Application of personal computers

As it was mentioned above, PC has a lot of applications, however, there are some major categories of applications: home and hobby, word processing, professional, educational, small business and engineering and scientific.

Home and hobby. PC enjoys great popularity among experimenters and hobbyists. All hobbyists need not to be engineers or programmers. There are many games that use the full capabilities of a computer to provide many hours of exciting leisure-time adventure. The list of other home and hobby applications of PCs is almost endless, including: personal finance, planning, investment analyses, telephone answering and dialing, home security, home environment and climate control, appliance control, calendar management, maintenance of address and mailing lists and what not.

Word processing. At home or at work, applications software, called a word processing program, enables you to correct mistakes in spelling or grammar or modify any document in any manner you wish before printing it.

Professional. The category of professional includes persons making extensive use of word processing, whose occupations are particularly suited to the desk-top use of PCs. Examples of other occupations are lawyers, architects, engineers, educators and all levels of managers. Applications programs that are popular with persons in these occupations include statistical analysis, graphics and computer modeling. The electronic worksheet is, by far, the computer modeling program most widely used by professionals. It can be used for scheduling, planning, and the examination of "what if" situations.

Educational. PCs are having and will continue to have a profound influence upon the classroom, affecting both the learner and the teacher. Microcomputers are making their way into classrooms to an ever-increasing extent, giving impetus to the design of programmed learning materials that can meet the demands of student and teacher.

Two important types of uses for personal computers in education are computer-managed instruction (CMI), and computer-assisted instruction (CAI). CMI software is used to assist the instructor in the management of all classroom-related activities, such as record keeping, work assignments, testing, and grading. Applications of CAI include mathematics, reading, typing, computer literacy, programming languages, and simulations of real-world situations.

Answer the following questions:

1. What is a personal computer? 2. What are the four main characteristics of a PC? 3. What does the term "microprocessor-based" mean? 4. What are the typical word sizes of a PC? 5. How is input carried out in personal computers? 6. What principle storage devices do PC use? 7. What kind of a system is a PC? 8. What differs personal computers from large computer systems? 9. What are the main spheres of PC application? 10. What other home and hobby applications, except computer games, can you name? 11. What is "a word processing program"? 12. What changes in the typed text can you make using a display? 13. How can computers be used in education?

VOCABULARY EXERCISES

Exercise 1.Give the English equivalents.

Конкурирующая операционная система; главный поставщик на компьютерном рынке; игрушка для любителя; микропроцессорный; компоненты меньшей мощности; вывести на экран; автономная система; интерактивный режим; область применения; обработка текстов; способности компьютера; прикладные программы; исправлять ошибки и стирать предложения; компьютерное моделирование; электронные таблицы.

Exercise 2.Find in the two given texts words:

A) synonyms

Verbs: to print; to produce; to convert; to keep; to found; to erase; to name; to change; to use; to start; to switch on; to supply; to give possibility; to involve.

Nouns: rate; use; plays; control; mode; producer; amateur; device; crystal; error; storage; primary (memory); monitor; characteristic; aim.

Adjectives: flexible; main; little; general.

B) antonyms

Verbs: to finish; to switch on; to take; to delete.

Nouns: online, input, work.

Adjectives: cheep, weak; common; general; large; soft; high; easy.

Exercise 3.Insert the necessary words.

1. A personal computer is a small relatively inexpensive device for an individual ________.

2. One of the first and most popular PC was ___________ in 1977.

3. All PCs are based on ______________ technology, its CPU being called MPU.

4. Very soon a microcomputer was ___________ from a calculator into a PC for everyone.

5. Input in PC is usually performed by means of a ____________.

6. A personal computer uses _________ disks as input and output media.

7. Personal computers have a lot of ____________, scientific, engineering, educational being among them.

8. PCs have a great _________ upon pupils, educators, and many other people no matter what their occupation is.

9. A word processing program called application _____________ enables you to modify any document in a manner you wish.

10. Using a display you can ____________ mistakes, _________ words and replace sentences.

Exercise 4.Give definitions to the following using the vocabulary.

IOP; I/O; PC; PU; CU; ALU; CPU; MPU; IBM; DOS; CRT; ROM; RAM; IC; SSI; MSI; LSI; MP; CD; CMI; CAI.

GRAMMAR EXERCISES

Exercise 1.In the given two texts try to find and translate the sentences with the constructions with infinitive.

Exercise 2. Translate these sentences, find Participle I and Participle II.

1. When keyed the data are held in a small memory called buffer. 2.These devices enable inputting numerical and text data. 3. These data appeared to have been investigated long ago. 4. Low-cost modulator-demodulator devices, called modems, allowing microcomputer systems to communicate over telephone lines have become increasingly popular. 5. The start-up process is called bootstrapping.

Exercise 3.Translate the sentences. Remember the following conjunctions and connective words that joint the subordinate clause to the principal clause:

that; so that; if, whether; which; when; while; since; till; until; whatever; whenever; in order to; regardless of

1. It is well known in computer science that the words "computer" and "processor" are used interchangeably. 2. The operation part of the instruction is decoded so that the proper arithmetic and logic operation can be performed. 3. It is difficult to establish whether this problem can be solved at all. 4. Programs and data on which the control unit and the arithmetic-logical unit operate must be in internal memory in order to be processed. 5. The CU has a register that temporarily holds the instructions read from memory while it is being executed. 6. Regardless of the nature of the I/O devices, I/O interfaces are required to convert the input data to the internal codes used by the computer and to convert internal codes to a format which usable by the output devices. 7. The purpose of registers in the ALU is to hold the numbers and the results of the calculation until they can be transferred to the memory. 8. Since the computer deals with pulses, the input device is a way of converting numbers written on paper into pulses and sending them to the storage. 9. The principal characteristics of personal computers are that they are single-user system and are based on microprocessors. 10. However, although personal computers are designed as single-user systems, it is common to link them together to form a network. 11. High-speed devices are both input and output devices that are used as secondary storage.

Exercise 6.Translate the following sentences without any conjunction or connective words.

1. The computer you told me about was constructed at a Russian plant. 2 We hope we'll buy the computer your friend spoke so much about 3. This is the principle the electronic computer is based upon. 4. The teacher says we may ask any questions we like. 5. Elements integrated circuits are made of are electrically interconnected components. 6. The main tendencies of IС development scientists are working at are to increase the scale of integration and to improve reliability. 7. Where are the computer games I gave you yesterday? - The computer games you are asking about are on the top shelf. 8. He was one of the greatest scientists the world had ever known. 9. Save any files you have opened on a disk. 10. The time it takes to download the file depends on the file’s size. 11. The screen contains the item you need to start working: a Start button. 12. Any desktop settings the user enters will be stored under that person’s name. 13. The dialog box this icon calls up contains several settings for optimizing your computer. 14. Capacity refers to the amount of information the disk can hold. 15. One of the first things most people do with a modem is to connect to one of the big online services. 16. All the computer needs is a Java-enabled Web browser to interpret the programming code. 17. Windows has significantly improved the way programs run. 18. Be careful about giving out online anything someone could use to track you down or use your account. 19. Exercise V. Translate the sentences into English.

Exercise7.Translate the following sentences.

1. Компьютер, который мы продаем, произведен в Корее.

2. Персональный компьютер есть почти в каждом доме, поэтому большинство студентов знают основы работы с компьютером.

3. Купленный компьютер подходит и для работы, и для развлечения.

4. Применение компьютера определяется его характеристиками.

5. Какие носители информации ты знаешь?

6. Подсоедините принтер к компьютеру и проведите инсталляцию.

7. При редактировании текста вы можете заменять буквы, слова или предложения, менять местами абзацы, добавлять специальные символы или вставлять рисунки и изображения.

8. На любом компьютере, который продается в этом магазине, установлена операционная система.

9. Обрабатываемые данные будут сохранены на двух дисках.

10.Он знает, что у персональных компьютеров могут быть два дисплея: ЭЛТ монитор и жидкокристаллический дисплей.

Exercise 8.Make up your own dialogues.

1. Your younger sister or brother asks you to tell about PC.

2. Your friend tries to prepare for his/her exam, he/she asks you for help. Try to discuss with him/her everything about PC, especially its application.

Exercise 9.Be ready to speak about PC, its influence and applications (10 - 15 sentences)

LESSON X

Exercise 1.Read the words and word combination.

guard - защищать; заканчивать

burden - издержки; затраты

consume- потреблять; расходовать

emphasize- выделять; подчеркивать

Exercise 2.The following terms you should know.

equation - уравнение

list of instructions - перечень команд

appropriate sequence - необходимая (требуемая) последовательность

pictorial representation - наглядное представление