Exercise 3. Match the antonyms.

Verbs:

1) graduate	a) stop
2) involve	b) fail
3) perform	c) begin
4) succeed	d) break
5) highlight	e) contribute
6) connect	f) darken (obscure)
	g) prove
	h) exclude

Adjectives:

1) beneficial	a) narrow
2) wide	b) false
3) personal	c) constant
4) true	d) military
5) essential	e) public
	f) unimportant
	g) unprofitable

 

THE NETWORK FALLS INTO PLACE

 

The ARPANET experiment was a complete novelty on the computer science scene. Most of the people involved in the day-to-day work with implementing hardware and software were graduate students, and the personal accounts provided by participants suggested a true spirit of invention, but also of confusion: «No one had clear answers, but the prospects seemed exciting. We found ourselves imagining all kinds of possibilities: interactive graphics, cooperating processes, automatic data base query, electronic mail, but no one knew where to begin». The most important task for the participants in this fledgling network was to ensure the stability of the communication protocol. During the following years, the group's participants succeeded in creating a protocol scheme.

The idea was to have an underlying protocol taking care of establishing and maintaining communication between the computers on the network and a set of protocols, which performed a number of particular tasks. This scheme was successfully tested (only one of the 15 sites involved failed to establish a connection).

During the 1970s, the ARPANET was constantly evolving in size and stability, and was a subject of a number of seminal developments, among which the most noteworthy was electronic mail and the establishment of a transatlantic connection. In addition, work was undertaken to improve the basic communication protocols and modernize them according to the constant growth of the ARPANET.

The military use of the Internet did not have any direct impact on the civilian use of the research network as such, but highlights the fact that the Internet of today was conceived as a military communications tool.

The following years witnessed the birth of the Usenet. Developed by university students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, the Usenet turned out to be the ultimate exponent for the physical anarchy of the ARPANET (no central command control, all connected computers being completely equal in their ability to transmit and receive packets). Truscott and Ellis created a hierarchy of computer users groups which were distributed between a growing number of academic institutions via modems and phone lines. This hierarchy soon turned out to accommodate a wide number of interests, from computer programming to car maintenance, and enabled the participants to read and post information and opinions in what became known as the Usenet Newsgroups. Newsgroups may be determined as discussion groups. Each of these groups is devoted to a particular topic.

At first the Usenet was a practically unofficial activity involving a number of graduate students, but soon it proved to be the network service which heavily contributed to the international growth of the internetworking principle. The Usenet connections were established between several European countries and Australia.

The creation of the ARPANET was followed by the creation of the NSFNET. This fact signaled that universities had begun to consider networking as an essential tool for researches. A high-speed network connection, referred to as the «backbone», was established between the five super-computing centers and they in turn made their facilities available to universities in their region, effectively making the network completely decentralized.

 

Notes:

fledgling – (здесь) недавно созданный;

inferiority – более низкое положение, достоинство, качество, количество;

make available to предоставить (кому-либо);

to have an impact (up)on – иметь влияние на;

ultimate exponent – типичный образец;

 

Comprehension check

 

Exercise 1. Answer the questions.

1. Was the ARPANET experiment a complete novelty for computer science?

2. Did the scheme with the underlying protocol fail or was it successful?

3. What was the occupation of the Usenet founders?

 

Exercise 2. Look at the two similar sentences. Which one is true? What makes the second sentence false?

1. The Internet of today was as a conceived military communication tool.	1. The Internet of today was conceived as a civil communication tool.
2. In the early 1980s, Usenet connections were established to several European countries.	2. In the early 1980s, Usenet connections were established to all European countries as well as to Australia.
3. The first network computer was not successful.	3. The first network computer was an immediate success.

 

Exercise 3. Find synonyms to the underlined words in the dictionary.

1. Despite the risk, high payoff of the project was obvious.

2. New work-groups initiated short-term advances in computer hardware and software.

3. In the mid 20th century, cybernetics was a recently formed science.

4. The Internet developers understood that the machines needed greater capability to interact with each other.

5. Due to the Web, users could look through information from everywhere.

6. One could say that protocols became a kind of language common to the connected computers users.

7. We have made every possible effort to reconcile their opinions.

8. The scientific discoveries of the early 20th century influenced the development of our civilization.

9. It's not exciting to do a routine work.

10. The creation of NSFNET made scientific information at the disposal of the researchers from universities.

11. The developments of two university students promoted very much the formation of different discussion groups.

 

Language activity

 

Exercise 1. Remember the meaning of the underlined terms.

1. A protocol defines how computers communicate.

2. Packet-switching is the process of sending packets (the basic unit of Internet data) through the network.

3. Lingua franca may be considered as a special language used between people whose native languages are different.

4. Usenet is short for User Network which is defined as a network accessible via Internet and which is the home for thousands of users.

5. Modem, short for Modulator-Demodulator, is an electronic device which translates digital information produced by a computer into analog sounds which can be sent down telephone lines.

6. Everybody knows development as gradual growth of something so that it gets more advanced: e.g., «industry development». But there is another meaning of the word, which is an act or the result of making a product or design performed: e.g.: «This group of scientists is known for their significant developments of computer software».

 

Exercise 2. Summarize your knowledge on the Participle. Find participles and state their tense and voice.

1. Invented by Babbage in 1842 and called by its inventor «analytical engine» this machine became the first home computer.

2. Founded by Hollerith, the Tabulating Machine Company changed its name and became known all over the world as the International Business Machine Corporation (IBM).

3. The Automatic Controlled Sequence Calculator resulted from Howard Aiken work was 40 feet long by 10 feet high.

4. It had about the same computing power as a low-priced solar-powered calculator that a schoolchild might use today.

5. The problem concerned complicated processes taking place on the computer market.

6. The production process influenced by the general economic situation is being closely inspected.

7. The formation of the Internet Education Centers in St. Petersburg followed by other regions proved to be highly successful.

8. Given a special program the machine can translate from Chinese into English and vice versa.

9. The idea of machine-aided calculus having survived numerous ups and downs over the years of its life has only now become a world-wide reality.

10. Having been changed to conform to new ideas, the equations could be applied to problem solving.

11. Having been asked to translate into Chinese «out of sight – out of mind», the machine replied by a row of Chinese hieroglyphs.

12. With job changes occurring regularly, employees leaving and employees being hired, the problem of information securing becomes especially topical for companies.

13.The Internet providing a new method of doing business must be capable of providing the reliability for the user.

 

TEXT III

Word-study

Exercise 1. Check the transcription in the dictionary and read the words listed below.

Nouns:

irony, assertion, multimedia, fiber, contemporary, wire, community, hypertext.

Verbs:

to decommission, to consume, to associate.

 

Exercise 2. Read and translate the words and collocations.

Pivotal period, to stress the fact, apart from the fact, research proposal, funding authorities, the span of time, be it text or graphics, vehicle for online advertising, multimedia facilities, to fuel imagination.

 

Exercise 3. Match the synonyms.

Verbs

1) attribute	a) emphasize
2) highlight	b) discover
3) master	c) transmit
4) reveal	d) show
5) stress	e) promise
6) deliver	f) ascribe
	g) improve
	h) provide

Adjectives

1) enormous	a) constant
2) private	b) personal
3) contemporary	c) interactive
4) powerful	d) tremendous
5) previous	e) modern
	f) important
	g) preceding

 

Exercise 4. Make nouns from the following adjectives according to the model and translate them.

Adjective + -ness:

white, loud, clear, enormous, useful, attractive, exact, busy, user-friendly.

 

Exercise 5. Be attentive and remember the meaning of the underlined terms and words.

1. High-speed and long-distance networks connecting other networks to the Internet became major links and were termed «backbones».

2. A computer providing other computers on a Network with valuable data was called a «host».

3. WWW is an information space on the Internet unified by a common addressing system and containing a mix of text, sound, graphic and animation files which can have links between each other even if they are on different servers.

4. Browser is a program created for searching, navigating and displaying the computer material through the Web.

5. Data with links between separate elements that allowed users to move through information non-sequentially was termed as hypertext.

 

Comprehensive reading

A NET FOR ALL, AND A WEB TOO

 

The years 1989–96 was another pivotal period for what was effectively known as the Internet, stressing the fact that the original ARPANET had been followed by myriad of fast growing sub-networks operating in the U.S. and internationally. In 1989 the ARPANET was decommissioned, and in April 1995 the NSFNET reverted back to a pure research network, leaving a number of private companies to provide Internet backbone connectivity. At the same time the number of hosts as well as the network traffic grew at an enormous rate.

This veritable explosion in network use, apart from the fact that the personal computer became a household item in the same span of time, can be attributed to the result of a research proposal submitted to the funding authorities of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Switzerland, CERN (a French abbreviation for Conseil Europeen pour la Recherché Nucleaire). The title was «Worldwide Web: Proposal for a Hypertext Project», and the authors were Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau.

The World-Wide Web (also known as the WWW or Web) was conceived as a far more user-friendly and navigationally effective user interface than the previous UNIX-based text interfaces. The communications protocol devised for the WWW was termed HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), hypertext being a navigational tool, linking data objects, be it text or graphics, together by association in what is effectively a web of pages, hence the use of the term «World-Wide Web». Berners-Lee and Cailliau describe the process as follows: «A hypertext page has pieces of text which refer to other texts. Such references are highlighted and can be selected with a mouse... When you select a reference, the browser [the software used to access the WWW] presents you with the text which is referenced: you have made the browser follow a hypertext link».

The WWW prototype was first demonstrated in December 1990, and on May 17, 1991 the WWW began to work due to granting HTTP access to a number of central CERN computers. As soon as browser software became available for the more common operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh, this new tool was immediately picked up by the Internet community.

The World-Wide Web, the simplicity of Internet access for private individuals, as well as the increasing user-friendliness of the software necessary to master the Internet protocols contributed to the meteoric rise of network use in the 1990s.

Browsing through the original WWW proposal reveals an irony very characteristic to the development of the Internet, in the face of its author's assertion that «the project will not aim to do research into multimedia facilities such as sound and video». In 1996 the present and future of the Internet, and the WWW in particular, points to a convergence of media types, and multimedia has indeed become the catch phrase of the day. Despite serious limitations in contemporary network capacity as far as to sound and video, new technologies constantly enable the increase of interactive network experiences. This development is supplemented by a constant innovation in hardware; today's Internet backbones transmit data packets at a speed up to 200 megabits per second (by comparison, the NSFNET backbone of 1986 ran at the blazing speed of 56 kilobits per second). Today the modems of most Internet users run at a speed of 28.8 kbit/s and a digital connection can deliver at a speed of up to 128 kbit/s, but the possibility of using the fiber optic cables bringing cable TV to millions of homes, for Internet data transmission opens up for private connections running at a speed of up to 10 Mbit/s. Another new technology, ASDL, promises to use the existing telephone copper wires for even higher transmission speeds.

But what will these network technologies deliver to the Internet user? In 1996 commercial Internet hosts have overtaken educational and governmental applications and these commercial interests clearly consider the Internet, and the WWW in particular, as a vehicle for online advertising and commerce. Hence the Net user of today can be described as a consumer. The Internet is still a powerful medium for communication, and has in many ways fulfilled the vision of interactive computing which fueled J. C. R. Licklider's imagination, but it remains to be seen whether it will be the democratizing medium of the 21st century, or merely become another static-filled television channel.

 

Notes:

household item – предмет домашнего обихода;

span of time – промежуток времени;

to submit a proposal – высказать предложение;

catch phrase – фраза дня.

Comprehension check

 

Exercise 1. Replace the passages in their logical order.

1) When the protocols were formed, much of the software and services that make up the Internet appeared. The basic services for remote connectivity, file transfer, and electronic mail were introduced in the mid and late seventies. The Usenet news system appeared in 1981 and the World Wide Web information system in 1989.

2)The Internet of today is only one third a research and educational network because of universities and institutes connected to it. However, commercial communications have taken over the majority of Internet traffic.

3) In 1990, the ARPANET had had many other networks connected to it. Later, its role as a network backbone was taken over by the NSFNET funded by the National Science Foundation. The networking companies and organizations, which provided the data connections to all the Internet hosts, continued in their goal of providing easy global network access.

4) The Internet developed from the project initiated by the US Department of Defense – Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The ARPANET, as it was then called, was designed to be a non-reliable network service for computer communications over wide area. In 1973 and 1974, a standard networking protocol, a communications protocol for exchanging data between computers on a network, emerged from the various research and educational programs involved in this project. This became known as TCP/IP or the IP suite of protocols.

5) These protocols enabled ARPANET computers to communicate irrespective of their computer operating system or their computer hardware. We call such protocols heterogeneous. UNIX operating system was developed in the same era and TCP/IP became almost synonymous with the UNIX which was spread throughout the many educational institutions around the US for a low cost. Multi-user systems such as UNIX soon became the most popular method of accessing the Internet.

 

Exercise 2. Answer the questions.

a) How many stages can you find in the process of the Internet creation and development?

b) Who created the Internet?

 

Language activity

 

Exercise 1. Summarize your knowledge on the Absolute Participial Construction.

Find the construction in the sentences. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1. Computers using binary language represented by a single binary digit (1 or 0), one of the earliest sections of the Internet was called Bitnet.

2. A high-speed network connection having been established between five computing centers, they in turn made their facilities available to the local universities.

3. Network is a system of computers connected together to share programs, data, etc., the Internet being effectively a worldwide network of networks.

4. The cost of local phone calls being not so high, using e-mail becomes the most spread use of the Internet.

5. Satellites have been a part of the world telephone and television networks for decades, some of them carrying calls over oceans, others broadcasting pictures to millions of viewers.

6. It was found that certain parts of the brain being damaged, men lost their ability to do certain things.

7. The earliest translation engines were based on direct translation principle, input sentences of the source language being translated directly into output sentences of the needed language.

 

TEXT IV

Word-study

Exercise 1. Check the transcription in the dictionary and read the words listed below.

 

Nouns:

circumstances, employee, infancy, think-tank.

Verbs:

dive, mention.

Adjectives:

strategic, relevant, foremost, comprehensible, awesome.

 

Exercise 2. Read and translate the words and collocations.

Strategic problem, relevant figure, the missing packet, highly technical project, to split, to run the project, under the circumstances, via network, in its infancy.

 

Exercise 3. Match the synonyms.

Verbs:

1) split	a) hope
2) communicate	b) provide
3) participate	c) decompose
4) expect	d) contact
	e) take part

Nouns:

1) destination	a) idea
2) infancy	b) addressee
3) receiver	c) sender
4) circumstances	d) childhood
5) conception	e) address
	f) conditions

 

Exercise 4. Make new words from the following nouns according to the model and translate them.

Pre- + noun:

disposition, face, text, vision, position, diction, history.

 

Scan-reading

THE INTERNET INVENTORS

 

In 1979 Paul Baran, Vint Cerf, Jon Postel and Bob Braden proposed the Internet conception.

Its prehistory dates back to the early 1970s when the RAND Corporation, America's foremost Cold War think-tank, faced a strategic problem. The question was: how could the US Army communicate under circumstances of nuclear war, in zones involved into military operations? It was the Internet that became the answer.

Each message is split into data packets and sent out via the computer network. Then it goes to its destination by whatever route was available, passing through many other computers, each of them being a part of the global network. In case one packet is missing, a receiver asks a sender to send the missing packet again. The above mentioned individuals were carrying out that research.

Paul Baran, then the employee of the RAND Corporation, was running the DARPANet (Defense Advanced Research Project Network).

Vint Cerf, a.k.a.* the Father of the Internet, invented computer protocols for the DARPANet, which allowed communication between computers of various types.

Jon Postel was the Project Leader for one of the National Science Foundation Project and the Gigabit Network Communication Research Project. These two highly technical projects were completely incomprehensible to those who were not foremost scientists like Jon Postel. Postel had an M.Sc. degree in Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Science.

But the most relevant figure in Internet creating was a young Englishman who single-handedly made the World Wide Web. His name is Tim Berners-Lee. Actually, he did not participate in creating the Internet itself, but he designed the World Wide Web, the «killer application» of the Internet. The Web is the reason for which millions of people dive into the Net. Even though still in its infancy, the Web is fascinating, it's a global library. Once it's fully formed, it could be awesome. Tim Berners-Lee's Web is what transformed the Net from academic back-water into the global stream of fresh water it is today.

Tim Berners-Lee created the Web at the age of 32. At the same age Bill Gates was on his way to his first billion. Like Gates, Berners-Lee was introduced to computers while still a child – his parents were mathematicians. On graduating from Oxford, he developed the first Web prototype in 1980 for his personal use. Nowadays, he expects the Web to become a place where one could find any fact about anything quickly and cheaply.

The Web let the Net be used in a logical way. It created a standard that everybody could - and did - follow.

*a.k.a. – also known as.

 

Notes:

awesome – впечатляющий;

foremost – выдающийся, знаменитый (напр.: ученый, писатель);

think-tank – группа экспертов при правительстве или организации, консультативный совет, мозговой центр;

message destination – адресат;

killer application – программа вне конкуренции.

 

Academic Degrees:

B. S. (B. Sc.) – Bachelor of Science; a first university undergraduate degree.

M. S. (M. Sc.) – Master of Science; a first university graduate degree.

Ph. D. – Doctor of Philosophy; a high rank university degree granted for some research.

 

Comprehension check

 

Exercise 1. Answer the questions.

1. What way out of the possible war danger was proposed?

2. How could you characterize the conventionalists and developers of the new tool of communication?

Exercise 2.

1. Summarize the information about the reasons that could possibly spark the development of the Internet, according to the texts.

2. Retell the story of Tim Berners-Lee as a WWW founder using the information given above.

 

Exercise 3. Read the text and entitle it.

We know that the story of the World Wide Web started at CERN, Switzerland. That was its birthplace. But what about the present day? We must mention the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, better known as MIT. Here the Web and its founder Tim Berners-Lee currently reside. MIT collaborates with CERN and European INRA to develop the Web Project. Much research is being carried out and supervised from the Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT.

 

Find some extra information of your own concerning Internet-related research of today.

Language activity

 

Exercise 1. Paraphrase the underlined expressions and words.

1. The problem was how the army could communicate around the zones involved into the nuclear war events.

2. Bill Gates and Paul Allen are controlling the Microsoft Corporation with more than 18.000 employees and 48 companies.

3. Information goes to its destination by whatever route is available passing through many other computers on the way.

4. These two projects are so highly technical that they are completely incomprehensible to those who are not foremost scientists.

5. A special team experienced in the field of new technologies was consulting the government.

6. Tim Berners-Lee was introduced to computers while a child.

7. This engineer’s current interests include multimedia conferencing, electronic mail, very large networks and very high speed communications.

8. The Microsoft Network was intended as a pay-as-you-go online services.

 

TEXT V

Word-study

Exercise 1. Check the transcription in the dictionary and read the words listed below:

Nouns:

term, surface, portion, brightness, hue, tablet, digitizer, raster, pattern, portion.

Verbs:

coat, energize, determine, supplant.

Adjectives:

pictorial, various, typical.

 

Exercise 2. Read and translate the collocations:

animated motion pictures, energized by the electron beam, resulting image, pressure sensitive tablet, preexisting images on the paper, pattern-recognition device, architectural drafting, widespread use, raster graphics.

 

Exercise 3. Match the synonyms.

Verbs:

1) display	a) appear
2) energize	b) activate
3) record	c) exist
4) generate	d) produce
5) emerge	e) show
6) convert	f) transform
	g) write down
	h) refresh

Nouns:

1) term	a) activity
2) portion	b) color
3) intensity	c) word
4) hue	d) sector
5) dot	e) point
	f) beam
	g) screen

 

Read the text

COMPUTER GRAPHICS

 

Computer graphics means the use of computers to produce pictorial images. The images produced can be printed documents or animated motion pictures, but the term computer graphics refers particularly to images displayed on a monitor. Monitor can display graphics as well as alphanumeric data. A computer-graphics system basically consists of a computer to store and manipulate images, a monitor, various input and output devices, and a graphics software package – i.e., a program that enables a computer to process graphic images by means of mathematical language.

A computer displays images on the phosphor-coated surface of a graphics display screen by means of an electron beam that sweeps the screen many times each second. Those portions of the screen energized by the beam emit light, and changes in the intensity of the beam determine their brightness and hue. The brightness of the resulting image fades quickly, however, and must be continuously «refreshed» by the beam, typically 85 times per second.

Graphics programs enable a user to draw, color, shade, and manipulate an image on a display screen with the use of a mouse, a pressure-sensitive tablet, or a light pen. Preexisting images on paper can be scanned into the computer through the use of scanners, digitizers, pattern-recognition devices, or digital cameras. Frames of images on videotape also can be entered into a computer. Various output devices have been developed as well; special programs send digital data from the computer's memory to film recorder, which records the image sequence on video film. The computer can also generate hard copy by means of plotters and laser or dot-matrix printers.

Pictures are stored and processed in a computer's memory by either of two methods: raster graphics and vector graphics. Raster-type graphics maintain an image as a matrix of independently controlled dots, while vector graphics maintain it as a collection of points, lines, and arcs. Raster graphics are now the dominant computer graphics technology. Raster graphics create uniform colored areas and distinct patterns and allow precise manipulation. Raster graphics emerged in the early 1970s and had largely displaced vector systems by the 90s.

Vector-graphics technology was developed in the mid-1960s and had been widely used until it was supplanted by raster graphics. Its application is now largely restricted to highly linear work in computer-aided design and architectural drafting, and even this is performed on raster-type screen with the vector-type screens with the vectors converted into dots. Computer graphics has found widespread use in printing, product design and manufacturing, scientific research, and entertainment since 1960s.

 

Notes:

to sweep – сканировать;

raster graphics – растерная графика;

vector graphics – векторная графика.

Comprehension check

 

Exercise 1. Answer the questions.

1. What does computer graphics system consist of?

2. What a graphics software package is?

3. How do electrons influence the formation of images on a graphic display screen?

4. What devices help users to receive needed images on a display screen?

5. What are two methods to store and process pictures in a computer memory?

 

Exercise 2. Complete sentences with the collocations below.

1. The images produced on a computer screen can be printed documents or ….

2. The portion of the display screen … by an electron beam.

3. The brightness of the … fades quickly.

4. Computer graphics has found a … in different spheres of human activities since 1960s.

5. Vector graphics were supplanted by ….

6. Software program enables a computer to process graphic images by means of ….

7. A graphics display screen is a ….

 

(raster graphics, are energized, phosphor coated surface, animated motion pictures, widespread use, mathematical language, resulting image).

 

Exercise 3. Write a summary of the text according to the given plan; insert the words and collocation below.

1. Definition of the term «computer graphics».

2. The main components of a computer-graphics system.

3. The function of an electron beam in producing an image on the display screen.

4. Devices for producing images.

5. Methods of storing and processing pictures in a computer memory.

6. Users of computer graphics.

 

(the term means, as for, special attention is given to, a set of, due to, one can safely say).

 

Language activity

 

Exercise 1. Summarize your knowledge of Modal Verbs. Complete sentences with suitable verbs.

1. There are some diseases when only computed-tomography scanners … save lives for patients.

a) should;

b) can;

c) must.

2. Internet … be available to any schoolchild in Russia.

a) need;

b) must;

c) couldn’t.

3. No part of this publication … be reproduced.

a) may;

b) could;

c) mustn’t.

4. If one of the packets didn’t reach your address, you … send just this packet again.

a) mustn't;

b) might;

c) should.

5. If you wish to have cheap and fast correspondence, you … use e-mail.

a) ought to;

b) can’t;

c) must.

6. Even with the biggest computers available today, we still … reliably predict the weather for next week.

a) can;

b) cannot;

c) mustn’t.

7.Foreign language translation … prove to be a bit more complicated than a computer can handle.

a) may;

b) must;

c) should.

8. The ethics is the study of what is right to do in a given situation, or what we … do.

a) could;

b) ought to;

c) need.

Topics for discussion

 

Exercise 1. Read the passage below and answer the question.

Before an image can be displayed on a computer screen or monitor, it must be created by a computer program in a special part of the computer’s memory, called a frame buffer. The frame buffer is usually located on the computer’s graphics card. One method of producing an image in the frame buffer is to use a Nock of memory called a bitmap to store small, detailed figures such as a text character or an icon (small image). Frame buffer memory can also store other information, such as the color of each pixel.

Notes:

frame buffer – буфер изображения, буфер кадра;

bitmap – битовый массив.

What kind of memory is used to display an image on a monitor?

 

Exercise 2. Read the passage below and give us more information about using computer graphics.

As recently as the 1980s, all the things that people built and used were originally designed with the use of rulers and other mechanical tools of the graphic artist. Today things are designed and built electronically with computers. The cars that people drive are designed on a computer screen and tested in computer graphics simulations. Before doctors perform surgery, they use computer graphics in looking at X-ray images of the patient. Photographs are used to be stored on film. Now photos can be taken with digital cameras and sent as attachments to e-mail messages. You are most likely reading this text on a computer monitor. Today, almost all the things built and used in the world were originally designed with computer graphics.

 

TEXT VI

Word-study

 

Exercise 1. Check the transcription in the dictionary and read the words listed below:

a) Nouns:

physician, unemployment, inventory, abundance, poverty, guidance, opportunity.

Verbs:

outlaw, deny.

Adjectives:

sensitive, intrinsic, unscrupulous.

b) Pay special attention to the pronunciation of such words as:

robotization, realization, memorize, utilize, specialize, computerize, minimize, maximize.

 

Exercise 2. Read and translate the collocations below.

Unscrupulous charlatan, to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms, to be faced with decisions, to give a guidance, intrinsic power, to outlaw he interconnection computers.

 

Exercise 3.

a) Match the synonyms.

Verbs:

1) reduce	a) refuse
2) deny	b) keep
3) protect	c) carry
4) store	d) respond
5) expect	e) stop
6) prevent	f) defend
	g) decrease
	h) hope

b) Match the antonyms.

Adjectives:

1) obsolete	a) real
2) potential	b) harmful
3) beneficial	c) individual
4) abundant	d) public
5) private	e) sensitive
	f) poor
	g) contemporary

 

Scan-reading

NEW AGE, NEW PROBLEMS

 

Like any powerful tool, computers can be a force both for good and for harm. They can give physicians instant access to all of the information available on a patient in crisis, but they can also give unscrupulous charlatans the names of all cancer patients. They can give a business important new control over its inventory, but they can also give it privacy-invading control over its employee. Computerized robots might make work obsolete while producing abundance for everyone, but it can also throw millions of people into unemployment and poverty. To maximize the benefits and minimize the harms, those making decisions about the implementation of computer systems (e.g., programmers, systems designers, computer scientists, managers, legislators) must le sensitive, to the potential problems as well as to potential advantages of computers.

Because the computer gives us fundamentally new power, we are faced with decisions for which our experience may give little guidance. The danger of applying old standards to a fundamentally new situation might be well illustrated by the law passed soon after the production of the first automobiles, which required cars travelling the roads to be preceded by a man on foot carrying a red flag. This law reduced danger, but robbed the auto of its intrinsic power. Similarly, we could stop one type of computer crime by outlawing electronic fund transfer, or prevent a potentially dangerous accumulation of governmental power by outlawing the interconnection computers storing different sets of information about individuals, or prevent robots from taking workers jobs by outlawing robotization. It is possible to respond to every danger by cutting off the power that leads to that danger. But it is more productive to respond by analyzing each situation as it occurs. This way we may conclude that our fundamental values are better protected by changing our expectations or rules rather than by denying ourselves opportunities to take advantage of what the computer can do. Such an analysis requires some understanding both of social problems that computers may cause and the nature of our moral system.

 

Notes:

privacy-invading control – контроль с нарушением права личной независимости;

take advantage – воспользоваться преимуществом.

 

Comprehension check

 

Exercise 1. Answer the questions.

1. What are the benefits for mankind connected with computers?

2. What are possible harms involved by computers using?

3. What is to be done to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms?

4. What is the best way of protecting our fundamental values?

 

Exercise 2. Read «Commandments of Computers Ethics» and give your reasons «pro» or «contra» these rules.

Commandments of Computer Ethics.

1. You should not use a computer to harm other people.

2. You should not interfere with other people’s computer work.

3. You should not snoop around in the other people’s computer files.

4. You should not use a computer to bear false witness.

5. You should not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid.

6. You should not use other people’s computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.

7. You should not appropriate other people’s intellectual output.

8. You should think about social consequences of the program you are writing or the system your are designing.

9. You should always use a computer in ways that insure consideration and respect for your fellow humans.

 

Notes

to snoop around – подглядывать, заглядывать;

to bear false witness – собирать ложную информацию.

 

Language activity

 

Exercise 1. Translate the sentences below, paying special attention to the equivalents of the Modal Verbs.

1. Old-fashioned people will have to accept the reality of the Internet world.

2. We can’t continue our work. First, we are to bring light on the cause of the computer failure.

3. The first Internet created by Advanced Research Project Agency was to become the world’s first indestructible defense communications network.

4. Only experienced programmers were allowed to work with the new systems.

5. Cellular phones rather than the traditional phone service are able to communicate with the remote districts of the continent.

6. Enormous work had to be done to prevent breaking commercial codes or organizing attacks before people can respond.

7. With new funds academic institutions and research installations will be able to continue research, development and testing new computational systems.

 

TEXT VII