Ex. 1 Decide whether the statements are true or false.

1. Most people divide personal computers into desktop and laptop computers.

2. Laptop is not portable.

3. The most suitable computers for home use are desktop PC’s.

4. A mainframe computer is less powerful than PC.

5. The iPad is an example of wearable.

6. A smartphone doesn’t allow you to surf the Web.

 

Ex. 2 Use suitable suffixes to make adjectives or nouns from these words

(adjective suffixes are: -y, -able, -ible, -ive, -al, -ful, -ic, -less, -ing;noun suffixes are: -er, -or, -ion, -tion, -ation, -ment, -ness, -ity, -ant, - logy, -y, -ure, -sion).

 

person

wear

organize

fit

power

mean

operate

 

Ex. 3 Group the words into pairs of synonyms.

to perform, to keep, common, shape, to design, enormous, form, to store, size, to develop, to execute, dimension, large, usual

Ex. 4 Complete these sentences using the comparative or superlative form of the adjectives in brackets.

1. Minicomputers were much (small) and (cheap) than first and second generations of computers.

2. The (much) significant event was the invention of the graphical user interface and the mouse as a way of controlling it.

3. This scanner gives you the (good) scans with the (little) effort.

4. Laptops are (light) and (handy) than desktop computers, but they also tend to be (much) expensive.

5. Mainframes are (much) powerful and expensive computers.

6. The (little) you think, the (much) you talk.

Ex. 5 Translate the following sentences into English.

1. Чем новее модель компьютера, тем быстрее он работает.

2. Старый метод не такой эффективный, как новый, но он дешевле.

3. Эта программа – самая интересная из тех, что я видел.

4. Даже самые далекие от информационных технологий люди признают огромное значение интернета.

5. Скорость новой программы в два раза больше, чем старой.

6. Этот программист опытнее, чем я.

Ex. 6 In pairs discuss who or what you think is:

1. The most difficult computer game you've ever played.

2. The most exciting film you've ever seen.

3. The funniest program on TV.

4. The most dangerous computer virus.

5. The best blogger or webmaster on the Web.

6. The most popular web browser.

 

 

Ex. 7 Translate the following sentences. Mind the meaning of “one”/ “ones”, “this”/ “these”, “that”/ “those”.

1. This method is simpler than that one.

2. No one can play a computer game without a video display.

3. It is important that the software that you can plan to use should support the drive.

4. EIDE (улучшенная интегрированная дисковая электроника) hard drives are twice as cheap as those of SCSI (интерфейс малых компьютерных систем).

5. These calculation methods are similar to those used before.

6. Although the current processor speed is about 2.4 GHz, there are still a lot of the older ones running at a slower rate.

Unit 3

Read and translate the text. a?

Inside a computer

Have you ever looked inside a computer case, or seen pictures of the inside of one? The small parts may look complicated, but the inside of a computer case isn't really all that mysterious.

The motherboard is the computer's main circuit board. It's a thin plate that holds the CPU, memory, connectors for the hard drive and optical drives, expansion cards to control the video and audio, and connections to your computer's ports (such as USB ports). The motherboard connects directly or indirectly to every part of the computer.

The central processing unit (CPU), also called a processor, is located inside the computer case on the motherboard. It is sometimes called the brain of the computer, and its job is to carry out commands. Whenever you press a key, click the mouse, or start an application, you're sending instructions to the CPU. CPU consists of ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit), which carries out instructions of programs to perform arithmetical and logical operations, and CU (Control Unit) which controls the system and coordinates all operations. A processor's speed is measured in megahertz (MHz), or millions of instructions per second; and gigahertz (GHz), or billions of instructions per second. A faster processor can execute instructions more quickly.

RAM (Random Access Memory) is your system's volatile memory. Whenever your computer performs calculations, it temporarily stores the data in the RAM until it is needed.

This volatile memory disappears when the computer is turned off. If you're working on a document, spreadsheet, or other type of file, you'll need to save it to avoid losing it.

RAM is measured in megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). The more RAM you have, the more things your computer can do at the same time. If you don't have enough RAM, you may notice that your computer is sluggish when you have several programs open. Because of this, many people add extra RAM to their computers to improve performance.

A non-volatile memory contains information, data and programs that cannot be modified. Computer ROM (Read Only Memory) contains essential and permanent information and software which allows computer to work properly.

The hard drive is where your software, documents, and other files are stored. The hard drive is long-term storage, which means the data is still saved even if you turn the computer off or unplug it.

When you run a program or open a file, the computer copies some of the data from the hard drive onto the RAM. When you save a file, the data is copied back to the hard drive. The faster the hard drive, the faster your computer can start up and load programs.

 

Glossary

motherboard – материнская плата

hard drive – накопитель на жестких дисках

control unit (CU) – блок управления

central processing unit (CPU) – центральный процессор

arithmetic logic unit (ALU) – арифметико-логическое устройство

random access memory (RAM) – оперативное запоминающее устройство

read only memory (ROM) – постоянное запоминающее устройство

long-term storage – долговременное запоминающее устройство