VIII. Construct other sentences in this pattern (compound adjectives)

1. He is seeking a computer-related career.

2. Typewriter-sized computers became available in the 1970s to replace the room-sized computers of the 1960s.

3. Children tend to like sugar-based cereals.

4. Whereas an integrated circuit is thumbnail-sized, the vacuum tubes in earlier computers were cigar-sized.

5. We are shopping for a precision-built car.

6. They lived near a tree-edged lake.

7. Jobs and Wozniak were self-taught computer experts.

IX. In pairs or small groups, discuss each of the following questions:

1. Imagine that you just moved into an empty house. What can you use for a makeshift table? a makeshift pillow? a makeshift hammer?

2. Here are five gadgets found in many kitchens. Describe the functions of each: can opener, ice crusher, apple peeler, cheese grater. Name some other gadgets that are found in many kitchens.

3. If you were to design a state-of-the-art product, how would you improve the following products: toothbrush, bathtub, notebook, hairbrush?

4. Which of the following do you find intimidating? Why? (a teacher, a large truck on the road a policeman, an automatic bank teller, a school counselor, a telephone-answering machine)

5. What marketing techniques would you use if you wanted to sell a new soft drink product? What market would you focus on?

6. Which would be preferable for each of the following buildings, muted colors or bright? Why? (a restaurant, a post office, a hospital a high school, a music store, a day-care center)

7. What are the components of each of the following: a good marriage? a modern kitchen? a good stereo system?

8. Describe another entrepreneur whose investments led to fame and fortune.

9. Under what circumstances does a business thrive? a tree? a young child? a marriage?

10. Name a notable pioneer in each of the following fields, (manufacturing, science, art, architecture, medicine, social services)

11. What is a practical application of the personal computer in business? In the home?

X. Complete the paragraph below:

Although Jobs and Wozniak have become known as two of the most brilliant innovators in the technological revolution, not all of their (1) ... were as successful as the Apple I and the Apple II. They (2)... the Apple II Plus in 1980 when they (3)... that small businesses would have a need for a more professional and integrated system than the Apple I or II. The Apple II Plus was an advanced version of the Apple II that they aimed at the small business (4) ... Unfortunately, they did not (5) ... the competition of the IBM Personal Computer. Although IBM was not the original (6) ... of the personal computer, they had been the leader in the business machine industry for several decades, and theysoon (7) ... as the primary competition in the personal computer (8) ... IBM had many advantages over Apple: their engineering was done by a more experienced engineering staff, and their advertising was done by their more experienced (9) ... staff. Since Apple had been so successful with the Apple I and the Apple II, the failure of their (10) ... with the Apple II Plus was both (11) ... and disappointing.

TEXT II. DEEP BLUE

1. Special-purpose machines, DEEP BLUE and its predecessor DEEP THOUGHT, were originally created to explore how to use parallel processing to solve complex problems. DEEP THOUGHT was a first computer to defeat a chess grandmaster, thanks to its ability to analyze 750,000 positions per second. But in 1990, an experimental 6-processor version of DEEP THOUGHT, capable of searching 2 million positions per second, played against Kasparov and lost. Kasparov went on to defeat DEEP BLUE by winning 3 games and 2 draws. Six IBM employees used a hefty machine to win a chess game against the reigning world champion in the rematch in 1997. No other tool of human invention could leverage their talents so magnificently. DEEP BLUE now has the ability to calculate 50 to 100 billion moves within 3 minutes. But DEEP BLUE is not mimicking human thought.lt does not anticipate, it only reacts.DEEP BLUE is a 32-node IBM power Parallel SP2 high performance computer. Each node of the SP2 employs a single microchannel card containing 8 dedicated VLSI chess processors for a total of 256 processors working in tandem. DEEP BLUE's programming code is developed in С and runs under the AIX operating system.

2. To the uninformed advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. We must continue to develop these machines and methods of harnessing them to human needs. Computers amplify our cogni­tive and reasoning abilities.

Exercises

I. True or false?

1. The Intelligent Computer is a myth.

2. It were actually Deep Blue's designers, programmers, and builders who had beaten Kasparov, not the machine itself.

3. The world will be overtaken by silicon-based life forms.

4. Chess playing is to logic and calculation what intelligence is to relationships and negotiations.

5. Chess is social; intelligence is abstract.

6. The Deep Blue has inhuman logico-mathematical capability.

7. There are 7 dimensions of intelligence: linguistic, logico-mathemati­cal, spatial, musical, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interperson­al.

8. The Deep Blue has all these dimensions.

9. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". (A.C. Clarke)

II. Find an article about a business venture. Prepare to describe that 'venture in class.

III. Read the following paragraph as many times as you can in 3 minutes. Then rewrite as much info as you can remember.

By 1987 the computer market on American college campuses was thriving. Sales people from all the personal computer companies were actively pursuing the business of college administrators, professors and officials. They were selling computers less than half price and were adding attractive bonuses such as free software and support services. They were willing to venture a great deal of time and money in this market because they foresaw that it would thrive for a long time. There are 14 million people who provide or receive education on campuses, including 12.5 million new freshmen every year. Students who also buy computers are likely to become lifetime customers who may enter business after graduation and influence corporate buying decisions.

Topics for Essays, Oral or Written reports

1. Describe a kitchen gadget that you think should be invented. What would it do? Who would buy it? How should it be marked?

2. How has the world benefited from the invention of the PC? What problems have accompanied the computer revolution?

3. Of all advantages that the computer has brought to the modern world, which is the most beneficial?

4. Describe the invention that has had the greatest effect on the 20th century.

LESSON THREE

Prereading Discussion

1. What do computers-biz futurists say?

2. You start with the computer and end with the media, don't you?

3. What is multimedia?

4. Are the humans manipulated by the media in the same way as by reading?

5. Will every cycle of processor power and every byte of memory be sucked by new, larger software programs (Gate's law)?

6. The amount of info is said to be doubling every six to seven years. Can we keep up?

7. How might other humans use computers to control you?

8. When and how do you spend your time on the Internet?

Reading analysis

VOCABULARY LIST

Nouns: census, anarchy, lingo, prerogative, humiliation, transgression, junk, moderation, cornerstone, vehicle, abdication, over-reliance.

Verbs: to mature, to approach, to roam, to browse, to surf, to reveal, to obscure, to hinder, to enhance.

Adjectives: crucial, instant, dismissive, entrepreneurial, voluminous, incredible.

Word combinations: back and forth, file transfer protocol (ftp), to filter out, to make sense, stress relievers, invasion of privacy.

TEXT I. SURFING THE NET

1. What is more impressive than the pyramids, more beautiful than Michelangelo's David and more important to mankind than the wondrous inventions of the Industrial Revolution? To the converted, there can be only one answer: the Internet that undisciplined radical electronic communications network that is shaping our universe. Multimedia, the electronic publishing revolution, is entering every area of our lives — college, work and home. This new digital technology combines texts, video, sound and graphics to produce interactive language learning, football, music, movies, cookery and anything else you might be interested in.

2. The industrial age has matured into the information age; wherein the means to access, manipulate, and use information has become crucial to success and power. The electronic superhighway provides an entry to libraries, research institutions, databases, art galleries, census bureaus, etc. For those of us interested in intercultural communications Cyberspace is a universal community, with instant access not only to information anywhere, but also to friends old and new around the globe.

3. The Internet is an amorphous global network of thousands of linked computers that pass information back and forth. While the Internet has no government, no owners, no time, no place, no country, it definitely has a culture, which frequently approaches anarchy; and it has a language, which is more or less English. People who interact in an Internet environment know how addresses are formed, how to use e-mail, ftp, Usenet News, Telnet, and other software tools.

4. Like all new worlds, Cyberspace has its own lingo, for example: e-bahn, i-way, online, freenet, web page, freeware, browser, gopher, archie, gateway. There are words to describe people who roam thenet: netters, e-surfers, internet surfers, netizens, spiders, geeks... The Internet has its own prerogatives: for example, the dismissive term lurker for the person who hangs around the net, reading what is there but not contributing anything. The term flaming refers to the public humiliation of another netter as punishment for a real or imagined transgression against net culture.

5. Large-scale use of computer-to-computer transfer of information was implemented by the US military in the late 60s and early 70s - part of the superpower competition of the cold war and the arms race. The US military created an electronic network (Arpanet) to use computers for handling the transfer of large amounts of sensitive data over long distances at incredible speed. Computer-to-computer virtual connections, using satellites and fiber optics, have distinct advantages over telephone or radio communications in the event of a nuclear attack. Mathematicians and scientists (and their universities) have been linked and electronically exchanging information over the Internet since the mid-70s.

6. Now the Internet has become commercialized with private and public companies offering access to it. (CompuServe — is the best-known international commercial electronic access provider). The Internet is being expanded and improved so that every home, every school, every institution can be linked to share data, information, music, video and other resources. If you have a computer or a computer terminal, some kind of connection (probably, modem and telephone line) to the Internet, and some kind of Internet service provider, you can participate in electronic communication and become a citizen of the global village.

7. Information technology is a good vehicle for the argument. Some scientists remind us that voluminous information does not necessarily lead to sound thinking. There are many genuine dangers that computers bring to modern society: efficient invasion of privacy, overreliance on polling in politics, even abdication of control over military decision-making. Data glut obscures basic questions of justice and purpose and may even hinder rather than enhance our productivity; Edutainment software and computer games degrade the literacy of children. On the other hand, only a few use PCs on network to share information and ideas. In most cases IT is used to speed routine tasks, to automate manual processes rather than to change work patterns and business practices. Most managers use their PCs to edit documents — not a good use of their time when they could be dreaming up creative applications. It is time to evaluate anew the role of science and technology in the affairs of the human species.

8. So, if you are riding on the information highway, you should take steps to cope with information overload. The gift of boundless information is causing a new kind of stress known alternately as technostress, information overload or Information Fatigue Syndrome. Some experts say that we don't get anywhere near the data it takes to overload our neurons. According to some estimates, our mind is capable of processing and analyzing many gigabytes of data per second — a lot more data than any of today's supercomputers can process and act on in real time. We feel overloaded by the quantity of information because we are getting it unfiltered. We should filter out the junk and turn data into shapes that make sense to us. Stress in moderation is good: it drives us to achieve, stimulates our creativity and is the force behind social and technological breakthroughs. Stress is revealing how humans are in some ways more primitive than the technology they have created. Meditation, muscular relaxation, aerobics, jogging, yoga can be effective stress relievers, but no technique is universal: experiment and find the one that best works for you.

9. The cornerstone of an economy are land, labor, capital and entrepreneurial spirit. That traditional definition is now being challenged. Today you find a fifth key economic element: information dominant. As we evolve from an industrial to an information society, our jobs are changing from physical to mental labor. Just as people moved physically from farms to factories in the Industrial age, so today people are shifting muscle power to brain power in a new, computer-based, globally linked by the Internet society.

Exercises

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