SPEAKING/WRITING PRACTICE SECTION

1. Discuss the following questions.

1. What are the reasons for buying home computers?

2. What does being computer literate mean? How important is it to be computer literate?

3. How long did it take you to learn to use your computer?

4. Make a list of as many uses of the computer, or computer applications, as you can think of.

5. Does good knowledge of English help to operate the computer better?

6. Who can be called a computer wizard? Do you attribute his success to hard work or talent?

7.How might computers affect your future career?

8. How has technology changed your everyday life?

9. What new "gadgets" do you particularly like?

10. Have our lives always been improved, however? Have we become too passive? Are we too dependent on technology? How dangerous could it be?

11. Describe a kitchen gadget that you think should be invented. What would it do? Who would buy it?

12. How has the world benefited from the invention of the PC? What problems have accompanied the computer revolution?

13. A computer is only as good as its user and most people use only between10% and 20% of a computer's potential. What can be done about this?

14. Of all advantages that the computer has brought to the modern world, which is the most beneficial?

2. Go to www.computerhistory.org. Read through the landmarks in computer history and make a report on the most important dates, names and facts in computer history.

3. Complete the table below containing information about modern inventions. Add more inventions to the table.

Invention	Replacement	Advantage	Disadvantage
electricity
telephone	writing letters	less time	too slow
silicon chip
computer
cellular phone

4. Describe the diagram showing how the five functional units of the digital comput­er act together.

1) Input — to insert outside information into the machine; 2) Storage or memory — to store information and make it avail­able at the appropriate time; 3) Arithmetic-logical unit — to per­form the calculations; 4) Output — to remove data from the ma­chine to the outside world;

5) Control unit — to cause all parts of a computer to act as a team.

5. Discuss the two statements below and decide which you agree with.

A. 'The development of technology and mass media has given young people today a far greater awareness and understanding of culture than their parents.'

B. 'People spend so much more time nowadays involved in passive leisure pursuits such as watching television and playing computer games that they have far less interest in cultural activities than their parents and grandparents.'

6. Make a report on one of the following topics.

· To be or not to be computer literate? · Computer — a God's gift or a Devil's toy? · How will computers affect our lives in future? · Discoveries, inventions, new products, and their effects (good and evil).

· Describe the invention that has had the greatest effect on the 20^th century.

· If there were no computers they had to be thought out.

7. Write an essay on one of the following topics.

1. Most of us have seen advances in technology and have used objects that were not available just a few years earlier. People you know probably remember their family's first television set, their first ball-point pen, their first jet flight, their first video game, and their first use of a computer. Write about where you were and what you were doing when you were first introduced to something new in technology. What difference did it make to you and the people around you?

2. If someone could program a compu­ter robot (like the ones in Star Wars) to do five tasks for you on a regular basis, what would you want the robot to do, and why?

8. Using the picture below, describe a typical PC, its parts, essentials and their functions.