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UNIT 7. LESSON 3

Read the text without a dictionary.

7B. MICROELECTRONICS AND THE PERSONAL COMPUTER

The future increase in capacity and decrease in cost of microelectronic devices will not only give rise to compact and powerful hardware but also bring changes in the way human beings and computers interact. Both adults and children will be able to have as a personal possession a computer about the size of a large notebook with the power to handle all their information-related needs.

The personal computers can be regarded as the newest example of human medium of communication. The evolution of the personal computer has followed the path similar to that of the printed book, but in 60 years rather than 600. Like the handmade book of the Middle Ages the massive computers built in two decades before 1960 were coarse, expensive, available to only a few.

Just as the Industrial Revolution made the personal book by providing inexpensive paper and mechanized printing and binding, the microelectronic revolution brings about the personal computer. Ideally the personal computer will be designed in such a way that people of all ages and walks of life can model and channel its power to their own needs.

Architects should be able to simulate three-dimensional space in order to modify their current designs. Physicians should be able to store and organize a large quantity of information about their patients. Composers should be able to hear a composition as they are composing it, especially if it is too complex for them to play.

As the use of pocket computers and other advanced machines becomes more widespread, their impact on society will become more and more significant. In schools, not only they are useful in solving problems in maths or physics, but they will store spelling clues for English courses, translations for language studies. In almost any subject they can serve as a teaching aid.

Children should have an active learning tool that gives them ready access to large stores of knowledge in ways that are not possible with books.

The coming pocket computer will have even more everyday applications. Businessmen now are able to better plan their schedules; mini-computers with built-in electronic clocks automatically remind them of previously scheduled appointments and meetings. Investors can analyse market trends and compare projected inflation rates with existing interest figures. And homemakers have an electronic budget planner with

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a built-in over-spending reminder.

To top it all, an inexpensive device is now available which permits you to program inputs to your mini-computer's memory bank. It gives you phone numbers on demand, tells you how to spell tough words, performs dozens of complex operations on call.

A great deal of progress has been made in the past decade by design engineers chanelling the raw power of the computer into an effective design tool. Through the combined efforts of a multitude of industrial engineers the power of the computer has been transformed into an effective, efficient extension of the engineer's own skill, talent and capacity.

COMPREHENSION TEST

I. Put the following phrases in the correct sequence to make up a plan of the text. Make corrections if needed.

1.Pocket computer possibilities.

2.The future use of computers by builders, musicians and doctors.

3.Human sphere of communication.

4.Computers in design engineering.

5.Pocket computer applications in business.

6.Computers as a teaching aid.

7.The so-called Second Industrial Revolution.

8.The use of the earliest types of computers.

9.The problem of man-computer interaction.

10.Books and computers.

II.Find the answers to the following questions.

1.What changes will be brought about in the way human beings and computers interact?

2.How old is the computer?

3.What were the first computers like?

4.Who can use computers ideally?

5.Can you name some future computer applications?

6.What role can computers play at school?

7.Will children use books if they have computers? Why?

8.What operations can businessmen, investors and homemakers perform with the help of computers?

9.What functions would you like the computer to have?

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10. Why should engineers use computers in the design work?

Translate the text into English. Entitle the text.

TEXT 7C

Машинный язык - это набор инструкций для компьютера. Он немного похож на алгебраическую форму математических выражений. Этот язык дает возможность компьютеру действовать. Машинным языком называют двоичную цифровую систему. Она используется для операций с цифрами, буквами и символами.

В бинарной системе всего два символа. Десятичные цифры можно сравнить с соответствующими двоичными символами. Один символ может использоваться для обозначения разных чисел в зависимости от положения в специально таблице.

Двоичная система не используется для обычных числовых ,задтакч как требуется больше цифр для выражения чисел. Эта система подходит для современных компьютеров из-за их большой памяти и высокой скорости.

7D. LOOK WHAT THOSE KNUCKLE-HEADS ARE DOING

If you think of a world free of human error, a society that is regulated by the quiet clicking of a computer which makes no mistakes you will get disappointed.

Like us, the mechanical brains are showing signs of nervousness, indecisiveness. In taking human skills, the machines also have taken our human weaknesses.

An American engineer designed a computer with ears. It responded to carefully spoken numbers with a regulated "clack-click", but one day it became excited by a movie-camera spring that was being wound within its hearing, and went into hysteria producing its clickety-clacks. It returned to normal state, but repeated the performance as soon as it again heard the spring being wound.

Several large computers have suffered nervous breakdowns that were not planned. It was a very human kind of breakdown suffered by a machine which worked too hard at an impossible job. All night long it clicked and clacked wildly, and in the morning it was whirring angrily and gnashing its gear teeth in despair. Finally it stopped in a state of shock. It had been trying to divide by zero. Didn't know any better!

So far the translation machines are not quite perfect as they have limited vocabularies and one word must often do the work of several words.

The title of a Russian technical article "New Uses for Hydraulic Rams" was

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translated "New Uses for Water Goats"! Another machine was asked to translate into Russian the expression "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". The translation appeared to be more than strange: "Vodka is strong, meat is weak".

The advocates of computers stand firm in their conviction that all computer mistakes are likely to be caused by wrong information people often feed the machines with. But manufacturers admit that the machines are not perfect; that a big computer can be expected to make a mistake about once a month. Mistakes are caused by worn-out microcircuits in the machines or overloading and so on.

In the theory, computer mistakes can be prevented by using two machines, one to check on the work of the other.

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 7E

Listen to the text and put the sentences in order to make the plan of the text.

1.The corresponding mathematical formulas cover several pages of an ordinary

book.

2.The electronic brain could easily solve equation with 50, 100, or 200 unknowns.

3.We have to solve problems for which the reactions of the human brain prove too

slow.

4.The solution of only a partial problem is completed by the electronic brain in seven minutes.

I.Give the main idea of the text.

II. Render the text into Russian.

III. Retell the text.