COMPUTER ELEMENTARY final 1

Exercise 2. Give Russian equivalents for the words and word combinations from the text.

Exercise 3. Complete the sentences using the information from the text.

1.Displays, often called monitors or screens, provide … .

2.A video card processes … .

3.A VGA cable stands for … and converts … .

4.CRT stands … .

5.CRTs are … .

6.A Liquid Crystal Display is made … .

7.Resolution is … .

8.Colour depth refers to … .

9.Refresh rate is … .

Exercise 4. Read the text. Answer the questions

Text 2

Types of printers

Another important output device is the printer, which allows the user to produce paper copies of data held in the computer, known as hard copy.

Types of printers

A dot-matrix printer uses a group, or matrix, of pins to create precise dots required to shape a character. A print head containing tiny pins strikes an inked ribbon to make letters and graphics. This impact printing technology allows shops, for example, to print multi-part forms such as receipts and invoices, so it's useful

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when self-copying paper is needed. It has two important disadvantages: noise and a relatively low resolution (from 72 to 180 dpi).

An ink-jet (also called bubble-jet) printer generates an image by spraying tiny, precise drops of ink onto the paper. Colour and hues are created by the precise mixing of cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks. Inkjets are fairly fast, quiet, and not as expensive as laser printers. The resolution ranges from 300 to 1,200 dpi, suitable for small quantities or home use. Nevertheless, you can still expect high quality results because there are some inkjet printers on the market with a resolution of 2,400 dpi.

A standard ink-jet has a three-colour cartridge, plus a black cartridge. Professional ink-jets have five-colour cartridges, plus black; some can print in wide format, ranging from 60 cm up to 5 metres (e.g. for printing advertising graphics).

Some ink-jet based printers can perform more than one task. They are called multi-function printers because they can work as a scanner, a fax and a photocopier as well as a printer. Some units accept memory cards and print photos directly from a camera.

A laser printer uses a laser beam to fix the ink to the paper. A laser works like a photocopier; a powder called toner is attracted to paper by an electrostatic charge and then fused on by a hot roller. They are constantly being improved.

In terms of speed and image quality, laser printers are preferred by experts for various reasons; for instance, they have a wider range of scalable fonts than inkjets, can produce a high resolution of 1,200 to 2,400 dpi; can emulate different language systems, and can produce high-quality graphics; however, they are still expensive for home users.

Lasers use a page description language or PDL which describes how to print the text and draw the images on the page. The best-known languages are Adobe PostScript and HP Printer Control Language.

Thermal transfer printers are used to produce colour images by transferring a wax-based ink onto the paper. They are popular for printing bar codes, labels and medium-resolution graphics.

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Imagesetters produce very high-resolution output (up to 3,540 dpi) on paper or on the actual film for making the printing plates. In addition, they are extremely fast. Imagesetters are most often used in desktop publishing (DTP). Although they produce the highest quality output, they have one important disadvantage: they are too expensive for homes or small offices.

In modern lithographic printing, images are created on a DTP computer and then output directly to the printing plates, without requiring film as an intermediate step. This technology is called computer to plate, or CTP, and the machine used is called a platesetter.

A plotter is a special type of printers which uses ink and fine pens held in a carriage to draw very detailed designs on paper. They are used for construction plans, engineering drawings or can be used in computer-aided design, maps, 3-D technical illustrations, etc. Nowadays, traditional plotters are being replaced with wide-format inkjets.

S.R. Esteras and E.M.Fabre “Professional English in Use”

S.R.Esteras “Infotech English for computer users”)

1.What types of printers are mentioned in the text? What are the most popular?

2.Characterize each type speaking about advantages and disadvantages.

3.Are dot matrix printers out-of-dated? Are they replaced or are they still used somewhere?

4.What printer is the most suitable for home usage? How does it work?

5.What does PDL stand for? What is it necessary for?

6.What printers that are more common for professional printing, do you know?

Exercise 5. Give Russian equivalents for the words and word combinationsfrom the text.

Exercise 6: Read the description of different types of printers. Define what types of printers are described. Some types are mentioned more than once.

_______________________ is a printer which uses ink and fine pens held in a carriage to draw detailed designs on paper

______________________ use pins to print the dots. They can print text and graphics; however, they produce relatively low resolution output - 72 to 180 dots per inch (dpi).

______________________operate by projecting small ink droplets onto paper to form the required image.

A professional ___________________________ is a typesetting printer that generates very high-resolution output (over 3,540 dpi) on paper or microfilm. It's used for high-quality publications.

_______________________ are used to print multi-part forms, self-copying paper and continuous-form labels. They are slower than laser printers (see below) but much cheaper.

_______________________ produces output at great speed and with a very high resolution of 1,200-2,400 dpi. They scan the image with a laser beam and transfer it to paper with a special ink powder called toner.

VOCABULARY

11.to take up

Exercise 9. Solve the puzzle. Make up a word from the letters in bold.

1

2

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1.to change into a different form

2.to produce or create something (i.e. a signal)

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3.a container holding a quantity of ink, etc., designed for insertion into a mechanism

4.a component in a printer that assembles and holds the characters and from which the images of the characters are transferred to the printing medium

5.fluctuations in the brightness of a film or television image such as occur when the number of frames per second is too small for persistence of vision

6.to produce a paper copy of information stored on a computer

7.a small round mark or spot

8.the degree of detail visible in a photographic or television image

9.to use a particular amount of space, for example

10.an electronic device for the visual presentation of data or images

Exercise 10. Find in the box synonyms to the words below. Explain the

difference. Provide examples to illustrate the meanings of the words.

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Exercise 11. Choose the right word:

1.What has happened? - It seems that I pressed the _________________

button (incorrect/ wrong/ improper)

2.I can’t use my laptop. The battery is ______________________ . (over/ flat/ exhausted)

3.Keeping files on paper is a _______________________ solution. (low tech/ old-tech/ past-tech)

4.Keeping files on a computer is a ______________________ solution. (newtech/ now tech/ high tech)

5.When you connect the joystick to your computer it will work immediately. It’s _______________________ . (plug and go/ plug and play/ plug and use)

6.I cannot _______________________ at home. My printer has run out of ink. (print/ publish/ impress)

7.The computer _______________________ a digital signal and transfers it to another computer. (evolve/ produce/ generate)

8.When the ink runs out, you have to _______________________ the cartridge (convert/ change/ adapt)

9.__________________________ that “balck and white” is also known as mono. (take into account/ allow/ reckon)

10.Can your printer do double-___________________ printing? (sided/partied/paper)

11.The text is printed in _________________________ orientation. (direct/ portrait/ book)

12.The picture is in ________________________ orientation. (horizontal/ album/ landscape).

Exercise 12. Complete the gaps. Make sure that you use the correct grammatical

form.

Most desktop displays use ________________ ________________

Display (LCD) or Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) _____________________, while nearly all ___________________ computing devices, such as laptops, incorporate

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LCDs. Because of their slimmer design and lower energy consumption, LCD monitors (also called flat panel or flat screen displays) are replacing CRTs.

An LCD is made of two glass plates with a _________________ crystal material between them. The crystals block the light in different quantities to

___________________ the image. Active-matrix LCDs use TFT (thin film transistor) ___________________, in which each pixel has its own switch. The amount of light the LCD monitor ___________________ is called brightness or luminance, measured in cd/m2 (candela per square metre).

A CRT monitor is similar to a traditional TV set. It ___________________

millions of tiny red, green and blue phosphor dots that glow when struck by an electron beam that travels across the screen and ___________________ a visible image.

Other basic features of a monitor are:

1.___________________ refers to the number of dots of colour, known as

___________________ (picture elements), contained in a display. It is expressed by identifying the number of ___________________ on the horizontal and vertical axes. A typical ___________________ is 1024x768. The quality of images on a screen is ___________________ in terms of resolution, with

___________________ resolution monitors generally being capable of displaying text and images with greater clarity.

2.Two measurements describe the size of your display: the aspect ratio and the

___________________ size. Historically, computer displays, like most televisions, have had an aspect ratio of 4:3 - the width of the screen to the height is four to three. For widescreen ___________________ displays, the aspect ratio is 16:9, very useful for viewing DVD movies, playing games and ___________________

multiple windows side by side. High-definition TV also uses this format. The viewable screen size is ___________________ diagonally, so a 19"screen measures 19" from the top left to the bottom right.

Exercise 13. Complete the sentences with words from the exercise above.

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