Vocabulary practice. 1. Which word does not belong to the group?

1. Which word does not belong to the group?

a) transportable, optical, susceptible, particle;

b) gates, retrieves, provides, handles;

c) storage, medium, magnetic, device;

d) converted, changed, transformed, stored;

e) transport, process, estimate, access;

f) disk, tape, drive, DVD;

2. Fill in the missing words choosing from the variants given.

1. A magnetic storage device uses a read-write head to magnetize … that represent data.

a) lens b) particles c) contents d) platters

2. Data on an optical storage medium, such as DVD, is stored as … and lands.

a)lands b) bits c) bytes d) pits

3. … time is the average time it takes a computer to locate data on a storage medium and read it.

a) revolution b) transporting c) valuable d) access

4. The laser creates dark spots in the dye layer that are read as ….

a) areas b) plates c) pits d) particles

5. Higher disk density provides increased storage ….

a) transformation b) capacity c) flexibility d) data

6. Hard disks are … to head crashes, so it is important to make backup copies.

a) susceptible b) optical c) retrievable d) transportable

3. Transform the following sentences without any change in meaning. Use the prompts as they are given (words in brackets, parts of sentences).

1. A storage device is the mechanical apparatus for recording and restoring data from a storage medium (retrieve).

The user ….

2. Hard disks should be operated and moved with care (handle, transport).

One ….

3. The translation of the differences between pits and lands into binary numbers is provided by the lens (translated).

The … between pits and lands into binary numbers ….

4. Revolving hard disk platters on the spindle allows the disk drive to position read-write heads over specific data (rotated).

To position read-write heads over specific data ….

5. High capacities of hard disk are available due to the high density of particles on the disk surface. (provides)

High density of particles ….

6. You can gauge hard disk drive speed in revolution per minute (pm). (to measure)

Revolution per minute ….

7. On many computers before data is actually processed, it is moved from a disk to RAM using the storage technology (processed, transfer).

Before data is actually …, ….

4. Fill in the gaps with appropriate words.

Personal computers use a variety of ___ technologies, including hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and flash drives. Each storage device essentially has a direct pipeline to a computer’s ___ so that data and instructions can move from a more permanent storage area to a temporary holding area and vice versa. Magnetic storage technology stores data by magnetizing microscopic ___ on the surface of a disk or tape. Optical storage technologies store data as a series of ___ and lands on the surface of a CD or DVD. ­­­­­­­___ ___ storage technology stores data by activating electrons in a microscopic grid of circuitry. A standard 3.5" floppy disk for a PC stores ___ MB of data. A hard disk provides multiple ___ for data storage. Optical storage technologies, such as CD- and DVD- ___, provide good data storage capacity.

Speaking. Discuss the following questions.

1. What are the basic components of a data storage system?

2. How does a storage system interact with other computer components?

3. How does magnetic storage work?

4. How does optical storage work?

5. What are the advantages of solid state storage?

6. What is floppy disk technology?

7. How does a hard disk work?

8. What’s the downside of hard disk storage?

9. What’s the purpose of a tape drive?

10. What is the difference between CD and DVD technology?

Text D

Pre-reading. Match the meaning of the following English words with their Russian equivalents.

Reading. Read the text and try to guess the meaning of the words in bold font. Check your variants in the dictionary.