Application of Personal Computers

PCs have 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. Personal computers enjoy great popularity among experimenters and hobbyists. They are exciting hobby. All hobbyists need 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 the PCs is almost endless, including: checking account management, budgeting, personal finance, playing, investment, analyses, home environment and climate control, maintenance of address, etc.

Word processing. At home or at work application software called a word processing program, enables us to correct or modify any document in any manner we want before printing it. Using the CRT monitor as a display screen, you are able to view what you have typed to correct mistakes in spelling or grammar, add or delete sentences move paragraphs around and replace the words. The letter or document can be stored on a diskette for future use.

Professional. The category of professional includes persons making use of word processing, whose occupations are particularly suited to the desk-top use of PCs. Examples of other occupations are accountants, financial advisors, stock brokers, tax consultant, lawyer, engineers, educators and all levels of managers. Applications programs that are popular with persons in these occupations include accounting, income tax preparation, graphics, stock market forecasting 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 leaner and the teacher. Two important types of use for personal computers in education are computer-managed instructions (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, etc.

Notes

1. word processing обробка тексту

2. appliance пристрій

3. maintenance підтримка, експлуатація

4. application software прикладні програми

5. to delete видаляти

6. to move paragraphs around міняти місцями програми

7. accountant бухгалтер

8. accounting бухгалтерський облік

9. income tax податок на прибуток

10. stock market forecasting біржовий прогноз

11. worksheet електронна таблиця

12. scheduling складання розкладу графіка

13. computer-assisted instructions (CAI) комп’ютерні команди

14. record keeping регістрація, ведення записів

15. grading оцінювання

16. by far безумовно

17. desktop system інтерактивна система

18. suit підходити, відповідати

Find in the text English equivalents of the following Ukrainian word combinations.

Любителі, тим не менше, безкінечний перелік, багато сфер застосування, збереження адрес, виправляти помилки в написанні, податковий консультант, переставляти абзаци, складати розклад, користуватися популярністю, можливості комп’ютера, аналіз інвестицій, прикладні програми, юристи, брокери на біржі, працівники освіти, комп’ютерне моделювання, чинити великий вплив, комп’ютерна грамотність, моделювання реально-життєвих ситуацій, оцінювання, машинна освіта, регістрація.

Answer the questions.

1. What are the main spheres of PC application? 2. Do you enjoy computer games? 3. Is it necessary for a person to be an analyst or programmer to play computer games? 4. What other home and hobby applications, except computer games, can you name? 5. What is a “Word processing program”? 6. What possibilities can it gave you? 7. What changes in the typed text can you make using a display? 8. What professions are in great need of computers? 9. How can computers be used in education?