Read the text and find the information about:

- Bill Gates was active in his teenage years.

- He and his friend developed disk operating system.

- Bill Gates foresaw the significance of computers in the future.

- Binary number system has only two digits.

- Bill Gates’ predictions came true.

 

Bill Gates, The Software King

Most of the computers in the world use software invented by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Inc. of Redmond, Wash. Software is the set of programs that make computers – whether business or personal – perform various tasks.

Gates was born in Seattle, Wash., in 1955. As a boy, he was bright and curious. He was active in Scouting, reaching Life Scout rank in Troop 186. He especially loved hiking, camping and other outdoor adventures.

But Gates was obsessed with computers. While a student at Harvard University in 1975, Gates and a friend, Paul Allen, developed a computer language for an early version of the personal computer. Microsoft was born. Gates went on to develop operating systems, such as MS-DOS, and software programs.

Thanks to Microsoft, Gates is now one of the richest men in America. He is worth more than $8 billion.

A technical wizard and a fierce business competitor, Gates sees great things ahead for computers. He says they «are really going to change a lot of things in the world – the way we work, the way we play and entertain ourselves and even the way we are educated».

 

 

The Binary Number System

Early digital computers inspired by Howard Aiken’s Mark 1 were huge, sometimes filling an entire room. That was because thousands of switches were needed to compute his binary number system.

In the binary number system, only two digits are recognized by the computer: 0 when a switch is off, and 1 when the switch is on. Different combinations of those two digits can represent thousands of letters and numbers.

The binary number system is still used in today’s computers. The difference is that the thousands of electrical switches have been replaced by one tiny, solid-state chip that does the translations electronically. That’s why your computer only fills up part of your desk, not your whole bedroom.

 

Computers in your Future

Microsoft’s Bill Gates and other computer experts saw great things ahead. They said that in the next few years, you would be able to sit at your computer and see high-quality video sent from any place on earth.

They predicted you would also have a wallet-size personal computer. With it you would be able to store photographs, pay bills, get the news, send messages, see movies and open locks with digital keys.

At home on your TV-size PC you would be able to see and talk with friends in other states, get medical advice, check magazine articles and pictures in a far-off library and order a pizza.

A computerized control system at home would regulate your lighting, temperature and security system.

Big dreams? Are these dreams or facts? Perhaps. But engineers have done a lot to make it reality.

New words:

To perform – выполнять

Life Scout rank – пожизненный титул бойскаута

Troop – отряд

To be obsessed – быть одержимым

Operating system – система функционирования

Worth – обладающий

Fierce – неистовый

To inspire – вдохновлять

Solid-state – твердый

Wallet-size – величиной с бумажник

Security system – система безопасности

Задание 2. Do you know the famous inventors of the world? Заполните пропуски в предложении. Выберите один правильный ответ а), в) или с)

 

1. Alexander Bell worked at inventing ………….

a) radio-set b) tape-recorder c) telephone

2. ……………….. was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first working television system.

     a) John Logie Baird                   b) Benjamin Franklin                        c) Edward Jenner

3. Karl Benz produced the wold’s first petrol-driven motorcar in ………in 1885.

a) Italy b) Japan    c)  Germany

4. The Lumière brothers patented the cinematograph in ……………

    a) 1844              b) 1885          c) 1925

5. The phonograph, the motion picture camera, light bulb are ………. inventions.

a) Michael Faraday’s   b) Thomas Edison’s       c) William Gilbert’s

6. In 1945 the Nobel Prize was given to Alexander Fleming for ……………

a) solar cell       b) penicillin   c) telescope

7. The first Russsian’s …………. was designed by P. Frez and E. Yakovlev.

a) camera  b) electric cell           c) automobile

8. …….. …….. was an American inventor, salesman and janitor who invented the first commercially successful portable electric vacuum cleaner.

a) James Murray Spangler          b) Ian Wilmut c) Humphry Davy

9. …………… mathematician Charles Babbage designed a form of computer in the mid-1830s.

a) French b) German c) British

10. ………….. was the first to use assembly line production for his Model T car in 1908.

  a) Ernest Rutherford        b) Henry Ford     c) Robert Hooke

11. Nicéphore Niépce was a French inventor, now usually credited as the inventor of ……. and a pioneer in that field.

a) photography    b) airplane c) motorcar

12. Sergei Korolev designed the first artificial satellite in ……………

a) 1947  b) 1957          c) 1970

13. Alexander Mozhaysky was aviation pioneer, researcher and designer of first …………………

a) aeroplane b) steamship c) steam locomotive

14. Satori Kato was a ………….. chemist and inventor of the first soluble instant coffee.

  a) American   b) Brazilian   c) Japanese

 

 15. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a German physicist, who produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength range today that was known as ……………. or Röntgen rays.

  a) X-rays             b) Y-rays             c) Z-rays

 

Задание 3. Put each of the following words in its place in the passage below. ( Вставьте пропущенные слова в текст)

software computers peripherals calculator ports

monitor keyboard configuration hardware printer

So you only have a pocket (1)_____to do addition, multiplication and so on, you want to know about real (2)_____? Right. Well, the machines themselves are called the (3)_____ and the programs that you feed into them are called the (4)_____. If you want to see the results of what you are doing, you’ll need a (5)____or you’ll have to plug into a television set. You’ll operate your machine like a typewriter by pressing keys on the (6)______. If you want to record on the paper of what you are doing, you’ll need a (7)______. On the rear panel of the computer there several (8)_______into which you can plug a wide range of (9)______-- modems, fax machines and scanners. The main physical units of a computer system are generally known as the (10)______.

Задание 4. Translate into English.

 

1. Удобно пользоваться электронной почтой, чтобы контактировать с друзьями.

2. Благодаря компьютеру я могу получать и отправлять сообщения в любое время.

3. Компьютерная терминология не очень трудная. Многие слова пришли из английского языка.

4. Он интересуется компьютерами, знает, как ими пользоваться и владеет основами компьютерного общения.

5. Когда работаешь с компьютером, возникают проблемы, которые необходимо решить.

6. Мы купили компьютер только два года назад, и он уже устарел.

7. Интепесно, он пользуется компьютером сейчас или пишет книги ручкой?

8. «Майкрософт» стала крупнейшей фирмой в мире, разрабатывающей программное обеспечение для компьютеров.

 

Задание 5. Преобразуйте, если необходимо, слова в скобках  так, чтобы они грамматически соответствовали содержанию текста.

 

What Can Computers Do?

Computers and microchips (1) ____ (become) part of our everyday lives.

We read magazines which (2) ____ (produce) on computer, we buy things with the help of computer; we pay bills prepared by computers.

Just (3) ____ (dial) a phone number involves the use of a sophisticated computer system.

In the past, life without computers was much (4) ____ (difficult) than it is today.

The first computers were able to multiply long numbers, but they (5) ____ (not can) do anything else.

Nobody (6) ___ (believe) stories about robots and space travel, but now computers are able to do almost all difficult jobs.

What makes your computer such a miraculous device? It is a personal communicator that (7) ____ (enable) you to interact with other computers and with people around the world. And you can even use your PC to relax with computer games.