II. Прочитайте и переведите текст. Найдите в тексте абзацы, где идет речь о преимуществах использования компьютера в маркетинге. Составьте краткое резюме.

Computer in Marketing Research

 

. A computer makes possible more refinement of marketing research and predictions of future markets. For example, cosmetics manufacturers used only two variables in gauging future markets: the number of females over fourteen years of age, and disposable income. With a computer it's possible to consider more variables and make forecasts of possible sales more accurate. Instead of taking merely "females over fourteen" as one of the variables, the researches can take into account different, age groups within the over-fourteen category, and the change in disposable income from the previous year, as well as, the absolute amount of disposable income. When the calculations had to be performed with paper and pencil and an ordinary desk calculator, the mathematical models employed had to be very simple. With a computer it became fairly easy to solve much more complicated equations.

The advantages of using more variables in forecasting are obvious. For example, it's valuable for automobile companies to know what the total demand for automobiles is but it's more valuable for them to know what the demand will be for various types of cars and in various sections of the country.

Another very useful technique possible with computers is simulation. The value of the simulation process is that it makes possible penalty-free trial and error. One can simulate various possible courses of action, and see what the results will be merely by changing the terms in a mathematical model.

 

III.Прочитайте и переведите текст. Составьте реферат по тексту

History of Robotics

The concept of robots dates back to ancient times, when some myths told of mechanical beings brought to life. Such automata also appeared in the clockwork figures of medieval churches, and in the 18th century some clockmakers gained fame for the clever mechanical figures that they constructed. Today the term automaton is usually applied to these handcrafted, mechanical (rather than electromechanical) devices that imitate the motions of living creatures. Some of the «robots» used in advertising and entertainment are actually automata, even with the addition of remote radio control.

The term robot itself is derived from the Czech word robota, meaning «compulsory labour». It was first used by the Czech novelist and playwright Karel Chapek, to describe a mechanical device that looks like a human but, lacking human sensibility, can perform only automatic, mechanical operations. Robots as they are known today do not only imitate human or other living forms. True robots did not become possible, however, until the invention of the computer in the 1940s and the miniaturization of computer parts. One of the first true robots was an experimental model designed by researchers at the Stanford Research Institute in the late 1960s. It was capable of arranging blocks into stacks through the use of a television camera as a visual sensor, processing this information in a small computer.

Computers today are equipped with microprocessors that can handle the data being fed to them by various sensors of the surrounding environment. Making use of the principle of feedback, robots can change their operations to some degree in response to changes in that environment. The commercial use of robots is spreading, with the increasing automation of factories, and they have become essential to many laboratory procedures. Japan is the most advanced nation exploring robot technology. Nowadays robots continue to expand their applications. The home-made; robots (горничная) available today may be one sign of the future.

The ability to reach wise conclusions, as we expect of a doctor or lawyer, from much or scant data will long remain man's monopoly - but not always.

Fifth-generation computers will share this prerogative. Tomorrow we may take our ailments to a machine as readily as to a man. In time that machine will be in the house, removing the need to journey to the doctor and providing a far more regular monitoring of the state of health than it is now economic to provide.

The computer as surrogate teacher may bring even more benefits. Today, and as long as we depend on humans, we must have one teacher to many pupils. The advantage of a tutor for each child is clear and if that tutor is also if endlessly patient and superhumanly well-informed we may expect a wonderful improvement in the standard of education. What, though, is the purpose if, in this imagined future, there are no jobs?