IV. Find the sentence expressing the main idea in each paragraph.

V. Match the headings to the correct paragraph:

1. The possibility to refocus eyephones to a new viewpoint.

2. A new form of freedom for the disabled.

3. Eyephones as individual computer screens for eyes.

4. The first virtual reality computer game.

5. A new style of computer interface.

VI. Put the following sentences logically in the right order according to the text:

1. Virtual reality is a good possibility for invalids to take part in different games.

2. The first virtual reality computer game was created in 1991.

3. Virtual reality is sometimes called cyberspace.

4. The illusion of being in a fantasy world is created by computers.

5. Virtual reality lets you travel to places you have never been.

 

VII. True or false?

1. Virtual reality is a computer-built fantasy world.

2. Virtual reality is also called cyberspace.

3. There are no limits to virtual reality.

4. Virtual reality is created by being in a special room.

5. Virtual reality is available only on expensive computer systems.

6. Virtual reality is the leading edge of the computer technology.

7. Eyephones are the 3DFX fiber-optic glasses.

8. Eyephones are not the only virtual reality gear.

9. Virtual reality might be misused.

10. Virtual reality can return the disabled to the full-fledged life.

11. Virtual reality was designed by the military to guide robots.

12. One can not only see or hear virtual reality, but also feel and smell it.

13. Virtual reality is only a type of computer interface.

VIII. Read the words as they are used in the following sentences and try to come up with your own definition:

1. Using computers to create graphics and sounds, virtual reality makes the viewer believe he or she is in another world.

2. Three-dimensional images are created using technology that fools the viewers’ mind into perceptive depth.

3. Plug a terminal directly into the brain via a prepared skull and you can enter cyberspace.

4. I’ve got a set of eye phones, 3D goggles, a fiber optic glove and the rest of the gear.

5. There are many word substitutes for invalids, e.g. the handicapped, challenged by birth or by accidents, disabled people.

6. The bowman took a deep breath, aimed at the target and shot, but the arrow went astray.

a. Virtual reality —__________ ____________

b. Three-dimensional (3D) — ________________

c. Cyberspace — __________________________

d. Gear — ________________________________

e. Disabled — _____________________________

f. To go astray — __________________________

 

IX. Put the proper words into sentences:

a) fiber-optic, swoop, go astray, clutching, gear, to one’s mind content, enhance, cyberspace, eye phones.

 

1. Virtual reality is sometimes called...

2. 3-D... are really individual computer screens for the eyes.

3. Virtual reality can... possibilities of the disabled.

4. The manual... box allows you to slow down without braking, while the automatic one doesn’t.

5. Cyberspace allows everybody to change it...

6. The letters wrongly addressed...

7.... unknown things may cause an accident.

8. By the end of the 20th century metal wires had been replaced by... ones.

9. In one of the s the... the NATO has lost their most expensive fighter.

 

b) be, have, see, do, leave, write, tell.

 

1. It was more than a hundred years ago that Lewis Carroll... about Alice’s trip through the looking glass.

2. Now that fiction... became a reality... or you might say, a virtual reality... because that’s the name of a new computer technology that many believe will revolutionize the way we live.

3. Trainees fighting in virtual battles often cannot... a man from a machine.

4. Virtual reality lets you travel to places you’ve never do things you’ve never — without... the room.

5. Someday, you will... that virtual reality makes other forms of entertainment, such as TV and movies, obsolete.

X. Guess the meaning of the italicized words:

1. Virtual reality straddles the foggy boundary between fantasy and fact.

2. Imagine a place and you’ll be able to step into it. Conjure up a dream and you’ll be able to fly through it.

3. He’s launched one of the first computers to mass-produce virtual reality systems.

4. Virtual reality techniques have been used to make a 3D model of the planet Mars. There are, of course, more down-to-earth applications. Virtual reality models of urban landscapes are allowing urban planners to redesign Main Street without leaving the room.

5. We’re now reaching a point where the simulations are so realistic that the line between playing a game or a simulation and actually blowing people up is becoming blurred.

XI.Answer the questions:

1. What is virtual reality?

2. How have some home entertainments (television, video records, video games) affected people’s life?

3. How can virtual reality benefit society?

4. How can virtual reality harm society?

5. Which uses of virtual reality appeal to you most?

6. It has been said that technology is a double-edged sword. What does that statement mean?

7. Who can use virtual reality?

 

XII. Give the synonyms of the following words:

Goggles; gear; combat; sitcom; voyage; to strap; to feature; to blast; to bind; to clutch; to swoop; to slip on (off).

 

XIII. Give the opposites of the following words:

to refocus; to allow; incredible; ambitious; virtual; disabled; to lift; to send; freedom; benefit; advances; to create.