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Here is the list of operational systems mentioned in the text. Fill in the blanks using the right abbreviation.
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a. UNIX
b. DOS
c. NT
d. OS/2
e. Windows 95
1) Like NT, … is DOS compatible and provides a graphical user interface that lets you run programmes with a click of a mouse.
2) … is the most commonly used PC operating system.
3) … is a multi-user operating system that allows multiple users to access the system.
4) … is an operating system developed by Microsoft, an enhanced version of the popular Microsoft Windows programmes.
5) The usage of … is so simple that even little kids learn how to use it very quickly.EXERCISE 5
True or false? Read and translate the statements. Correct the false ones
1. When computers were first introduced in 40’s and 50’s programmers had to write programmes to instruct CD-ROMs, lasers, printers and scanners.
2. The operational system controls and manages the use of the hardware and the memory.
3. There are no commands available in operating systems, they are only in word processors.
4. Microsoft developed MS-DOS to compete with IBM’s PC-DOS.
5. NT requires computers with 486 CPU and 16 Mb random access memory.
6. OS/2 is DOS compatible because it was developed by Microsoft.
7. Traditionally, UNIX was run by many users simultaneously.
8. Windows 95 and Windows 98 are DOS compatible and have “friendly” and convenient interface.
EXERCISE 6
Translate the sentences into English
1.Современные операционные системы контролируют использование системного оборудования, например, принтера и мыши.
2.С точки зрения пользователя, операционные системы PC-DOS и MS-DOS идентичны, с равными возможностями и набором системных команд.
3. OS/2 является DOS – совместимой операционной системой, позволяющей запускать программы при помощи графического интерфейса пользователя. 4.Дополнительные программы для работы с устройствами системного оборудования были очень сложны и поглощали много времени.
5.Операционная система также позволяет запускать программы, такие как простейший текстовый редактор.
6. DOS – наиболее распространенная операционная система для персонального компьютера.
EXERCISE 7
Act the dialogue
A: Galaxy Computer Supplies.
B: Extension 143, please.
A: Hold on.
C: Overseas Sales. Who’s calling, please?
B: Hello. This is Christopher Terrien of RGF France. I’d like to place an order.
C: Certainly, Monsieur Terrien. Go ahead.
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B: We need 40 lap-top computers – NC-200. Do you have them in stock?
C: Yes, we do. Is that an urgent order?
B: Not really. You can deliver them in one month. Quote us your price CIF, please.
C: OK. Anything else?
B: Yes. I’d like to find out about a guarantee and terms of payment. Well, yes, one more thing: if we could consider a 30% discount?
C: We can give you a 20% discount, Monsieur. Anyway, you are given a two-year guarantee and you have 60 days to pay.
B: Deal! Thank you.
C: Tell me the delivery address, please. Would you confirm this order in writing, please, Monsieur Terrien?
B: Of course.
C: Thank you very much.
B: Good-bye.
EXERCISE 8
Read and translate the text with the dictionary. Write down 5 special questions to the content of the text
William H.Gates,
Chairman and Chief Software Architect in
Microsoft Corporation
William (Bill) gates is a chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft has revenues of US$ 36.84 billion, and employs more that 55.000 people in 85 countries and regions.
While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer – the MITS Altair.
In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Gates has donated the proceeds of the book to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.
Philanthropy is so important to Gates. He has endowed a foundation with more than $27 billion to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21 century advances in these critical areas will be available for all people, especially from low-income communities in the United States and Canada.
EXERCISE 9
Discuss the following questions in group
1. Computer society thinks that Intel company, the most powerful CPU producer, has an agreement with Microsoft corporation that the letter will develop more sophisticated, large and demanding software to force users to buy new processors and upgrade their computers. Do you think this might be true? How does this suggestion correlate with Windows 2000 and Microsoft Office 2000? Do you think that Bill Gates’ monopoly on Windows operating systems is very dangerous for the competition and price-making process?
2. Ask anyone in your group who has a computer if Windows 98 is better than Windows 2000? Why and why not?
UNIT III
Radio waves
Words and word combinations to be remembered:
Data transport – передача данных
spark – вспышка, разряд
coherer – радио, когерер
contentious – спорный
hindsight – ретроспектива, взгляд в прошлое
bandwidth – полоса пропускания
to publicize – объявлять, предавать гласности
lightning detector – обнаружитель молнии
amplitude-modulated - aмплитудно-модулированный
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to fluctuate – колебаться
full fluctuation – полное колебание
wire - провод
frequency- частота
time spread - период
non-ionizing radiation – неионизирующее излучение
EXERCISEEXERCISE 1 Read and translate the text
Radio waves
Radio waves are known to be general means of data transport in communication engineering. Radio waves were reported to be discovered by Henry Hertz in 1887. He was conducting experiments in his laboratory: two spheres were placed on the top of two rods and charged oppositely, the scientist observed a spark between them. Close to those spheres there was placed another piece of wire with neutrally charged spheres on its ends. Hertz could see a spark between them too. This strange phenomenon proved that radio waves really existed.
In Russia there were conducted experiments in order to discover radio waves. Alexander Popov succeeded in developing a device which proved the existence of radio waves. It was a lightning detector which determined the stroke of lightning. All these experiments justified ability of radio waves to be transmitted in the open field without special conducting means (wires).
When alternating current passes through a piece of wire, electromagnetic field is produced around it. This electromagnetic field fluctuates according to changes in electric current. The fluctuations can spread to great distance very quickly, their speed being close to light speed (about 300000 km/s). If there is a piece of wire or an aerial in the distance, it can receive these fluctuations. Data transportation takes place.Hence, radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, created whenever a charged object (in normal radio transmission, an electron) accelerates with a frequency that lies in the radio frequency (RF) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. In radio, this acceleration is caused by an alternating current in an antenna. Radio is the wireless transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light.
Radio waves have specific features: frequency and period. Fluctuation frequency of a radio wave f Hz is a number of fluctuations per a unit of time. Fluctuation period T sec is a time of one full fluctuation. Radio waves are divided according to the frequency range:
Low-frequency with fluctuation rate is about 30 kHz – 300 kHz;
Mid range – about 300 kHz – 3 MHz
High frequency – over 3 MHz
Radio frequencies occupy the range from a few tens of hertz to three hundred gigahertz, although commercially important uses of radio use only a small part of this spectrum.
To transmit data there are used special wave bands because wave transmission of certain frequency depends greatly from surrounding environment and noises. That is why radio waves are usually classified according to the following wave bands: long (kilometric) waves, medium (hectometric) waves, short waves, ultrashort waves (UHF), metric waves, microwaves, centimetric (infrared) waves, millimetric (visible light) waves, and submillimetric(X-rays and gamma rays) waves. Since the energy of an individual photon of radio frequency is too low to remove an electron from an atom, radio waves are classified as non-ionizing radiation.
One can often hear of radio waves in our everyday life. The most common example of receiving and transmitting radio waves is cellular phones. Radio waves help to transmit data from satellites to TV system and broadcast system. Even micro ovens (or SHF – Super High Frequency ovens) in our kitchens use radio waves to warm food.
EXERCISE 2
Answer questions about the text.
1.Who discovered the existence of radio waves?
2.What is a nature of a radio wave?
3.How does data transportation take place?
4.What definition of a radio wave can you give?
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5.What specific features do radio waves have?
6. How are the wave bands usually classified?
7.What is a wave band?
8.Where are radio waves used?
EXERCISE 3
In the picture you can see the way that original sound passes before it becomes reproduced sound. Describe this way in your own words.
Fig.1 Electromagnetic spectrum and diagram of radio transmission of an audio signal.
EXERCISE 4
Work in pairs. Ask and answer questions about the inventions of the scientists.
A: What happened in 1894?
B: Alexander Popov invented the first radio.
A: What happened in…?
The identity of the original inventor of radio, at the time called wireless telegraphy, is contentious. The controversy over who invented the radio, with the benefit of hindsight, can be broken down as follows:
1894 - Alexander Popov built his first radio receiver, which contained a coherer (detecting device consisting of tubes filled with iron filings).
1895, May 7 - Further refined as a lightning detector, it was presented on the Russian Physical and Chemical Society.
1893 - Nikola Tesla developed means to reliably produce radio frequencies, publicly demonstrated the principles of radio, and transmitted long-distance signals. He holds the US patent for the invention of the radio defined as "wireless transmission of data."
18967 - Guglielmo Marconi was an early radio experimenter. He founded the first commercial organization devoted to the development and use of radio. In 1909 – awarded the Noble prize.
1906 - Reginald Fessenden and Lee de Forest invented amplitude-modulated (AM) radio, so that more than one station can send signals (as opposed to spark-gap radio, where one transmitter covers the entire bandwidth of the spectrum).
1913 - Edwin H. Armstrong invented frequency-modulated (FM) radio, so that an audio signal can avoid "static," that is, interference from electrical equipment and atmospherics.
1893 – 1894 - Roberto Landell de Moura, a Brazilian priest and scientist, conducted experiments. He did not publicize his achievement until 1900 but later obtained Brazilian and American patents.
EXERCISE 5
Ask and answer more questions about inventions.
A: When did Alexander Popov invent the first radio?
B: In 1894.
A: When did …?
EXERCISE 6
Choose the correct verbs from the brackets to complete the passage. Use the Past Simple Tense.
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