Федеральное агентство по образованию

Государственное образовательное учреждение

высшего профессионального образования

«МОСКОВСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ

УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»

СМОЛЬЯННИКОВА И.А. СИМОНЯН К.В.

Учебное пособие

для студентов 2 курса

специальность: «Организация и Технология Защиты информации».

Компьютер, его потенциал и возможности (Computers in Society)

Москва 2008

Учебное пособие предназначено для развития элементов профессиональной иноязычной коммуникативной компетенции студентов, обучающихся по специальности Организация и технология защиты информации. Материал предназначен для изучения на втором курсе в рамках курса Практикум по профессиональной коммуникации. В пособии представлены 4 темы – Operating a computer, Computer viruses and malware, Internet culture and privacy issue, Social impact of technology

Задачей пособия является развитие следующих умений:

• изложить содержание статьи и дать ей оценку;

• делать подготовленные сообщения в рамках изученной тематики;

• участвовать в диалогах на знакомую тему (обмен впечатлениями об изученном);

• уточнять отдельные положения прослушанного, позицию докладчика, выражать свою точку зрения;

• создавать повествовательные , описательные, объяснительные тексты и тексты с элементами рассуждения в рамках изученной тематики;

• подготовить тезисы устного сообщения в рамках изученной тематики;

• читать оригинальные тексты по современной проблематике, авторы которых занимают особую позицию или высказывают особую точку зрения, с целью понимания основного содержания речевого произведения, полного и адекватного понимания речевого произведения, быстрого нахождения определенной информации в тексте;

Значительное количество заданий нацелено на развитие умений автономной работы, умений аргументирования своей позиции, умений выразить интеллектуальное и эмоциональное отношение, структурировать речь, адекватно оформлять речевые действия.

UNIT 1

OPERATING A COMPUTER

Exercise 1. Read the text and be ready to discuss it according to the questions that follow.

Let Computers Wake Up at Human Speed

By Michael Grant (October 26th, 2008)

http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/23789/let-computers-wake-up-at-human-speed/

News arrives in today’s Times that the computer industry is working to introduce computers that boot up faster. This work is in response to human impatience with the time it takes a computer to boot up. Those three minutes, the impatient humans say, feel like “an eternity.”

Let me go on record as believing this is not a good idea. For more than 65 years I have been operating a computer that makes the PCs and Macs look like a box of cotton wads. Operating at what researchers say is only 10 percent of its capacity, this computer provides me five, and sometimes six, senses, a huge memory cache, and an ability to turn blankness into thought into action at astounding speeds.

Yet there is one thing my computer is not very good at, and that is starting up. When I wake up in the morning, it may be not three minutes, but four or five, before I am alert enough to swing my feet over the edge of the bed and search for the floor. Then I hear my computer issuing sort of DOS commands: “Stand.” “Walk.” “Bathroom.” “Kitchen.” “Coffee.” “Sit.” It may be a full 10 or 15 minutes before the computer is ready to check email. 

I know my computer can boot up a lot faster, but it doesn’t like it. When I was in Army officer training, at 5 a.m. lights went on and voices boomed commands and threats of what would happen if we weren’t outside and in ranks in 60 seconds. I think the point was to teach us that we could boot up that fast if we had to. I also knew, standing in ranks, that it would be another couple of minutes before I could point a rifle and hit anything.

Living in Southern California, I have been awakened by earthquakes, and the process was the same. Quick response, slow reaction. Computers have no choice but to jump at the first surge of electricity, but they stay groggy while circuits hook up. Functions in those moments are prioritized. So it was in the first moments after the 1994 Northridge quake: “Stand!” “Run!” “Warn children!” Not until I banged on the door of my teenaged daughter and step-daughter and, when they opened the door, followed their eyes, did I become aware that I was totally naked. I take solace, knowing they were also booting up, that they probably didn’t register me very well.

I have never known, certainly never lived with, a human who could boot up in seconds, and I expect the first one I see will be in either a science fiction or an aggravation movie. It seems unreasonable to me to expect it of PCs and Macs, which, compared to our onboard models, are third-rate systems second to none.I do feel the annoyance of being personally up to speed, then starting up my PC and twiddling my thumbs while it wakes up. It’s the same annoyance we feel trying to get children out of bed.

But we have to watch what we wish for. Given the choice, considering the past decade and peering into the next, I think we’re better off if we engineer computers to wake up like sleepy people, instead of engineering them to be instantly up and dressed and ready to work, thus allowing the digital age to whittle our patience even closer to the bone. We still will live in the analog world, and patience is the analog world’s cartilage.

Questions

• Do you feel impatient when the computer boots up?

• What makes the PCs and Macs look like a box of cotton wads to the author?

• How long does it take you to get alert in the morning when you wake up? What do the DOS commands have to do with this?

• What does the author mean by the phrase “Quick response, slow reaction”? How does the earthquake episode illustrate the idea?

• What is the author’s central idea? What is the message of the text? Find the key phrase of the text?

• Do you agree with the author? Give your arguments for or against his position.

Exercise 2. Find Russian equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

• boot up

• in response to

• go on record

• operating a computer

• capacity

• a huge memory cache

• is not very good at

• issuing commands

• to check email

• to jump at the first surge of electricity

• stay groggy

• hook up

• register me

• third-rate system

Exercise 3. Find Russian equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

1. a component, system settings, the jargon of computing, health and safety issues, a desktop (portable, powerful) computer, PDA, word processing, spreadsheet, to download;

2. a floppy disc, a drive, obsolete, to hold up to 1.44 mb of information, a standalone computer, a computer on a network, Hard Disk Drive (HDD), data, CD ROM, to install, software, to ship with a CD­R player (a ‘burner’), digital versatile disc/digital video disc­Recordable;

3. a character, a bit, a byte (Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte);

4. a printer, a LaserJet, an Inkjet, a photocopier, high quality graphics and text, a mouse, an integral part, to point and click, a keyboard, to input data, keyboard layout standards, keys, function keys, a scanner, imaging software;

5. a cable, a port, parallel ports, Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, to transfer data, to transmit data, to plug in to a USB port, Plug and Play [PnP] technology, to restart, a monitor, a Video Graphics Array (VGA) cable;

6. CD Speeds 2X Mbps RPM (Revolutions per minute)

7. to press, the ON button, to login, a login name, a password, to load up, the Desktop, to close down, to click, a Start button, to select, to turn off;

8. a standalone PC, network permissions, to grant the rights to, a network administrator, to right click, to adjust, a drop down box, to type in, to apply, the Control Panel, a slider, to turn the sound up and down, to adjust the settings to less or more;

9. to compress, a file, to store, archive files, email, a trial version, a setup icon, to double click, to accept, the default directory, to activate the program, to navigate to the file;

Exercise 4. Answer the questions using the words and word combinations from Exercise 3.

1. What types of computers do you know? In which way do they differ?

2. There are not so many types of storage media that you can get to save your files to, are there?

3. How do the data storage sizes differ?

4. List the peripherals that can be connected to the computer.

5. How do you connect peripherals to your computer? Which port provides for a very fast transmission of data?

6. How is the data transfer speeds measured?

7. How do you start up the computer?

8. What one needs to change the settings on the computer?

9. What is done to a file when you use WinZip?

Exercise 5.Translate the following using vocabulary (from Exercise 3):