Exercise 5. Match the words with their definitions

A. Things you can do on the Internet:

1.Surf the net A. Buy using the Internet

2. Visit a website B. Save the address of a page on the Internet so

that you can find it again easily

3. Download files C. Spending time looking at websites for fun

4. Email people D.Send someone a document using email

5.Shop online E. Look for the information at a website.

6.Bookmark sites F.Move information or programs from a

computer network to a small computer

B. People who work with computers:

1. User A. someone whose job is to study a company's computer needs and provide them with suitable software and equipment

2.Programmer B. someone who is in charge of a website

3.Web designer C. someone whose job is to write computer programs

4.Software engineer D.someone who designs websites

5. Systems analyst E.someone whose job is to take care of the

computer software

6. Administrator F. someone whose job is to look after a computer system

which has many users

7.Webmaster G. someone who tries to break into a computer system

8.Hacker H. someone who uses the computer

C. Computer problems:

1.Bug A. damaged or partly ruined information

2. Virus B. an occasion when a computer or computer system suddenly stops working

3. Error C. a fault in the system of instructions that operates a computer

4. Corrupted file/data D. a set of instructions secretly put onto a computer or computer program, which can destroy information

5. Crash E. a mistake when you are working on a computer, which means that the computer program cannot do what you want it to do

6. Worm F. a type of computer virus that can make copies of itself and destroy information on computers that are connected to each other

D. What are these?

1. Computer A. a very small light computer that you can carry with you, and that you use to store information such as telephone numbers, addresses, appointments.

2. Chartroom B. a very small computer that you can hold in your hand

3. Laptop C. a place on the Internet where you can write messages to other people and receive messages back from them immediately, so that you can have a conversation while you are online

4. Keyboard D. a café with computers where people can pay to use the internet

5. Monitor E. an electronic machine that stores information and uses programs to help you find, organize, or change the information

6. Palmtop F. part of a computer with a screen, on which you can see pictures or information

7. Personal digital assistant (PDA) G. a small computer that you can carry

with you

8. Internet café H. a system that allows you to send and receive messages by computer

9. Email I. a board with buttons marked with letters or numbers that are pressed to put information into a computer.

OCUS: computer

Exercise 6. Explain what these things you do with your computer mean:

1. start up/power up your computer

2. open a file or document

3. enter information

4. click on an icon

5. cut and paste pieces of UNIT

6. copy files or programs

7. scroll up and down the page

8. delete things you do not want

9. burn CDs or DVDs

10. close a file or document

11. save your work

12. shut down your computer

UNIT 8. PHONE POWER

Telephone history begins at the start of human history. Man has always wanted to communicate from afar. People have used smoke signals, mirrors, jungle drums, carrier pigeons and semaphores to get a message from one point to another. But a phone was something new. Some say Francis Bacon predicted the telephone in 1627, however, his book New Utopia only described a long speaking tube. A real telephone could not be invented until the electrical age began. And even then it didn't seem desirable. The electrical principles needed to build a telephone were known in 1831 but it wasn't until 1854 that Bourseul suggested transmitting speech electrically. And it wasn't until 22 years later in 1876 that the idea became a reality. But before then, a telephone might have been impossible to form in one's consciousness.

On March 10, 1876, in Boston, Massachusetts, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Thomas Watson, his friend, fashioned the device itself; a crude thing made of a wooden stand, a funnel, a cup of acid, and some copper wire. Bell filed his application for the patent just hours before his competitor, Elisha Gray. So, these two men independently designed devices that could transmit speech electrically (the telephone). What's more, though neither man had actually built a working telephone, Bell made his telephone operate three weeks later using ideas outlined in Gray's Notice of Invention, methods Bell did not propose in his own patent. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell entered into a famous legal battle over the invention of the telephone, which Bell won.

Alexander Graham Bell's success with the telephone came as a direct result of his attempts to improve the telegraph as they are both wire-based electrical systems. When Bell began experimenting with electrical signals, the telegraph had been an established means of communication for some 30 years. Although a highly successful system, the telegraph, with its dot-and-dash Morse code, was basically limited to receiving and sending one message at a time. Bell's extensive knowledge of the nature of sound and his understanding of music enabled him to conjecture the possibility of transmitting multiple messages over the same wire at the same time. Although the idea of a multiple telegraph had been in existence for some time, Bell offered his own musical or harmonic approach as a possible practical solution. His "harmonic telegraph" was based on the principle that several notes could be sent simultaneously along the same wire if the notes or signals differed in pitch.

Bell developed new and original ideas but did so by building on older ideas and developments. He succeeded specifically because he understood acoustics, the study of sound, and something about electricity. Other inventors knew electricity well but little of acoustics. The telephone is a shared accomplishment among many pioneers, therefore, although the credit and rewards were not shared equally. That, too, is often the story of invention.

What’s the phone nowadays? Let’s study different opinions.

“When I asked my daughter who was 16, which item she would keep: the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said 'the phone'. I was really surprised. Personally, I could do without the phone entirely. Which makes me unusual. Because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.” Martha Vann, USA.

“The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4.00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?” Alexandra Pappas, Greece.

“ The mobile phone means that we are never alone. The mobile saved my life. I had an accident in my Volvo on the road between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, I managed to make the call that brought the ambulance to my rescue.” Crystal Johnstone, UK.

“The mobile removes our privacy. I’m a Marketing Manager of Haba Deutsch and it allows me to ring my sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went.” Carl Nicolaisen, Germany.

“The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives. Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously on chat lines (at least women do. I wouldn't know what to talk about). We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts (if you know any) while they're space-walking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on Earth.” Philip Maurice, France.

Exercises:

Exercise 1. What do these dates mean to the history of the telephone?

1627, 1831, 1854, 1876