15.You can rely on him …… a challenge.
16.The instructions …… (not) because of a syntax error.
Speaking
Task 9. Work in pairs using the information in the text above.
Student A: You are interested in installing software for your PC. Describe your machine to the salesperson and ask about the various options available, prices, etc.
Student B: You work for a company that sells hardware and software. Find out what your customer wants. Give him information about advantages of your operating system (more particularly about user interface) and try to persuade the customer to buy one of your products.
Writing
Task 10. Work in pairs. You manage a company specializing in software. Prepare a leaflet to inform companies of the potential benefits of using your operating system (especially about user interface). Invite them to contact you for a free consultation.
Task 11. Write a summary of the text. You should aim to limit your summary to about 200 words. Start by underlining the important ideas in the text. Try, where possible, to combine more than one idea in each sentence.
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Unit 11. Web Page Design
Warm-up
Task 1. Work in pairs and discuss the following questions:
1.Why do people have personal websites?
2.Have you visited anyone’s personal home page? What was it like?
3.What sites do you usually surve?
4.What things don’t you like or annoy you about websites. Make a list.
Speaking
Task 2. Look at the Top 10 List of Web page annoyances. Which ones are similar to the annoyances you talked about in Task 1? Why are they annoying?
Top 10 List of Web Page Annoyances
Easy navigation and usability are one of the most important aspects of creating a "user friendly" website. However, there are still a "plethora" of web-sites out there that are, to be politically correct, "functionally challenged." Does your website keep people captivated, or does it send them fleeing as soon as they get to the first page? Do you offend your visitors with the following annoyances?
1.Music or any voice recording that automatically plays when you enter a site, without giving the option of turning it off.
2.A page full of dead links and constant "Page Not Found" error messages.
3.Solid blocks of text with no breaks between paragraphs. People not only want their information quick, but they also want to read it in smaller, ‘bit size’ portion of content.
4.Pop-up ads – the horrible advertisement that suddenly appear.
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5.Bad design – too many buttons and links on different parts of the page are confusing and make it too hard to navigate the site.
6.Blinking fonts – brightly-coloured texts are difficult to read, but fonts that blink on and off?
7.Flash – these animations are good if they download quickly, but make them relevant to the website, and not just there to make the site look pretty.
8.Cursing or using worn out phrases – it maybe an excellent marketing headline, but it’s a total turn-off.
9.Counters – it’s not interesting to know that you’re visitor number 365,765,014.
10.Downloading plug-ins – the little program that you have to download to get an audio or video message before you can enter the site.
Listening
Task 3. You are going to hear an interview with Nathan Ward, a web designer, describing what makes a good website. Listen to the first part of the interview and answer the following questions.
1.Why do people want websites?
2.What kind of information is distributed free?
3.What sort of clients is a website particularly useful for?
4.What is the first thing Nathan Ward asks from a client?
5.What danger might a web designer face?
6.What are the essential points to be discussed?
Task 4. Listen to the second part of the interview and complete the sentences below.
1.The first basic principle is that there should never be __________
____________________.
2.The second principle is to ______________________________
that have to be taken from the home page to any other page.
3.The third principle is not ____________________ to scroll through on one page.
4.The more multimedia features you have, the more time
______________________________.
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5.Another aspect of designing pages is to ____________________
__________.
6.It’s a big strength to _____________________________.
7.Your website should have on the front page __________
_____________________ to attract the reader.
Reading
Task 5. Before reading the text, try to match the following terms with their definitions:
1.Metalanguage
2.Entity
3.Character
4.Markup
5.XML processor
6.Parse
a)an item that has data stored with it
b)a language that is used for describing the structure of other languages
c)a software module that is used to read XML documents and provide access to their content and structure
d)to separate a high-level programming language statement into parts that will be processed as individual units when it is converted into machine code
e)a method of adding information to the text indicating the logical components of a document, or instructions for layout of the text on the page
f)a distinctive significant mark or feature
Task 6. Read the text about XML and find answers to the following questions.
1.What is SGML? What languages were derived from SGML?
2.What does XML stand for? What is meant by the term ‘extensible’?
3.What is a metalanguage? Name two metalanguages.
4.What is XML intended for?
5.Is it possible to use XML in metadata applications?
6.What is the initial purpose of the language?
7.What do entities contain?
8.What is used to provide access to XML documents?
9.What is the connection between the two modules mentioned in the text?
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