Комунікативна практика. First listen to the following conversation as an example and then practice your own conversation with you partner

Порівняння об’єктів

First listen to the following conversation as an example and then practice your own conversation with you partner. Use adjectives and adverbs including comparative and superlative forms as often as you can.

A: What city do you like, Ann?

B: Kyiv is the best.

A: Why?

B: It's exciting. It's bigger. The buildings are taller. The people are livelier.

A: I understand what do you mean, but I like Poltava better.

B: Why is that?

A: Well, it’s slower, it’s smaller, and it’s cosier.

B: OK. You know as they say, “The east, the west, the home is best”.

Exercise. Practice conversation with you partner following example. Use adjectives and adverbs including comparative and superlative forms.

Вправи для самостійної роботи

Exercise 1. Translate the following text into Ukrainian (Russian).

First Generation Computers were characterized by the fact that operating instructions were made-to-order for the specific task for which the computer was to be used. Each computer had a different binary-coded program called a machine language that told it how to operate. This made the computer difficult to program and limited its versatility and speed. Other distinctive features of first generation computers were the use of vacuum tubes (responsible for their breathtaking size) and magnetic drums for data storage.

By 1948, the invention of the transistor greatly changed the computer’s development. The transistor replaced the large, cumbersome vacuum tube in televisions, radios and computers. As a result, the size of electronic machinery has been shrinking ever since (Second Generation Computers, 1956-1963). The transistor was at work in the computer by 1956. Coupled with early advances in magnetic-core memory, transistors led to second generation computers that were smaller, faster, more reliable and more energy-efficient than their predecessors. The first large-scale machines to take advantage of this transistor technology were early supercomputers, Stretch by IBM and LARC by Sperry-Rand. These computers, both developed for atomic energy laboratories, could handle an enormous amount of data, a capability much in demand by atomic scientists. The machines were costly, however, and tended to be too powerful for the business sector’s computing needs, thereby limiting their attractiveness. Only two LARCs were ever installed: one in the Lawrence Radiation Labs in Livermore, California, for which the computer was named (Livermore Atomic Research Computer) and the other at the U.S. Navy Research and Development Center. Second generation computers replaced machine language with assembly language, allowing abbreviated programming codes to replace long, difficult binary codes.

Throughout the early 1960’s, there were a number of commercially successful second generation computers used in business, universities, and government from companies such as Burroughs, Control Data, IBM, Sperry-Rand, and others. These second generation computers were also of solid state design, and contained transistors in place of vacuum tubes. They also contained all the components we associate with the modern day computer: printers, tape storage, disk storage, memory, operating systems, and stored programs. One important example was the IBM 1401, which was universally accepted throughout industry, and is considered by many to be the Model T of the computer industry. By 1965, most large business routinely processed financial information using second generation computers.

It was the stored program and programming language that gave computers the flexibility to finally be cost effective and productive for business use. The stored program concept meant that instructions to run a computer for a specific function (known as a program) were held inside the computer’s memory, and could quickly be replaced by a different set of instructions for a different function. A computer could print customer invoices and minutes later design products or calculate paychecks. More sophisticated high-level languages such as COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) and FORTRAN (Formula Translator) came into common use during this time, and have expanded to the current day. These languages replaced cryptic binary machine code with words, sentences, and mathematical formulas, making it much easier to program a computer. New types of careers (programmer, analyst, and computer systems expert) and the entire software industry began with second generation computers.

Exercise 2. Use vocabulary from Exercise 1 to complete the sentences below.

1) Programs fall into two major classes: ___________ programs and __________ systems.

2) ______________ is used in artificial intelligence research and to perform such tasks as machine translation, process control, handwriting recognition, and weather forecasting.

3) Ceramic metal-oxide compounds containing rare earth elements were found to be _____________ at temperatures high enough to permit using liquid nitrogen as a coolant.

4) Dialog between the ________ and the computer is usually accomplished by command-line or graphical ________ interfaces (GUIs).

5) News reporters can compose news stories on portable PCs, called _________, and electronically submit these stories from remote locations.

Lesson 7