Questions. · Do you feel impatient when the computer boots up?

· Do you feel impatient when the computer boots up?

· What makes the PCs and Macs look like a box of cotton wads to the author?

· How long does it take you to get alert in the morning when you wake up? What do the DOS commands have to do with this?

· What does the author mean by the phrase “Quick response, slow reaction”? How does the earthquake episode illustrate the idea?

· What is the author’s central idea? What is the message of the text? Find the key phrase of the text?

· Do you agree with the author? Give your arguments for or against his position.

Exercise 2. Find Russian equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

- boot up

- in response to

- go on record

- operating a computer

- capacity

- a huge memory cache

- is not very good at

- issuing commands

- to check email

- to jump at the first surge of electricity

- stay groggy

- hook up

- register me

- third-rate system

Exercise 3. Find Russian equivalents for the following words and word combinations:

A. a component, system settings, the jargon of computing, health and safety issues, a desktop (portable, powerful) computer, PDA, word processing, spreadsheet, to download;

B. a floppy disc, a drive, obsolete, to hold up to 1.44 mb of information, a standalone computer, a computer on a network, Hard Disk Drive (HDD), data, CD ROM, to install, software, to ship with a CD­R player (a ‘burner’), digital versatile disc/digital video disc­Recordable;

C. a character, a bit, a byte (Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte);

D. a printer, a LaserJet, an Inkjet, a photocopier, high quality graphics and text, a mouse, an integral part, to point and click, a keyboard, to input data, keyboard layout standards, keys, function keys, a scanner, imaging software;

E. a cable, a port, parallel ports, Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, to transfer data, to transmit data, to plug in to a USB port, Plug and Play [PnP] technology, to restart, a monitor, a Video Graphics Array (VGA) cable;

F. CD Speeds 2X Mbps RPM (Revolutions per minute)

G. to press, the ON button, to login, a login name, a password, to load up, the Desktop, to close down, to click, a Start button, to select, to turn off;

H. a standalone PC, network permissions, to grant the rights to, a network administrator, to right click, to adjust, a drop down box, to type in, to apply, the Control Panel, a slider, to turn the sound up and down, to adjust the settings to less or more;

I. to compress, a file, to store, archive files, email, a trial version, a setup icon, to double click, to accept, the default directory, to activate the program, to navigate to the file;