Answer the following questions about the text.

1. Where was the first geothermal electric plant built?

2. When was the world’s first power plant using the ocean’s tides built?

3. When did the global energy situation begin to change significantly?

4. What did geologists and other scientists predict?

5. What can you say about Nuclear Power?

Match each word with the correct definition

1. geothermal energy a. electricity from sunlight

2. photovoltaic b. energy from heat inside the earth

3. fluctuations c. buildings and factories, e.g. electricity generating facilities.

4. facilities d. changes or variations

4. Are the following statements true or false?

1. In the 1890s, more electric and steam powered cars were sold than those using gasoline.

2. The global energy situation began to change significantly in the first half of the last century.

3. Oil prices per barrel decreased from about $5 in the 1960s to over $17 in October 1973.

4. France has continued to operate nuclear plants for 75 percent of its electricity.

5. The disposal of spent radioactive fuel remains a problem.

6. Photovoltaic (solar) cells were built as early as the 1890s.

Fill in the gaps.

1. Coal was the fuel of choice for _______, which were widely _____ in manufacturing and transportation.

2. In 1958, the Vanguard satellite _______ with solar photovoltaic cells.

3. By 1995, ______ was used for heat in over 50 percent of U.S. homes, and electricity ______ in 27 percent of them.

СРС 10

Read the text: Recent developments of energy

The future is bright if new technologies in alternative fuels are exploited wisely around the world. Every country can meet the challenging energy demands of the future if national and local governments dedicate themselves to building power plants that use these renewable energy sources. In the U. S., following the creation of the Department of Energy in 1977, several important renewable energy sources were developed for industrial and residential power. In 1980, a geothermal plant that generates 10 megawatts of electricity was built in Brawley, California. Also in California in the early 1980s, more than 15000 large wind generators with a combined capacity of 1,300 megawatts were installed near Palm Springs. The first commercial synthetic gas plant began operation in the state of North Dakota in 1983. After federal and state laws were passed giving tax credits for renewable energy users, manufacturing and shipments of solar panels increased by over 500 percent between 1982 and 1996. Tougher pollution laws gave an extra incentive to produce cleaner energy.

However, a drop in oil prices in the mid-1980s combined with government leaders more friendly to oil and gas companies than to alternative energy development policies led to the expiration of tax credits for solar collectors and the shutdown of the two largest solar dish plants. Still, there were signs for hope. By 1990, over 100 landfill methane power plants were in operation. Concerns about pollution and global warming have given operators of alternative energy plants added public support.

Let’s take closer look at how various renewable energy technologies are being used around the world and how they might be used more widely.

2. Answer the following questions:

1. When and where was geothermal plant built?

2. Why did manufacturing and shipments of solar panels increase between and 1982 and 1996?

3. Who gave an extra incentive to produce cleaner energy?

4. When did the first commercial synthetic gas plant begin operation?

5.What energy sources were developed for industrial and residential power?

СРС 11

1.Read the text: Computers

Computer is an electronic device that can receive a set of instructions called program and then carry out them. The modern world of high technology could not be possible without computers. Different types and sizes of comput­ers find uses throughout our society. They are used for the storage and handling of data, secret governmental files, information about banking transactions and so on. Computers have opened up a new era in manufacturing and they have enhanced modern communication systems. They are essential tools in almost every field of research, from constructing models of the universe to producing tomorrow's weather reports. Using of different databases and computer networks make available a great variety of information sources.

There are two main types of computers, analog and digital, although the term computer is often used to mean only the digital type, because this type of computer is widely used today.

That is why I am going to tell you about digital computers.

Everything that a digital computer does is based on one operation: the ability to determine: on or off, high voltage or low voltage or — in the case of numbers — 0 or 1 or do-called binary code. The speed at which the computer performs this simple act is called computer speed. Computer speeds are measured in Hertz or cycles per second. A computer with a «clock speed» of 2000 MHz is a fairly representative microcomputer today. It is capable of execut­ing 2000 million discrete operations per second. Nowadays microcomputers can perform from 800 to over 3000 million operations per second and supercomputers used in research and defense applications attain speeds of many billions of cycles per second.

Digital computer speed and calculating power are further enhanced by the amount of data handled during each cycle.

Except two main types of computers, analog and digital there are eight generations of digital computers or processing units. The first generation was represented by processing unit Intel 8086. The second generation central processing unit was represented by processing unit Intel 80286, used in IBM PC AT 286. The third generation is Intel 80386, used in IBM PC AT 386. The microprocessors of the fourth generation were used in computers IBM PC AT 486. There are also central processing units of the fifth generation, used in Intel Pentium 60 and Intel Pentium 66, central processing units of the sixth generation, used in computers Intel Pentium 75, 90,100 and 133. Few years ago appeared central processing units of seventh and eighth generations. They are much more powerful and can perform from 2000 to over 3000 million operations per second.

Vocabulary notes:

storage — хранение

handling — обработка

transaction — операция

essential — существенный

to enhance — повышать, увеличивать

network — сеть

digital — цифровой

to determine — определять

voltage — напряжение

source — источник

ability — способность, возможность

discrete operation — дискретное действие

to perform — выполнять, осуществлять

electronic device — электронное устройство

defense — оборона, защита

to receive — получать, принимать

to attain — достигать

set of instructions — набор/свод инструкций

amount of data — объем данных

to carry out — выполнять

except — за исключением, кроме

society — общество

processing unit — вычислительное устройство

2.Answer the questions:

1. What is computer?

2. What is the main purpose of all computers?

3. Where are computers used?

4. What is the index of computer speed?

5. What speeds do modern computers have?

6. How many generations of digital computer are there? 7. What is the first generation processing unit?

СРС 12

1.Read the text: Internet

Millions of people around the world use the Internet to search for and retrieve information on all sorts of topics in a wide variety of areas including the arts, business, government, humanities, news. Politics and recreation. People communicate through electronic mail (e-mail), discussion groups, chat channels and other means of informational exchange. They share information and make commercial and business transactions. All this activity is possible because tens of thousand of networks are connected to the Internet and exchange information in the same basic ways.

The World Wide Web (WWW) is a part of the Internet. But it's not a collection of networks. Rather, it is information that is connected or linked together like a web. You access thus information through one interface or toll called a Wed browser. The number of resources and services that are part of the World Wide Web is growing extremely fast. In 1996 there were more than 20 million users of the WWW. and more than half the information that is transferred across the Internet is accessed through the WWW. By using a computer terminal (hardware) connected to a network that is a part of the Internet, and by using a programme (software) to browse or retrieve information that is a part of the World Wide Web. the people connected to the Internet and World Wide Web through the local providers have access to a variety of information. Each browser provides a graphical interface. You move from place to place, from site to site on the Web by using a mouse to click on a portion of text, icon or region of map. These items are called hyperlinks or links. Each link you select represents a document, an image, a video clip or an audio file somewhere on the Internet. The user doesn't need to know where it is, the browser follows the link.

All sorts of things are available on the WWW. One can use Internet for recreational purposes. Many TV and radio stations broadcast live on the WWW. Essentially, if something can be put into digital format and stored in a computer, then it's available on the WWW. You can even visit museums, gardens and cities throughout the world, learn foreign languages and meet new friends. And, of course,you can play computer games through WWW, competing with partners from other countries and continents.

Just a little bit of exploring the World Wide Web will show you what a lot of use and fun it is.

Vocabulary notes:

World Wide Web- " Всемирная Паутина "

Variety-разнообразие, спектр

tо browse-рассматривать, разглядывать

browser-6payзep (программа поиска информации)

tо provide-o6eспечивать(чем-либо)

broadcast live-передавать в прямом эфире

tо link-соединять

hyperlink-гиперссылка

network-сеть

tо share-делить

recreation-развлечение

humanities-гуманитарные науки

business transactions-коммерческие операции

access-доступ

tо compete- соревноваться

2.Answer the questions:

1. What is Internet used for?

2. Why so many activities such as e-mail and business transactions are possible through the Internet?

3. What is World Wide Web?

4. What is Web browser?

5. What does a user need to have an access to the WWW?

6. What resources are available on the WWW?

7. What are hyperlinks?

8. What are the basic recreational applications-of WWW?

СРС 13

1.Read the text: Satelites and telecommunications

Our world is becoming an increasingly complex place in which, we are very dependent on other people and organizations. An event in some distant part of the globe can rapidly and significantly affect the quality of life in our home country.

This increasing dependence, on both a national and international scale, forced us to create systems that can respond immediately to dangers, enabling appropriate defensive or offensive actions to be taken. These systems are operating all around us in military, civil, commercial and industrial fields.

A worldwide system of satellites has been created and it is possible to transmit signals around the globe by bouncing them from one satellite to an earth station and then to another satellite and so on.

Originally designed to carry voice messages, they are able to carry hundreds of thousands of separate simulta­neous calls. These systems are being adopted to provide for business communications, including the transmission of voice and facsimile messages, data and video data.

It is probable that future wide use of satellites in the area of telecommunications will provide a great variety of information services to transmit directly into our homes, possibly including personalized electronic mail. The elec­tronic computer is at the heart of many such systems, but the role of telecommunications is not less important. There will be a further convergence between the technologies of computing and telecommunications. The change of this kind will lead us to the database culture, the cashless society, the office at home, the gigabit-per-second data network.

One cannot doubt that the economic and social impact of these concepts will be very significant. Already, advanced systems of communication are affecting both the layman and the technician.

The new global satellite-communication systems offer three kinds of service.

The first one is voice messages. Satellite telephones are able to make calls from anywhere on the Earth to anywhere else. That makes them especially useful to use in remote, third-world villages (some of which already use stationary satellite telephones), for explorers. Today's mobile phones depend on earth-bound transmitters, whose technical standards vary from country to country. Satellite telephones can solve this problem, but it is not a cheap service.

The second service is messaging. Satellite messages have the same global coverage as satellite telephones, but carry text alone, which is extremely useful for those with laptop computers. As we see, the Internet works in space too. The only problem for ordinary users is one-way transmissions. This problem is solved by using combine transmis­sions, when you make a call using land communications and receive ordered information through your satellite plate.

The third service is tracking. Voice and messaging systems also tell their users where they are to within a few hundred meters. Combined with the messaging service, the location service could help rescue teams, to find lost adventurers, the police to find stolen cars, exporters to follow the progress of cargoes and so on. Satellite systems provide better positioning information to anyone who has a receiver for their signals.

To my thinking, satellite method of communication is the future for all kind of telecommunications

Vocabulary notes:

increasingly — все больше и больше

complex — комплекс

dependent — подчиненный, зависящий

the globe — мир, земной шар

to affect — воздействовать

scale — масштаб

to force — заставлять, принуждать

to respond — отвечать, реагировать

immediately — немедленно, тотчас же

to enable — давать возможность или право

appropriate — подходящий, соответствующий

offensive — агрессивный, наступательный

worldwide system — всемирная система

to make (past made, p.p. made) call — звонить

to transmit — передавать, транслировать

remote — отдаленный, далекий; дистанционный

to bounce — зд. передавать по цепочке

explorer — исследователь

to design — разрабатывать, предназначать

to depend on — зависеть от

separate — отдельный

transmitter — передатчик

simultaneous — одновременный

to vary — изменяться, меняться, разнообразить

facsimile message — факсимильное послание, факс

to solve — решать

convergence — конвергенция, схождение в одной точке

coverage — покрытие, зона действия, охват

laptop — лептоп, небольшой портативный компьютер

to lead (past led, p.p. led) — вести, направлять, при водить

network — система, сеть

one-way transmission — одностороняя передача

to doubt — сомневаться

tracking — трекинг, отслеживание

impact — толчок, удар, импульс

within — в, в пределах

concept — концепция

rescue — спасение

signif icant—значительный, важный, существенный

layman — непрофессионал, любитель

stolen — украденный

to offer — предлагать

adventurer — искатель приключений, путеше-
receiver — приемник

2.Answer the questions:

1.Can some events in some distant part of the globe rapidly and significantly affect the quality of life in our
home country?

2.Why are we forced to create systems that can re­
spond immediately to dangers, enabling appropriate de
fensive or offensive actions to be taken nowadays?

3.Has a worldwide system of satellites been already
created?

4.What does a worldwide system of satellites pro­
vide?

5.What services do the new global satellite-commu­
nication systems offer?

СРС 14

1.Read the text: Hardware

What is hardware? Webster's dictionary gives us the following definition of the hardware the mechanical, magnetic, electronic, and electrical devices composing a computer system. Computer hardware can be divided into four categories:

1) input hardware

2) processing hardware

3) storage hardware
4)output hardware.

The purpose of the input hardware is to collect data and convert it into a form suitable for computer processing. The most common input device is a keyboard. Il looks very much like a typewriter. The mouse is a hand held device connected to the computer by small cable. As the mouse is rolled across the mouse pad, the cursor moves across the screen. When the cursor reaches the desired location, the user usually pushes a button on the mouse once or twice to signal a menu selection or a command to the computer.

The light pen uses a light sensitive photoelectric ceil to signal screen position to the computer. Another type of input hardware is optic-electronic scanner that is used to input graphics as well as typeset characters. Microphone and digital camera can be also used to input data into the computer.

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