iH ri i Oxford English for i Te 4 | eae Unstelleqn-le i ae war: Cae Teel 7a eneOxford English for Computing Keith Boeckner P. Charles Brown Oxford University PressContents Unit Personal computing Language focus A Contextual reference Unit 2 Portable computers Operating systems Language focus B Word formation. prefixes Unit 3 Online services Data transmission Language focus C Word formation suffixes Unita Progeamming and languages Clanguage Language focus D Organizing information Unit 5 Computer sofware Comparing software packages Language focus E Making comparisons Unit Computer networks Network configurations Language focus F Time sequence unit 7 Computer viruses Computer security Language focus G Listing Unita Computers in the office Information systems Language focus H ‘The passive 78 78 81 86 Unit 9 Computers in education CALL Language focus! Giving examples Unit 10 Computers in medicine Data storage and management Language focus J Explanations and definitions Unit 11 Robotics Robot characteristics Language focus K Compound nouns Unit 12 Virtual reality VR input devices Language focus L Classifying, Unit 13 Machine translation Aland expert systems Language facus M Cause and effect Unit 14 Maltimedia Computer-to-video conversion Language focus N Making predictions Unit 15 Computer graphics 24-bit colour Appendix 2 Glossary of terms 155 160 164 167 167 172 176Personal computing Start-up Task 1 ‘Name these devices. What are they used for? © Listening Task2 TI You will hear two interviews between a markel researcher and visitors to a computer exhibition. As you listen, fll in the missing information in the table opposite,Task 3 Task 4 we wee Interview 1 Interview 2 Name: a Occupation: - - ‘Type of PC used: Reasons for choice: 1 - 2 - Read this extract from Interview 2 and fill in the gaps. To help you, the first letter of each missing word is INTERVIEWER: Do you own a PC? enrigue: Yes, I have an Apple Macinto INTERVIEWER: Why did you cf fee Sa Mac as opposed to an IBM or an IBM e—_____*? ENRIQUE: I think Macs are € -* touse than IBM PCs. Luse the m_—_____* feature a lot. which is s________* on all Maes. Then. there's the graphical user interface and the windows. INTERVIEWER: Graphical user interface? Could you explain that? instead of ENRIQUE: Well, put simply, il means that you click on I typing inc " INTERVIEWER: sce. You mentioned windows. Doesn't IBM also use windows? eNRuQvE: Yes, but I think their windows are harder to s— 7 Tn any case, I'm u—— u___ Now listen again to the interview and check your unswe Reading Before reading the text on the following page, match each word with the correct definition: the set of software that controls a computer system a very small piece of silicon carrying a complex. electrical circuit © «big computer system used for large-scale operations __ the physical portiqn of a computer system, € adevice moved by hand to indicate position on the mainirame mouse oe screen hardware f _ avisual symbol used in a menu instead of natural language microchip g data, programs, etc., not forming part of a computer, but used when operating it,Task 5 [e222 selon computing compeny tack a decision to get ut of the business of making mainframe computers. They 5 believed that there was only a market for four mainframes in the whole world. That company was IBM. The following year thoy reversed their decision. 10 In 1880, 1BM decided that there was a market for 250,000 PCs, so they set up a special team to develop the first IBM PC. It went on sale in 1981 and set a world-wide 45. standard for IBM-compatibility which, over the next ten years, was only seriousty chatlenged by one other company, Appie Computers. Since then, over seventy million 20 PCsmade by IBM and other manufacturers have been sold. Ovor this period, PCs have become commodity items. Since IBM made the design non-proprietary, anyone 26. can make them. The history of the multi-billion dollar PC industry has been one of mistakes. Xerox Corporation funded the initial research on 30. personal camputers in their Palo Alto laboratory in Californie. However, the company failed to capitalize on this work, and the ideas that they put together went 35. into the operating systam developed for Apple's computers. This was a graphical interface: using a mouse, the user clicks on icons which represent the function ae tobe performed. The first 1BM PC was developed using existing available electrical components. With #BM’s badge on the box it became the standard 45 mechine for large corporations to purchase. When IBM were laoking for an operating system, they went initially to Digital Research, who were market leaders in command- 50 based operating systems (these are ‘operating systems in which the users type in commands to perform a function). When the collaboration between IBM and Digital Research 55. failed, IBM turned to Bill Gates, then > Vocabulary commodit 20 *% 26 0 100 108 10 i _ Now read the text and decide on a suitable title for it. 25 years old, to write their operating system, Bill Gates founded Microsoft on the basis of the development of MS/DOS, the initial operating system for the IBM PC. Digital Research have continued to deveiop their operating system, DR/DOS, and itis considered by many people to be a better product than Microsoft's. However, withoutan endorsement from IBM, it has ‘become a minor player in the market. Novel, the leaders in PC networking, now awn Digital Research, so things may change. The original IBM PC had a minimum of 16K of memory, but this could be upgraded to 512K if necessary, and ran with a processor speed of 4.7MH2. Ten years later, in 1991, IBM were making PCs with 16Mb of memory, expandable 10 64Mb, running with a processor speed ‘of 33MHz. The cost of buying the hardware has come down considerably as the machines have become commodity items. Large companies are considering running mejor applications on PCs, something which, ten years ag0, no 0} would have believed po: aPC. In contrast, many. computers in people's homes are just used to play computer games. The widespread availability of computers hasin all probability changed the world for ever. The microchip technology which made the PC possible has put chips not only into computers, bout also into washing-machines and cars. Some books may never be published in paper form, but may only be made available as, part of public databases. Networks of computers are already being used to make information available on a world- wide seale. ems (1. 23) ~ items which can be produced and traded freely non-proprietary (1, 24) ~ not belonging to any capitalize on (I. 33)— profit from, turn fo on single company 's advantageTask 6 Task 8 Task9 eNO When you read the text to decide on a title, which of the following did you de? Did you: (read the text slowly and try to understand every wor (1 read quickly and try to understand the main theme? 11 underline or mark sentences that you thought were important? (1 make notes about important points? Which of these reading strategies do you think is most appropriate for this kind oftask? Which do you think is least appropriate? Answer these questions about the text. How many mainframes did IBM think it was possible to sell in 1952? How many PCs have now been sold? Who paid for the initial research into PCs? Which company later used the results of this research Lo develop their operating system? What ure command-based operating systems? DR/DOS is an acronym. What does it stand for? Since the invention of the IBM PC, many of its features have been improved. Which of the following features does the text not mention in this respect? a = memory b speed © size d cost Give three examples from the text of how the availability of computers has ‘in all probability changed the world for ever’. Using the line references given. look back in the text and find words that have a similar meaning to: international (ines 10-15) contested (lines 15~20) errors (lines 25-30) paid for (lines 25-30) huy (lines 45-50) first (ines 60-65) recommendation (lines 65-70) improved (lines 75-80) ‘Translate the sixth paragraph (starting ‘The original IBM PC...") into your own Janguage. Look carefully at the tenses before you start. Speaking ‘The article states that ‘many computers in people's homes are just used to play computer games’. Discuss the following questions: In what other ways are computers used at home, or outsicle work? Ifyou alreudy have a PC, how do you use it? (Ifnot, how would you use one?)