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UNIT 4. LESSON 3

Read the text without a dictionary.

4B. THE TINY, FOOLPROOF TOOLS OF ELECTRONICS

When the first truly modern electronic computer went into operation in 1946, its 19,000 tubes and miles of wires filled a room big enough for a tennis court. By 1958 the substitution of transistors and printed circuits for tubes and wires had shrunk a computer of similar capacity to the size of a desk. Later, using hundreds of integrated circuits engineers can make such a computer almost as small as a typewriter.

Small size is only the obvious merit of these integrated-circuit "chips". Because each combines into one solid piece scores of electronic elements it is far more foolproof than the old conglomeration of parts. The integrated circuit's combination of great reliability and small size makes it possible to cram sophisticated equipment, including a TV camera, radiation detectors and a device to measure magnetic fields, into the roughly four-by-nine foot body of the 'Mariner' spaceship that studied Mars. Now integrated circuits, applied to everyday life, can produce practical wrist radios, hearing aids implanted underneath the skin and even - if anyone wants to watch a screen the size of a coin - a pocket-sized TV set.

Computers are widely applied in other braches of human life. 'The Reading Evening Post' is a newspaper that was born only thanks to computers. Up to the moment when the reporters' stories are ready so as to set them in type, everything is like in any other newspaper, but from then it is unique. Instead of the usual noisy, dirty typesetting machines, there are 12 operators in clean white collars sitting at a typewriter keyboard and these 12 operators perform such a quantity of work which would have required 23 men using ordinary typesetting machines.

Kyoto University reported that it had developed a computer that "talks and translates" English into Japanese. The university said that the computer refused to translate any questions put in bad English. "It simply keeps quiet if someone asks a question in bad English," said the professor, head of the group that had developed the computer.

It took five years to develop the machine. 8000 English words, 4000 English phrases and their Japanese equivalents were built into the computer, which sorts out sentences which are fed in with a keyboard and supplies a vocal translation within 20 seconds.

The newspaper 'The Times' (London) writes: "Time is money" is one of the foundations of the Ministry of Transport approaches to transport problems - if we can save a lot of people time on their daily journeys to work, then we are saving a part of

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the nation's money". That is why a computer-controlled traffic experiment was carried out in West London. One of the objects of the experiment was to make more efficient use of road space.

The scheme involves more than 100 sets of signals which are connected to a computer in New Scotland Yard. More than 500 detectors count the cars passing over them and display the information on a master panel. The computer adjusts traffic signals and gives a free flow of traffic. In future when the system is fully developed the computer will hold in its memory different traffic conditions, for example morning and evening rush hours.

Computing machines even may play draughts and chess. Computers are going to be the driving force behind a second industrial revolution, just as the steam was in the first.

COMPREHENSION TEST

I.Select the correct answers to the questions:

1.When did the first modern computer start working? (1946, 1958)

2.What helps engineers make a small-sized computer? (tubes and wires, transistors and printed circuits)

3.What parts were included into the 'Mariner' spaceship? (TV camera, wrist radio, a device to measure magnetic fields, a pocket-sized TV set)

4.What makes a chip reliable? (scores of electronic components, old conglomeration of parts)

5.What is the heart of the computers? (motors; chips)

6.What must a computer have for its work? (programming; text books)

7.How are the problems in analog computers solved? (by counting; by analogy)

8.How are the problems in digital computers solved? (by counting; by analogy)

9.What are the data of the problems converted into? (electrical pulses; mechanical actions)

10.How much time were Japanese scientists developing their computer? (some months; some years)

11.What experiment was carried out in West London? (for controlling traffic; for printing newspapers)

12.What was the driving force in the second industrial revolution? (steam; computers)

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Translate the text into English. Entitle the text.

TEXT 4C

Компьютеры по-разному используются в различных областях жизни человека. Компьютеры успешно применяются в промышленности. Компьютер может управлять движениями самолета. Кроме этой работы он может делать различные вычисления и производить логические операции.

Универсальные ЭВМ используются везде- в научных исследованиях, транспорте, промышленности. Их применяют для создания самолетов, ракет, мостов, зданий, кораблей и автомобилей.

Сегодня чаще всего используются персональные компьютеры для космических исследований, в искусстве, образовании. Спорт, медицина, бизнес и промышленность пользуются помощью компьютеров.

Вофисах и на заводах персональные компьютеры экономят время для отдыха

идругой интеллектуальной работы, так как компьютеры работают во много раз быстрее, чем человеческий мозг.

4D. THE WORLD BECOMES SMALLER

3) The integrated circuit (IC). But scientists never stop trying to improve what might seem to be perfect. The second "revolution" was the semiconductor integrated circuit, a major step forward towards miniaturization. The concept of the IC had begun to take shape (to develop) only a few years after the invention of the transistor. Scientists saw that one might further exploit the characteristics of semiconductors such as germanium and silicon that had been exploited to make the transistor. Today, thousands of circuit elements are simultaneously fabricated on a thin chip (small piece) of silicon.

It is now generally accepted that the revolutionary step from transistors to integrated circuits is causing a considerably greater change in a much shorter time than did the earlier step from radio valves to transistors. Many solid state devices, small as they may be to the eye, are still much larger than they need to be to do the jobs they have to do. The problem was one of finding ways of making them smaller and smaller.

4) Large scale integration. And such ways have been found with the computers as an example. The complexity of the integrated circuit and the level of integration are being increased year by year. Fourth generation computers use large scale integration (LSI). That offers still greater advantages in reliability, size and cost. LSI based equipment generally requires less power both to manufacture and to operate. It is possible to place millions of circuits elements on a single chip at a cost hardly higher than that of a single

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vacuum tube.

The device density can increase and increase, with no end in sight (without limit). Human brains have more than 1000 million cells per cubic centimetre and there is no reason to think that we cannot pack solid state device more densely than that though there are different opinions about it. Some scientists think there is a limit beyond which device density can't be increased.

I. Translate the text using the dictionary.

II. Give the main idea in 2-3 sentences.

III. Make up a short plan of the text.

LISTENING COMPREHENSION. TEXT 4E

Listen to the text and translate into English.

1.Они вычисляют from the given факторов such as weight, height, speed, engine power эффективность нового самолета.

2.Они также supply точные формулы about структуре сложных chemical molecules.

3.Они могут вычислить in advance тысячи возможных комбинаций through the electronic brains.

4.Даже теперь возможности электронного мозга are by no means exhausted.

I.Give the main idea of the text.

II. Render the text into Russian.

III. Retell the text.