Teleworking

1. Teleworking includes the whole range of work activities, all of which mean working remotely from an employer or normally expected place of work. Such work generally includes the electronic processing of information, the results of which are sent to the employer, usually by a telecommunications link.

2. The advances in the computer technology since the early 1960s gave a lot of opportunities for people working in this field. They are typically computer professionals, such as system analysts and programmers, who can work at home. And teleworking is perfect for them. Some parts of Britain are isolated from the rest of the country and teleworking was introduced in order to overcome the problem of rural isolation. British Telecom is supporting the development of such telecommunication centers in Derbyshire and the Highlands and islands of Scotland.

3. Not all jobs are suitable for teleworking. The jobs that depend on personal “face-to-face”contact or need “hands on” operation cannot be done by a teleworker. This includes jobs such as receptionist, counter clerk and makers of goods that require complex machinery to produce. Jobs suitable for teleworking are mostly those that are connected with the handling, processing and transforming of information. In Britain the number of people employed in this type of information intensive job is growing significantly from day to day.

4. The main advantage to teleworkers is that less time, money and effort are spent on travelling to and from the workplace. It provides a wider choice of areas to live if the job is not connected with a certain geographical area. The flexibility that teleworking will give you with working hours is a great advantage for parents with young children. It can also be attractive for those who care for elderly or disabled relatives. Retired people may also use teleworking as a way of working part-time.

VI. Say if the following statements are true or false. Correct the false statements.

1. Teleworking means working remotely from an employer.

2. Specialists employed in the field of teleworking are usually office workers who cannot work at home.

3. Teleworking appeared in Brifain to maintain rural isolation.

4. Jobs done by teleworkers are connected with the electronic processing of information.

5. The main advantage is that more time, money and effort are spent on travelling to and from the workplace.

6. In Britain the number of people working in this field is decreasing significantly.

7. Teleworking provides people with flexibility.

VII. Divide the text into logical parts and find the topical sentences in each part.

VIII. Give a short summary of text B.

Part C

I. Read the following text and entitle it.

1. 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 thousands of network are connected to the Internet and exchange information in the same basic ways.

2. 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 this information through one interface or tool called a Web 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 program (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 a map. These items are called hyper-links 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.

3. 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, 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 much of use and fun it is.

Notes:

retrieve – извлекать

recreation – развлечение

business transactions – коммерческие операции

broadcast live – передавать в прямом эфире

II. Read the text and answer the questions.

1. What is the Internet used for?

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

3. What is the World Wide Web?

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

5. What are hyper-links?

6. What are the basic recreational applications of the WWW?

III. Find the place in paragraph 2 containing the information about facilities required to have an access to the WWW.

IV. Give the main points of the text in 5-6 sentences.

UNIT 7

Part A

Word List

I. Study the following words and choose

a) nouns

b ) adjectives

II. Arrange the words of the two groups in pairs:

a) with similar meaning

1) happen, speed, receive, devise, considerable, unobservable, spread, similar, show, detect, occupation, oscillate, cordless, join, observe

2) alike, vibrate, notice, propagate, wireless, piece together, demonstrate, velocity, profession, occur, obtain, important, perceive, invent, imperceptible

b) with contrary meaning

1) different, transmitter, earliest, inward, easy, absence, standing, finally, leave, low, near, rapidly, dim, visible, detailed

2) clear, return, unobservable, slowly, primarily, essential, distant, difficult, presence, similar, receiver, high, latest, moving, outward

III. Match the words with their definitions.

IV. Study the text and try to understand all details.

RADIO

1. Early in the 19^th century, Michael Faraday, an English physicist, demonstrated that an electric current can produce a local magnetic field and that the energy of this field will return to the current when the current is stopped or changed. James Clerk Maxwell, professor of experimental physics at Cambridge, in 1864 proved mathematically that any electrical disturbance could produce an effect at a considerable distance from the point at which it occurred and predicted that electromagnetic energy could travel outward from a source as waves moving at the speed of light.

2. At the time of Maxwell’s prediction there was no known means of propagating or detecting the presence of electromagnetic waves in space. It was not until about 1888 that Maxwell’s theory was tested by Heinrich Hertz, the famous German physicist, who demonstrated that Maxwell’s predictions were true at least over short distances.

3. Radio aroused worldwide excitement in December 1901, when Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian physicist, received the first transatlantic radio signals in St. John’s, Newfoundland, sent from a transmitter in England.

4. Radio messages and signals travel across space by way of electromagnetic waves. Light is another type of electromagnetic wave, as are X rays, gamma rays, and cosmic rays. Since it is difficult for humans to perceive the action of these unobservable waves, electromagnetic wave action is often compared to that of water waves. Like water waves, radio waves also radiate away from a center. They can travel through the air and through a vacuum. Like light waves radio waves travel in straight lines at a velocity of about 300,000 kilometres (186,000miles) per second and have amplitudes that vary cyclically with time; that is they oscillate from a zero amplitude to a maximum and back again. The number of times the cycle is repeated in one second is called the frequency in cycles per second, and the time taken to complete one cycle is sometimes called the period. To commemorate Heinrich Herts a frequency of one cycle per second is called one hertz. The distance from one wave crest to the next is known as the wavelength. Wavelength and frequency are related. Dividing the speed of the electromagnetic wave by the wavelength gives the frequency.

5. From 1920 onward radio made phenomenal progress through research activities in Europe, North America, and Asia. The invention of the electron tube and later the transistor (1948) made possible remarkable developments.

Notes:

V. Say whether the following statements are true or false.

1. Michael Faraday was the first to notice the existence of a local magnetic field produced by an electric current.

2. James Maxwell proved experimentally that electromagnetic energy could travel outward from a source.

3. Maxwell’s theory was tested by Heinrich Hertz in 1888.

4. The first transatlantic radio signals were received early in the 20^th century.

5. X rays, gamma and cosmic rays are not the type of electromagnetic waves.

6. The number of times the cycle is repeated is called the period.

7. Dividing the frequency of the electromagnetic wave by the wavelength gives the speed.

VI. Complete the following sentences choosing the most suitable variant.

1. Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian physicist, … the first transatlantic radio signals in St.John’s, Newf. (transmitted, received, detected, produced)

2. Electromagnetic energy can travel outward from a … as waves moving at the speed of light. (point, way, field, source)

3. Maxwell’s prediction was … by Heinrich Hertz, the famous German physicist. (obtained, compared, sent, tested)

4. The energy of this field will … to the current when the current is stopped or changed. (come back, occur, start, leave)

5. He demonstrated that Maxwell’s predictions were (wrong, known, correct, considerable)

6. Wavelength and frequency are … (relayed, rotated, related, removed)

7. The … of the electron tube and later the transistor made possible remarkable developments. (find, discovery, invention, opening)

VII. Read the first sentence of the text and mark pauses. Divide it into sense groups, find out the means of connection between these sense groups and between the words in each group.

VIII. In paragraphs 2 and 4 find the information about the scientist who made a great contribution to the development of radio.

IX. In paragraph 4 find English equivalents of the following words and word combinations.

Исходить из центра, циклично варьируют по времени, воспринять действие этих невидимых волн, частота оборотов в секунду, расстояние от гребня одной волны до гребня другой, распространяться в воздушной среде и вакууме, разделить скорость электромагнитной волны на длину волны, колебаться от нулевой амплитуды до максимума и обратно, подобно световым волнам, часто сравнивают с водяными волнами, радиоволны распространяются по прямой.

X. Answer the following questions on text A.

1. What demonstrations did Michael Faraday make at the beginning of the 19^th century?

2. What’s the essence of Maxwell’s prediction?

3. Why couldn’t his theory be proved in those days?

4. When did radio signals cross the ocean?

5. What other types of electromagnetic waves can you name?

6. What is the speed of travel of radio waves?

7. In what way could you define the frequency and wavelength?

8. How are they related?

9. When did radio make phenomenal progress?

XI. Make an outline of the text.

XII. Speak about the history of radio and its basic physical properties.

Part B

I. Look through the list of English words and their Russian equivalents facilitating reading text B.

II. Define the meaning of the “x” words:

1) rotate: rotation = вращаться: х

2) suit: suitable = подходить: х

3) perforate: perforation = перфорировать: х

4) respect: respective = отношение, касательство: х

5) television: televise = телевидение: х

6) synchronous: synchronize = синхронный: х

7) project: projection = проектировать: х

8) resolve: resolution = решать: х

9) broadcast: broadcasting = передавать по радио: х

10) bright: brightness = яркий: х

11) generate: generator = порождать: х

12) view: viewer = смотреть: х

13) thick: thickness = толстый, плотный: х

14) limit: limitation = ограничивать: х

III. Complete the sentences with the given words:

overwhelming, increased, holes, proposed, the advent, promoted, the picture, equal to, followed with, produced

1. The number of scanned lines was ….. the number of perforations and each rotation of the disk …… a television frame.

2. John Logie Baird successfully …… a television system based on the Nipkow principle.

3. Inventors ……. the public demand for television before …… of radio broadcasting.

4. The EM 1 system won …….

5. In the 1920's, Alan A. Campbell-Swinton …… a system that would use CRT's displaying ……. at the receiver.

6. An American inventor, Ch. Jenkins, …… a rotating ring, whose thickness varied and ……. around its circumference.

7. The scanner was a rotating disk with …… arranged in a spiral around its edge.

IV. Choose:

a) nouns

b) verbs

c) adjectives

V. Read the text and define its main idea.