7) means add up all the values in the cell range D2 to D7. The format menu lets you choose font, alignment, borders, etc. Ex.3. Listen to Lucy Boyd giving training course on basic Excel and decide whether these sentences are True or False. 1. A spreadsheet displays information in the form of a table with a lot of columns and rows. 2. In a spreadsheet you can only enter numbers and formulae. 3. You cannot change the width of columns. 4. Spreadsheet programs can generate a variety of charts and graphs. 5. Spreadsheets cannot be used as databases. 93 Ex.4. Look at the worksheet and label a, b and c with column, row and cell. b____________ a____________ c____________ Ex.5. Look at the worksheet above and decide whether these sentences are true or false. Correct he false ones. 1. The value of the cell C12 in the result of applying the formula C5-C10. 2. The value of cell B5 is the result of adding the value in cells B2 and B3. 3. If you type the value 800 in C3, the value in cells C5 and C12 will be recalculated. Ex.6. In pairs, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of showing the information above as a graph, rather than as a worksheet. Advantages Disadvantages 94 Ex.7. Spreadsheets are also used to generate invoices. Look at the letter which accompanies the invoice. Complete the letter with phrases from the box. Yours sincerely I am writing to Dear Ms Atkinson We would be grateful if you could I am enclosing Please contact us 16 May 2014 Ruth Atkinson 38 High Street Galway _____________________________________________, _____________________________________________ confirm that we have sent you four desktop PCs plus screens, two laptops and a laser printer, along with a D5 database, and an anti-virus program for each of the computers. Please allow two weeks for delivery. _____________________________________________ two copies of your invoice. _____________________________________________ make your payment by cheque or directly to our bank account through the Internet. We are also delighted to inform you that we are offering our clients an online course called A paperless office, free of charge. _________________________________________if you require any further information. _____________________________________________, Ian Pegg 95 SPECIALIST READING Ex.1. Read the texts below. Which features are more important from your point of view? WORD WHEN AND WHERE YOU NEED IT Enjoy the Read New Read Mode. Text reflows automatically in columns for easier on-screen reading. Less menus mean higher focus on your content, accompanied only by tools that add value to your reading. Object Zoom. In Read mode, you can easily zoom in on tables, charts, and images, and have them fill the screen. After you take in the details, another tap or click will minimize them, so you can continue reading. Resume Reading. Enjoy your reading, take a breather, and then pick up right where you left off—even on a different PC or tablet. Word automatically bookmarks the last place you were reading.* *Internet connection required; must be signed in with a Microsoft account or a Office 365 account. Work together Reply Comment. Keep track of the conversation. Place and reply comments right next to the text you’re discussing, so everyone can readily see who replied to whom, and when. Simplified sharing. Relax. You can be sure that you’re all tracking only the latest version, because your files are saved online on OneDrive or SharePoint by default.* Send everyone a single link to the same file, along with their viewing and editing permissions, right from within Word. Present Online. Enjoy greater flexibility. Project your document to everyone in your working group, even if they don’t have Word. Send them a link, and as you present the document on your screen, they can follow along in their browsers online. *Internet connection required; must be signed in with a Microsoft account or a Office 365 account. Polished docs PDF Reflow. Here’s a time-saver you'll really love: Open a PDF in Word, and enjoy editing content, such as paragraphs, lists and tables, as if you created it in Word. Alignment Guides. Achieve that polished, professional look—align charts, photos, videos, and diagrams with your text. Handy alignment guides pop into place when you need them and disappear when you’re done. 96 Live Layout. Experiment with layouts. When you drag a photo, video, or shape to a position, text reflows instantly—right before your eyes. Release the mouse button, and your object and surrounding text stay right where you want them. EXCEL WHEN AND WHERE YOU NEED IT Discover Insights Reveal the insights in your data Flash Fill. Easily reformat and rearrange your data to gain new insight. Excel learns and recognizes your pattern and auto-completes the remaining data for you. No formulas or macros required. Recommended Pivot Table. Perform complex analyses quickly. Excel summarizes your data with previews of various pivot-table options, so you can compare them and select the option that tells your story best. Visualize Data Visualize your data to understand it better Recommended Chart. Let Excel recommend the charts that best illustrate your data's patterns. Quickly preview your chart and graph options, and then pick the ones that present your insights most clearly. Quick Analysis. Discover and compare different ways to represent your data visually. When you see the one that shows off your data best, apply formatting, sparklines, charts, and tables with a single click. Chart Formatting Control. Imagine the freedom to fine-tune the look and feel of your charts quickly. Change the title, layout, and other chart elements—all from a new and more interactive formatting interface. Share with others Share workbooks more ways for better results Simplified Sharing. Share workbooks with ease and confidence. You can be sure that you're all tracking only the latest version, because your presentations are saved online on OneDrive or SharePoint by default.* Just send everyone a link to the same file. Post to Social Network. Get a lot of feedback fast. Share selected portions of your spreadsheets on the web by posting them on your social network pages. Present Online. Collaborate on workbooks with others in real time by sharing your screen in Lync conversations or meetings. When you present online, you can also allow others to take control of your workbook. * Requires an Internet connection; must be signed in with a Microsoft account or a Microsoft Online Services ID. 97 DATABASES Ex.1. Discuss the questions. 1. What database programs do you know? 2. What do people use databases for? Give examples. Ex.2. Read the information, study the tables and complete text below. DATABASE BASICS A database is essentially a computerized record-keeping system. Each unit of information you create is called a record and each record is made up of a collection of fields. Typically, a single record consists of a set of field names like: Title, FirstName, Subname, JobTitle, TelNo and ID. You fill in a form with the relevant information for each field to add a new record to the database. There are different data types. · Text – holds letters and numbers not used in calculations. · Number – can only hold numbers used in calculations and reports. · Memo – can store long texts · Data/Time – a data or time combination of both. · AutoNumber – assigns a number to each record. · OLE Object – (object linking and embedding) holds sounds and pictures. · Yes/No – for alternative values like true/false, yes/no, on/off, etc. · Hyperlink – adds a link to a website. Once you have added data to a set of records, indexes must be created to help the database find specific records and sort (classify) records faster. An index performs the same functions as in the back of a book or in a library. For example, if you regularly search your database by surname, the index should be defined on this field. Relational databases Two database files can be related or joined as long as they hold a piece of data in common. A file of employee names, for example, could include a field called ‘DEPARTMENT NUMBER’ and another file, containing details of the department itself, could include the same field. This common field can then be used to link the two files together. Relationship between tables: the key field has the same value in both tables Extracting information from a database is known as performing a query. For example, if you Students: Table ID Address Teachers: Table Teacher ID Teacher ID Name Name Surname 1 Lucy Reeve 3 Pond Road 106 106 James Pullin 2 Joe Davey 7 Oxbury Close 107 107 Liz White 3 Adam Moore 4 Quebec Street 108 108 Karen Southwell 98 Surname Address 9 The Green 5 London Road 8 Granary Street Subject Maths English ICT want to know all customers that spend more than £ 9,000 per month, the program will search the name field and the money field simultaneously. A _________________ program allows the user to store, change and retrieve information. A database file is a collection of records. Each _________________ contains a set of fields. Each ___________________ holds a separate piece of information; for example, a student file contains a list of records, each of which consists of several fields which give their name, address, birthday, etc. In a ________________ database, information is stored in tables that have a connection or link with one another (see tables above). A database lets you create an ________________, a list of records ordered according to the content of certain fields; this helps you search and _________________ records into numerical or alphabetical order very fast. It also has a _________________ function which allows you to extract information that meets certain criteria. Ex.3. Complete this manual with the words in box. field form objects primary key query the database retrieve a record unique record report A database has several parts. These are called __________________. The simplest of these is a table; most databases have at least two. Tables look like a spreadsheet. Each row in the table is a(n) _________________, containing information about one item, such as a person or something that the company sells. Each of these contains several __________________ with information about the item. For example, in a company’s employee database, these might be family name, given name, phone number, and so on. One important point is that one field in each record must be ____________________– the same data must not be in any other record. We call this field the ___________________. It can be a stuff ID number, for example, but it can’t be given name because many people have the same given name. Another type of object is a(n) ___________________, which is used for entering data into tables. A third object type is a(n) ____________________. This can show data from more than one table at the same time, looks good and is suitable for printing. There are several ways to get data out of a database. One is simply to _________________ h – for example, if we want to check the data in a single record, such as an employee’s phone number. If we want to combine information from several tables or to do something with the data such as add up financial information from several records, we can ___________________. Ex.4. Work in small groups. For each of these tables, discuss which field is a good primary key (more than one answer might be possible). Be prepared to give reasons for your answers. 1. A database table holding details of a club’s members. The field headings are: Given name, Family name, Email, Membership number, Address and Mobile number. 2. A database table with details of products that a company holds in stock. The field headings are: Product name, Product price, Number of units and Barcode. 3. A database table of patients in a hospital. The field headings are: Family name, Given name, Date of entry to hospital, Bed number, Case number and National identity card number. 99 The given name can’t be a primary key because it isn’t unique – many people have the same first name. Ex.5. Work in small groups. Discuss tables, fields and primary keys that you could use for records in databases in these cases. Compare your answers with another group. 1. A dentist’s database of patients 2. A language school’s database of students 3. A travel agent’s database of airline tickets 4. A database in an online multi-player game in which players can stop and restart their games whenever they want. Ex.6. Work in small groups. Read this scenario and discuss possible solutions for each problem. A company has these problems: · Information on paper takes up too much space in the office. · It is difficult to find information on paper. · Admin staff spend a lot of time entering data. Surely computers can do this? · They enter the same data into different spreadsheets. · Copying and pasting data from spreadsheets into word processor documents is very slow and doesn’t look very good. Possible solutions: · Scanning · Optical character recognition (OCR) · Set up a database · Run reports By scanning all your documents, you will use less paper. Ex.7. Listen to two colleagues at a book company. Chris needs some information from the production database. Complete this dialogue. Chris: Tim, ________________ you help me a moment, please? Tim: Sure. What’s the __________________? Chris: I need some ___________________ about a book budget from the database. Tim: OK. Chris: But I don’t know how to ________________________ it. Tim: No problem. Chris: So what do I do first? Tim: Enter your name and _________________________and press enter. Chris: Erm… ? Tim: You have got a password? Chris: Erm, I can’t _________________________ it. Tim: Use mine. Type in t evans, that’s t-e-v-a-n-s, then snavet. S-n-a-v-e-t. Chris: OK. Tim: Now press Enter. Now what is the name of the book? Chris: Basic French. Tim: OK. Type in that in the title __________________ in the first _________________. Now press Find. There it is. OK, budget. Click _____________________ Publishing and scroll down to Plant costs and click on that. Chris: Good. There’s the budget in the second row. Thanks, Tim. 100 Tim: No problem. Ex.8. Listen and repeat these questions. 1. Could you help me, please? 2. Please could you help me? 3. Would you help me with this software? 4. Please could you explain how to do that? 5. Please would you give me your password? Ex.9. Complete these sentences with the words in the box. about at between for from in 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. into of to This database is used to store our financial information. What’s the difference _______________ a database and a spreadsheet? A database is _______________ storing data. The school has information _______________ students. Can people access the system _______________ the same time? A database is a collection _______________ records. You retrieve information _______________ the database. You enter the data _______________ the system. What software do you use _______________ your work? Ex. 10 In pairs, discuss what fields you would include in a database for your music collection. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Ex.11. Study this example of a record from a database of company employees. What fields do you think it contains? What other fields might be useful? Boot, Ronald Marketing Salesperson 30/5/68 £28,000 Ex.12. Study this simple database of volcanoes and answer the questions. Name Country Continent Height (m) Cotopaxi Ecuador South America 5978 Popocatepetl Mexico North America 5452 Sangay Ecuador South America 5410 Tungurahua Ecuador South America 5033 Kilimanjaro Tanzania Africa 5889 Misu Peru South America 5801 Aconcagua Argentina/Chile South America 6960 Chimborazo Ecuador South America 6282 Orizaba Mexico North America 5700 Elbrus Russian Federation Asia 5647 Demavend Iran Middle East 5366 1. How many fields are there? 101 Status active active active active dormant dormant believed extinct believed extinct believed extinct believed extinct believed extinct 2. 3. 4. How many records are there? List the volcanoes in North America. List the volcanoes over 6,000 metres. SPECIALIST READING Ex.1. Read the information below and find the words that match these definitions. 1. A software program that is used for finding and looking at pages on the Internet ______________________ 2. A large amount of information stored in a computer in an organized way that allows individual pieces of information to be found quickly____________________ 3. Something that is used as a pattern or an example for something else ________________ 4. To take something or someone away from a place _____________________ 5. A quality or feature of something _______________________ 6. To spread something over an area ______________________ WHAT’S NEW IN ACCESS 2013 What’s new in Access 2013? In a word, apps. An Access web app is a new type of database that you build in Access, then use and share with others as a SharePoint app in a web browser. To build an app, you just select the type of data you want to track (contacts, tasks, projects, and so on). Access creates the database structure, complete with views that let you add and edit data. Navigation and basic commands are built-in, so you can start using your app right away. Getting started with apps Building an app Using your SharePoint server or Office 365 site as a host, you’ll be able to build a polished, browser-based database app. Under the hood, Access apps use SQL Server to provide the best performance and data integrity. On the startup screen, click Custom web app. Note With Access 2013, you can still create traditional desktop databases from scratch. Or, try out a template to create an app, a desktop database, or an Access 2010-style web database. Table templates Quickly add tables to your app using pre-designed table templates. If you’re tracking tasks, search for the Tasks template and click it. 102 If you see the multiple-table indicator next to a template, that means Access will add commonly used related tables for you so you can get started with a truly relational database. Access creates views for each table that display data from related tables. External data Import data from Access desktop databases, Microsoft Excel files, ODBC data sources, text files, and SharePoint lists. Opening in a browser When you’re done designing, don’t look for a compatibility checker or a Publish button. Your app is already live—just click Launch App. UI created automatically Navigation included Access apps save you the trouble of building views, switchboards and other user interface (UI) elements. Table names show up on the left edge of the window, and the views for each table appear across the top: All apps have a similar navigation structure, making it easier for people to learn and switch between apps. You can always add more custom views besides the ones provided by the app. The Action Bar The built-in views each have an Action Bar with buttons for adding, editing, saving, and deleting items. You can add more buttons to this bar to run any custom macros you build, or you can remove buttons you don’t want people to use. 103 Views easier to modify Apps let you put controls where you want them without making adjustments to the layout first. Just drag and drop—the other controls move out of the way to make room. Callouts for setting properties Instead of searching through a property sheet for a particular setting, settings are available via callouts located conveniently next to each section or control. New controls for working with related data Related Items control The Related Items control provides a quick way to list and summarize data from a related table or query. Click an item to open a detail view for that item. 104 AutoComplete control The AutoComplete control looks up data from a related table. Think of a combo box that works more like an instant search box. Drill-through links Drill-through links let you quickly view details about a related item. Access apps handle the behind-the-scenes logic to make sure the right data is displayed. New deployment options Permissions improvements Get more control over who can modify your app. SharePoint now comes with three default permissions levels–Designer, Author, and Reader. Only Designers can make design changes to 105 views and tables. Authors can change data but not the design, and Readers (you guessed it) can only read existing data. Package and distribute apps Access apps can be saved as package files and then added to your Corporate Catalog or the Office Store. At the Office Store, you can distribute your app for free, or you can charge a fee and make some spending money. 106 COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA Ex.1. Label the photos with the multimedia equipment in the box. Who might use each of the items? headphones microphone projector speakers video camera virtual reality goggles webcam 3.________________ 1._________________ 2.________________ 5._________________ 6.________________ Ex.2. Read this email quickly. What does Kamal want to do? Subject: Connecting a projector Hi, Kamal, It should be quite easy to connect your laptop to a projector. First, check that both the laptop and the projector are off. Then connect the projector cable to the laptop: just plug it into the video socket. Most laptops have one, usually at the back or side. After that, insert the projector’s power cable into a power socket and turn on the computer and the projector. Next, the computer has to find out the projector’s resolution: press the ‘Function’ key (‘Fn’) on the laptop and, at the same time, press the key with a picture of a screen on it. The ‘Fn’ key is usually on the bottom left, near the ‘Shift’ key, and the key with the screen picture on it is usually an the top row of keys, on the left. Don’t forget to switch off the equipment and unplug the projector from the computer when you’ve finished. Best wishes, Natasha Ex.3. Match the words 1-8 from the email to words a-h with a similar meaning. 1. Cable a) Push 2. Plug (into) b) Put (into) 3. Insert c) Connect 4. Power socket d) Connector 5. Turn on e) Turn off 6. Press f) Electricity socket 7. Unplug g) Switch on 107 8. Switch off Ex.4. Complete these prepositional verbs. 1. Connect _________________ 2. Plug _______________ 3. Unplug _________________ 4. Disconnect _______________ h) Disconnect Ex.5. Listen to a sales assistant in a computer shop explaining to a customer the system requirements needed to run multimedia software. Which answers (a or b) best describe what she says? 1. Multimedia is defined as a) the integration of video and telecommunications with traditional computing. b) the integration of text, graphics, audio, video and animation in a single application. 2. With multimedia encyclopedias, a) you have more fun but you learn more slowly. b) you get much more involved than with print encyclopedias. 3. Interactive games a) use multimedia and virtual reality features. b) do not require much RAM memory. Ex.6. Read the text and find the following. 1. The type of text that contains links to other texts. 2. The expression that means ‘to record music onto a CD’. 3. A system that combines hypertext and multimedia. 4. The most common extensions for graphics files. 5. The most common text formats. 6. Three popular video formats. 7. Three common file formats for storing audio data. 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 my 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 RAM 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 highquality monitor and a DVD writer, and its performance depends on all these working in harmony’. 108 Recognizing file formats To identify the type of file, an extension is added to the filename when it is saved on disk. Graphics include charts, You can hear sound such as Common text extensions: .pdf (portable document photos, drawings, buttons, songs, movie soundtracks and speeches. Common audio etc. format) .gif (graphics interchange formats: .doc (MS Word document) .wav (Windows wave audio format) .rtf (rich text format) (jpeg – joint format) .htm or .html (hypertext .jpg markup language for Web photographic experts group) .ra (RealAudio file) .mp3(compressed music files) .tif (tagged image file) files) Video refers to recording, Animations are made up of Files compressed with WinRAR of independent have a .rar extension. editing and displaying moving series pictures put together in A popular format used to images. Common formats: sequence to look like compress and distribute movies .avi (audio video interleave) moving pictures. Common on DVDs or over the Net is .mov (QuickTime movie) DivX, a digital video codec .mpg (mpeg – moving picture formats: (Compress, DECompress). .gif for animated gifts experts group) .swf for Flash files 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 play sound (e.g. from radio stations) and video files as a continuous stream while they are downloading. · In virtual reality, users interact with 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 of 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. Ex.7. Solve the clue and complete the puzzle with words from the opposite page. 1. A series of still images shown in sequence. 1 2. _______________ files are processed by 2 sound software. 3 3. In medicine, doctors use virtual 4 ____________ systems to simulate particular situations. 5 4. The suffix placed after a dot at the end of a 6 file name. 7 5. A format used to compress and transmit 8 movies over the web. 9 6. People use special programs to ________________ and decompress files 10 so that they occupy less disk space. 109 7. A video format developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group. 8. A system of filming, processing and showing moving pictures. 9. .gif stands for ______________ interchange format. 10. The technique which allows you to play music and watch video before the entire file has downloaded. Down: the combination of moving and still images, sound, music and words. Ex.8. Complete the article with the words from the box. graphics interactive video games consoles multiplayer There are games you play on video _________________ such as Nintendo, Sega, and the PlayStation. And there are games you play on a computer, either alone or at multiplayer online sites such as Microsoft’s Internet Gaming Zone and Battle.net. _________________ have been made into films, such as Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, and film stars now sometimes appear in video games. The _________________ in many games have taken on such a high degree of realism that they almost seem like film. The X-Files game was practically an _______________ movie, full of actors from the show and sections of dialogue and video. Some people claim that the Blade Runner video game was better than the movie – not only where the sets incredible but you also got to control the action and the ending. _________________ online gaming is the next wave in the video game world. It provides a better gaming experience, simply because people are more creative and more challenging adversaries than computers. Thousands of people can play simultaneously all over the world. Ex.9. Read and complete the puzzle below. AUDIO FILES ON THE WEB I can listen to real-world or online radio stations with Internet radio everywhere in the world. I just started a new audio blog. It’s a blog, an Internet journal, which includes audio clips. My son downloads and listens to MP3 files he finds on file share sites, where you search and download music from other people’s computers using software such as Kazaa or eMule. I enjoy podcasting. I publish my own radio programmes as podcasts, audio files which I make available over the Internet for playback on people’s computers. Also, I subscribe to other people’s podcasts so that I can hear their radio programmes. I ask my students to listen to audio books and get information from audio lectures and spoken tutorial on the Web. 110 All the people above describe different types of webcasts, broadcasts on the Web. These require either suitable audio player software (e.g. WinAmp or I Tunes) that allows streaming a technique that means you can listen to an audio file while it’s being downloaded; or a plug-in (e.g. RealPlayer or Windows Media Player), a program that interacts with your web browser to play audio files through the browser interface. Across 1 1. Auxiliary programs used to play multimedia 2 files. 2. Students may be interested in this type of book and lecture. 6. The type of site where you can find and exchange music files. 7. An online journal with sound. 6 Down 1. The technology needed to publish radio programmes on the Web. 3. A podcast and a spoken tutorial are different 7 types of ______________. 4. This technique allows you to listen to live online radio programmes. 5. ____________ radio includes both traditional and online radio stations. 3 4 5 Ex.10. Read the article and say what these people are interested in. · I was fed up with typing long documents or dictating them to someone else. Now I just have to speak to my computer. · I enjoy manipulating the sounds I create with a synthesizer. · I’m a teacher in a school for the visually impaired. My pupils find this new technology very helpful. · I need this device to create digital music. DIGITAL AUDIO PLAYERS The different types of digital audio players are often referred to as MP3 players. MP3 is short for MPEG audio layer 3, a type of compression used to reduce large files, such as songs, to manageable sizes. They come in different formats. Broadly speaking, hard drive versions, which include iPods, store greater amount of music. Built-in of flash memory, which is more common in mini-MP3 players, holds fewer songs, but as there are no moving parts there are no problems with skipping. You have to upload the music from a CD onto a computer, rip a CD, or else download it from the Internet and then transfer it to the player. With a suitable ID3 editor or jukebox program you can create ID3 tags, a set of data added to MP3 files, to organize your MP3 collection with information about the artists, albums, songs, etc. Other audio applications 111 1. Music can be composed, mixed, recorded and played using MIDI, musical instrument digital interface, a standard protocol that enables computers and synthesizers to communicate with each other exchanging musical information. DAWs, digital audio workstations, record, edit and play back digital music. 2. The human voice can be decoded by a computer with suitable speech recognition software, allowing continuous speech dictation. This technology also enables spoken commands to control the computer. 3. Computers can produce sounds similar to a human voice with speech synthesis technologies, also called text-to-speech systems. Ex.11. Read the text and answer the questions. 1. What are the differences between raster graphics and vector graphics? 2. Which graphics file formats are mentioned? 3. What is compositing? 4. What does CAD stand for? 5. What are the benefits of using graphics in the car industry? 6. What type of graphics software is used to make maps or 3D models of the Earth? 7. Who uses computer animation? How? COMPUTER GRAPHICS Computer graphics are pictures and drawings produced by computer. There are two main categories: Raster graphics, or bitmaps, are stored as a collection of pixels. The sharpness of an image depends on the density of pixels, or resolution. For example, text or pictures that are scaled up – that is, made bigger – may show jagged edges. Paint and photo-editing programs like Adobe Photoshop focus on the manipulation of bitmaps. Popular raster formats are JPEG, GIF and TIFF. Vector graphics represent images through the use of geometric objects, such as lines, curves and polygons, based on mathematical equations. They can be changed or scaled without losing quality. Vector data can be handled by drawing programs like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. ESP is the most popular file format for exchanging vector drawings. Almost all computer users use some form of graphics. Home users and professional artists use image-editing programs to manipulate images. For example, you can add filters (special effects) to your favourite photos, or you can composite images. Compositing is combining parts of different images to create a single image. Graphic artists and designers use drawing programs to create freehand drawings and illustrations for books or for the Web. Businesspeople use presentation graphics to make information more interesting visually – graphs and diagrams can be more effective ways of communicating with clients than lists of figures. Electrical engineers use graphics to design circuits in order to present data in a more understandable form. Mechanical engineers use CAD (Computer Aided Design) software to develop, model and teat car design before the actual parts are made. This can save a lot of time and money. CAD is also used in the aerospace, architecture and industrial sectors to design everything from aeroplanes and buildings to consumer products. Designers start a project by making a wireframe, a representation showing the outlines of all edges in a transparent drawing. They can specify and fill the surfaces to give the appearance of a 3D solid object with volume. This is known as solid modelling. Next, they add paint, colour and filters to achieve the desired ‘look and feel’: this is 112 called texturing the object. Finally, they render the object to make it look real. Rendering includes lighting and shading as well as effects that simulate shadows and reflections. Computer art, or digital art, is used in adverts and TV programmes. Artists and scientists use special graphic applets to create amazing fractals. Fractals are geometrical patterns that are repeated at small scales to generate irregular shapes, some of which describe objects from nature. Government agencies use GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to understand geographic data and then plan the use of land or predict natural disasters. Cartographers use GIS to make detailed maps. Animators use computer animation software to create animated cartoons or add effects in movies and video games. Ex.12. Match the words (1-6) with the definitions (a-f). 1. Resolution a) Special effects that can be applied to pictures 2. Jagged b) A technique that generates realistic reflections, shadows and highlights 3. Filters c) Geometrical figures with special properties 4. Wireframe d) Irregular or uneven 5. Rendering e) The number of pixels in an image 6. Fractals f) The drawing of a model by using features like edges or contour lines Ex.13. Listen to an extract from an online tutorial about graphics programs and answer these questions. 1. What is toolbox in graphics software? 2. What are graphics primitives? 3. What sort of attributes, or characteristics, can be used in graphical objects? 4. What does translation mean? Ex.14. Listen again and complete this extract from the web version of the tutorial. Graphics programs usually have a toolbox – a collection of drawing and ________________ tools that enable you to type, ________________, draw, paint, edit, move, and view images on the computer. The basic shapes which are used to _______________ graphical objects are called primitives. These are usually geometric, such as lines between two points, arcs, circles, polygons, ellipses and even text. Furthermore, you can specify the attributes of each primitive, such as its colour, line type, fill area, interior style and so on. The various tools in a toolbox usually appear together as pop-up icons in a menu or palette. To use one, you activate it by ________________ on it. For example, if you want to _______________ a rectangle tool, and the pop-up options give you the possibility of ________________ rectangles with square or rounded corners. You can transform an object by translating, ________________ or scaling it. Translation means moving an object to a different location. Rotation is _______________ the object around an axis. For example, you may need to rotate an object 90 or 180 degrees to fit the drawing. __________________ is making the object larger or smaller. Ex.15. Match the tools from the Photoshop toolbox (1-10) with the functions (a-j). 1. Marquee select tools a) Cut down the dimensions of a picture 113 2. Move tool 3. Crop tool b) Select a particular part of an image (you can choose different shapes for selection) c) Fill in an area with a colour 4. Paintbrush, pencil d) Control the foreground and background colour 5. Eraser e) Select a specific colour in a photo 6. Paint bucket f) Magnify areas of an image when you are doing close, detailed work g) Delete the part of the picture you drag it over 7. Type tool 8. Colour picker (Eyedropper) 9. Zoom h) Insert text into your document 10. Colour tools and palette j) Move a selection or entire layer by dragging it with your mouse i) Draw and paint in different shapes and patterns Ex.16. Work in pairs. Student A chooses a task from the list (1-6) and describes it. Student B chooses the most appropriate graphics software for the task (a-f) and gives reasons for his or her choice. Swap roles. Useful language box will help you. 1. To edit and retouch photos 2. To create illustrations and drawings for a magazine 3. To prepare slideshows for training sessions or conferences 4. To make mechanical designs and architectural plans 5. To create dynamic simulations and special effects for films, TV, advertisements and games 6. To analyse geographic data and make maps a) b) c) d) e) f) Computer animation software, for example 3D Studio Max GIS software, for example ArcView Presentation software, for example PowerPoint A CAD package, for example AutoCAD Vector graphics software, for example Freehand A paint and image-editing program, for example Photoshop Useful language If I need to …, what software would you recommend? For that kind of task, the best thing would be … It allows you to … and … I wouldn’t recommend … because… A good program of this type is … 114 SPECIALIST READING Ex.1. Read the text and answer the questions. 1. What type of software is used for the creation of DTP documents? 2. What are three differences between DTP software and word processors? 3. What is a PDF and what can it do? 4. Which program do you need to view a PDF document? 5. Why do people send their DTP files to service bureaux? WHAT IS DESKTOP PUBLISHING? Desktop publishing (DTP) refers to the use of computers to design and publish books, brochures, newsletters, magazines and other printed pieces. DTP is really a combination of several different processes including word processing, graphic design, information design, output and pre-press technologies, and sometimes image manipulation. DTP centres around a page layout program. Typically, a layout program is used to import texts created in word processing programs; charts and graphs from spreadsheet programs; drawings and illustrations created in word processing programs; drawings and illustrations created in CAD, drawing or paint programs; and photographs. The program is then used to combine and arrange them all on a page. It is this ability to manipulate so many different items and control how they are used that makes layout software so popular and useful. However, modern word processors also have publishing capabilities, meaning the line separating such programs from DTP software is becoming less clear. In general, though, powerful new publishing systems use high-quality scalable fonts and give you control over typographic features such as kerning (adjusting the spaces between letters to achieve even, consistent spacing). Another key feature of DTP software is text flow – the ability to put text around graphic objects in a variety of ways. Once composed, DTP documents are printed on a laser printer or on a high-resolution imagesetter. For transfer to a commercial printer, the documents are generally saved in their native page layout format (such as Adobe InDesign or QuarkXPress) or as PDF files. PDF stands for Portable Document Format and allows people to view, search and print documents exactly as the publisher intended – you don’t need to have the software and fonts used to create it. PDF files can be published and distributed anywhere: in print, attached to email, posted on websites, or on DVD. To open a PDF file, only the Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free download) is required. In modern commercial printing, DTP files are output directly to the printing plates without using film as an intermediate step. This new technology is known as Computer-To-Plate (CTP) or direct to plate, and the machine that generates plates for a printing press is called a plate setter. CTP machines are expensive, so most people take their files to a service bureau, a company that specializes in printing other people’s files. Service bureaux offer a full range of scanning and printing solutions. Ex.2. Find words in the text with the following meanings. 1. Shape, style and size of a typeface, for example Courier at 10pt 2. The process of adjusting the space between characters 115 3. Feature that enables you to wrap text around images on the page 4. Metal surfaces that carry the image to be printed 5. A machine that creates the printing plates Ex.3. Look at this extract from an online tutorial for DTP publishing. Put the steps in the creation of a DTP document (a-f) into the correct order. 1a 2 ______ 3 ______ 4 ______ 5 _______ 6 _______ a) First, the DTP designer decides the basic form of the document (the type of document, general design, colour, fonts, images required, etc.). b) The last step is to take the files to a service bureau, which will print the publication. c) To create the DTP document, the designer begins by selecting a template or by specifying the settings of a new document (the page size, margins, columns, paragraph styles, master pages, etc.). 116 c) When the text has been edited, the designer imports the pictures and uses precise tools to position, scale, crop and rotate all the items. d) The next step is to type the text directly or to import it from a word processing program like Word or WordPerfect. e) Once the file is composed and saved, the designer has to prepare it for printing, which involves verifying the colour specification, creating a Postscript or PDF file, exporting the file in HTML format for the Web, Checking proofs, etc. LIST OF LITERATURE USED 1. Liz and John Soars. New Headway Beginner. Student`s Book. Oxford University Press, 2002. 2. Liz and John Soars. New Headway Elementary. Third Edition. Oxford University Press, 2006. 3. Cunningham Sarah, Moor Peter with Comyns Carr Jane. New Cutting Edge. PreIntermediate. Students' book. Pearson Education Limited, 2005. 4. Herbert Puchta and Jeff Stranks. English in Mind. Student`s book. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 5. Chris Redston, Gillie Cunningham. Face 2 Face Intermediate. Students book. Cambridge University Press, 2009. 6. Радовель В. А. Английский язык. Основы компьютерной грамотности: учебное пособие. Ростов н/Д: Феникс, 2010. 7. Santiago Remacha Esteras. Infotech. English for computer users – 4th edition. Student`s Book. Cambridge University Press, 2008. 8. Dinos Demetriades. Information Technology. Workshop. Oxford University Press, 2003. 9. Eric H. Glendining, John McEwan. Oxford English for Information Technology. Oxford university Press, 2006. 10. Eric H. Glendining, John McEwan. Basic English for Computing. Oxford University Press, 2002. 11. Maya Olejniczak. English for Information Technology Level 1. Course Book. Pearson Education Limited, 2011. 12. David Hill. English for Information Technology Level 2. Course Book. Pearson Education Limited, 2012. 13. S.R. Esteras, E.M. Fabre. Professional English in Use ICT. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 14. http://office.microsoft.com 117
