Read the text and say if the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

1. The Internet doesn't interfere at all with people’s lives.

2. Most teenagers only have a few hours of computer time.

3. Internet nerds are teenagers who spend most of their time in front of the computer

4. The English language is not necessary to be successful on the Net.

Complete the following sentences with ideas from the text:

1. Nowadays the Internet has become tremendously _________________

2. Time spent on computers ____________________________________

Answer the following questions:

1. How does modern technology affect people's lives?

2. Why does the Net encircle the Globe?

3. How can people make a fortune in cyberspace?

Some people say the Internet can be dangerous. Others say that it can be educational.What do you think?

Текст 15

Internet

The Internet, a global computer network which embraces millions of users all over the world, began in the United States in 1969 as a military experiment It was designed to survive a nuclear war Information sent over the Internet takes the shortest path available from one computer to another Because of this, any two computers on the Internet will be able to stay in touch with each other as long as there is a single route between them. This technology is called packet switching Owing to this technology, if some computers on the network are knocked out (by a nuclear explosion, for exam­ple), information will just route around them One such packet-switching network which has already survived a war is the Iraqi computer network which was not knocked out during the Gulf War Most of the Internet host computers (more than 50 %) are in the United States, while the rest are located in more than 100 other countries Although the number of host computers can be counted fairly accurately, nobody knows exactly how many people use the Internet, there are millions worldwide, and their number is growing by thousands each month.

The most popular Internet service is e-mail Most of the people, who have access to the Internet, use the network only for sending and receiving e-mail messages How­ever, other popular services are available on the Internet reading USENET News, us­ing the World-Wide Web, telnet, FTP, and Gopher.

In many developing countries the Internet may provide businessmen with a reli­able alternative to the expensive and unreliable telecommunications systems of these countries Commercial users can communicate cheaply over the Internet with the rest of the world When they send e-mail messages, they only have to pay for phone calls to their local service providers, not for calls across their countries or around the world But who actually pays for sending e-mail messages over the Internet long distances, around the world. The answer is very simple users pay their service provider a monthly or hourly fee Part of this fee goes towards its costs to connect to a larger service provider, and part of the fee received by the larger provider goes to cover its cost of running a worldwide network of wires and wireless stations.

But saving money is only the first step If people see that they can make money from the Internet, commercial use of this network will drastically increase For exam­ple, some western architecture companies and garment centers already transmit their basic designs and concepts over the Internet into China, where they are reworked and refined by skilled - but inexpensive - Chinese computer-aided-design specialists.

However, some problems remain. The most important is security. When you send an e-mail message to somebody this message can travel through many different net­works and computers The data is constantly being directed towards its destination by special computers called routers However, because of this, it is possible to get into any of the computers along the route, intercept and even change the data being sent over the Internet In spite of the fact that there are many good encoding programs available, nearly all the information, being sent over the Internet is transmitted with­out any form of encoding. But when it becomes necessary to send important informa­tion over the network, these encoding programs may be useful Some American banks and companies even conduct transactions over the Internet. However, there are still both commercial and technical problems which will take time to be resolved.

Текст 16

Introducing the undisputed queen of competitions

Outside Rita Smallburn's home is parked a sparkling blue Renault Clio. Mrs Smallburn won it. It is the fifth car she has won. Inside her sitting room are a

video, television, compact disc system, three-piece suite, canteen of cutlery, decanter and glasses, silverware, scrabble and an enormous bottle of champagne: all prizes.

In her kitchen are a dishwasher, microwave, French saucepan set, toaster, coffee maker, electric carving knife, kettle, can opener and iron: more prizes.

Jin fact there is virtually nothing in Mrs Smallburn's entire house, apart from her dog, which she hasn't won.

'She did not actually win the house she and her family live in, but seven years ago she won another one worth £50,000 which she sold two years later for £100,000. For the last sixteen years she has been the 'Queen of Competitions or 'compers' as they are known in the trade. Locally she is known as Mrs Win-a-lot.

Since she gave up her job as a geography teacher sixteen years ago, Mrs Smallburn believes she has become much more skilled at winning competitions. 1 expect to win between twenty and forty per cent of the competitions I enter,' she says. 'But my winnings could vary enormously year by year. One year I might win £3,000. The next it could be £100,000. All her earnings are tax-free.

She enters only about twelve competitions a month now, down from a peak of about fifty when she was younger. Nowadays she is busy running a consultancy in which she shares her competition winning skills with others who would like to achieve success, but the postman's arrival is still a thrill. If her family wants something, she will try to win it. At the moment she is competing for a fax machine. She wouldn't dream of buying anything.

It is an odd though Mrs Smallburn denies it is an obsession. It's more like an extreme enthusiasm, she says. To work the thrill must be in the winning rather than the prizes. The disadvantage is the lack of freedom to buy what you choose. The dog is not allowed to have his favourite brand of pet food. He has to be content with a year's supply of another brand Mrs Smallburn won.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 2481