10.3. The era of computers.

10.3.1. The history of the computer is longer than most people think. An early mechanical computer called the Difference Engine was designed by British mathematician and scientist Charles Babbage in the 1830s. Babbage also made plans for another machine, the Analytical Engine, considered the mechanical precursor of the modern computer. Augusta Ada Byron, the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and one of only a few woman mathematicians of her time, was a personal friend and student of Babbage. She prepared extensive notes concerning Babbage’s ideas and the Analytical Engine. Her conceptual programs for the machine led to the naming of a programming language (Ada) in her honor.

10.3.2. One hundred years later, British mathematician Alan Turing proposed the idea of a machine that could process equations without human direction. The machine (now known as a Turing machine) resembled an automatic typewriter that used symbols for math and logic instead of letters. Turing’s machine was the theoretical precursor to the modern digital computer.

However, the first personal computer appeared only in 1975. Graphical user interfaces were first designed by the Xerox Corporation, and later used successfully by Apple Computer, Inc. Today the development of sophisticated operating systems such as Windows enables computer users to run programs and manipulate data in ways that were unimaginable in the mid-20th century.

10.3.3. Computers will become more advanced and they will also become easier to use. Improved speech recognition will make the operation of a computer easier. Virtual reality, the technology of interacting with a computer using all of the human senses, will also contribute to better human and computer interfaces. Standards for virtual-reality program languages—for example, Virtual Reality Modeling language (VRML)—are currently in use or are being developed for the World Wide Web.

The WWW was developed by British physicist and computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee as a project within the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. All necessary information is available on the Web, including anything you will need for your seminars in British and /or American Studies.

10.3.4. In case you don’t know it yet, there is Professional Foreign Language Training Chair site in the Internet (www.kafedrapip.net). It was designed by Nikolai Makarenko and is currently being administered by him. The site was created with a methodological idea in mind, which consists in creating a highly structured focal point for the educational effort paid by the stuff members and students alike. One of the resources available there is the list of useful links to other educational sites, all of which contain gigabytes upon gigabytes of information. You are very welcome to visit the site and become a regular contributor to on-line professional communication network.

10.4. Top 10 Britons of all time.

10.4.1. British history is particularly rich in great names – the nation is proud of its many outstanding people who contributed to both world civilization and culture. Yet some people are more famous, some people less. It makes sense to resort to the opinions of the members of British public for advice on who’s who in British history. An opinion poll involving some 30.000 people was carried in the UK at the turn of the present century. The aim was to list 100 top Britons of all time. The results of the poll published in the Internet are of peculiar interest for us, experts in British studies.

10.4.2. You may well do this as out-of-class activity. Work individually first, then do the same in small groups. The table below presents the first 10 out of 100 top British names. The left column of the table below contains the alphabetical list. Fill in the other two columns – your list and group list. The lecturer will provide you with information on the original Top Ten list.

Alphabetical list	Your priority list	Group priority list		The original list
Brunel			1
Churchill			2
Cromwell			3
Darwin			4
Diana			5
Elizabeth I			6
Lennon			7
Nelson			8
Newton			9
Shakespeare			10	Cromwell

10.4.3. It makes no less sense to remember some of the names which appear in the other half of the top 100 list. For instance, these are King Arthur (51), Florence Nightingale (52), Captain Robert Falcon Scott (54), Sir Alexander Graham Bell (57), Freddie Mercury (58), George Stephenson (68), Sir Charles Chaplin (66), Tony Blair (67), William Caxton (68), Edward Jenner (78), Geoffrey Chaucer (81), James Watt (84), James Clerk Maxwell (91), John R.R. Tolkien (92), David Livingstone (98), Professor Tim Berners-Lee (99), Mary Stopes (100). If you have a good story to tell about most of the people mentioned above, then you do know a thing or two (or even three) about British history and culture.

10.4.4. And, by the way, here is one last question. Do you know what gave Mary Stopes the 100^th place on the list? If you don’t, go and find out, will you?

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