Mother should have warned you!

If you can count on one person in this life, it is your mother. Particularly, you can rely on any mom anywhere to find the perils inherent in any situation. Indeed, no self-respecting mom ever missed an opportunity to caution her children about the dangers of everything from comics to swimming pools. What would mom say about PCs?

We have tried to find an answer to this question, and after months of exhaustive polling of computer savvy moms around the country (there are more than you think), we’ve assembled the following list of ten PC perils your mom should have warned you about. Take them seriously. Mom knows what she is talking about.

1) Playing too much computer games will make you go blind. Go outside, get some fresh air. Do you want to look like a ghost all your life?

2) Never dial into strange bulletin board systems. Who knows what kind of riff-raff you will find there? Just last week, I saw a show about the kind of trash that hangs out on these systems.

3) If you are so interested in information, why don’t you go to the library?

4) You don’t have to rush out and buy every trendy new product. So what if all your friends are buying it. You wouldn’t jump off a bridge just because everyone else did, would you?

5) Be sure to write your name and phone number on all your floppy disk sleeves. That way, if they ever get mixed up with someone else’s, you can tell which one is yours.

6) Never put a disk into your drive if you don’t know where it has been. Your computer might catch a disease or something. Don’t laugh, it is not funny. That’s what happened to the Kelly boy, and his PC hasn’t been the same since.

7) Sit up straight, and for heaven’s sake, not so close to that monitor screen. What do you want to do, go blind and look like a pretzel? Exercise at your desk occasionally rotating your wrist, rolling your shoulders, and stretching. Better yet, get up and walk around.

8) Always keep your icons and windows neatly arranged. A cluttered desktop is the sign of a cluttered mind.

9) Mind your language. It is very rude, and frankly speaking, I don’t like your language when the computer doesn’t work the way you think it should.

10) Always eat your vegetables. Okay, so it doesn’t have anything to do with computers, it’s good advice anyway. And who said mothers had to be consistent?

Ex.26. Go back to the text and find the English equivalents to the following Russian phrases:

присущий; упустить возможность; действительно; “кумекающие” в компьютерах (жарг.); ослепнуть; мусор; электронная доска объявлений; модный; наклейка на дискете; рабочий стол; честно говоря; хороший совет; в любом случае; последовательный.

Ex.27. Answer the questions.

1) What do all moms usually warn their children about? 2) What were you warned about when a child? 3) What advice did you take seriously? 4) What are the top three PC perils in your opinion? 5) What of them would you warn your children about?

TEXT F

The students of different Moscow technical higher schools were asked to write the compositions in English on the following topics: 1) Hackers of today. 2) Pluses and minuses of computers. 3) Internet. Read them and choose the best composition in your opinion. Explain your choice.