Unit 7. COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY

& 1. Before reading, try to answer the questions:

1. What is one of the main reasons why some national economies are more successful than others?

2. Where do ideas come from?

Some of the major benefits of globalization, such as the new developments in the life sciences and digital technology, have opened new possibilities for world production and exchange. Innovations such as the Internet have made it possible to access information and resources across the world. Access ['&kses] to knowledge and the knowledge itself have become the most important factors determining the standard of living, beyond labor and capital of production. Knowledge generates new ideas, turns them into commercial products and services, and increases revenues and incomes of those who know how to use it. Those who have knowledge can develop, grow, and succeed. All technologically advanced economies are knowledge based. Knowledge makes the nations and their economies truly competitive and successful.

& 1. Read the text about the forefather of the modern computer.

When was the computer invented? Twenty? Fifty? A hundred years ago? Surprisingly, some modern computer engineers think that the father of the modern computer was Charles Babbage, a man who was born more than two hundred years ago, in 1791.

When Charles Babbage was a child, he was often ill so he only had a very simple education. Despite being ill, he liked inventing things and, when he was a child, he designed a pair of shoes for walking on water. When he was older, he studied at Cambridge University where his main subject was mathematics. After he finished university, he started to work on machines that could do mathematics.

Babbage worked on his first machines, the two Difference Engines, in the 1820s. These machines were important but they were never finished. His next idea was the Analytical Machine. This was a machine which did maths by using cards with holes and it had a memory for storing numbers. However, he never had enough money to build the Analytical Machine so it wasn't even started.

After Babbage died in 1871, his ideas were forgotten and his notes weren't found until 1937. It wasn't until 1991 that his second Difference Engine was finally built - and it worked perfectly. It can be seen in the British Museum and it proves the accuracy of Babbage's work.

If Babbage and his ideas hadn't been forgotten, we may have had computers a long time ago. Perhaps in ten years' time we will be using the ideas of another forgotten person from history.

s 2. Decide if the sentences below are true (T) or false (F) or there is no answer in the text (don't know=DK). In your notebook, write the number of the question and your answer: 0. DK

# 3. Fill in the gaps with the following words: camcorders, browser, videos, videoblogs, website.

YouTube, the phenomenally successful video sharing 1. website, was dreamt up over dinner by three Americans in 2004. They produced a simple routine for taking 2. videos in any format and making them play in any web 3. browser on any computer. They built a virtual video village where registered users could upload their own 4. videoblogs and clips, and watch and rate other people's. The rise of such websites coincided with the availability of cheap 5. camcorders, and alongside that, the development of easy-to-use software.

^ 4. Ask your partner which of the following things he or she has bought on the Net. What other things have you bought? Begin with:

You: Have you or your family ever bought...

	Student A	Student B
1. Have you or your family ever bought	а саг   a computer   a holiday     a flight   CDs   flowers the weekly shopping	on the Net?	1. Yes, I / we have. No, never!	And you?
2.	Yes, I / we have. It was …	2.Well, there are some.
	No, I / we haven’t, but my friend / group mate always buys...	For example... Because …. What about you?
Are there any you would never buy online?
3. As for me, I would never buy... on the Internet, as...	3. I see. What other things have you bought?

Word bank. Other products to buy: software, movies, images, e-books

Reasons to buy / not to buy on the Net: it is cheaper because you can directly buy goods or services from a seller in real-time, without an intermediary service; you must be able to have access to a computer, a bank account and a debit / credit card; online stores are usually available 24 hours a day, and many consumers have Internet access both at work and at home / consumers are at higher risk of fraud on the part of the merchant than in a physical store / hackers can break into a merchant's web site and steal names, addresses and credit card numbers.

8 5. Listen to these three reports of embarrassing computer mistakes. Which is the most embarrassing? Match these titles to the three stories. There is one extra title which you do not need to use.

Now listen again and read the stories. Were you right about the titles?

I. A British bank advertised a new credit card on their website. They offered an interest rate of 0.5% for six months to customers who changed to their card. It should have been 10.5%, but the programmer missed out the number ‘1’. Nobody in the bank noticed the mistake for two weeks. The mistake cost the bank over £100,000!

II. A customer called the helpline to say she couldn't get her new computer to switch on. The technician asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. The woman told him that she pushed and pushed on the foot pedal and nothing happened. She had put the mouse on the floor, thinking it was the foot pedal!

III. A computer engineer was invited to a friend’s party, but it turned out to be a real disaster! The friend had just bought a new PC, but she couldn't get music CDs to play in the CD-ROM drive. She said she was going to send it back. The engineer thought he knew what was wrong, and said it would only take him a couple of minutes to fix it. He removed the outside case, connected up the sound card, put in a CD and it played. Everyone at the party cheered! The engineer felt great. He then forgot to switch it off. As he was putting the case back on, the metal of the case touched something live. There was a flash, a smell of burning, and he knew he had just ruined the whole thing. It cost him hundreds of pounds. He lost a friend and his professional reputation!

Ç 6. Read the words and phrases from 5 and match them with their Russian equivalents.

– 7. Have you ever heard any other stories like the three above? Have you ever had any embarrassing experiences with a computer or any other piece of machinery? When? What happened? Tell the group your story or retell one of the stories from 5.

8 8. Listen to these e-mail and website addresses and repeat.

Now listen and write down the addresses you hear.

@ 9. With a partner, make a list of all the good things about computers that you can think of. Then make a list of all the negative things. Compare your lists with another pair of students. Do they have any ideas you didn't think of?

Other ideas: take up too much time / be much more convenient. / They have simplified / complicated things / Remember Y2K problem *?[4]/ They are anti-social.

$ 10. Find in the unit English equivalents for the following Russian words and phrases: информационно ёмкий, доступ, через 10 лет, мечтать, виртуальный, (существующий) одновременно c, совпадать, доступность / наличие в продаже, еженедельные покупки, доход, уровень жизни; упроcтить / усложнить.