1.1. Answer the questions.

1. Do you often use a computer at home or at the university?

2. What do you use it for?

3. Would you say you are computer-literate (to know how to use it)?

4. Do you find most computers user-friendly (easy to use)?

5. What software programs are you familiar with?

6. Do you use e-mail? Do you think it is better than the ordinary mail? Why?

7. Do you think the Internet has an important influence on our daily lives? In what ways?

1.2. Work in pairs or small groups. How would you describe what a computer is to someone who:

• knows nothing about computers?

• knows quite enough about computers?

1.3. Now read the text and describe a computer using the key vocabulary in bold type.

Technically, a computer is a programmable machine. Today, however, the term is most often used to refer to the desktop and laptop computers that most people use. When referring to a desktop model, the term "computer" technically only refers to the computer itself – not the monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Still, it is acceptable to refer to everything together as the computer. If you want to be really technical, the box that holds the computer is called the "system unit".

Some of the major parts of a personal computer (or PC) include the motherboard, CPU, memory (or RAM), hard drive, and video card. While personal computers are by far the most common type of computers today, there are several other types of computers. For example, a "minicomputer" is a powerful computer that can support many users at once. A "mainframe" (1) is a large, high-powered computer that can perform billions of calculations from multiple sources at one time. Finally, a "supercomputer" (2) is a machine that can process billions of instructions a second and is used to calculate extremely complex calculations.

(1) mainframe базовое вычислительное устройство; большой

компьютер; мэйнфрейм

(2) supercomputer суперкомпьютер; сверхбыстродействующая ЭВМ;

сверхбольшая ЭВМ

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1.4. Discuss in pairs or in small groups what roles of computers in our daily life are.

1.5. Read the text, compare your ideas with the information given, and write some questions as a plan to summarize this text.

(To understand the text better use the vocabulary given at the beginning of the unit).

TEXT A

Computers in Our Life

Nowadays, we cannot imagine our life without computers and the fact is that they have become so important that nothing can replace them. They seem to be everywhere today. Since 1948 when the first real computer has been invented our life has changed so much that we can call it real digital revolution.

First computers differed from today's ones. They were so big that they occupied whole rooms or buildings being relatively slow. They were not faster than modern simple watches or calculators. Nowadays they are also used by scientist and they may also be as big as the old ones but they are millions times faster. They can perform many complex operations simultaneously and scientist practically can't do without them. Thanks to them people have an access to various information. Gathering data has never been simpler than now. They are not only used in laboratories but also in factories to control production. Sometimes computers make other computers.

But not only in science and industry computers are being used. Thanks to them modern medicine can diagnose diseases faster and more thoroughly. Also in banking system computers have become irreplaceable. Furthermore, architects, designers and engineers can't imagine their work without computers. These machines are really everywhere and we depend on them also in such fields as criminology.

Moreover, computers are wide-spread in education. Except their classic tasks such as administration and accountancy they are used in process of learning. Firstly, they store data which help students to gain information. Secondly, thanks to special teaching techniques and programs they improve ours skills of gaining knowledge. They have become so popular that not knowing how to use them means to be illiterate.

Of course there is also dark side of computer technology because every invention brings us not only benefits but also threats.

Advantages:

1. Computers save storage place. Imagine how much paper would have to be used, how many trees would have to be cut just to store information which is today on hard disks, CDs, and memory cards.

2. Computers can calculate and process information faster and more accurate than a human.

3. Computers improve our office work

4. We can communicate with whole world very fast and cheap using the Internet.

5. Computers are user-friendly. We can watch videos and listen to the music having only a PC. We can also buy a laptop which is smaller, and use it outside anywhere we want.

Disadvantages:

1. Computers are dangerous to our health. Very often parents want to have a rest and don't draw enough attention to how long their children use computer.

2. Computers sometimes break down and you can lose your data. If you have the Internet connection you have to be particularly careful and download anti-virus programs.

3. Violence and sex. The main threat to younger users of computers is the Internet pornography and bloody games.

4. Another threat is that you can be computer addict.

Computers are practically irreplaceable and we can't make without them any more. They are everywhere: at our homes, schools, at work, in our cars.

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