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Could the Internet collapse?


Date: 2015-10-07; view: 546.


A) Make summary of the text.

Read the text and insert articles where necessary.

Make summary of the seventh part of text 2.

Match each top-level domain name with the type of organization it denotes.

1. .aero a. Professional workers
2. .biz b. Cooperatives
3. .com c. Nonprofit organization
4. .coop d. Museums
5. .edu e. Businesses
6. .gov f. International organization
7. .info g. Individuals
8. .int h. Commercial
9. .mil i. Unrestricted use
10. .museum j. United States military
11. .name k. Nonmilitary agency, United States federal government
12. .net l. Educational
13. .org m. Air-transport industry
14. .pro n. Network provider

Here's __ good news ─ a total collapse of the Internet would be almost impossible. The Internet isn't __ magic box with an on/off switch. It's not even __ physical thing. It's __ collection of __ physical things and it's constantly changing. The Internet isn't __ same entity from one moment to __ next ─ machines are always joining or leaving __ Internet.

It's possible for parts of __ Internet to go __ offline. In fact, this happens all __ time. Whether it's __ particular server that crashes and needs to be rebooted or replaced or __ cable under __ ocean gets snagged by __ anchor, there are events that can disrupt Internet service. But __ effects tend to be isolated and temporary.

While there is such __ thing as the Internet backbone─ a collection of cables and servers that carry __ bulk of data across various networks ─ it's not centralized. There's no plug you could pull out from __ socket or a cable you could cut that would cripple __ Internet. For the Internet to experience __ global collapse, either __ protocols that allow machines to communicate would have to stop working for some reason or __ infrastructure itself would have to suffer massive damage.

Since __ protocols aren't likely to stop working spontaneously, we can rule out that eventuality. As for the massive damage scenario ─ that could happen. __ asteroid or comet could collide with __ Earth with enough force to destroy __ significant portion of the Internet's infrastructure. Overwhelming __ gamma radiation or electromagnetic fluctuations coming from __ sun might also do the trick. But in those scenarios, __ Earth itself would become __ lifeless hulk. At that stage it hardly matters whether or not you can log in to MySpace.

The positive way to look at this is to realize that __ men and women who helped design __ Internet created __ amazing tool that's remarkably stable. Even when sections of __ Internet have __ technical hiccup, __ rest carries on with __ business as usual. While __ collapse of __ Internet would be __ catastrophic event, it's not one you need to worry about.

(By Jonathan Strickland)


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Look through the seventh part of text 2 once more and mark the statements as true (T) or false (F). | A) Are these statements true or false?
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