Check the transcription in the dictionary and read the words listed below.

Nouns

equipment, project, research, expertise, competition, user, successor

Verbs

finance, clack, capitalize, threaten, switch, add

Adjectives

digital, current, heavy, peripheral, entire, previous, compatible

7. Read and translate the collocations:

current name, fourth-rank computer producer, punch-card technology, key-punch machine, software and hardware, high-performance supercomputer market, fast- selling model, room-sized mainframe computer

Match the antonyms.

Verbs:

9. Before reading the passage "The Rise of IBM" read the italicised sentences of the previous text, highlighting the main stages of computer development. What facts are of interest to you?

THE RISE OF IBM

IBM started in the late nineteenth century as manufacturer of electromechanical office tabulating equipment: the company took its current name in 1924. It financed one of the first digital computers, a clacking electromechanical monster known as Mark I, in 1943. IBM's first president Thomas Watson, Sr., commissioned the project, possibly as an expensive publicity stunt - research, advertising, and publicity-all came out of the same budget in those days. IBM did not immediately enter the computer business after the war and did not deliver its first computer until 1953. In 1954 IBM was only the fourth-ranked computer producer, well behind computer industry pioneer - Radio Corporation of America (RCA). That year IBM introduced the Model 650, the first computer to utilize punch-card technology.

Over the next decade, IBM made heavy investments in research and development under Thomas Watson, Jr., who took over from his father as IBM president in the mid-1950s. IBM capitalized on its manufacturing expertise to produce a full line of peripheral equipment: printers terminals, keypunch machines and card sorters that brought enormous profits for IBM and unbeatable competition for other computer manufacturers.

By the mid-1950s, IBM threatened to dominate the entire computer industry with its fast-selling Model 650. IBM also offered its computers for sale for the first time instead of renting them as it previously had insisted. This allowed leasing companies to buy computer equipment from IBM and then rent it to computer users at prices lower than IBM itself could charge.

These changes opened up competition in the computer services and equipment leasing markets.

In April 1964 IBM introduced the Model 360, the first computer that came in a variety of sizes and that was compatible with many different applications. Software and peripheral devices that worked on any one of the versions also worked on the others and were also "backward compatible" with earlier IBM models. Before, users had to start over with entirely new software, printers, terminals and so on, whenever they switched to a larger computer or added a new application. The Model 360 and its successor, the Model 370, led the company to dominance of both U.S. and international markets.

IBM's enormous success with room-sized mainframe computers eventually proved its undoing. It made unsuccessful entries into many of the specialized computer markets that later emerged. IBM abandoned the high-performance supercomputer market in the 1960s, and it entirely missed the minicomputer trend, pioneered in the early 1960s by Digital Equipment Corporation.

By the time IBM came out with its own models, minicomputers were about to be made obsolete by another new product that IBM ultimately failed to capitalize on the desktop-sized personal computer.

10. Translate the following words and word-combinations into Ukrainian:

To mix; to have a chance; mistakes in programs; to be corrected; to type a program; syntax error; mistyping; keyword; misuses; to move a cursor; to run the program; error message; to continue; the line.

11. Translate the following sentences into Ukrainian paying attention to the Modal Verbs with the Perfect Infinitive:

The earliest life forms ought to have appeared over three billion years ago. 2. Chance mutations may not always have been successful. 3. The tropical zone should have suffered most of the process of erosion. 4. The condensation theory proposes that the Sun could have formed from a large cloud of dust and gas. 5. The decay of radioactive elements ought to have heated the Earth until its internal temperature rose to about 7000 C. 6. A generation ago it may have been restricted discussion of environmental modifications of fauna, flora and soil. 7. In nature genetic experiments must have been constantly carried out.

12. Translate the following sentences into Ukrainian paying attention to the Infinitive Passive Voice:

These substances may be used n agriculture. 2. The properties of this element must be described in detail. 3. These distances can be measured with great accuracy. 4. This phenomenon cannot be observed in nature. 5. This theorem can be easily proved. 6. A large number f experiments had to be made on electrons of the given speed. 7. It is to be assumed that the results obtained will influence greatly the development. 8. Lectures in organic chemistry must be attended by all the students of chemical department. 9. A great number of experiments had to be made to obtain the required data.

13. True or false? Find sentences in the text that support your point of view.

1.IBM started in the late twentieth century as manufacturer of electromechanical office tabulating equipment.

2.IBM took its current name in 1924.

3.IBM immediately entered the computer business after the war.

4.IBM always was the first-ranked computer producer.

5.By the mid 1950s, IBM threatened to dominate the entire computer industry with its fast-selling Model 650.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1629