Exercise 6. Match the words from the box with their definitions.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 574.

1. Very light, flexible, plastic diskettes usually used with microcomputers.

2. The channels of a magnetic tape on which information is recorded.

3. Another word for program errors.

4. A sequence of steps or instructions used to solve a problem, as in a program.

5. This is the individual operating the computer.

6. When the computer system operates independently of the central processing unit.

7. A group of eighty binary digits considered as a single unit. In other words, eight bits make one of these.

8. This type of computer works by counting, and data is represented by combinations of discrete electronic pulses.

9. This is the display unit on which the data and/or graphics appear.

10. To retrieve information which is on tape or disk.

11. A piece of silicon on which several layers of an integrated circuit have been etched.

12. An arrow or similar marker to show where the next character will go if you enter data.

13. These are diagrams used to sort out the procedural steps in a program and as an aid to program construction.

14. When the computer system is connected to the central processing unit.

15. A package used extensively in financial planning, budgeting, forecasting and other financial modelling.

Exercise 7. Predicting the future.

Read the following text and decide whether you agree with the given predictions or not. Give reasons.

The future? We're virtually there!

A computer was as big as a room.

There were 100 million Internet users. A $1,000 computer could do 450 calculations a second.

A $1,000 computer will be able to do a million million calculations a second. People will still have to use books and paper for some things, but most books will have been scanned into computers. You will be able to use translating telephones (where you speak in English and your Japanese friend hears you in Japanese). Lots of everyday things will have changed. However, people will still be living in normal houses. Sophisticated forms of art and music may be created by computers.

A $1,000 computer will be as powerful as the human brain. Books will have almost completely disappeared. Teachers and schools will also have vanished but you will be able to learn everything you need from computers. Robots (machines which look and behave like people) will be doing all the housework. However, they won't be able to have a conversation with you! You won't be able to drive your car yourself – a robot will do this for you. Computers will be able to understand human language and respond to it. People will usually be able to live to over 100.

A $1,000 computer will be able to do the work of approximately 1,000 human

brains. People will no longer have to make robots because smart robots will be able to make themselves. Everyone will have lots of free time and be able to do whatever they want. However, many people will prefer talking to and working with robots to being with other humans. Robots will be more intelligent than humans.

Now give your own predictions about computers in the future. Will computers be able to “think” creatively like human beings?