polunina_ln_bobrovskaia_im_priroda_nauka_tekhnologii

understanding and making computers (2) … in the service of humanity. Artificial intelligence is primarily concerned with (3) … of knowledge and heuristic methods of reasoning, that is, using common assumptions and rules of thumb. Two examples of problems studied in

(4) … are planning how a robot, or person, might assemble a complicated device, or move from one place to another; and (5) … the nature of a person’s disease, or of a machine’s malfunction, from the observable manifestations of the problem. In both cases, reasoning with symbolic descriptions predominates over (6) … .

A class of artificial intelligence programs called (7) … attempt to accomplish tasks by acquiring and incorporating the same knowledge that human experts have. Many attempts to apply artificial intelligence to medicine, government, and other socially (8) … take the form of expert systems.

Nearly all (9) … and many smaller ones use expert systems. A common application is to provide (10) … to persons who answer customers’ trouble calls. Another widespread use of this technology is in software for home computers that assists taxpayers. One important lesson learned from incorporating artificial intelligence software into (11) … is that its success depends on many other aspects besides the intrinsic intellectual quality, for example, ease of interaction, integration into existing workflow, and costs.

As computers become smaller and (12) … , more and more intelligence is built into automobiles, appliances, and other machines, as well as computer software, in everyday use.

(Abridged from McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology)

SPEAKING

11. What of the following statements do you agree with? Why?

1.Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. (P. Picasso)

2.A solid working knowledge of productivity software and other IT tools has become a basic foundation for success in virtually any career. (Bill Gates)

3.Computer Technology has improved our lives. It will continue to

121

affect our future which will lead to an easier, less complicated lifestyle, with more job opportunities and their benefits.

4.Computer software engineers are more skilled than computer programmers because they create applications that are used in various companies and homes throughout the world.

5.In today’s world we are totally living in a computerized world and we have lost the human element. We are completely dependant on computers and our ability to do task on our own has become very limited.

6.Obviously the advancements in computer technology have proved to be influential, but they also have many destructive qualities. Some of these qualities include less personal communication, complete miscommunication, time consumption, the publishing of false documents, and safety and privacy concerns.

12. Here are the descriptions of some magical devices from the animated cult series “Futurama”. Which of them could come true in the nearest future? What can computer science help it?

The Time Machine That Only Goes Forward.

The professor takes Fry and Bender on a journey in his time machine. The catch: it only goes forward in time. The mishap sends them skipping into the future in hopes of finding a machine that goes backward, only to discover that if they go far enough, the universe dies and then starts up again, putting them back where they started. This would be fantastic for checking out how things go in the future, then going around the horn into the past to fix your mistakes.

The Death Clock.

A device designed to let a person know how much time they have left to live. A real-world Death Clock would present its share of philosophical problems, but it would still be amazing to know just how much time you have to live your life to its fullest. Then again, knowing the exact date might make people lazy until their appointed time.

The Mind-Switcher.

Professor Farnsworth’s mind-switcher lets him and Amy swap bodies

122

for a while, but the catch is it can’t be used twice on the same pair, leading to a chain of switches to get everyone’s consciousness back in the right head. Catches aside, it’s a fun idea for an invention that’s popped up in movies for years. As long as you had extra bodies willing to volunteer to help get everyone straightened out in the end, it would be pretty freeing to try life as someone else for a day.

The Electronium Hat.

The electronium hat uses energy gathered from sunspots to stimulate radiation and funnel it into the brain, thereby juicing up cognitive ability. Short version: it lets animals talk. The hat was in part a joke by the writers about the outlandish sci-fi contraptions of other TV series and movies, but it’s still a fascinating idea.

WRITING

13. What are the pros and cons of computer technology? Put the items given below into the columns you consider the most suitable for them. Explain your choice.

makes life safer

creates a false sense of communication allows people to invade our privacy helps to create music, films, graphics etc. allows transfer of data across the world

performs quick calculations and information manipulation

creates a culture of dependence on information found on the internet assists in researching things

helps to get deep information in a press of a button reduces the amount of face to face interaction interaction in ways that were once nonexistent computer games

watching movies

hanging out on the internet

monitoring and control systems in medicine advancing science, health care, knowledge useful for effective education

123

KEY WORDS

algorithms, application, artificial intelligence, circuit, click (n, v), command, computer architecture, computer graphics, computer science, configuration, cursor, data, desktop, expert system, file, floppy disk, hard disc, hardware, human-computer interaction, interface, keyboard, laptop, memory, monitor, mouse, network, neural network, operating system, printer, processing, program, programming language, research, screen, software, storage, type (v), virus

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Operating System

(1)Operating System (OS) is the basic software that controls a computer. The operating system has three major functions: It coordinates and manipulates computer hardware, such as computer memory, printers, disks, keyboard, mouse, and monitor; it organizes files on a variety of storage media, such as floppy disk, hard drive, compact disc, digital video disc, and tape; and it manages hardware errors and the loss of data.

(2)Operating systems control different computer processes, such as

124

running a spreadsheet program or accessing information from the computer’s memory. One important process is interpreting commands, enabling the user to communicate with the computer. Some command interpreters are text oriented, requiring commands to be typed in or to be selected via function keys on a keyboard. Other command interpreters use graphics and let the user communicate by pointing and clicking on an icon, an on-screen picture that represents a specific command. Beginners generally find graphically oriented interpreters easier to use, but many experienced computer users prefer text-oriented command interpreters.

(3)Operating systems commonly found on personal computers include UNIX, Macintosh OS, and Windows. UNIX, developed in 1969 at AT&T Bell Laboratories, is a popular operating system among academic computer users. Its popularity is due in large part to the growth of the interconnected computer network. Software for the Internet was initially designed for computers that ran UNIX. Variations of UNIX include SunOS, Xenix, and Linux. UNIX and its clones support multitasking and multiple users. Its file system provides a simple means of organizing disk files and lets users control access to their files. The commands in UNIX are not readily apparent, however, and mastering the system is difficult. Consequently, although UNIX is popular for professionals, it is not the operating system of choice for the general public.

(4)Instead, windowing systems with graphical interfaces, such as Windows and the Macintosh OS, which make computer technology more accessible, are widely used in personal computers (PCs). However, graphical systems generally have the disadvantage of requiring more hardware – such as faster CPUs, more memory, and higher-quality monitors – than do command-oriented operating systems.

(Abridged from Weiss, M.A. Operating System, Microsoft Encarta, 2008)

1. Read the text and decide whether the following statements are TRUE, FALSE or there is NO such INFORMATION in the text.

2. Decide which part of the text (1, 2, 3, 4) contains the following information.

1.The Unix environment was an essential element in the development of the Internet.

2.Operating system consists of programs and data, that manages the computer hardware and provides common services for efficient execution of various application software.

3.Give the answer to the following question.

What is the main advantage of the UNIX operating system?

1.It was written in high level language.

2.Unix has a drastically simplified file model compared to many contemporary operating systems.

3.It runs on cheap hardware.

4.It was the first operating system.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

1.Examples of popular modern operating systems.

2.The two most common forms of a user interface.

3.Operating system as an intermediary between application programs and the computer hardware.

4.The development of operating systems.

126

UNIT 10

THE INTERNET

WARMING UP

1.What do people use the Internet for?

2.What leisure activities do people get on the Internet?

3.Have you got a personal web page in one of the social networks? How long do you usually chat with your friends on the Net?

4.Do you agree with the proverb “A secure computer is one that’s turned off”? What do you do to make surfing the Net more secure?

READING

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most notably the interlinked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks. This research and a period of civilian funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation spawned worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and led to the commercialization of an international network in the mid 1990s, and resulted in the following popularization of countless applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life. As of 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth’s population uses the services of the Internet.

The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in everyday speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World

127

Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The difference between the Web and the Internet is similar to the difference between a trucking service and a highway system. The Internet corresponds to a highway that allows traffic to flow between computers, and the Web corresponds to a service that uses the highway to move information from one computer to another.

Many computer scientists describe the Internet as a ‘prime example of a large-scale, highly engineered, yet highly complex system’. The Internet is extremely heterogeneous; for instance, data transfer rates and physical characteristics of connections vary widely. The Internet exhibits ‘emergent phenomena’ that depend on its large-scale organization. For example, data transfer rates exhibit temporal selfsimilarity. The principles of the routing and addressing methods for traffic in the Internet reach back to their origins the 1960s when the eventual scale and popularity of the network could not be anticipated. Thus, the possibility of developing alternative structures is investigated.

The Internet is a globally distributed network comprising many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets its own standards. However, to maintain interoperability, all technical and policy aspects of the underlying core infrastructure and the principal name spaces are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), headquartered in Marina del Rey, California. ICANN is the authority that coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers for use on the Internet, including domain names, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, application port numbers in the transport protocols, and many other parameters. Globally unified name spaces, in which names and numbers are uniquely assigned, are essential for the global reach of the Internet.

ICANN is governed by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and other noncommercial communities. ICANN’s role in coordinating the

128

assignment of unique identifiers distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body on the global Internet. On November 16, 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society, held in Tunis, established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internetrelated issues.

The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise.

Common methods of Internet access in homes include dial-up, landline broadband, Wi-Fi, satellite and 3G technology cell phones. Public places to use the Internet include libraries and Internet cafes, where computers with Internet connections are available. The prevalent language for communication on the Internet is English. This may be a result of the origin of the Internet, as well as English’s role as a lingua franca.

(Abridged from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)

Expand your vocabulary

array – масса, совокупность spawn – порождать, вызывать

heterogeneous – гетерогенный, неоднородный

emergent – появляющийся, возникающий (обычно внезапно, неожиданно)

implementation – реализация, внедрение assign – присваивать (имя, значение и т.д.) affiliate – объединять

POST-READING ACTIVITY

1. Answer the following questions.

1.What are the main features of the Internet?

2.When was the Internet invented?

3.What is the difference between the terms Internet and World Wide Web?

129

4.Who maintains the interoperability of the Internet?

5.How many people use the Internet nowadays?

2. Put the following words into the correct column according to the pronunciation of -ea-.

3. Match the words with the similar meaning.

130