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UNIT 13. LESSON 3

Read the text without a dictionary.

13B. THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Computers have been described as machines that think. This is an oversimplification. Computers are machines that are capable of very rapid and accurate calculations, but they do need instructions from human beings.

However, within the past few years great advances have been made in the techniques of programming computers to act in remarkably intelligent ways. Moreover, having received its instructions and the data which it is to handle, the computer can then analyse it and make the required deductions from it in an astonishingly short time. The results can either be recorded or filed or used to control directly some apparatus or plant. In either case the computation is done much faster than a human could do it. Thus not only a great deal of human mental drudgery is avoided, but more difficult calculations or forms of process control can be undertaken.

The application of computers to industry is causing a second industrial revolution, as significant to the human race in its economic and social implications as was the first industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution involved the replacement of human and animal muscle power by the power of machines. It released mankind from a lot of physical work, and although we failed to avoid some unpleasant initial effects, no one could doubt that the material effects in the long run have been of great benefit to all of us.

Even though this first industrial revolution is still not completed we have now been caught up with a second similar phenomenon as computers spread into industry, commerce and the government service. Just as machines relieved us of the necessity for so much unpleasant physical work, so computers can relieve us of much detailed routine mental effort. Much of the drudgery of bookkeeping and filing, for example, can now be done by computers. Routine design calculations can also be computerized. Machines are thus freeing the human mind, in the same way as the muscle was freed over 100 years ago.

The introduction of computers will enable the control of industry and government records to continue to improve without an impossible situation developing in which most of us would have been employed in filing records.

This, of course, is only the negative side of the computer revolution. The positive side is even more significant. Just as the appearance of mechanical power opened the way to new feats of engineering like the railway and aeroplane, the combine harvester

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and the mechanical excavator, so automatic computing opens the way to new and much more effective methods of engineering design, recordkeeping and management.

The computer may even make possible entirely new ways of conducting a business. The major airlines, for example now maintain up-to-the-minute records in a central computer of all seats sold, thus permitting the maximum sale for each flight without risk of overselling.

Computers are the most suitable and reliable machines for making calculations. All the great discoveries in science have been the result of accurate measurements and calculations. Automation, as well as all other sciences, is closely connected to technological progress and computer development.

COMPREHENSION TEST

I.Choose the right word.

1.Computers have been described as machines that (think, calculate).

2.Great advances have been made in the techniques of (operating, programming) computers.

3.Computers (require, analyse) the data to be handled.

4.The application of computers to industry is (causing, obtaining) a second industrial revolution.

5.Computers (avoid, release) men from a lot of mental work.

6.Computers are (spread, handled) into industry, commerce and the government service.

7.Machines are (freeing, filing) the human mind.

8.Automatic computing (opens, leads) the way to new methods of engineering design.

9.Computers (cause, result) exact measurements and calculations.

II.Find the answers to the following questions.

1.Why is it oversimplification to call computers 'thinking machines'?

2.What does a computer do after receiving the instructions?

3.What is done with the result of processing?

4.What is the reason of the second industrial revolution?

5.What replacement does the second industrial revolution involve?

6.What is being done by computers now?

7.What will the introduction of computers cause in the control?

8.What is the negative side of the computer revolution?

9.What is the positive side?

10.What has been the result of accurate measurements and exact calculations?

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Translate the text into English. Entitle the text.

				TEXT 13С
Во	многих	современных		механизмах		и	технологических	проц
определенные физические величины необходимо контролировать. Это делается
автоматическими устройствами. Их называют системами управления.
Простейшие		примеры	управляющих		приборовэто		различные	типы

двигателей. В них используются разнообразные регуляторы, карбюраторы, переключатели и контакты. В бытовых приборах также имеются автоматические устройства для управления температурой.

Важное значение приобрело автоматическое управление в химическ

промышленности. Автоматические	системы	работают	быстрее	и	бо
единообразно, чем даже самый квалифицированный оператор.
Все автоматические системы управления основаны на одних				и	тех
принципах действия, но конструкция и внешний вид приборов сильно отличаются
в зависимости от их применения.

13D. COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

Scientific research, in many fields, is now dependent on computers, either for working out the implications of a theory or for handling the very large amounts of data obtained from certain experiments. Astronomers have been able to test theories about the structure of stars by following their consequences on a computer. Crystallographers have, with the help of computers, deduced the structure of large molecules from the complicated way in which they diffract X-rays, and so have begun to understand the mechanisms by which heredity is transmitted. Physicists have been able to sort out the tracks made by millions of high-energy particles, and so to obtain statistics and to pick out the rare cases that add to our basic knowledge. Thus, in many instances the computer is actually creating new jobs.

Computer technology, from a precocious childhood, is moving into a turbulent adolescence, and we must try to understand its problems. We can still see its adult state but dimly. It seems, for example, that it may not be necessary for each office to have its own computer, but rather merely to enjoy shared access to a central computer by means of land lines. We may perhaps look forward to the day when there is a national network of computers linked to each other by something like the telephone system. Large offices would then keep their records at the local computer exchange. If a computer received a job that is too big for it to handle, it would pass it on to a larger computer via the

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national net by calling on the national power grid. This is for the future, but it may come sooner than we think. Whatever physical form it may take, we can be sure that the interchange of information between computers will grow enormously in volume in the years to come. This in turn will raise much deeper problems of compatibility of equipment and codes than any we have encountered so far.

Information return is not the only advantage of computers in processing information. The data fed into the computer's memory may be automatically processed and tabulated to supply consolidated conclusions for the needs of management. Thus, the science and technology information system becomes a part of the management information systems which are being widely applied.

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 13E

Listen to the text and answer the questions.

1.What is automation?

2.How many components is automation made up of? What are they?

3.Which components replace human muscles? Which ones replace human brains?

4.Where is the intelligent use of leisure growing?

I.Give the main idea of the text.

II. Render the text into Russian.

III. Retell the text.