The following texts are elements of English For Telecoms.

There are extracted

from English for Skills. The student will read each text and tackles with the
exercises below. The grammar points will be explained to the student on a face-
to-face meeting. Finally, he has to make the research at the end of the page.

UNIT 1. ICT VIRUSES

A virus is a simple program designed to cause harm to someone else’s computer.

A virus spreads by duplicating and attaching itself to other files. The extent of
the damage depends on the virus. There are tens of thousands of viruses. Some
virus damage is insignificant but inconvenient. Some virus damage is disastrous,
putting the computer system out of action by erasing files or corrupting data.

How do you get a virus? Viruses are written by malicious programmers who
wish to cause problems for other computer users.

The primary source of infection these days are email attachments followed by
illegal software and infected files from the Internet. If you have up to date anti-
virus software installed this will immediately warn you of any infection. If not,
there is usually no evidence of the virus and the user is not usually aware of it
until something goes wrong.

Viruses can be prevented by taking sensible precautions, including: • Keeping

your operating system up to date.

• Using up to date anti-virus software.

• Not opening an email attachment unless you are expecting it and know the
source (many email servers scan emails with anti-virus software on the user’s
behalf).

• Not allowing other users to use their own memory stick on your system.

• Only downloading files from reputable web sites.

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• Avoiding software from unreliable sources. Anti-virus software can
inspect computer files and email attachments for viruses and remove or
quarantine any which are found. It is good practice to backup your data
regularly. If a virus does damage your data, you can restore the damaged files
from backup.

I. Reading Activity
Post reading multiple-choice questions Teacher asks the following questions to
students (either in pairs or in open class) to assess their knowledge and activate
the schemata.

1. What is a computer virus?

2. How are viruses spread?
3. Name any viruses you know?
4. How can you deal with viruses?
These could be done either on-line or paper-based
1. What is a computer virus?
a program written to cause harm to a computer
a hardware fault which causes data to be damaged
a fault with the CPU which means that data is lost or damaged
2. What is the most common way people’s computers get infected by a
virus?
receive a fax
install new hardware
download email attachments
3. Which of the following statements is true?
you can buy programs that tell you if you have a computer virus
Computer viruses always destroy your work
you must reinstall your operating system to get rid of a virus
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4. What type of warning are you most likely to receive if a virus is found on
your system?
The computer will shut itself down
A siren will sound and continue until the virus is removed
Your anti-virus software will display a message and ask you how to proceed
5. What purpose does anti-virus software serve?
it deletes every file it suspects is infected
it stops people gaining unauthorized access to your computer via the internet
it inspects computer files and email attachments for viruses and removes or
quarantines any that it finds
6. Which of the following is BAD advice for protecting your computer
against infection?
open email attachments if they look interesting
use up-to-date anti-virus software and always download the latest definitions
only download files from reputable internet sites

II. Language Activity

Study these uses of if-sentences
Action and effect We can use an if-sentence to link an action and its effect. For
example:
1. If you have an up to date anti-virus software installed, this will immediately
warn you of any infection.
2. If you want to identify computer viruses, you can buy programs that detect
them.
3. If you have an anti-virus software, it inspects computer files and e-mail
attachments for viruses.