английский. Учебник английского языка для вузов. Спб. Издательство Северная Звезда
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Экология человека в естественной и кибер-интеллектуальной средеГрамматика: члены предложения и способы их выражения .  Introductory text THE PRICE OF PROGRESS I was listening sleepily to my digital clock radio, the other morning, when I half-heard one of those items that starts your day. It was about a new invention. A genius has decided that we wait too long at supermarket check-outs, and so he has developed a considerate computer. It all involves weighing, and tearing off special little tags from each item you buy, and feeding them into a machine and weighing again. Now I can recall a time when there were a few long queues in supermarkets, because the companies employed two people at each check-out: one to ring up and the other to help you speedily pack. Remember? It was also when every garage was staffed by friendly men who filled the car up, checked the oil and even did the tyres, before an infernal till was reading off the digits and charging you accordingly. It meant jobs for them, and the opportunity to talk for you ... . Maybe you believe in that sort of progress. But I would like to smash the dreadful machines. I simply cannot understand why otherwise intelligent humans have gone computer-mad. It starts early: teachers despair of time-telling when all the kids sport terrible digital watches that peep, play tunes, start and stop, even show firework displays, but instil no sense of the hands moving majestically round a clock face. No more 'Happy Families'; computer toys bark at them in Americanese and cost a fortune in batteries. Instead of learning mental-arithmetic they grow up thinking that calculators are their right. As adults, they chat about Space Invaders, and learn a dead vocabulary that owes nothing to Shakespeare or Milton. Boring, mindless, boring. As for thinking, our computers will do it for us. Computers breed laziness and discontent. A couple came to my house and gazed in disbelief at the battered old Olympia* on which I'm typing this. “Gosh, we'd have thought you would have a word processor by now.” I go to a library and see my beloved dusty manuscripts and old newspaper cuttings replaced by gleaming terminals, so you cannot actually handle the stuff. Then I hear from a friend that he is going to spend money on a cosy “home computer”, so that all the little details of his life can be stored in its cold brain. As for organising, our computers will do it for us. All the science fiction fantasies of computers taking over the world, or being used to make a plan of some devil overthrow of government are not far from the truth I see all around me. Myths are rooted in a need to explain to ourselves the workings of the universe, and of human nature. That modern myth foretells the hidden corruption of man by his own little invention The computer generation (God help them) assumes that it is better to calculate, buy petrol, tell the time, work out your holiday plans, pay your bills, and even shop, with the aid of a computer. After all, our civilisation is founded, now, on the certainty that we can kill by remote control, and a computer error could unleash Armageddon. The age of the computer is the age of de-humanisation. Significantly in my old Oxford dictionary the word does not exist except as a subheading - a person who computes or calculates. Now the person has gone. As for feeling, our computers won't do that for us. Note:
Vocabulary digital - цифровой item - здесь: тема, вопрос invention - изобретение genius - гений check-out - здесь: очередь в кассу develop - разрабатывать considerate - внимательный involve - включать weight - взвешивать tear* off - отрывать tag - ярлык item - здесь: предмет, покупка feed* - здесь: загружать recall - вспоминать queue - очередь employ - здесь: задействовать fill the car up - заправить а/м ring up - прибивать чеки tyre - шина infernal - адский, дьявольский till - здесь: касса read* off the digits - считывать цифры charge - взимать плату smash - здесь: разбить вдребезги dreadful - ужасный otherwise - здесь: в других отношениях intelligent - умный computer-mad - помешанный на компьютере despair - отчаиваться, терять надежду sport - развлекаться, проводить время, играть peep - пищать firework - фейерверк instil - внушать majestically - величественно clock face - циферблат bark - лаять fortune - здесь: состояние grow* up - вырасти adult - взрослый chat - болтать, разговаривать invador - завоеватель owe (to) - быть должным boring - скучный, нудный breed* - здесь: воспитывать, прививать laziness - лень discontent - недовольство gaze (at) - уставиться (на) dusty - пыльный manuscript - рукопись (newspaper) cutting - вырезка replace - заменить gleaming - светящийся, мерцающий handle (with) - иметь дело, обращаться cosy - удобный store - хранить science fiction - научная фантастика take* over - здесь: распространяться overthrow - ниспровержение root - корениться universe - вселенная foretell* - предсказывать hidden - скрытый generation - поколение assume - полагать aid - помощь found - основывать remote control - дистанц. управление error - ошибка unleash - развязать Armageddon - битва=конец мира significantly - важно, значимо subheading - подзаголовок compute = calculate - считать Word Study. Ex. 1. Match the phrases with their Russian equivalents:
3. to fill the car up c/ разбить машину 4. to foretell the future d/ сорвать ярлык 5. to gaze in disbelief e/ накачать шины 6. to read off the digits f/ стоить целое состояние 7. to smash a machine g/ прививать лень
9. to breed lasiness i/ свергуть правительство
11. to overthrow a government k/ считывать цифры Ex. 2. Match the phrases with their Russian equivalents:
7. dusty manuscript g/ газетные вырезки
10. science fiction j/ век дегуманизауии
12. modern myth l/ у кассы Ex. 3. Translate the following sentences into English. 1. В полусне я слушал радио и там была новость о новом изобретении.
3. Он разработал компьютер, который взвешивал покупки, срывал с них ярлыки и взимал оплату за каждую из них.
в кассу, потому что в них было по два сотрудника на каждую очередь. 5. Один из них пробивал чеки, а другой помогал вам быстро упаковать покупки.
10. Все это начинается очень рано: с детства дети играют с компьютерными игрушками. 11. Взрослея, они играют в космических завоевателей и заучивают "мертвый язык", не имеющий ничего общего с Шекспиром.
13. Они воспитывают леность и недовольство.
вести подсчеты, покупать бензин, узнавать время, составлять планы на отпуск, оплачивать счета и даже делать покупки. 15. Никто не думает, что компьютерная ошибка может развязать Армагеддон. 16. Век компьютеров - это век дегуманизации, век утраты чувств. Comprehension Check. Answer the following questions: 1. How effective does the writer seem to think the new invention will be, and why? 2. Why does the writer think that the new vocabulary learnt by adults is "dead"? 3. In what way do computers "breed laziness and discontent"? 4. Why does the writer dislike computers? 5. What does the computer generation assume? Topics to discuss. 1. A new invention. 2. Long queues in the supermarkets long ago. 3. Computer generation. Text 1-A TO DEPEND ON COMPUTERS - IS IT BAD OR NOT? Computers are a relatively new invention. The first computers were built fifty years ago and it is only in the last 30 or so years, that their influence has affected our everyday life. Personal computers were introduced as recently as the early 1980s. In this short time they have made a tremendous impact on our lives. We are now so dependent on computers, that it is hard to go into a bank, when their main computer is broken. Just try to appreciate the chaos, that would occur if computers were suddenly removed world-wide. In the future computers will be used to create bigger and even more sophisticated computers. The prospects for this are quite alarming. They will be so complex, that no individual could hope to understand how they work. They will bring a lot of benefits, but they will also increase the potential for imaginable chaos. They will, for example, be able to fly planes and they will be able to co-ordinate the movements of several planes in the vicinity of an airport. Providing all the computers are working correctly, nothing can go wrong. If one small program fails - disaster. There is a certain inevitability, that technology will progress and become increasingly complex. We should, however, ensure that we are still in a position where we are able to control technology. It will be all too easy to suddenly discover that technology is controlling us. By then it might be too late. So, it's very important to be suspicious of the benefits that computers will bring and to make sure that we never become totally dependent on a completely technological world. Vocabulary. depend (on) - зависеть (от) relаtively - сравнительно invention - изобретение influence - влияние affect - воздействовать introduce - вводить tremendous - потрясающий impact - воздействие appreciate - оценивать occur - случаться remove - убрать, устранить create - создать sophisticated - здесь: сложный prospect - перспектива alarming - тревожный complex - сложный benefit - выгода, польза increase - увеличивать in the vicinity - вблизи providing - при условии; если disaster - бедствие, катастрофа certain - некий inevitability - неизбежность ensure - гарантировать suspicious - подозрительный; здесь: осторожный make* sure - убедиться totally - абсолютно completely - совершенно Word Study . Ex. 1. Match the pairs of synonyms among the following words:
individual; happen;
providing; influence. Ex. 2. Match the phrases with their Russian equivalents:
2. to increase a potential b/ сложный компьютер
6. certain inevitability f/ убедиться
9. to be totally independent i/ вводить
12. tremendous impact l/ сравнительно новый Ex.3. Match the words with their Russian equivalents:
5. to appreciate e/ поколение
10. generation g/ влияние
15. to emerge o/ выгода Ex. 4. Translate the following sentences into English.
Comprehension Check. Answer the following questions. 1. When did the first computers emerge? 2. When were the personal computers introduced? 3. Are people dependent on computers now? 4. What can happen if the main computer in the bank gets broken? 5. Will there be only benefits from computers? 6. What functions will they perform? 7. What can happen if some program fails in a sophisticated computer? 8. Why is it very important to be suspicious of the computers? Topics to discuss. 1. Things which can be done with a help of computers. 2. Problems caused by computers. Text I-B ARTIFICIAL STUPIDITY Creating machines that think like people is a great challenge, but a bad idea. In 1950 Alan Turing, a British mathematician of genius, challenged scientists to create a machine that could trick people into thinking it was one of them. By 2000, Turing predicted, computers would be able to trick most of the people most of the time - at least in conversations where neither party could see or hear the other, but instead "talk" by typing at computer terminals. Thanks to 40 years of research into artificial intelligence - a field which has adopted Turing's test as its semi-official goal - Turing's prediction may well come true. But it will be a dreadful anticlimax. The most obvious problem with Turing's challenge is that there is no practical reason to create machine intelligences indistinguishable from human ones. People are in plentiful supply. Should a shortage arise, there are proven and popular methods for making more of them; these require no public subsidy and little or no technology. The point of using machines ought to be that they perform differently from people, and preferably better. If that potential is to be exploited, machines will need to be given new forms of intelligence all their own. Gradually, this is happening. Many human capabilities remain well beyond the reach of machines. No computer can understand a fairy tale, recognise faces or navigate across a crowded room. But machines have learnt a lot. Computer chess-players can beat all but the very best humans. Machines can solve logical puzzles, apply bureaucratic rules and perform passable translations from one language to another. Computers' new skills are winning them jobs alongside decision-makers in a variety of companies, complementing human weaknesses with computer strengths. |