Текст 8

Internet

Modern Technology has had a tremendous effect on the lives of people and their entertainment habits. Today, the Internet has undergone a phenomenal global growth. It has become such an important data-gathering and communication source that few can't afford to ignore. The Net encircles the globe.

Young people spend a lot of time on their computers because it’s exiting and they have found in the Net new ways of meeting a basic human need: the desire to communicate with other people. E-mail sends electronic messages from one person to another – like letters, but capable of crossing the Atlantic in 15m. File transfers move bulk data from one computer to another with these capacities, the Internet becomes post office, printing press and meeting-place all in one.

Some people are making a fortune in cyberspace. Most companies have their own websites; others exist only on the Internet. They are something called “dot com” companies. Some of the most successful Net entrepreneurs are teenagers who are still at school. They are called internet nerds.

Tom Hadfield, 16, started a football results website called soccer-net and it became a great business.

To become a successful entrepreneur all you need is: to start a webpage of your own, have a good idea for a business, think of a catchy name and find someone to lend you money. And remember! English is the most used business language!

Read the text and say if the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

1. The Internet doesn't interfere at all with people’s lives.

2. Most teenagers only have a few hours of computer time.

3. Internet nerds are teenagers who spend most of their time in front of the computer

4. The English language is not necessary to be successful on the Net.

Complete the following sentences with ideas from the text:

1. Nowadays the Internet has become tremendously _________________

2. Time spent on computers ____________________________________

Answer the following questions:

1. How does modern technology affect people's lives?

2. Why does the Net encircle the Globe?

3. How can people make a fortune in cyberspace?

Some people say the Internet can be dangerous. Others say that it can be educational. What do you think?

Текст 9

Introducing the undisputed queen of competitions

Outside Rita Smallburn's home is parked a sparkling blue Renault Clio. Mrs Smallburn won it. It is the fifth car she has won. Inside her sitting room are a

video, television, compact disc system, three-piece suite, canteen of cutlery, decanter and glasses, silverware, scrabble and an enormous bottle of champagne: all prizes.

In her kitchen are a dishwasher, microwave, French saucepan set, toaster, coffee maker, electric carving knife, kettle, can opener and iron: more prizes.

Jin fact there is virtually nothing in Mrs Smallburn's entire house, apart from her dog, which she hasn't won.

'She did not actually win the house she and her family live in, but seven years ago she won another one worth £50,000 which she sold two years later for £100,000. For the last sixteen years she has been the 'Queen of Competitions or 'compers' as they are known in the trade. Locally she is known as Mrs Win-a-lot.

Since she gave up her job as a geography teacher sixteen years ago, Mrs Smallburn believes she has become much more skilled at winning competitions. 1 expect to win between twenty and forty per cent of the competitions I enter,' she says. 'But my winnings could vary enormously year by year. One year I might win £3,000. The next it could be £100,000. All her earnings are tax-free.

She enters only about twelve competitions a month now, down from a peak of about fifty when she was younger. Nowadays she is busy running a consultancy in which she shares her competition winning skills with others who would like to achieve success, but the postman's arrival is still a thrill. If her family wants something, she will try to win it. At the moment she is competing for a fax machine. She wouldn't dream of buying anything.

It is an odd though Mrs Smallburn denies it is an obsession. It's more like an extreme enthusiasm, she says. To work the thrill must be in the winning rather than the prizes. The disadvantage is the lack of freedom to buy what you choose. The dog is not allowed to have his favourite brand of pet food. He has to be content with a year's supply of another brand Mrs Smallburn won.

Choose the correct alternative to answer the following questions.