Revision of lessons 4-6

Упражнение 1. Повторите способы выражения определения. Найдите определения и переведите предложения.

A. 1. This is an excellent computer which will give you many
years of service. 2. The number of men present was small. 3. Per­
sonal laser printers cost less than ordinary laser printer. They also
weigh less and require less space. 4. Do you know the total number
of colours available on this graphics system? 5. Supercomputers ca­
pable of performing billions of operations a second will have to be
developed soon. 6. Ten miles is a long distance to walk. 7. Any me­
chanic could do that job. 8. Digital television has many features
that are absent from conventional TV, such as easy connection to
computers and telecommunication networks. 9. E-mail is a very
fast data communication service. For e-mail to get a message to the
other side of the world is a matter of a second or two. 10. The fac­
tory has computer controlled production equipment.

B. 1. Tell me about the report you are preparing now. 2. A new
radio set Ted has is a Zenith. 3. Ten hours of work a day is the
maximum you should do. 4. Do you know about the disco the Uni­
versity is organising? 5. The news we have heard this week is of
great importance. 6. You have been given all the information you
need. 7. I collected all the information I could find on the Internet
about this subject. 8. With the new system you will be able to gen­
erate statistics any time you want. 9. Writing letters and reports are
the purposes most people use computers for. 10. Composite mate­
rials we learnt about are the combination of metals, ceramics,
glasses and polymers produced without chemical reactions. 11.
Weightlessness the production of new materials depend on cannot
be created on the earth for a long period of time. 12. The TV sets
people saw at the New York Fair in 1939 were not available for a
long time because of World War II. 13. Metals, ceramics, glasses,
polymers composite materials consist of have properties different
from those of the obtained composite material.

Упражнение 2. Прочитайте и переведите тексты, обращая внимание на проработанную грамматику и лексику 4, 5, 6 уроков.

The Monitor

We interact with computers by entering instructions and data into them. After the information has been processed (обрабаты-

вать), we can see the results (i.e. the output) on the visual display unit (VDU — устройство виртуального отображения) or the monitor. In this interactive process with the computer, the screen plays an important part.

The pictures and the characters (символы) we see on the screen are made up of picture elements which are also called pixels. The total number of pixels the display is divided in (both horizon­tally and vertically) is known as resolution. When the number of pixels is very large, we obtain a high resolution display and there­fore a sharp image. If the number of pixels is small, a low resolution is obtained. Thus, pixel density or resolution affects the quality of the image: a larger number of pixels gives a much clearer image.

The cathode ray tube of the monitor is very similar to that of a TV set. Inside the tube there is an electron beam which scans the screen and turns on or off the pixels that make up the image. The beam appears in the top left corner, and scans the screen from left to right in a continuous sequence, similar to the movement of our eyes when we read, but much faster. This sequence is repeated 50, 60 or 75 times per second, depending on the system.

In a colour monitor, the screen surface is coated (покрывать) with substances called phosphors. Three different phosphor materi­als are used — one each for red, green and blue. A beam of elec­trons causes phosphor materials to give coloured light from which the picture is formed. Colour monitors are capable to display many different colours at the same time.

Portable computers use a flat liquid-crystal display (LCD) in­stead of a picture tube.

Super Phones

Not long ago it became known that cell phone manufacturers were experimenting with several different designs for the handheld devices that would be linked to the advanced wireless networks of the future. If these machines really are to become digital compan­ions, they will have to be versatile, adaptable and fashionable (мод­ный). Companies such as Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola are working on the third-generation «super phone» that will look quite different from existing cell phones. In fact, calling them phones seems absurd (неразумный). They will have built-in colour screens several inches square for presentation of high resolution graphics and video. Some may have a keyboard and a miniature mouse for data input, but most of them will use touch-sensitive

(сенсорный) screens and styluses (перо, пишущий узел) like those employed now by the handheld computers.

In addition to carrying voice communication, the super phone will also be able to play music files that are circulating on the Web in the most popular MP3 format (or in whatever format may re­place it).

Упражнение 3. Объясните значение следующих словосочетаний.

Например: material properties — the properties of a material;

colour monitor — a monitor that works in colour;