Английский язык. Учебное пособие по развитию навыков устной речи и чтения для магистрантов технических специальностей
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B Prepare 5 questions to the speaker on the topic and ask your colleague. C One student talks on space elevators (his/her opinion about the prospects), the others are to answer their questions. Give a chance to every student in the class to present his/her project. Whose speech is the most interesting/performable? UNIT VIII. TELECOMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES 1. «Telecommunications (noun) is the technology of sending signals, images and messages over long distances by radio, telephone, television, satellite, etc: technological developments in telecommunications; telecommunication (adj. [only before noun]): a telecommunication company»1. What other words with «tele-» do you remember? 2. Work in pairs and recollect some of the latest developments in the world of telecommunications. 3. Make up as many words or word combinations with «phone-» as you can. 4. Practice some vocabulary related to technology and telecommunications. Match a word or a word combination to its definition.
a) Telephones for use in the home that have no cables; b) the gap in access to technology between the rich and the poor; c) a portable computer; d) telephones for use anywhere – also known as cell; e) socket in a wall for a telephone; f) a metal wire for sending and receiving electronic signal; g) telephones in the street for the public to use. 5. Work in pairs, check if you know the following words or word combinations. Translate them into Russian and explain their meanings in English. Telecommunication technology, connect, e-mail, access, advance, acronym, fidelity, wireless trailing, access point, special receiver, time-pressed, appear daily, hi tech toy, to narrow the «digital divide», generation, educational opportunity. 6. Look at the words and phrases taken from the text and try to predict exactly what is being discussed in the text. Mobile technology, allows to connect, you’re on move, access the Internet, communicate with special receiver, surf the net, endless possibilities, great advantage. 7. Work in pairs and speak on the questions. Agree or disagree with your partner. 1) Do you use a computer or a laptop? What do you use it for? 2) What do you think about the Internet? Give five adjectives to describe it. 3) Name various ways in which people communicate with each other long distance? 8. Read text А and decide which is the best title for it: The World Wide Web C) Wireless World The Educational Hope of the Future D) Mobile Technology Text A In the space of a few years mobile telecommunications technology – the technology that allows you to connect with people and get information while you’re on the move – has advanced at an amazing pace. With talk of WAPs, WML and wireless LANs, it’s getting hard just to remember what all the acronyms stand for, let alone understand the technology. One such development that’s causing some excitement is the much talked about Wi-Fi technology. Wi-Fi – which, in case you didn’t know, stands for Wireless Fidelity – is a way to access the Internet without the need to connect your computer to a phone line. This means you can send e-mails and surf the net from your own laptop computer and not have to worry about finding a phone jack or having wires trailing all over the place. However, it doesn’t mean you can connect from anywhere – not yet anyway. You have to be close to an access point, where your computer can communicate with a special receiver. In truth, there aren’t that many access points around at the moment, but more and more are appearing daily, and you might be surprised by the kinds of places which are already Wi-Fi connected. A couple of major airlines have set up wireless access points onboard their airplanes, allowing time-pressed business travelers to connect with their offices from 36.000 feet in the air. A group of enthusiasts in Brighton have set one up on the beach there, so you can surf the net as well as the waves. A team of teachers has created one in the middle of a wood in southern England as part of a project to help children learn about the environment. And in some British pubs you can even access the Web whilst downing a pint of beer. The possibilities, it seems, are endless. But Wi-Fi isn’t only for busy business tycoons or people looking for fun at their local pub; it’s not just another hi tech toy for spoilt Westerners. One of the system’s great advantages is that it is bringing the Internet to some of the world’s poorest regions, and helping to narrow the ‘digital divide’ between the West and the Developing World. Some remote villages in Bangladesh, for example, where costly telephone lines have never reached, now have schools with wireless Internet access. Here Wi-Fi is giving a new generation of school children a window on the word and educational opportunities never dreamt of by their parents. And that is something to get excited about. 9. Choose the best way to complete each statement. Wi-Fi is a system designed to help you a) use your mobile phone. b) get a faster connection to the Internet on a normal telephone line. c) connect your portable computer to the Internet. Wi-Fi is already considered old technology. will probably never become very popular. is becoming more popular. Wi-Fi a) is only available in Europe and the USA. b) will be available in developing nations in the near future. c) is available in developing nations now. 10. Decide whether these statements are True or False, according to the information given in the text. 1) If your computer is fitted with Wi-Fi technology you can connect to the Internet from any location. 2) Wi-Fi is a short for «wireless fidelity». 3) Most airlines now offer Wi-Fi access points onboard their flights. 4) It’s cheaper to provide a Wi-Fi system to remote villages than it is to provide a regular telephone system. 5) Wi-Fi technology has been used in education projects. 6) Wi-Fi will probably widen the technology gap between the world’s richer nations and the developing world. 7) There are only a small number of access points available at the moment. 10. Answer the following questions on Text A: What does the mobile telecommunication technology allow you? How does Wi-Fi work? What kind of access does Wi-Fi provide? Why do you have to be close to an access point? According to the text, where are new access points appearing daily? What are the endless possibilities of Wi-Fi? What is one of the system’s great advantages? 11. Work with a partner and discuss how you use e-mail or the Internet. What do you use them for? Brainstorm as many uses as possible for both. 12. Read two extracts from an interview where two persons talk about how they use e-mail and the Net. Do you identify with any of them? Can you guess what each speaker is like (age, sex, occupation, way of life, personality)? A.: I work as a doctor in a very busy medical practice, and I never thought I’d have time to use the Internet. But I discovered of course how useful it is for e-mailing and sending messages, particularly work related messages. And also I’ve discovered that I can Find information out much quicker than by looking up the telephone book for instance, or the newspaper to find out train times or maybe what’s on at my local cinema. And if I have a problem, a professional problem, I can also get in touch with colleagues and find out their opinion. I don’t use it socially though – I hardly ever use it to talk to friends. Frankly I still like the old fashioned telephone. B.: I use the Net for a couple of reasons, one because I have family that are scattered all over the world and I find it quite a good way to keep in touch with them. And again it’s quite cheap. But I primarily use it because I’m doing a degree part-time and I find it really helpful for various reasons. And probably the best thing is that I can get in touch with the lectures and professors and the professors without actually having to speak to them in person which I find to be a plus. They are very hard to track down and it seems to be easier for them to communicate with me or other students in that way, so that’s one advantage. And I suppose that the other advantage is that on the Net you have access to various different libraries and so it is very easy to track down materials and books and reserve them or find out where they are anyway and if you can gain access to them. So that’s primarily why I use the Net. 13. Find the other English words to paraphrase the ideas in italics. 14. Find the right word (associated with computers or the Internet) to the following definitions. Use the tips in brackets. a) The programs used to operate a computer.(s_ _ _ _ _ _ e) b) More formally known as navigating, this means to visit various sites on the Internet, usually moving from page to page using highlighted links. (s_ _ _ _ _g) c) Places on the Internet where companies or organizations display information about their products. (s_ _ _ s - plural) d) Short extracts, designed to give you a taste of a product and hopefully encourage you to buy it. (b_ _ _s - plural) e) If you have copied pages or programs from the Internet onto your computer you have done this. (d_ _ _ _ _ _d) 15. Complete the sentences with the words from Activity 14. 1) I’m terrible on the Internet, but I really enjoy it. I start off ____________, looking for something specific. I might want some information on a particular subject, but I get carried away, I get diverted, I end up looking at something completely unrelated … 2) … there’s some really, really funky shopping ___________. You can pick up all sorts of different things… 3) … I’ve _______________ I think nearly all kinds of sound __________ that you need, so I end up watching film _________ on different products, and getting completely carried away. 16. Look at the words and phrases in the box. Would you associate them with e-mail, the Internet or both? Are there any words you don’t know? Find someone in the class who can explain them to you.
17. Choose the correct or more appropriate alternative. Almost everyone with or without a computer is/are aware of the latest technological revolution destined/destining to change forever the way in which humans communicate/communicated, namely, the Information superhighway, best exemplifying/exemplified by the ubiquitous Internet. Already millions of people around the world are linking/linked by computer simply by having/had a modem or an address on the Net, in much the same way that owning a telephone links us to almost everyone who paying/pays a phone bill. 18. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate derivative word (formed from the word on the left).
19. Complete the text with the appropriate word from the box.
Anyone can (1) … a site; promoting your club, your institution, your company’s (2) … or simply yourself, that is what the Web and the (3) … is all about. And what is more, information on the Internet is not (4) … or controlled by any one organization. It is, perhaps, true to (5) … that no-one and therefore everyone owns the ‘Net’. Because of the relative freedom of (6) … to information, the Internet has often been (7) … by the media as potentially hazardous tool in hands of young computer (8) …. This perception has (9) … to be largely false however, and the vast (10) … of users both young and old get connected with the Internet for dual (11) … for which it was intended – (12)… and delight. 20. Reorder the words in the mystery questions below and ask your partner to give a detailed answer to every question. The/get/need/to/Interne/what/connect/to/do/you? Organization/an/Internet/by/owned/the/is? You/think/people/the/use/do/why/widespread/the/Internet/fear/of/some? Purposes/the/stated/what/creating/two/are/for/Internet/the? The/advertise/do/companies/on/Internet/what? 21. Work in pairs and discuss the questions. What role does computer play in your everyday life? Do you think it will be the same in ten years’ time? 22. Put the items in the box into one of the following categories: Gadgets that will never be invented in your lifetime Gadget you’ve got Gadgets you would like to have Gadgets you will never need
23. Compare your answers with a partner and add another two items to each category. 24. Work in pairs. On a web page there are some FAQ (frequently asked questions) about the project called «One Laptop per Child». Can you answer them? 1) What is «one laptop for child»? 2) How can a laptop be produced for only $100? 3) How will the laptops be distributed? 4) Why laptops? 5) What are the specifications of the chosen design? 25. Now match these FAQ to the appropriate answers on the web page. 1. A project set up by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab, in January 2005 with the aim of designing, producing and distributing $100 laptops to children in the poorest countries in the world. 2.They are portable and so can be taken from school to home. An essential feature of the project is that the children should own the computers, and be able to do whatever they want with them. The chosen design is very robust and can be powered in a number of ways, including wind-up, so can be used even in homes without electricity. 3.The major saving is in the dual-mode display. It uses cheaper technology than is usually used in laptops, and has an innovative black and white mode that can be used in bright sunshine. The software is cutting edge but slimmed down. Computers nowadays can typically do the same function in lots of different ways; this laptop will do everything well, but in one way only. It runs a modified version of Linux, and all the software is open source. Not only will this cut costs, but mean that the owners will be able to modify the software to their needs. 4. It has a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory. It doesn’t have a hard disk, but it has four USB ports. It will be able to do everything that a more expensive laptop can do except store large amounts of data. Probably the most important feature is that the machines are capable of forming a wireless peer-to-peer mesh network. Children will be able to communicate with each other via an ad hoc local area network, sharing information and collaborating on projects. 5. They will be sold to governments, who will then give them out to schoolchildren, in the same way that they might give out textbooks. Governments in countries such as India, China, Brazil and Thailand are expected to order huge quantities of the laptops. When enough orders have been received and paid for in advance, manufacturing will begin. |