Expressions Definitions

1.a throwaway commodity a) estimate

2.access to smbd's money at b) work that way

machines c) the chief idea is

3.depend very heavily on d) electronic control of the engine

4.electronic engine management e) return to smth

5.every now and then f) go or drive away

6.feel at the machines mercy g) manage without the help of machines

7.hit the road h) take as true without further proof,

assume

8.pursue that route i) depend very much on

9.run on paper j) from time to time

10.shift back to smth l) smth that's good for nothing,

11.take for granted m) be dependent on the computers

12.take stock of k) money available because of the help of

13.the point is computers

XIV. Are you up to giving a right explanation?

It's a sort of a game, the game that develops student's abilities to express themselves. In some ways it helps students to plunge into English.

One of the students, a volunteer, is invited to take place at the teacher's table. He is facing the class and mustn't turn back and look at the blackboard. The other student with the rest of the company picks secretly out one of the statements given in this book and writes it on the blackboard.

Now the volunteer after getting some information from his colleagues tries to restore the statement.

The information concerns:

1. the number of words;

2. the main idea of the statement, if possible;

3. the meaning of each word of the statement. It is strictly prohibited to use the words written on the blackboard, but it is quite well to use synonyms and antonyms.

It's extremely desirable that everybody takes part in this game.

TEXT 13

STRAP ON SOME EYEPHONES

AND YOU ARE VIRTUALLY THERE

(1) One of the most exciting new areas of computer research is virtual reality. Having been featured in TV sitcoms as well as public television documentaries, virtual reality is merely an ambitious new style of computer interface. Virtual reality creates the illusion of being in an artificial world — one created by computers.

(2) Virtual reality visitors strap on a set of eye phones, 3-D goggles that are really individual computer screens for the eyes. Slipping on the rest of the gear allows you not only to see and hear, but also to sense your voyage. The world of virtual reality has been called cyberspace, a computer-enhanced fantasy world in which you move around and manipulate objects to your mind's content.

(3) When you move your head, magnetic sensors instruct the computer to refocus your eye phones to your new viewpoint. Sounds surround you, and a fiber-optic glove allows you to "manipulate" what you see. You may seek out strange new worlds, fight monsters in computer combat, or strap yourself into the seat of a Star Wars-type jet and scream through cyberspace, blasting all comers to oblivion (computer oblivion, at least). Or, with your stomach appropriately settled, you might even try out the most incredible roller coaster ride you will ever take in your life.

(4) For the disabled, virtual reality promises a new form of freedom. Consider the wheelchair bound paraplegic child who is suddenly able to use virtual reality gear to take part in games like baseball or basketball. Research funded by the government takes a military point of view, investigating the possibility of sending robots into the real conflict while human beings don cyberspace gear to guide them from back in the lab.

(5) Spectrum Holobyte, a computer games development company, announced its first virtual reality computer game for the home during 1991 Christmas season. Imagine yourself suddenly clutching your handheld laser pistol as a giant bird swoops right at you from the age of dinosaurs! Your laser shot goes astray, and you feel yourself suddenly lifted off the ground and carried higher and higher. That's enough - for some of us it can be virtually too real.

EXERCISES

I. Define the main idea of the text:

1.Virtual reality and how it affects people’s life.

2.Advantages and disadvantages of virtual reality.

3.Virtual reality as the way of exploring the world.

4.Eyephones and their functions.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1730