III Write the annotation to the text. 


Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!



ЗНАЕТЕ ЛИ ВЫ?

III Write the annotation to the text.




UNIT 11

Getting the message

Although the first email message was sent in 1971, electronic messages began nearly two hundred years earlier. Telegraph machines used electricity to send messages along wires from one place to another. The first telegraph machine was built in 1774 But for the next sixty years, the machines were very large and difficult to use, and each one needed twenty-six wires - one for each letter of the alphabet. In the 1840s, an American inventor called Samuel Morse built a better kind of telegraph which only needed one wire. He also invented a special code for messages – Morse Code. Immediately, telegraphs became an important way for people to communicate. During the next twelve years, American telegraph companies put up 36,000 miles of telegraph wires to send messages all over the USA.

In the 1920s, a new kind of electronic message was invented -the telex. A telex machine could send a message to any other telex machine in the world. They did not use telephone or telegraph wires -they used telex lines. These lines were quite expensive, and the machines were not easy to use. It was not a perfect system - but it worked. Companies continued to use telex until the 1980s and many companies still have telex machines today.

In the 1980s, people began to buy personal computers. Soon, it was possible to send email messages from one PC to another, but both people had to be part of the same email system. There were several different email systems, and it was not possible to send messages from one system to another. For this reason, emails did not immediately become popular.

In the 1990s, people began to use the Internet and the Web. This made it easier to send email messages because there was only one system. Emails soon became a very popular (and very cheap) way to send messages to anywhere in the world. In the late 1990s, people started to send another kind of.electronic message: they used their mobile phones to send text messages. Now they could send or receive messages in any place and at any time.

Text messages use their own kind of language. Long text messages are not easy to send or read, so people find ways to make them shorter. For example, when you write a message in English, you can write “RUOK?” (Are you OK?), or “B4” (before). This way, you can send invitations in just a few letters and numbers: for example, “CU L8R 4 T”. (“See you later for tea.”)

 
 

Tasks

I Put the sentences in the correct order:

1. A lot of people began to buy PCs.

2. Samuel Morse invented a special code for messages.

3. People started to send text messages on their mobile phones.

4. The first telegraph machine was built.

5. People started to send e-mails using the Internet.

6. The telex machine was invented.

 

II Answer the following questions:

1. When were the first electronic messages sent?

2. When did people begin to use the Internet and the Web?

3. What new kind of electronic message was invented in the 1920s?

4. What became very popular and very cheap way to send messages to anywhere is the world in the 1990s?

5. What kind of language is used in text messages?

 

III Translate the text

IV Write the annotation to the text.

 

 


UNIT 12

Computer games

In the early 1960s, the computer company DEC made a computer called a PDP-1. PDP-ls were large and expensive (120,000 dollars), so only companies and universities bought them. Steve Russell, a student at one of these universities wrote a piece of software for the PDP-1. It was a game for two players, and he called it Spacewar. The two players controlled spaceships which fought against each other. Users of the PDP-1 liked the game, and other programmers made the software better. In the late 1960s, a programmer called Donald Woods invented a game called Adventure. This was a different kind of game from Spacewar because it did not have any pictures and it was for one player only. The computer told a story; the player took part in the story,, and gave the computer instructions, like 'Go south', or 'Get the box'. Together, Spacewar and Adventure started the two most important kinds of computer games: games with speed and action, and games with stories and imagination. But it was a few years before computer games became popular. In 1971, a student called Nolan Bushnell tried to make money from the game Spacewar. People did not have PCs then, so he built a machine for bars, shopping centres, and other places where people meet. To play the game, people had to put money in the machine. A company bought Nolan Bushnell's idea for 500 dollars and made 1,500 machines. But nobody wanted to play the game.

Nolan Bushnell decided that the space game was too difficult. He used his 500 dollars to start his own company, Atari, and invented a much easier game. It was a tennis game called Pong, and it was very easy to play. People loved it! In 1976, Bushnell sold Atari for 28 million dollars. Computer games were here to stay.

Since the 1980s, computer games have changed a lot. Computers are much more powerful, so the games are much faster and use amazing pictures. How much better can games become? If you have seen Star Trek: The Next Generation on television, perhaps you have seen the virtual reality room on the spaceship. People can take part in amazing stories which look and feel the same as reality. This kind of game is still in the future, but perhaps not very far in the future.

Tasks

 

I Circle the correct words:

1. Spacewar was a computer game with fast action/an interesting story.

2. Nolan Bushnell started a company called Atari/Sony. The made a lot of money from a game called Adventure/Pong.

3. Nintendo make a games machine called Wii/Xbox.

4. People send 20 million/billion dollars a years on computer games.

5. The game Manhunt was very violent/funny.

6. In 2005, a South Korean man fell asleep/died after playing a computer game for forty-nine hours.

 

 

II Write seven questions to the text:

III Put the sentences in the right order:

1. If you have seen Star Trek! The Next generation on television, perhaps you have seen the games room on the spaceship.

2. A programmer called Donald Woods invented a game called Adventure.

3. Nolan Bushnell used his 500$ to start his own company, Atari.

4. Spacewar and Adventure started the two most important kinds of computer games.

5. Many computer games are violent: they have a lot of guns and fighting.

6. The two players controlled spaceships which fought against each other.

7. There are large numbers of young people who prefer playing computer games to walking, cycling or playing sport.

 

IV Translate the text



Поделиться:


Последнее изменение этой страницы: 2016-04-21; просмотров: 384; Нарушение авторского права страницы; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы!

infopedia.su Все материалы представленные на сайте исключительно с целью ознакомления читателями и не преследуют коммерческих целей или нарушение авторских прав. Обратная связь - 3.234.246.109 (0.008 с.)