I Read the text. Are these sentences true (T) or false (F). Correct the sentences where it is necessary.

1. Deep Blue can look at two hundred million different chess positions every second.

2. The idea of computers than humans is interesting to scientists too.

3. For more than a hundred years, writers have been interested in the power of machines – and what happens when they go right.

4. IBM didn’t want to show that a computer could win against Gary Kasparov.

5. Gary Kasparov is the worst chess player in the world.

6. Deep Blue hadn’t help from humans.

 

 

II Write five-six questions to the text:

III Translate the text

IV Write the annotation to the text.

UNIT 8

Man versus computer

Part Two

Computers can follow instructions and play mathematical games very well, but are they really intelligent? Do they really think in the same way that human beings think? These are difficult questions, and scientists do not always agree on the answers. Some scientists believe that the human brain is just like a very powerful computer; so if we can make a computer that is powerful enough, it will think like a human brain. Other scientists believe that the human brain does not do calculations in the same way as a computer. They think that one day a really powerful computer may do some of the things that a human brain does, but it will never really think like one.

In the past, people thought that computers did not have any imagination – they could never invent jokes, or write beautiful music. However, software programmers have recently taught computers to do many different things which need imagination. For example, Paul Hodgson is a programmer and he also likes jazz. He wrote some music software for his computer; the computer can now invent pieces of music in the same way as a jazz musician. The computer is not a very good jazz musician – but as the software gets better, so will the music.

Composing music

the new way...... and the old way

 

In fact, music, like chess, is quite mathematical. Perhaps it is not a surprise that computers are good at both. One of the first computer technicians, Alan Turing, was interested in the question 'Can a computer really think like a human?', so he invented the Turing Test. To do the test, you sit at a computer and 'talk' (using messages) to someone in a different room. That 'someone' might be a person or it might be a computer. If you think it is a person but it is really a computer, that computer has passed the Turing Test.

Every year programmers try to write software which makes their computer pass the Turing Test. There is a prize of 100,000 dollars for the first computer to pass the test. Alan Turing himself made this prediction: “A computer will pass the Turing Test before the end of the twentieth century.” But he was wrong, and so far, nobody has won the prize.

 

 

Tasks

 

I Are these sentences true (T) or false (F). Correct the sentences where it is necessary.

1. Microsoft built a computer called Deep Blue.

2. In 1997, Deep Blue beat the world’s best chess player.

3. Computers are good at chess because it is a mathematical game.

4. Bill Gates invented a test to find out if a computer can think like a human.

5. A student won the Loebner Prize when he built a computer that could think.

 

II Put the sentences in the right order:

1. Music, like chess, is quite mathematical.

2. Some scientists believe that the human brain is just like a very powerful computer.

3. Every year programmers try to write software which makes their computer pass the Turing Test.

4. One of the first computer technicians, Alan Turing, was interested in the question “Can a computer really think like a human?”

5. There is a prize of 100.000 dollars for the first computer to pass the Turing Test.

 

III Translate the text

IV Write the annotation to the text.

 

UNIT 9

The Internet

Part one

The Internet began in the 1970s as a way to send information from one computer to another. It was only used by people who worked in governments and universities. But in the 1990s, it suddenly began to be more popular.

In the early 1990s, a British man ' called Tim Berners-Lee invented the 'Web'. With the Web it was much easier to find information on the Internet, and to move from one part of the Internet to another. By the end of the 1990s, millions of people around the world were using the Web for many different things: for example, working, shopping, playing games and studying.

In the first half of the 1990s, it was clear that the Internet and the Web were changing the world for ever. Hundreds of new companies started on the Internet. They knew that the Internet was growing, and that it offered an easy way to do business with millions of people. The banks were very happy to give money to these new 'Internet start­up' companies because they seemed to be the future. However, by the end of the 1990s there were too many of these companies. They could not all be successful, and many of them went out of business. Now, only the best of the Internet start-up companies are making money.

Young people often know more about computing and the Internet than older people. For this reason, some very young people have had a lot of success with Internet start-up companies. Tom Hadfield began using computers at the age of two. When he was twelve, he began putting football scores on the Internet, just because he liked football. This soon became a business called Soccernet. During the 1998 World Cup, 300,000 people visited the Soccernet website every day. In 1999, Tom and his father sold 60 per cent of Soccernet to Disney for 15 million pounds. Tom and his father also started another Internet company called Schoolsnet, which has information for students and teachers. Thanks to the Internet, Tom Hadfield became a very successful businessman before he left school!

Today, almost every company in the world has got a website on the Internet.Each site has got a special name (a web address) and you use this to visit the site. In the early 1990s, before most companies had really thought about the Internet, some people got web addresses with the names of famous companies – for example, Panasonic and Hertz. These people were not part of the companies; they were hoping to sell the web addresses to the companies for a lot of money one day in the future. This was called “cyber squatting”. Since 1999, new international laws have made cyber squatting impossible.

Internet users can be anywhere in the world; they just need a computer and a telephone. For this reason, it is often difficult to control what happens on the Internet. In January 1999, an American University student called Shawn Fanning invented a piece of software that could copy music. In May of the same year, he started a company called Napster. Internet users could visit Napster and copy their favourite music. Suddenly, they did not need to buy CDs. Of course, the music companies were not very happy about this. A lot of musicians were also unhappy, because people could get their music free. In the end, Napster agreed to pay money to the music companies and musicians.

The Internet is not only important for business. It is also a cheap way to make contact with people from all over the world. A lot of people visit 'chat rooms': in a chat room, you can 'talk' to other Internet users and read their answers on your computer immediately. There is even a special kind of language which people use to save time. For example, they write 'HAND' to mean 'Have A Nice Day'; or they write 'LOL' (laughing out loud) when they find something funny. There are also special ways to show feelings: for example,:-) means 'I'm happy', and:-(means 'I'm sad'.

As computers become more powerful, the Internet becomes easier to use. Some people now do most of their shopping at websites. But there are still a lot of people who like to go into town and visit real shops. They want to look before they buy – and they prefer to talk to a person than to a computer.

 

Tasks

I Put the sentences in the right order:

1. Tim Berners-Lee invented the “Web”.

2. Tom Hadfield became a very successful businessman before he left school.

3. New international laws have made cyber squatting impossible.

4. Napster agreed to pay money to the music companies and musicians.

5. An American University called Shawn Fanning invented a piece of software that could copy music.

6. As computers become more powerful, the Internet becomes easier to use.

7. There is even a special kind of language which people use to save time.