Technological progress
People tried to invent something since they had appeared in this world. Their natural wish to improve the environment pushed them to evolution and further progress. And at almost no time in the human history there has been any pause. Mankind kept on creating more and more complex things.
We know now that many of the world's most important discoveries and inventions were made not by scientists and engineers but by amateurs. Very often these amateurs had unusual or even funny ideas. Many of them could hardly realize their own inventions' potential. But they did their best and gave us many of the things we use today.
Industrial Revolutions greatly contributed to further progress of mankind. The first revolution, resulting from the introduction of steam power, gave us the machines to do the work that before had been done by men's hands. The second revolution was much more complicated. It was connected with electricity that provided power, easier and cheaper to control, than steam. It also greatly contributed to the development of many industrial branches. The third revolution that was connected with automation gave us the machines that could do the work of men's brains.
The last centuries became the time of unprecedented technical and scientific achievements that can be rightly called wonders of the modern world. These wonders have made our life easier, more efficient and comfortable. We can not imagine our life today without radio and TV, electricity and telephones, cars and planes, computers and the Internet.
Smart robots, run by computers, replace now people in many hard and dangerous jobs. New sources of power, new processes and advanced technologies, as well as the all-new materials are coming into use at such bewildering speeds that it is hard to keep track of them.
The achievements in the space exploration have surpassed our wildest expectations. They have overturned many of the notions made by some reputable scientists, who could hardly foresee man-made space ships and satellites, international space stations and austronauts walking on the Moon or in the outer space.
The time, we live in, may be characterized in various ways: the electronic age, the atomic age or the space age. But, no doubts, it is the age of great changes. And all of us are a link in the chain of universal human progress.
4. Переведите на английский язык.
1) Улучшать окружающую среду; 2) толчок к эволюции/ прогрессу; 3) изобретать/создавать сложные вещи; 4) делать все возможное; 5) появляться, пытаться; 6) делать важные открытия; 7) заменять людей; 8) необычные идеи; 9) изобретения, созданные дилетантами; 10) осознавать/понимать возможности; 11) тяжелая, опасная работа; 12) выполнять умственную работу; 13) превосходить самые смелые ожидания; 14) опровергать многие понятия/представления; 15) беспрецедентные научные и технические достижения; 16) использовать новые материалы и источники энергии; 17) космический/электронный век; 18) уважаемые ученые; 19) исследовать космическое пространство; 20) век атома/век больших перемен; 21) предвидеть искусственные спутники и космические корабли; 22) облегчать жизнь; 23) следить за чем-либо; 24) несомненно; 25) передовые технологии.
5.* Еще раз прочитайте текст и скажите, верны ли утверждения. Найдите доказательства в тексте.
1. It is only after the first Industrial Revolution that mankind began inventing various things.
2. Most of the world's famous inventions were created by great scientists and highly skilled engineers.
3. Industrial revolutions little contributed to further progress of humanity.
4. They gave the world the machines to do the work of human hands and brains.
5. The age, we live in, is the time of unprecedented scientific and technological achievements.
6. These achievements can be rightly called wonders of the modern world.
7. However, they failed to make our life easier and more comfortable.
6. Расскажите о величайших изобретениях в истории человечества (2 минуты). Сначала еще раз просмотрите текст Technological progress, найдите и запишите информацию, касающуюся следующих вопросов:
1) greatest inventions; 2) their importance for the mankind
Part 2. Computers *
I. Прочитайте новые слова и их перевод:
| Enhance – улучшать Milestone – этап, веха Trace – прослеживаться, восходить к Colossus - колосс Decipher - расшифровывать Tube – труба, трубка Come into being – возникнуть, появиться | Advancement – продвижение, развитие Dependable – надежный, заслуживающий доверия Tremendous - огромный Breakthrough – прорыв, достижение Circuit - цепь Trigger – дать начало |
Выберите 3-5 слов и составьте с ними предложения.
2. Перед прочтением текста ответьте на вопросы:
a) Do you have a computer? Can you describe it? Do you know what it was like many years ago?
Прочитайте текст и запишите все основные даты и события.
Computers
Modern world of Hi -Tech could not have come about, except for computers. They have opened a new era in the manufacture's automation and greatly enhanced modern communication systems.
Who invented the computer is not the question with a simple answer. The real answer is that many inventors from different countries contributed to the computer history. A computer is a complex machine made up of many parts, each being a separate invention.
There are many milestones in the computer history. The earliest of them can be traced to an English inventor Charles Babbage who in 1834 designed an "analytical machine" that theoretically could do some of the operations, a modern computer does now. However, it has never been built because of its huge size.
The first generation of what can be called a real computer was "the Colossus", an enormous machine put into operation in England in 1943. But the machine was designed for one operation only: deciphering the German codes in World War II.
The first general-purpose computer was invented in 1946 in the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Unfortunately, these computers, as well as the vacuum tube models that followed them, were huge, slow, expensive and very often unreliable.
The first computer hard disk was invented in 1956 and later, in 1968, the computer mouse came into being.
In 1959—1964 there came the era of transistor computers. It didn't last long, but it was no less important in the computer technology advancement.
The second generation computers were faster, simpler, more dependable and cheaper. They could carry out some thousand operations per second.
A tremendous breakthrough became the computers of the third generation (1965-1970). The invention of the integrated circuits allowed to reduce both the size and cost of these computers, further increasing their power (up to 10 million operations per second).
The fourth generation computers (beginning with 1971) can be characterized, first of all, by the jump to monolithic integrated circuits. But what really triggered the tremendous growth of computers and their significant impact on our lives was the invention of the microprocessor. It led to the invention of personal computers capable to perform over 50 million operations per second.
Today we have new models of computers that can perform over 100 million operations per second. And what's ahead? Perhaps, future computers will have several million transistors in one chip and will be able to perform billions or even trillions of operations in a single second. Who knows? Time will show.
4. Переведите на английский язык:
1) Мир высоких технологий; 2) системы связи; 4) автоматизация производства; 5) вносить вклад; расширять, наступать; 6) сложная машина, состоящая из многих деталей; 7) транзисторные компьютеры; 8) дорогой, ненадежный; 9) дешевый, простой, более надежный; 10) огромного размера; 11) компьютеры первого поколения; 12) различные этапы истории; 13) увеличивать мощность; 14) сконструировать аналитическую машину; 15) давать возможность, позволять; 16) запустить в действие; 17) расшифровка кода; 18) огромный прорыв; 19) создать микросхемы, интегральные схемы; 20) продвижение компьютерных технологий; 21) уменьшать размеры и стоимость; 22) изобретение персонального компьютера; 23) выполнять несколько/сотни миллионов операций в секунду; 24) на одном чипе; 25) что впереди? 26) включать миллион транзисторов; 27) оказать значительное влияние.
5. Закончите предложения.
1. Computers are complex ... made up of many ... .
2. Each computer part is a separate ... .
3. Many inventors from various countries ... to the history of computers.
4. The earliest real computer's name was ... .
5. This computer was designed for ...
6. The first general-purpose computers were invented in ... .
7. The era of the transistor computers came in ... .
8. The third generation computers became a tremendous ... .
9. The invention of ... allowed to reduce the computer ... and
10.The invention of microprocessors helped to increase the computer ... .
11.It led to the invention of ... .
12.Modern computers are capable of performing… operations per…
Part 3. Internet
I. Прочитайте новые слова и их перевод:
| Ordinary - обычный Network - сеть Embrace – охватывать, содержать Host – главный компьютер, ведущий узел (в сети) Accurate - точный Fairly – довольно, в некоторой степени Approximately – приблизительно, примерно Surf – переходить с одного сайта на другой, «бродить» по сети Dedicated – посвященный, предназначенный для telnet – сетевой теледоступ FTP server (File Transfer Protocol server) – сервер с программой передачи данных Instantaneous - мгновенный | Wealth - богатство Search - поиск Browser – браузер, веб-обозреватель, навигатор Broadband connection – широкополостная (технология, способная обеспечить одновременную передачу голоса, данных, видео) связь Dial-up – коммутируемый (подключение по телефонной линии (с помощью модема)) Service – сервис, обслуживание, оказание услуг Match- подходить, соответствовать Query - запрос To own - владеть To browse - просматривать Cellular phone – сотовый телефон |
1.* Работая в группах, выберите 5 слов и дайте их определения. Запишите только определения и обменяйтесь списком с другими группами. По определениям догадайтесь, какие слова выбрала другая группа. Пример: to surf – to go from one site to another.
2.Прочитайте текст и скажите, что вы можете делать, используя Интернет.
Internet
The Internet has already entered our ordinary life. Everybody knows that the Internet is a global computer network, which embraces hundred of millions of users all over the world and helps us to communicate with each other.
Most of the Internet host computers are in the United States of America. It is clear that the accurate number of users can be counted fairly approximately, nobody knows exactly how many people use the Internet today, because there are hundred of millions of users and their number is growing.
Some computers like servers share data, others just surf the web as clients downloading the data.
Nowadays the most popular Internet service is e-mail. Most of the people use the network only for sending and receiving e-mail messages. They can do it either they are at home or in the internet clubs or at work. Other popular services are available on the Internet too. It is reading news, available on some dedicated news servers, telnet, FTP servers, etc.
The Internet is very helpful, because it's a huge database of knowledge, from the pictures of family trips to an analysis of quantum mechanics. Everyone should have the Internet because of its near instantaneous communication and huge wealth of knowledge. But how to go on the Internet and do a search for information we need. There are two ways to do it.
The first is when you know an internet address of data you need and the second one is when you try to find information you need by using a search program. In the beginning we have got to enter any browser you like. It could be an Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or Opera, etc. If we have a broadband connection, we connect to the Internet at once. If not, we have to set up and connect to our dial-up service. Finally, if we want to find some information in the Internet, we are to type an address of this data in the browser we use or simply use the existing search-programs such as the Google search program, rambler search program, Yandex search program or Yahoo search program.
They are very simple and popular networks of sites. In these programs we can just type the word or name of thing, we would like to find and then press enter. A search program solves this problem. We get our results in the same window. After we get our results, we simply choose whatever site best matches our query or keep searching.
Besides data, one can get from the Internet, we can also send and receive e-mail or electronic mail. This internet service is cheaper than ordinary mail and much quicker. It is becoming popular day by day. We can get some news from the Internet, because there are many informational servers in the web.
Nowadays we no longer have to own a computer to access the Internet. Now devices such as Web TV allow our television to browse the Web and use Electronic Mail. Cellular phones are now also dialing up the Internet to provide E-mail and answering machine services.