An_Intermediate_Course_in_English_for_Co.pdf

María Carbonell Olivares Luz Gil Salom Begoña Montero Fleta Carmen Pérez Sabater Carmen Soler Monreal Edmund Turney

An Intermediate Course in English for Computing

Departamento de Lingüística Aplicada

Escuela Técnica Superior de Informática Aplicada

Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

EDITORIAL UPV

Ref.

©

Introduction

An Intermediate Course in English for Computing is aimed at students enrolled in Computing degrees. It is devised as a textbook to be used mainly in the classroom, although some parts of it may be used for private study. The aim of this course is twofold: to improve reading skills through extensive practice, and to consolidate and improve grammar use. To these ends, this textbook presents the student with a collection of texts on a range of topics of general interest on computing. On the other hand, it provides a review of grammar and vocabulary at an intermediate level, and expands on them to help students to find their way about the English used in the field of computing.

This textbook is organized in two sections. The first one, “Reading Practice”, consists of eight reading units in which texts are exploited through a variety of tasks, such as comprehension, vocabulary and translation exercises. Most of the texts have been especially written for language learners, but some authentic texts have also been included. The second part, “Language Practice”, includes nine units on crucial language topics. A typical language practice unit contains a presentation of the language point in question, where it is reviewed and new structures and forms are introduced, and a series of tasks to practice them.

Reading tasks provide practice of reading strategies, but also of technical and semi- technical vocabulary. This textbook also pays special attention to grammatical structures which are typical of the written language, as most students of computing will have to read texts in English at some time during their degree courses.

An Intermediate Course in English for Computing: Keys is a separate booklet that contains the keys to the exercises.

CONTENTS

Reading Practice …………………………………………………………

Unit 1. Psychology and Computing …………………………………………… Unit 2. New Input Technologies ………………………………………………

Unit 3. Colour Printing ……………………………………………………… Unit 4. Mechanical Athletes Totter Towards Olympic Glory ………………… Unit 5. Memory Technologies ……………………………………………….… Unit 6. Operating Systems ……………………………………………………

Unit 7. Networks …………………………………………………… …… Unit 8. Multiprocessors …………………………………………………

…

…

Language Practice ………………………………………………………

A. Comparison …………………………………………………………… …

B. The Tense System: Present, Future and Past …………………………………

C. Prepositions ……………………………

Progress Test 1 ………….……………………………………………………

D. Relatives ……………………………………………………………………

E. Linking Devices ……………………………………………………………

………………… Progress Test 2 ………………….……………………………………………

F. Conditionals ……………………………………………

…………………………………

G. The Passive Voice …………………………………………………………

H. Modal Verbs

I. Multiword Verbs …………………………………………………………… Progress Test 3 …………………… …………………………………………

……………………………………………………………….

Glossary of Technical Terms ………………………………….…………

READING PRACTICE

Unit 1. Psychology and Computing

3

Unit 1

Psychology and Computing

A. Reading Practice

It may seem that two disciplines like computing and the psychology of reading have little in common. However psychology in general has been profoundly influenced by computing and artificial intelligence. The basic assumption of cognitive psychology is that the mind can be described as if it were a computer, albeit a rather strange one:

5

one widely accepted view is that the mind is a serial von Neumann virtual machine implemented on massively parallel hardware.

In the psychology of reading in particular a number of concepts have been imported from computer science. For example it has become normal to talk about two basic strategies for interpreting a written text: bottom-up strategies and top-down

10

strategies. If a reader uses a bottom-up strategy she interprets the signs on paper to construct her interpretation of a text. If she uses context or her knowledge of the world to work out meaning, she is said to follow a top-down strategy. The importance of this background knowledge in the reading process has been evident since, at least, the 1930s, but the first attempts to formalize its contribution to the understanding of

15

new information were made in the sixties by computer scientists working in the field of artificial intelligence. In AI this back-up information into which details of new information are fitted receives several names such as scripts, mental models or, more commonly frames.

In the seventies a number of important psychologists held that top-down strategies

20

were the most fundamental in the reading process. They claimed that the reader only refers to the text to confirm or disconfirm her hypotheses. Empirical evidence has shown that this is not true. Currently psychologists believe that both top-down and bottom-up processes are fundamental to reading and that good readers are characterised by automatic word recognition. Moreover good readers are more flexible

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in their approach to reading, they adopt different reading strategies for different texts and different purposes. The extensive use of top-down strategies is now known to be a characteristic of poor readers.

If we apply these findings to the situation of people learning to read in a second or foreign language, we can see that one of the main problems they will come up

30

against will be the acquisition of a large vocabulary that they can recognise automatically. The best way to attain a large vocabulary is by reading as much as possible. It also follows that a person studying a second language must have a thorough command of the grammatical system of the language they are studying. It is likely that a good reader who is learning to read in a second language will use top-

35

down strategies more extensively than she would if she were reading in her first language. We hope that this text will help you to organize your study of English at our University.

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1.

Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text you have just read. If they are false, you must change them so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.

1.

Although computing has influenced cognitive psychology, it has not had an important influence on the psychology of reading.

2.

Today we know that good readers make exclusive use of bottom-up strategies to extract meaning from texts.

3.

In the past investigators believed that top-down strategies were basic to the reading process.

4.

Poor readers use top-down strategies too often.

5.

A good reader who is reading in a second language will probably use more top-down strategies than he does in his first language.

2.

What words in the text do the following words refer to?

1.

it (l. 4)

2.

it (l. 8)

3.

she (l. 10)

4.

its (l. 14)

5.

they (l. 33)

6.

it (l. 33)

3.

Give synonyms for the following expressions:

1.

However (l. 2)


5

2. profoundly (l. 2)

3. albeit (l. 4)

4. widely (l. 5)

5. concepts (l. 7)

6. uses (l. 10)

7. construct (l. 11)

8. work out (l. 12)

9. commonly (l. 18)

10. held (l. 19)

11. shown (l. 22)

12. Moreover (l. 24)

13. attain (l. 31)

14. likely (l. 34)

4. Cloze. Read the following text and fill in the gaps with suitable words from the box.

on the other hand computer scientists computer science

argue

about

field

goes on

means

behavior

to

approach

the mind

but rather

whether

each one

Cognitive Science: At the Crossroads of Computers and the Mind

[…] First, what exactly is cognitive science? Cognitive science is the study of the

mind. The problem is that mind (1) …………………………… different things to different

people. To a computer scientist, (2) …………………………… might be something that can

be simulated through software or hardware. So, cognitive science would be

synonymous with artificial intelligence. (3) ……………………………, to a cognitive

psychologist, the mind is the key to understanding human or animal behavior. (4)

…………………………… a cognitive neuroscientist, the mind is (5) …………………………… the

brain and its neurological underpinnings. To a philosopher of mind, cognitive

6


science is the culmination of thousands of years of philosophical tradition. To a cognitive linguist, cognitive science is about how thinking and language interact. The list (6) ……………………………. There are countless subfields of cognitive science, and (7) …………………………… has a unique view on what cognitive science is.

Cognitive science as a (8) …………………………… has been around since the 1950s, when (9) …………………………… teamed up with psychologists and linguists to develop models of the human mind and human (10) ……………………………. What emerged was the information processing (11) …………………………… to human cognition, in which the mind was viewed as a type of central processor of serial mental operations. This model of the mind borrowed heavily from the functioning of computer hardware. The information processing approach has been the dominant approach in cognitive science, although it has recently seen strong challenges from neural network modeling. Neural network modelers (12) …………………………… that the mind does not process information like a single central processing unit (13) …………………………… like a massively parallel system of simple processors. Ultimately, (14) …………………………… cognitive science is seen from a classical information processing or a neural network perspective, it's still the study of the mind, and it still builds heavily on an alliance between psychological and (15) …………………………… principles. […]

By Ronald Laurids Boring. http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds10-2/intro.html

Copyright of the original text: © 2004, The Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.

5. Translate the following sentences taken from the text:

1. The basic assumption of cognitive psychology is that the mind can be described as if it were a computer.

2. The extensive use of top-down strategies is now known to be a characteristic of poor readers.

3. Empirical evidence has shown that this is not true. Currently psychologists believe that both top-down and bottom-up processes are fundamental to reading and that good readers are characterised by automatic word recognition.


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B. Article usage: Generic reference

The way we use articles with nouns having generic reference varies according to the type of noun. More specifically article usage varies depending on whether the noun is:

countable or non-countable (if countable) singular or plural

Count nouns have a natural plural form, non-count nouns do not:

device

devices

mouse

mice

information

computing

There is a clear contrast between non-count nouns and plural nouns, on the one hand, and count singular nouns, on the other:

Computing has changed our world. Ø Computers have changed our world.

The computer has changed our world.

When a noun is modified (e.g. by an adjective) and the modifier is placed BEFORE the noun we still usually have a context of generic reference:

Digital computers have changed our world. Conventional serial von-Neumann computers have changed our world.

However when a noun is modified by elements placed AFTER the noun, there tends to be a context of specific reference:

(The) conventional serial computers based on the von-Neumann architecture have changed our world.

PREmodification  generic reference  article:

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Von-Neumann computers have changed our world

POSTmodification TENDS to create specific reference:

(The) computers based on the von-Neumann architecture have changed our world.

EXCEPTIONS

A few adjectives, because of their meaning, imply specific reference:

The best solutions The first solutions The only problems The next generation The last problems The same solutions

Some non count nouns have “special” plural forms:

I like whisky (the substance).

I’d like two whiskies (two typical quantities of X).

I like wine (the substance).

I like young wines (kinds of wine).

1. Fill in the blanks with "the", "a(n)" or “ø”.

1. ………… mice and ………… scanners are ………… input devices.

2. ………… mouse is ………… pointing device, but ………… scanner is not.

3. ………… scanner is used to input text and graphics.

4. ………… scanners can be divided into ………… hand-held scanners and ………… desktop scanners.

5. ………… hand-held scanner is quite cheap, but ………… desktop scanners are not.

2. Read the through the text below and fill in the blanks with "the", "a(n)" or “ø”.

High Level Languages


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I. Essentially (1)

program is (2)

form of communication. Its main purpose is

to communicate (3)

description of (4)

process, designed by (5)

programmer, to (6)

processor which executes it. For (7)

successful

communication it is necessary to have (8)

language which (9)

programmers

and (10)

can only understand (12)

instruction is (14) can, with (16)

code, it is completely unsatisfactory for the production of large and reliable programs.

processors can understand. (11)

central processor of a computer

machine code each

programmer

machine code. In (13)

sequence of zeroes and ones. Although (15)

considerable effort, understand and write programs in machine

language

which (3)

programs written in that language into machine code for (5)

natural languages, like English are not suitable for this purpose. It has been more

satisfactory to design (7)

special languages, which are called (8)

special languages. In fact there are many of these

II. One solution to this problem is (1)

translation. We can use (2)

programmer can understand easily and then translate (4)

execution. (6)

high level programming languages.

III. 1)

first advantage of (2)

facilities provided by such (4)

well designed high level language is that (3) language can be adapted to suit (5)

different application areas. For example one language can be designed for (6) mathematical computing with a high numerical content, another for (7)

commercial applications in which large amounts of (8)

need to be processed and a third for applications in which (9)

simulate another system like (10)

non-numeric information computer is used to

airplane.

IV.

(1)

other

advantage of (2)

high level programming languages is that (3)

program is easy to read and its structure is clear. This is important because

programmer

writing a large program is (4)

needs to think clearly about his\her work.

difficult intellectual task and (5)

V. Finally, with (1)

high level languages, it is possible to include features that

help (2)

programmer to avoid making errors and that aid (3)

detection of

those errors which are in fact made. Since (4)

correctness of (5)

finished

product is very important and (6)

a natural tendency to make errors, the inclusion of these features is (8)

advantage.

programmer is (7)

human being, who has

major

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C. Translation

Translate into English the following sentences:

1.

La psicología ha utilizado diferentes paradigmas de investigación de la informática.

2.

El cerebro funciona sobre la base del paralelismo masivo.

3.

Un buen lector hace uso tanto de las estrategias descendentes como de las ascendentes para construir el significado de un texto.

4.

Uno

de

los

objetivos

más

importantes

de la psicología es

proporcionar una

descripción científica del comportamiento humano.

5.

Muchos investigadores de la ciencia cognitiva utilizan modelos basados en las redes neuronales.

6.

Es peligroso tratar de aplicar un paradigma tomado de una disciplina a otra disciplina diferente.

Translate into English the following sentences:

1. La psicologia ha utilitzat diferents paradigmes de recerca de la informàtica.

2. El cervell funciona sobre la base del paral·lelisme massiu.


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3. Un bon lector fa ús tant de les estratègies descendents como de les ascendents per a construir el significat d’un text.

4. Un dels objectius més importants de la psicologia és proporcionar una descripció científica del comportament humà.

5. Molts investigadors de la ciència cognitiva utilitzen models basats en les xarxes neurals.

6. És perillós tractar d’aplicar un paradigma pres d’una disciplina a una altra disciplina diferent.

Unit 2. New Input Technologies

13

Unit 2

New Input Technologies

A. Reading Practice

Many people in the computer industry believe that computers would be more widely used if they were user friendlier. They argue that many potential users lack basic keyboard skills and so are unwilling to use PCs in their everyday work. This opinion has led many computer manufacturers to dedicate a lot of money to the research and

5

development of more natural input devices.

One area that has received a great deal of attention is that of pen-based computing. There are a number of systems currently on the market that are aimed at "vertical workers", that is workers that need to input data outside the office in situations which disallow the use of a keyboard. These computers use a pen input system to allow the

10

user to introduce data and commands.

Some of them incorporate an onscreen keyboard which is activated by means of a pen. Such systems also allow the pen to be used like a mouse: for example the user can highlight an option using the pen and then tap the Execute box or s/he can make use of a side button on the pen, which corresponds to the second button on a mouse.

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Other pen-based systems include handwriting recognition programs, enabling the user to write directly onto the screen (the screen is always a flat panel display and nowadays usually an LCD). Most of these programs have a handwriting trainer program to train the system to recognise the user's handwriting. There are basically two classes of handwriting recognition programs: those that recognise only block text

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and those that will recognise cursive text; the latter require considerably more computing power.

The problem of the amount of computing power necessary is common to all these systems, which are at present far slower than systems using more conventional input technologies. Moreover these systems still cannot reliably recognise everyone's hand-

25

writing. However researchers are attempting to overcome these problems, using methods based on Artificial Intelligence, neural networks and fuzzy logic (i.e. a logic which allows more than two truth values).

Another field of research which has received a lot of attention is speech input. Computers capable of recognising speech can be classified on the basis of their

30

abilities. Thus a machine may be capable of discrete speech or continuous speech recognition. The speech recognition may be speaker-dependent or speaker- independent. And finally the machine may have a small vocabulary or a large vocabulary.

The problems facing speech recognition are basically two: speech-to-text conversion

35

(i.e. recognising what is said) and natural language processing (i.e. understanding what is said). Although these problems can be considered separately, they are interdependent.


Speech-to-text conversion is an enormously complex process since there is such a great diversity in the pronunciation of a given phoneme both between speakers and

40

for an individual speaker. But basically the process is as follows. Samples of speech are picked up every centisecond by means of a microphone and analyzed by a signal processor. The analysis produces a set of features which represent important characteristics of speech in a compact form. These features represent a vector of speech parameters. The incoming vectors are then matched against stored sound

45

patterns or templates. To overcome the problem of diversity in pronunciation, it is normal to use a number of probabilistic techniques taken from statistics and information theory.

Natural language processing is also an extraordinarily complicated process and is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges that AI researchers face. The first steps

50

involve sentence parsing (or syntactic analysis) and semantic analysis, in which the structures identified during parsing are interpreted as pertaining to objects in the environment. These two components of NLP are relatively well understood in comparison to the other two basic components: context correlation and pragmatic interpretation. Each of these components requires access to databases that contain

55

extensive knowledge about the world. A central issue in NLP is how this knowledge should be represented.

As far as the amount of computing power required for natural speech recognition and the reliability of the process are concerned, researchers are facing the same problems and are developing the same solutions as in handwriting recognition.

1. Decide whether the following sentences are true (T) or false (F) according to the text. If they are false, you must change them so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.

1. Pen-based systems are useful for people who have to work out of doors.

2. With pen-based computers, the screen is used as a keyboard.

3. In natural language processing more progress has been made in syntactic and semantic analysis than in pragmatic analysis.

4. Fuzzy logic is being used to solve problems in natural speech recognition.

5. If computers were easier to use, more people would definitely use them.

2.



1.

one area that has received (l. 6)

2.

Such systems (l. 12)

3.

most of these programs (l. 17)

4.

a set of features which represent (l. 42)

5.

it is normal to use (l. 45)

3.

Give synonyms for or explain the meaning of the following words and phrases.

1.

lack (l. 2)

2.

led (l. 4)

3.

research (l. 4)

4.

a great deal of (l. 6)

5.

currently (l. 7)

6.

allow (l. 9)

7.

considerably (l. 20)

8.

amount (l. 22)

9.

Moreover (l. 24)

10. attempting (l. 25)

4. Match the following terms with the appropriate explanation.

1. If you are unwilling to do something

2. If you highlight something

3. If you overcome something

a.

you successfully deal with it and control it.

b. a small quantity that is analysed scientifically.

c. you draw attention to it.

4.

A sample of something is

d. a subject that people are arguing


5. Something pertaining to something else is

6. An issue is

about.

e. you do not want to do it.

f. something that belongs or relates to it.

5. Look at how we use verbs like “allow” and “enable”:

Pen input systems allow the user to introduce data and commands.

Other pen-based systems enable the user to write directly onto the screen.

With these verbs we use the object infinitive construction (it would be incorrect to use a that-clause). “Permit” and “cause” work in the same way. Notice that “let” is a synonym of “allow”, “enable” and “permit”, but it takes the bare infinitive. Similarly, “make” is a synonym of “cause”, but with a bare infinitive. Rewrite the sentences below using one of the verbs above.

1. You can click a button to put the process into operation.

2. With a voice recognition device you can input data by clicking.

3. If you press these two keys, the screen splits into two.

4. With a scanner the use can input printed text easily.

5. If you move the mouse, the cursor moves around the screen.

B. Writing


1. Fill in the blanks with a single word.

What is fuzzy logic? The word "fuzzy" means something like "vague" or "imprecise" and fuzzy logic is a multivalued logic which allows more than two truth values as opposed to classical logic where a proposition (1) …………………………… only be true or false. In traditional, Boolean logic, set membership is an all or nothing affair: an object is either completely included or completely excluded (2) …………………………… a set. Traditional logic's sets can be said to be "crisp". Fuzzy logic on the other hand allows varying degrees of set membership: (3) …………………………… of the classical values of true or false (1 or 0) there are continuous set membership values (4) …………………………… from 1 to 0. At 0 an element is excluded from the set, at 1 an element has full membership of the set but there is also the possibility of (5) …………………………… membership (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, etc.). In this way fuzzy logic (6) …………………………… to more accurately map real world situations and to emulate a human being's ability to make use of approximate data to work out precise solutions.

C. Translation

1. Translate the following set of sentences into English:

1. Los sistemas que utilizan las tecnologías de entrada convencionales son mucho más rápidos que los que utilizan programas de reconocimiento de escritura.

2. En general, cuanto más natural es un sistema de entrada, más potencia computacional requiere.

3. El procesamiento del lenguaje natural es uno de los retos más complejos al que se enfrenta la inteligencia artificial.

4.

Las computaciones realizadas por las máquinas son mucho más fiables que las computaciones hechas por los seres humanos.


5. En el reconocimiento de la escritura, el reconocimiento estático puede comportar más dificultad que el reconocimiento dinámico dado que se dispone de menos información para identificar la letra que se ha escrito.

2. Translate this second set of sentences into English:

1. Mediante la lógica difusa, se pueden representar las situaciones del mundo real con más exactitud que con la lógica tradicional.

2. Se invierte cada vez más dinero en el desarrollo de dispositivos de entrada más naturales.

3. El procesamiento del lenguaje natural es una tarea tan compleja que requiere expertos de muchos campos del saber.

4. Actualmente, los nuevos sistemas de entrada no son tan fiables como el teclado.

5. Cuanto más natural es el sistema de entrada de datos, menos fiable es.


1.

Translate the following sentences into English:

1.

Els sistemes que utilitzen les tecnologies d’entrada convencionals són molt més ràpids que els que utilitzen programes de reconeixement de l’escriptura.

2.

En general com més natural és un sistema de entrada, més potencia computacional requereix.

3.

El processament del llenguatge natural és un dels reptes més complexos al qual s’afronta la intel.ligència artificial.

4.

Les

computacions

realitzades

per

les

maquines

són

molt

més

fiables

que les

computacions fetes pels éssers humans.

5.

En el reconeixement de l’escriptura, elr econeixement estàtic pot comportar més dificultat que el reconeixement dinàmic atés que es disposa de menys informació per identificar la letra que s’ha escrit.

2.

Translate this second set of sentences into English:

1. Mitjançant la lògica difosa, es poden representar les situacions del món real amb més exactitud que amb la lógica tradicional.


2. S’inverteixen cada vegada més diners en el desenvolupament de dispositius d’entrada més naturals.

3. El processament del llenguatge natural es una tasca tan complexa que hi calen experts de molts camps de saber.

4. Actualment, els nous sistemes d’entrada no són tan fiables com el teclat.

5. Com més natural és el sistema d’entrada de dades, menys fiable és.

Unit 3. Colour Printing

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Unit 3

Colour Printing

A. Reading Practice

All the main printing technologies have developed colour printers, but the introduction of colour adds a number of complications that do not exist for black and white printers. Colour printers cannot hold enough types of ink or toner to make a separate one available for each of the many colours that a printer can produce. They therefore

5

make use of a small number of primary colours that are either mixed or dithered to create the required output colours.

Colour printers work by combining the three primary subtractive colours, cyan, magenta and yellow, to form the other colours. For example magenta plus yellow produces red, yellow plus cyan forms green and cyan plus magenta produces blue.

10

Equal amounts of cyan, magenta and yellow combine to form black. However most colour printers include a separate black colour (called K in the printing industry) to generate a truer black. This forms the standard four-colour or CMYK model in the printing industry.

The most usual colour printers print dots of a single colour and of a fixed size. Thus,

15

using the CMYK colour model, they are capable of generating only seven colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, blue and black). In order to produce the other colours they make use of dithering: they print pixels which are formed by arrays of very small colour dots. When the eye views the document at a distance, it cannot distinguish the individual dots, but combines them to form a composite image. The

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same technique is used in black and white laser printers to generate different grey levels by varying the ratio of black dots to the white paper background.

One drawback of dithering is that due to the use of larger pixels, the output resolution of the printer is reduced. If, for example, a 4 by 4 dot matrix is used for each pixel a printout resolution 300 dpi is reduced to one fourth, or 75 dpi.

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Another problem of colour printing is that in the case of thermal transfer and laser printers, each of the primary colours must be laid down separately. This means that the print head has to make three or four passes over the same sheet of paper. Consequently the alignment of the dot patterns on the paper, or registration, must be precise, since otherwise the colour pattern shifts, and the image becomes fuzzy.

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However the most basic problem facing colour printing is the difficulty of matching printed colour with the colours displayed on screen. The difficulty lies in the fact that these two output devices create colour in fundamentally different ways. The colour we usually see in the real world is reflected light. We perceive printed colour because the pigments in the ink or toner absorb light selectively so that only parts of the spectrum

35

are reflected to the eye (hence the term subtractive colours applied to the colour used in printing technology). CRT monitors, in contrast, emit light directly by causing red, green and blue (the primary additive colours) dots to glow. Thus the two output devices produce different sets, or gamuts, of colours. At the moment the computer industry is developing colour management tools in an attempt to ensure colour

22


40 consistency throughout the system and some of these tools are currently included in commercial operating systems. However, it is still not possible to obtain a perfect match between the colours produced by printers and monitors.

1. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) according to the text. If they are false make the necessary changes so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.

1.

Most colour printers cannot store enough different kinds of ink for each colour they produce.

2.

By dithering colours, colour printers are able to generate seven colours.

3.

One drawback of dithering is that it lowers the printer's resolution.

4.

Ink-jet printers need three or four passes to lay down all the colours.

5.

All colour printers have a separate black colour.

2.


1.

They therefore make use (l. 4)

2.

they are capable of (l. 15)

3.

it cannot distinguish (l. 18)

4.

combines them to form (l. 19)

5.

it is still not possible (l. 41)

3.

Give synonyms for or explain the meaning of the following words and phrases:

1.

complications (l. 2)

22


2. therefore (l. 4)

3. required (l. 6)

4. However (l. 10)

5. called (l. 11)

6. a single (l. 14)

7. formed by (l. 17)

8. arrays (l. 17)

9. views (l. 18)

10. technique (l. 20)

4.

Match these words that appear in the text with a suitable synonym:

1.

drawback

correspondence

2.

shift

disadvantage

3.

since

thus

4.

match

move

5.

hence

as

5.

Fill in the gaps with one suitable word.

Digital Photography and Printing: how to print passport and visa photos

If digital printers are used to produce passport and visa photographs instead of conventional photographic processes, the photographs produced (1) …………………………… be high quality and photo-like in appearance. Certain types of digital printers (2) …………………………… inkjet and dye sublimination can be used to produce high quality passport and visa photos. (3) …………………………… inkjet printers deposit multi-coloured ink onto photographic print paper, dye sublimination uses heat applied to a multi-coloured ribbon or film to release a dye that is transferred (4)


23

…………………………… photographic print paper. These two (5) …………………………… of printers, when used with compatible print paper that produces high resolution images, are suitable for printing passport and visa photos.

B. Translation

The reflexive passive is translated by the passive voice in English:

La casa se construyó en el siglo XIX.

The house was built in the XIX century.

Remember that in English the subject must precede the verb:

Se almacenan los datos de forma automática.

Data are stored automatically.

1. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. En la mayoría de las impresoras de color, se utiliza una tinta negra especial.

2. Con las impresoras de color, se utiliza un número pequeño de colores primarios que se mezclan para producir los colores de salida.

3. Actualmente se están desarrollando herramientas de gestión de color para asegurar que los diferentes dispositivos de salida generen los mismos colores.

4. Se han desarrollado diferentes técnicas para conseguir la consistencia de color en los diferentes dispositivos de salida.

24


5. Se pueden representar en la pantalla ciertos colores que la impresora es incapaz de reproducir.

6. Con las impresoras de transferencia térmica, cada color primario debe depositarse en el papel de forma separada.


1. En la majoria de les impressores de color, s’utilitza una tinta negra especial.

2. Amb les impressores de color, s’utilitza un nombre xicotet de colors primaris que es barregen per a produir els colors d’eixida.

3. Actualment s’estan desenvolupant ferramentes de gestió de color per a assegurar que els distints dispositius d’eixida generen els mateixos colors.

4. S’han desenvolupat distintes tècniques per a aconseguir la consistència de color en els diversos dispositius d’eixida.

5. Es poden representar en la pantalla certs colors que la impressora és incapaç de reproduir.

6. Amb les impressores de transferència tèrmica, cada color primari ha de dipositar-se en el paper de forma separada.


25

2. Translate the following paragraph into English:

La gestión de color en un sistema informático plantea problemas dado que los diferentes dispositivos periféricos no pueden producir las mismas gamas de colores. Así se pueden representar en la pantalla ciertos colores que la impresora es incapaz de reproducir. El problema radica en que la pantalla de un ordenador crea el color de forma distinta a como el color se crea sobre el papel. Un monitor de tubo de rayos catódicos genera los colores haciendo que se iluminen puntos de fósforo de color rojo, verde y azul: emite directamente la luz. El material impreso no emite su propia luz sino que refleja la luz ambiental. Por esta razón las pantallas y las impresoras no producen los mismos colores, no tienen el mismo espacio de color, y los sistemas de gestión de color deben traducir entre los dos espacios de color utilizando tablas de consulta o transformaciones matemáticas.

26


2. Translate the following paragraph into English:

La gestió de color en un sistema informàtic planteja problemes atés que els diferents dispositius perifèrics no poden produir les mateixes gammes de colors. D’aquesta manera es poden representar a la pantalla alguns colors que la impressora es incapaç de reproduir. El problema radica en què la pantalla d’un ordinador crea el color de forma distinta de com es crea el color sobre el paper. Un monitor de tub de raigs catòdics genera els colors fent que s’il·luminen punts de fòsfor de color roig, verd i blau: emet directament la llum. El material imprés no emet llum pròpia sinó que reflecteix la llum ambiental. Per aquesta causa les pantalles i les impressores no produeixen els mateixos colors, no tenen el mateix espai de color, i els sistemes de gestió de color han de traduir entre els dos espais de color utilitzant taules de consulta o transformacions matemàtiques.

Unit 4. Mechanical Athletes Totter towards Olympic Glory

29

Unit 4 Mechanical Athletes Totter towards Olympic Glory

A. Reading Practice

A robot called Yamabico took the prize for the best overall performer at last week's Robot Olympics in Glasgow. Colin Lindsay from the Turing Institute of Strathclyde University, which hosted the games, said that Yamabico, from the Tsukuba University in Japan, took the laurels because it was able to negotiate a path strewn with

5

obstacles without having to stop. Most robots need to scan each obstacle and process that information every time it encounters something in its path. Peter Mowforth, one of the judges from the Turing Institute, said: "Every component in the system was beautifully engineered." Japan now wants to stage the next games for the mechanical athletes.

10

The games, held in the sports hall of the university, got off to a shaky start. Trolleyman, the robot designated to light the Olympic flame, suffered an electrical fault. Instead of carrying the flame from The Parthenon Greek restaurant to the games, the robot's creators had to take the robot to the games in a Land-Rover.

The competitors, from schools, universities and amateur groups, seemed dogged by

15

technical hitches. One six-legged robot from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology refused to start its race. Photographers' flashguns blinded the sensors on some robots, disrupting their movements. The electronics in another failed and its designers could not buy the replacement parts they needed.

Nevertheless, experts attending the show thought that the effort was worthwhile, both

20

for encouraging school children to take an interest in robotics and for the exchange of information between competitors.

Ruzena Bajcsy, a professor of computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "What we have here represents the efforts of universities and enthusiasts. We don't have robots from the automobile industry or the military. At least in the US,

25

they are the big sponsors."

Bajcsy said that the biggest problem that robotics faces is perception. The aim that she and other experts are pursuing, is to produce a robot that will learn to recognise objects, without having to refer to vast banks of rules they store in their electronic memories. Rule-based systems are rigid and have many shortcomings.

30

Rusell Beale and Tom Jackson from the University of York gave an example of the problem. To recognise a tree according to rules, the robot's memory would contain a description of a tree as an object with a trunk, branches and leaves. If a robot then encountered a palm tree, it would not recognise a tree. It is necessary to train robots so that they would decide that there was a strong possibility that a palm tree was a

35

tree.

30


Such an approach often relies on neural networks, computer systems that mimic the way a human brain works. Neural networks can be trained to perform certain types of tasks better than normal computers. A robot with such a vision system would view a variety of objects and when it identifies them correctly, the researcher reinforces the

40 connections in the network which gave the correct answer.

Beale and Jackson are developing neural networks to interpret visual information. They find that putting their equipment on a robot is a good way to test the visual system since it would then encounter a variety of conditions.

(New Scientist, 6 October 1990)

1. Some nouns in English, e.g. e-mail, can be used as verbs: to e-mail. In the text several nouns appear used as verbs. For example, the verb hosted (line 3) from the noun host. Find in the text similar examples of these uses and complete the table below.

Paragraph 1

1.

hosted

2.

3.

Paragraph 6

1.

2. Note the use of the ending –ed to turn nouns into adjectives in certain expressions. The meaning of –ed, in these cases, is similar to with or having. For example, “a robot with six legs” is “a six-legged robot”. Complete the following sentences in the same way:

1. A man with dark hair is a

2. A network with 7 layers is a

3. A sailor with blue eyes is a

4. A truck-driver with a broad shoulder is a

5. A programming language with types is a

man.

network.

sailor.

truck-driver.

programming language.

30


3. Using the paragraph references given, look back in the text and find words that have a similar meaning to:

1. organized (§ 1)

2. finds (§ 1)

3. started badly (§ 2)

4. problems (§ 3)

5. stopped working (§ 3)

6. however (§ 4)

7. being present at (§ 4)

8. keep (§ 6)

9. defects (§ 6)

10. depends on (§ 8)

4. According to the passage, are the following statements true (T) or false (F)? If a statement is false, make the necessary changes so that it becomes true. If it is true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.

1. The Robot Olympics were staged in Japan at the Tsukuba University.

2. The games started badly because some robots had technical faults with their electronic systems.

3. The organisers of the games were not very satisfied because they felt they had hardly contributed to the increase of the interest in robotics.

4. Scientists have no idea of how to overcome difficulties in perception.

5. Experts rely on neural networks to check the visual system of the robots.


31

C. Cloze

Read this article on “Honda's ASIMO robot” and fill in the following gaps.

How ASIMO works

Robots already do a lot of the jobs that we humans don't want to do, can't do, or simply can't do as well as our robotic counterparts. In factories around the world, disembodied robot arms assemble cars, delicately place candies into their boxes, and do all sorts of tedious jobs. There are even a handful of robots on the market whose sole job is to vacuum the floor. Honda engineers have been busy creating the ASIMO robot for more than 17 years. In this article, we'll find out what makes ASIMO the most advanced humanoid robot to date.

What is ASIMO?

ASIMO, which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, was developed (1) …………………………… the Honda Motor Company and is the (2) …………………………… advanced humanoid robot in the world. According (3) …………………………… the ASIMO Web site, ASIMO is the only humanoid robot in the world that can walk independently and climb stairs. While there are several (4) …………………………… humanoid robots that can walk, none have the smooth, realistic gait that ASIMO has.

In addition (5) …………………………… ASIMO's ability to walk like we do, it can (6) …………………………… understand some spoken commands (currently only in Japanese) and recognize faces. ASIMO has arms and hands so it can do things (7) …………………………… turn on light switches, open doors, carry objects, and push carts.

Honda's vision for ASIMO

Rather (8) …………………………… building a robot that would be another toy, Honda wanted to create a robot that would be a helper for people -- a robot to help (9) …………………………… the house, help the elderly, or help someone confined to a wheelchair or bed. ASIMO is 4 feet (1.2 meters) (10) …………………………… ,which is just the right height to look eye to eye with someone seated in a chair. This allows ASIMO (11) …………………………… do the jobs it was created to do without being too big and menacing. Often referred to (12) …………………………… looking like a "kid

32


wearing a spacesuit," ASIMO's friendly appearance and nonthreatening size work well for the purposes Honda had in mind when creating (13) …………………………… .

ASIMO could also (14) …………………………… jobs that are too dangerous for humans to do, like going (15) …………………………… hazardous areas, disarming bombs, or fighting fires.

By Lee Ann Obringer

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/asimo1.htm

Copyright of the original text: © 1998 – 2006 HowStuffWorks, Inc.

D. Translation

1. Las redes de neuronas artificiales son mucho más flexibles que la mayoría de los sistemas actuales.

2. La robótica está cada vez más interesada por la forma en la que las máquinas pueden reconocer objetos.

3. El objetivo de la inteligencia artificial es imitar el comportamiento humano. Sin embargo, los investigadores todavía no han conseguido desarrollar una máquina que sea capaz de pensar y sentir como los humanos.

4. Acontecimientos tales como las Olimpiadas de Robots suponen un gran esfuerzo para los participantes, lo que les anima a interesarse por la robótica.

D.

Translation


33

1. Les xarxes de neurones artificials són molt més flexibles que la majoria dels sistemes actuals.

2. La robòtica està cada vegada més interessada per la forma en què les màquines poden reconéixer objectes.

3. L’objectiu de la intel·ligència artificial és imitar el comportament humà. Tanmateix, els investigadors encara no han aconseguit desenvolupar una màquina que siga capaç de pensar i sentir com els humans.

4. Esdeveniments com les Olimpíades de Robots suposen un gran esforç per als participants, la qual cosa els anima a interessar-se per la robòtica.

Unit 5. Memory Technologies

35

Unit 5

Memory Technologies

A. Reading Practice

Every computer system contains a variety of devices to store instructions and data required for its operation. These storage devices plus the algorithms needed to manage the stored information constitute the memory system of the computer. In general it is desirable that processors should have immediate and uninterrupted

5

access to memory, so the time required to transfer information between the processor and memory should be such that the processor can operate at, or near to, its maximum speed. Unfortunately, however, memories that operate at speeds comparable to processor speeds are very costly. It is not possible (except for very small systems) to employ a single memory using only one type of technology. Instead

10

the stored information is distributed over a variety of different memory units with very different physical characteristics.

The memory components of a computer system can be divided into three main groups:

1.

Internal processor memory. This comprises a small set of high-speed registers

15

which are used as a working memory for temporary storage of instructions and data.

2.

Main memory (also called primary memory). This is a relatively large, fast memory

used for storing programs and data during computer operation. It is characterized by the fact that locations in main memory can be accessed directly and rapidly by the CPU instruction set. The principal technology used for main memory is based on semi-

20

conductor integrated circuits.

3.

Secondary memory (also called auxiliary or backing memory). This is generally

much larger in capacity but also much slower than main memory. It is used for storing programs, large data files and the like which are not continually required by the CPU. Information in secondary storage is accessed indirectly via input-output

25

programs that first transfer the required information to main memory. Representative technologies used for secondary memory are magnetic disks and tapes.

More and more machines employ another type of memory called a cache, which serves as an intermediate temporary storage unit logically positioned between the processor registers and main memory.

30

The major objective in designing any memory system is to provide adequate storage capacity with an acceptable level of performance at a reasonable cost.

The cost of a memory unit is usually measured by the price the user has to pay for the complete unit (not only the information storage cells, but also the peripheral equipment or access circuitry that is essential to the operation of the memory). So if C

35

is the price in euros of a complete memory system with S bits of storage capacity, the cost c of memory can be defined as follows:

36


c =

C

S

euros/bit

The performance of a memory device is primarily determined by the rate at which information can be read from or written into memory. A convenient measure of performance is the average time required to read a fixed amount of information (e.g.

40

one word) from the memory. This is termed the read access time or, more commonly, the access time of the memory and is denoted by t _A . (The write access time is defined similarly; it is typically, but not always equal to the read access time.) Access time depends on the physical characteristics of the storage medium, and on the type of access mechanism used. t _A is usually calculated from the time a read request is

45

received by the memory unit to the time at which all the requested information is available at the memory output terminals. The access rate b _A of the memory, defined as 1/t _A and measured in words per second is another widely used measure of performance for memory devices.

Although low cost and high access rates are desirable characteristics for memory, they

50

are to a great extent incompatible. Memory units with high access rates are generally expensive, while low-cost memories are relatively slow.

1. Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) according to the text. If they are false, make the necessary changes so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text gives the relevant information that justifies your choice.

1. One of the main problems in designing a memory system is to reconcile cost and performance.

2. The cost of a memory system can be defined as the price of its storage cells divided by its storage capacity.

3. Secondary memory is usually a bit slower than main memory.

4. It is not possible to use only one memory technology in a memory system.

5. The access rate is the average time needed to read a given amount of information from memory.

36


2. Give synonyms for the following words and expressions:

1. variety (l. 1)

2. constitute (l. 3)

3. costly (l. 8)

4. comprises (l. 14)

5. and the like (l. 23)

6. via (l. 24)

7. More and more (l. 27)

8. objective (l. 30)

9. widely (l. 47)

10. while (l. 51)

3.

Find the word or words these pronouns refer to:

1.

for its operation (l. 2)

2.

it is desirable that (l. 4)

3.

its maximum speed (l. 6)

4.

It is not possible (l. 8)

5.

It is used for (l. 22)

6.

it is typically (l. 42)

4.

Fill in the gaps with one suitable word.

A USB (Universal Serial Bus) Flash Drive

and portable flash memory that you can (1)

…………………………… to your computer’s USB port. These USB flash drives work as a

A

USB flash

drive is

a

small


37

portable and rewritable data storage (2) …………………………… with an enormous storage capacity. Their most relevant advantage is that they are so small that (3) …………………………… can be carried in a pocket and can be plugged into any computer with a USB drive. Besides, they are more durable than previous forms of portable storage (4) …………………………… compact disks and floppy disks as they do not contain any internal moving parts. They are also (5) …………………………… pen drives, key drives or simply USB drives.

B. Translate the following sentences into English:

1. La memoria principal se utiliza para almacenar los programas y los datos durante la operación del sistema informático.

2. La mayoría de las tecnologías de memoria operan a velocidades mucho más lentas que el procesador.

3. Los discos magnéticos son capaces de almacenar grandes cantidades de datos. Representan la tecnología de memoria secundaria más común.

4.

En general, cuanto más rápida es la tecnología de memoria, más cara es.

5.

En los ordenadores actuales el sistema de memoria principal está constituido por la memoria principal y uno o dos cachés. Generalmente uno de estos cachés está situado en el chip del procesador, mientras que el otro está ubicado fuera del chip.

B.

Translate the following sentences into English:

38


1. La memòria principal s’utilitza per a emmagatzemar els programes i les dades durant el funcionament del sistema informàtic.

2.

La majoria de les tecnologies de memòria funcionen a velocitats molt més lentes que el processador.

3.

Els

discos

magnètics

són

capaços

d’emmagatzemar

grans

quantitats

de

dades.

Representen la tecnologia de memòria secundària més comuna.

4.

En general, quant més ràpida és la tecnologia de memòria, més cara és.

5.

Als ordinadors actuals el sistema de memòria principal està constituït per la memòria principal i una o dos caus. Generalment una d’aquestes caus està situada al xip del processador, mentre que l’altre està ubicat fora del xip.

Unit 6. Operating Systems

41

Unit 6

Operating Systems

A. Reading Practice

Because there are many concurrent processes within a computer system, it is necessary to have an executive or master control program; such a program is known as an operating system. The operating system is designed to exercise overall control of the system, scheduling operations, allocating system resources, preventing

5

interference between programs and so on. In multiuser environments the operating system is oriented towards timesharing, being responsible for the efficient sharing of such resources as CPU time, memory space, IO devices, utility programs and so on. There are also specialized operating systems for computers that require very short response times (real-time systems) and for wide-area networks (transaction-

10

processing systems).

The basic unit of computing managed by an operating system is a process or task, a loose definition of which could be a self-contained program module in the course of execution: for instance, a subroutine being executed by a CPU or an IO program being executed by an IO processor might be typical examples of processes. The resources

15

required by a process, such as a processor and memory space, are usually allocated it dynamically during execution.

Some processes are created in response to user commands to the operating system, others are created by other processes. While in existence, a process has three major states: ready, running and blocked. In a ready state a process is waiting, perhaps in a

20

queue with other processes, for the resources it needs to enter the running state. A blocked process is waiting for some event to occur, such as completion of some other process that provides it with necessary data. A transition from one state to another is triggered by various conditions such as interrupts and user instructions to the operating system. When no longer needed, a process (but not the underlying

25

program) can be deleted via the operating system so that any resources currently allocated to it are released.

An operating system contains huge amounts of software, as it is made up of a large number of computer resource management programs such as processor scheduling routines, virtual memory routines and IO device control programs. Moreover some

30

commonly used utility programs like programming language translators, text editors etc. are often considered part of the operating system and are invoked via commands to it. All of this software is far too much to store in main memory in its entirety. As a result the less frequently used parts of the operating system such as file management routines and compilers reside in secondary memory, and are only brought into main

35

memory when needed. The other portion of the operating system consisting of the most frequently used parts remains continuously in main memory and is termed the kernel.

The kernel is responsible for creating, deleting and state-switching the many processes that define the computer's behaviour. It does so by responding to a steady

40

flow of interrupt requests coming from a variety of sources, such as user-generated

42


requests for operating system services, memory allocation/deallocation requests, IO operations, etc. It achieves a rapid response by only briefly disabling other interrupts while responding to the current one, then dispatching or creating an operating system process to execute the appropriate interrupt-handling routine. The performance and

45 reliability of the kernel can be improved by implementing some of its more basic functions in the hardware or firmware.

1.

Decide whether the following sentences are true or false according to the text. If they are false, change them so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.

1.

Compilers are normally stored permanently in primary memory.

2.

When a process is not needed it may be erased.

3.

All operating systems are transaction-processing systems.

4.

Some processes can come into being as a result of user instructions.

5.

If a process is ready, it may be waiting in a queue.

2.

Give synonyms for the following words and expressions that come up in the text:

1.

because (l. 1)

2.

concurrent (l. 1)

3.

overall (l. 3)

4.

designed (l. 3)

5.

major (l. 18)

6.

occur (l. 21)

7.

provides (l. 22 )

8.

deleted (l. 25)

42


9. via (l. 25)

10. so that (l. 25)

11. released (l. 26)

12. huge (l. 27)

13. amounts (l. 27)

14. made up of (l. 27)

15. like (l. 30)

16. as a result (l. 32-33)

17. termed (l. 36)

18. remains (l. 36)

19. steady (l. 39)

20. achieves (l. 42)

3. Decide whether the words in bold type point forwards or backwards in the text. What words or expressions do they refer to?

1. others are created (l. 18)

2. it needs (l. 20)

3. that provides it (l. 22)

4. as it is made (l. 27)

5. are invoked

to

it (l. 31)

B. Cloze

Complete the following text by filling in the gaps with a suitable word:


43

Most operating systems need to be (1) …………………………… to communicate with the user. The words that an operating system can interpret are (2) …………………………… commands and commands tell the machine to (3) …………………………… some task. The machine and the user interact through the commands and the complete set of commands is known (4) …………………………… the user interface.

There are several ways the operating system's designer (5) …………………………… organize the interface depending on what kind of use the computer system will have. One type of interface is organized so (6) …………………………… all the available commands of the operating system appear in a hierarchy of menus, each offering a number of choices. The menu bar, (7) …………………………… is usually displayed (8) …………………………… the top of the screen, shows the top level of the hierarchy. Selecting one of the options on the menu bar results in the display of all the commands related (9) …………………………… that option. Menu driven user interfaces are easy for the beginner because all possible choices of command are (10) …………………………… on the screen.

C. Translation

Translate the following text into English:

Un sistema operativo es un programa que actúa como interfaz entre el usuario de un ordenador y el soporte físico del mismo, ofreciendo el entorno necesario para que el usuario pueda ejecutar programas. Así, su principal objetivo es facilitar el uso del sistema informático.

El objetivo fundamental de un sistema informático es ejecutar los programas de usuario y resolver los problemas que surjan durante su ejecución. El soporte físico se diseña con este propósito. Como el soporte físico por sí solo no es fácil de utilizar, se desarrollan programas de aplicación. Los distintos programas requieren ciertas operaciones comunes, tales como el control de los dispositivos de E/S. Las funciones habituales de control y asignación de recursos se reúnen en un programa: el sistema operativo.

44


C. Translation

Translate the following text into English:

Un sistema operatiu és un programa que actua d’interfície entre l’usuari d’un ordinador i el suport físic d’aquest, i ofereix l’entorn necessari perquè l’usuari puga executar programes. Així, el seu principal objectiu és facilitar l’ús del sistema informàtic.

L’objectiu fonamental d’un sistema informàtic és executar els programes d’usuari i resoldre els problemes que isquen durant l’execució. El suport físic es dissenya amb aquest propòsit. Com el suport físic per si mateix no és fàcil d’utilitzar, es desenvolupen programes d’aplicació. Els diferents programes requereixen algunes operacions comunes, com el control dels dispositius de E/E. Les funcions habituals de control i assignació de recursos es reuneixen en un programa: el sistema operatiu.

Unit 7. Networks

47

Unit 7

Networks

A. Reading Practice

There are many kinds of computer networks. A major distinction can be made between terminal-based networks and computer-based networks. Terminal-based networks are characterized by the presence of a centralized computer that communicates with a large number of remote terminals. The terminals can range from

5

general-purpose terminals with keyboard and screen to highly specialized devices. They perform two main functions: local data processing tasks and the processing needed to communicate with the central computer. An example of a terminal-based network is found in a large department store where many points-of-sale are linked to a central computer. Terminal-based systems with thousands of terminals can also be

10

found, for example, computer networks used for airline reservations. One of the earliest computer networks was the American Airlines SABRE (Sales and Business Reservations done Electronically) reservation system built in the 1960s. This prototype of all subsequent reservation systems linked over a thousand terminals scattered throughout the United States to a central computer system maintaining all

15

the airline's flight information.

Computer-based networks, on the other hand, are characterized by the presence of multiple distributed computers with decentralized control. This type of network is used extensively for the transmission of files, including e-mail messages, among users of different computers on the network. Where communication distances less than a few

20

kilometres are involved, for instance, a computer network within a single building or university campus, the term local area network (LAN) is used. LANs often employ data-transmission links (electrical or optical cables) that are private to the network in question. For computer networks spread over large geographical areas, sometimes termed wide-area networks (WANs), the data-transmission facilities are typically

25

supplied by communications companies called common-carriers, which in many countries are government-owned or -regulated organizations. The various national and international telephone networks are extensively used for both local and long- distance computer communications, but they are increasingly being supplemented by networks designed specifically for digital data transmission. Like the telephone

30

networks, these public data networks are composed of a heterogeneous mixture of electrical, optical and microwave links.

Communications costs are major contributors to the total cost of using a wide-area computer network. There are various techniques for sharing the long-distance communication links to reduce these costs. The establishment of a dedicated

35

communication path from source to destination for each information exchange is called circuit or line switching. It is the usual mode of communication used in the public telephone network. Circuit switching is established by dialling and implemented by telephone exchanges. It has the disadvantage that once a path is established between two locations, it cannot be used by other potential users along the path,

40

even if the utilization of that path is very low.

48

Unit 7. Networks

The problem can be overcome by a technique called message switching, whereby intermediate switching centres on a long communication path are used to store data and subsequently forward it to the next destination, a process called store-and- forward. Messages are collected at each switching centre where they are organized in

45 a manner that makes efficient use of the data paths connected to that centre. Compared with circuit switching, message switching can provide a substantial increase in communication link utilization.

1.

Decide whether the following sentences are true (T) or false (F) according to the text. If they are false, make the necessary changes so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.

1.

Common-carriers are always regulated or owned by the government.

2.

The SABRE network connected more than a thousand terminals all over the USA.

3.

WANs must use the communications facilities provided by common-carriers.

4.

Circuit switching ensures an optimum use of the communication path.

5.

With message switching messages are stored at different switching centres before reaching their destination.

2.

Explain the meaning of or give synonyms for the following words:

1.

remote (l. 4)

2.

needed (l. 7)

3.

linked (l. 8)

4.

scattered (l. 14)

5.

supplied (l. 25)

6.

designed (l. 29)

7.

major (l. 32)

48

Unit 7. Networks

8. techniques (l. 33)

9. overcome (l. 41)

10. forward (l. 43)

3.

What words or expressions do the words in bold type refer to?

1.

They perform two main functions (l. 6)

2.

that are private to the network (l. 22)

3.

which in many countries are (l. 25 )

4.

it has the disadvantage (l. 38)

5.

forward it to the next destination (l. 43)

4.

Using affixes or suffixes form a new word from the word in brackets:

1.

Multimedia will rely on new forms of data …………………. (store).

2.

Don’t …………………. (plug) the PC, I haven’t quitted the program.

3.

The

………………….

(process)

stage

takes

place

before

processing

and

the

…………………. (process) stage takes place afterwards.

4.

We can be sure of the …………………. (accurate) and …………………. (rely) of the data.

5.

Many users are …………………. (grade) to Word 1 April 2010.

6.

………………… (compute) is big business.

7.

They finally reached an …………………. (agree).

8.

Rapid data …………………. (retrieve) is the essence of a good database.

9.

The …………………. (delete) operation was very useful for moving text in MS DOS.

Unit 7. Networks

49

10. They said that there was no …………………. (likely) of the ………………….

(perform) being repeated.

B. Translation

Remember that in English verbs of permitting and enabling cannot take a that clause, they must take an object infinitive clause. This means that sometimes we must use a passive infinitive:

El ratón permite que el usuario mueva el cursor. The mouse allows the user to move the cursor.

El programa permite que se hagan copias de seguridad de forma automática. The program allows back-ups to be made automatically.

1. Se establecieron las primeras redes de ordenadores en los años sesenta. Permitían que muchos terminales remotos se comunicasen con un computador central.

2. Existen varias técnicas que permiten que se compartan los enlaces de comunicación para reducir los costes de comunicación de una red.

3. La conmutación de mensajes permite que los paquetes de datos se almacenen en un centro de conmutación intermedio y que se transmitan más tarde.

4. Actualmente las redes permiten que se transmita la información por todo el mundo de forma rápida y fiable.

5. Las redes de fibra óptica permiten que se transmitan grandes cantidades de información a velocidades muy altas.

50

Unit 7. Networks

6. Se han desarrollado varias técnicas para proteger de forma eficaz los datos de una empresa.

Remember that in English verbs of permitting and enabling cannot take a that clause, they must take an object infinitive clause. This means that sometimes we must use a passive infinitive:

El ratolí permet que l’usuari moga el cursor. The mouse allows the user to move the cursor.

El programa permet que es facen còpies de seguretat de forma automàtica. The program allows back-ups to be made automatically.

1. Es van establir les primeres xarxes d'ordinadors en els anys seixanta. Permetien que molts terminals remots comunicaren amb un computador central.

2. Hi ha diverses tècniques que permeten que es compartisquen els enllaços de comunicació per reduir els costos de comunicació d'una xarxa.

3. La commutació de missatges permet que els paquets de dades s'emmagatzemen en un centre de commutació intermedi i que es transmeten més tard.

4. Actualment les xarxes permeten que es transmeta la informació per tot el món de forma ràpida i fiable.

Unit 7. Networks

51

5. Les xarxes de fibra òptica permeten que es transmeten grans quantitats d'informació a velocitats molt altes.

6. S'han desenvolupat diverses tècniques per protegir de forma eficaç les dades d'una empresa.

Unit 8 Multiprocessors

55

Unit 8

Multiprocessors

A. Reading Practice

A multiprocessor is a computer system characterized by the presence of several CPUs

or, more generally, processing elements (PEs), which cooperate on common or shared computational tasks. Multiprocessors are distinguished from multicomputer systems and computer networks, which are systems with multiple PEs operating independently

5

on separate tasks. The various PEs making up a multiprocessor typically share resources such as communication facilities, input-output devices, program libraries, databases etc., and are all controlled by a common operating system.

The two main reasons for including multiple PEs in a single computer system are to improve performance and to increase reliability. Performance (i.e. throughput)

10

improvement is obtained either by allowing many PEs to share the computation load associated with a single large task, or by allowing many smaller tasks to be performed in parallel in separate PEs. A multiprocessor composed of n identical processors is an example of a n-unit processor that can, in principle, provide n times the performance of a comparable single-unit system or uniprocessor. A major goal in designing n-

15

processor systems is to obtain a speedup S(n) that is as near to n as possible. System reliability is improved by the fact that failure of one CPU need not cause the entire system to fail. The functions of the faulty processor and its local resources can be taken over by the other processors; consequently multiprocessors allow fault- tolerance to be incorporated into the system. Of particular interest is the ability of

20

fault-tolerant multiprocessors to operate correctly at a reduced or degraded performance level in the presence of hardware or software failures, a property called graceful degradation. By enabling such facilities as secondary memory units and system software to be shared efficiently, a multiprocessor architecture can lead to significant reduction in overall system cost.

25

Multiprocessors can be classified by the organization of their main-memory systems.

If

main memory, or a major portion of main memory, can be directly accessed by all

the PEs of a multiprocessor, the system is termed a shared-memory computer, and the shared portion of main memory is called global memory. Information can therefore be shared among the processors simply by placing it in the global memory.

30

Distributed-memory computers, on the other hand, have no global memory. Instead each processing element has its own private or local main memory. Distributed memory systems share information by transmitting it in the form of messages between the local memories of different processors; such message passing requires a series of relatively slow input-output operations. Shared-memory and distributed-

35

memory multiprocessors are also called tightly coupled and loosely coupled, respectively, reflecting the speed and ease with which they can operate on common tasks.

56

Unit 8. Multiprocessors

1.

Decide whether the following statements are true or false. If they are false make the necessary changes so that they become true. If true, give the lines that justify your choice.

1.

Multiprocessors are computer systems characterized by the presence of several PEs operating on different computational tasks independently.

2.

One of the principal goals of multiprocessing is to ensure that the whole system continues to work despite the fact that one of its PEs goes down.

3.

One way in which multiprocessors obtain better performance is to split up the computations necessary for a task among several PEs.

4.

By sharing certain facilities efficiently, graceful degradation may make the cost of the overall system smaller.

5.

In tightly coupled multiprocessors each PE has its own memory.

2.

What do the following words or expressions refer to in the text?

1.

which cooperate (l. 2)

2.

are all controlled (l. 7)

3.

its local resources (l. 17)

4.

their main-memory systems (l. 25)

5.

with which they can operate (l. 36)

3.

Give synonyms for or explain the meaning of the following words and expressions taken from the text:

1.

tasks (l. 3)

2.

making up (l. 5)

3.

a single (l. 8)

Unit 8 Multiprocessors

57

4. improve (l. 9)

5. obtained (l. 10)

6. performed (l. 11)

7. major (l. 14)

8. near (l. 15)

9. lead to (l. 23)

10. on the other hand (l. 30)

4. Read the text again to fill in the table below.

Multiprocessors

Definition

Basis of classification

Type 1

Described in line(s)

Type 2


Aim of multiprocessors 1


58

Unit 8. Multiprocessors

Aim of multiprocessors 2


LANGUAGE PRACTICE

A. Comparison

61

A. Comparison

A. Introduction

1. Comparison of equality A change is as good as a rest. Liverpool isn’t as big as London.

2. Comparison of inequality London is bigger than Liverpool. Reading is more interesting than watching TV.

3. Proportional Comparison The more you live, the more you learn.

4. Coordinated Comparison The rich are becoming richer and richer.

5. Implicit Comparison Her novel was so interesting that I read it twice. She wrote such an interesting novel that I read it twice.

The problem was too complex (for me) to solve. The problem wasn’t simple enough (for me) to solve. The problem was so complex that I couldn’t solve it.

1. Comparison of equality

Formed by as + adjective + as

Liverpool is as lively as London.

By negating a comparison of equality, we make a comparison of inequality

Liverpool isn’t as big as London.  London is bigger than Liverpool.

62

A. Comparison

2a. Comparison of inequality: Adjectives

Adjectives are converted into comparatives and superlatives by

a) adding the endings -er and -est to the base form

big

bigger

the biggest

great

greater

the greatest

fast

faster

the fastest

b) using the words more and most (periphrastic comparison)

interesting more interesting the most interesting

helpful

more helpful

the most helpful

 Adjectives of one syllable take inflections:

She was taller than me.

 Adjectives derived from verbs require periphrasis:

I was more bored than you.

 Adjectives of three or more syllables require periphrasis:

She was more courageous than me.

 Most two syllable adjectives make periphrastic comparison:

She was more helpful than I was.

However, there are exceptions:

 Adjectives ending in -er She was cleverer than I was.

 Adjectives ending in -y It’s easier than it seems.

 Adjectives ending in -ow The road was narrower than it is now.

 Adjectives ending in -le:

The problem is simpler than it seems.

 There are also irregular forms like:

good

better

the best

bad

worse

the worst

A. Comparison

63

Finally, remember that the second element of the comparison is introduced by than and that comparative and superlative contexts require words from the any-series and other non-assertive expressions:

Friendship is more important than anything. She knows more than anyone. I feel better than ever.

2b. Comparison of inequality: Adverbs

From the point of view of comparison there are two kinds of adverbs:

 Regular Adverbs (formed by adding -ly to the adjective) make periphrastic comparison:

quickly

more quickly

the most quickly

economically

more economically

the most economically

 Irregular adverbs (that have the same form as the adjective) make inflectional comparison:

fast

faster

the fastest

early

earlier

the earliest

late

later

the latest

hard

harder

the hardest

 There are also purely irregular adverbs like:

well

better

the best

bad

worse

the worst

Finally be careful in exercises because you may have to rewrite sentences with adverbs while the original sentence uses an adjective and vice versa:

Ann drives more quickly than me. I am a slower driver than Ann.

Ann is a quicker worker than me. I don’t work as quickly as Ann.

3 & 4. Proportional and Coordinated Comparison

64

A. Comparison

There is a correlative comparative structure using the to indicate a proportional relationship between two states or actions:

If you work a lot, you get tired.

 The more you work, the more tired you get.

We can use repetition of a comparative form with the word and to indicate progressive change:

Pollution is increasing.

 There is more and more pollution.

5. Implicit Comparison

There are several types of implicit comparison.

 So, such The words so and such are used with adjectives and adverbs to express sufficiency or excess, they introduce a that-clause indicating result:

I was so tired that I went straight to bed.

It was such an interesting article that I read it twice.

We use the word so with adverbs and with adjectives without a noun, we use such with a sequence of adjective + noun. If the noun is count singular, we use the indefinite article:

The wine was so nice that I shared it. It was such nice wine that I shared it.

He wrote such silly books that nobody read them. He wrote such a silly book that nobody read it.

The only exceptions to the previous rule are the multal adjectives, which always take so:

He watched so much TV that he became an idiot.

There were so many problems that we decided to have a cup of tea.

We have so little time that we must start now.

There are so few good movies that I rarely go to the cinema.

A. Comparison

65

 Too The adverb too indicates excess, it can be followed by an infinitive and the semantic subject of the infinitive can be introduced by for:

The package was too heavy for me to carry.

The adverb too must be used with adjectives and adverbs. The expressions too much and too many are used with non-count and plural nouns respectively:

It was too expensive for me to buy. It cost too much money for me to buy. There were too many problems for me to solve.

 Too much The expression too much may be used with verbs with ellipsis of the noun:

It cost too much. He works too much. They worry too much.

 Enough The word enough indicates sufficiency, it can be followed by an infinitive and the semantic subject of the infinitive can be introduced by for. The word enough is placed before nouns and after adjectives:

enough + noun adjective + enough

I haven’t enough money to buy it . I’m not rich enough to buy it. It’s not cheap enough for me to buy.

B. Practice

1. Fill in the gaps with the appropriate form of the adjective(s) given in parethesis.

1. PCs are becoming

2. We came at

(small) and

(bad) possible moment.

(powerful).

3.

The problem was

(easy) than it seemed.

66

A. Comparison

4. In Europe people are becoming

(fat) and

(fat).

5. The program has a steep learning curve and the manual is

(obscure) than most.

6. Both algorithms work, but Ann's is a lot memory.

(simple) and will use

(little)

7. It's

(fascinating) novel that I have read in ages.

8. We need to go

(far) into the problem.

9. The profits were

(great) than we had expected.

10. The

(obvious) solution is not always the

(good).

2. Read the following technical specifications from two handheld PCs. Then, write 5 sentences comparing both products using the information provided.

Product 1

HP iPAQ hw6940 Mobile Messenger series (FA743AA) - specifications and warranty

Specifications

Operating systems

Microsoft® Windows Mobile™ 5.0, Phone Edition with Messaging and Security Feature Pack

installed

Processor

Intel® PXA270 Processor 416 MHZ

Connectivity, std.

Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi (802.11b), Bluetooth® 1.2, IrDA SIR

1.2

Expansion slot

Integrated Mini-SD slot

Memory, std.

45 MB available for persistent user storage; 64 MB SDRAM for running applications

A. Comparison

67

Display

3.0" transflective TFT display, 240 x 240 resolution, 64K colors

Input type

Integrated alphanumeric keyboard

Audio

Integrated microphone, receiver, speaker, one 2.5 mm stereo headphone jack, MP3 stereo (through headphone jack)

Dimensions (L x W x

4.65

x 2.8 x 0.71 in.

H)

Weight

6.33

oz

Warranty, std.

One-year parts and labor; 90 days technical support for software

Software included on

Microsoft® Outlook 2002, Microsoft® ActiveSync® 4.1 (Desktop device

CD

synchronization), and links to Microsoft websites for additional downloadable applications (some programs may require purchase of additional desktop software to utilize Pocket PC versions).

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/215348-64929-215381-314903-f92-1822489.html

© 2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Product 2

HP iPAQ hx2000 Pocket PC series

Specifications

Operating systems

Microsoft® Windows Mobile™ 5.0 software - Premium Edition

installed

Enhanced security

HP ProtectTools secured by CREDANT Technologies

Processor

Intel® PXA270 Processor 312 MHz (Intel's processor numbering is not a measurement of higher performance)

Connectivity, std.

Bluetooth® wireless technology, Serial IR

Expansion slot

Integrated Compact Flash Type II (CF) and Secure Digital (SDIO) slots - Supports SD/MMC type standard, SDIO ready

Memory, std.

256 MB total memory (192 MB ROM and 64 MB SDRAM); Up to 128 MB user available persistent storage memory

Display

3.5" Transflective TFT QVGA; 64K colors; portrait and landscape mode

Input type

Touch-sensitive display for stylus or fingertip

68

A. Comparison

Audio

Integrated microphone, speaker and one 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack

Dimensions (L x W x

4.71 x 3.01 x .65 in.

H)

Weight

5.8 oz

Warranty, std.

One-year parts and labor. 90 days technical support for software. Extend or upgrade your warranty.

Software included on

Outlook 2002, Microsoft ActiveSync 4.1, Microsoft Reader eBooks, and

CD

links to Microsoft websites for additional downloadable applications (some programs may require purchase of additional desktop software to utilize Pocket PC versions).

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF04a/215348-64929-215381-314903-f67.html

© 2006 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

1. ………………………………………………………………………………………….

2. ………………………………………………………………………………………….

3. ………………………………………………………………………………………….

4. ………………………………………………………………………………………….

5. ………………………………………………………………………………………….

3. Fill in the correct form of the word in brackets.

1. The company will have to get its goods to the customers present if it wants to be competitive.

(quick) than at

2. We'll have to get up

(early) than usual tomorrow.

3. There must be a way of solving the problem

(economic) than this.

4. A laser printer prints a lot

(fast) than a dot matrix printer.

5. The post sales service is now supplied

(flexible) than in the past.

6.

We'll have to work

(hard) if we want to finish according to schedule.

A. Comparison

69

4.

Rewrite the sentences with the new beginnings.

1.

The new machine is faster than the others.

The other machines ………………………………………………………………

2.

Nowadays memory isn't as expensive as it used to be.

Memory used to be ………………………………………………………………

3.

Ann works better than John.

John doesn't work ………………………………………………………………

4.

The problem is simpler than it seems.

The problem isn't ………………………………………………………………

5.

They don't work as carefully as us.

We are ……………………………………………………………………………

6.

Planes are quicker than trains.

Trains don't ……………………………………………………………………….

5.

Use a comparative structure together with the verbs "become" or "get" (no verb is necessary in numbers 1. and 3. to rewrite the sentences). You should use the adjectives below.

few

good

long

many

small

1.

The number of unemployed is increasing.

There are ………………………………………………………………………

…

2.

The situation is improving.

The situation ………………………………………………………………………

3.

The number of Windows users is slowly falling.

There are …

……………………………………………………………………….

70

A. Comparison

4.

The size of integrated circuits is decreasing.

Integrated circuits ………………………………………………………….……….

5.

The design process for electronic goods is lengthening.

The design process ………………………………………………………………….

6.

Fill in the correct form of a suitable adjective.

1. the PC, the more portable it is.

2. The more whisky you drink,

you feel.

3. the integrated circuit, the faster it works.

4. you study, the better.

5. the user interface is, the better.

7.


1.

His novel was so successful that it was translated into seven languages.

He wrote ……………………………………………………………………………

2.

He's too poor to buy a car.

He hasn't ……………………………………………………………………………

3.

There is a shortage of computing engineers.

There aren't…………………………………………………………………………

4.

He is overworking.

He is working ………………………………………………………………………

5.

His house is so small that he can't invite guests.

He has ……………………………………………………………………………….

A. Comparison

71

6. The difficulty of the question prevented us from answering.

The question was ……………………………………………………………………

7. The number of students per group is excessive.

There are …………………………………………………………………………….

8. He is such a silly person that he believes everything I say.

That person is …………………………………………………………………….….

9. He is too young to drive.

He isn't ……………………………………………………………………………….

10. The noise was excessive.

There was ……………………………………………………………………………

8 Translate the following sentences into English:

1. La vida se hace cada vez más difícil en las grandes ciudades.

2. Cuanto más bebía, peor me sentía.

3. Cuanto más pequeño el chip, más rápido es su funcionamiento.

4. El ciclo de vida de los productos informáticos se hace cada vez más breve.

5. Cuanto más estudias, más quieres estudiar.


72

A. Comparison

1. La vida es fa cada vegada més difícil a les grans ciutats.

2. Quant més bevia, pitjor em sentia.

3. Com més petit és el xip, més ràpid és el seu funcionament.

4. El cicle de vida dels productes informàtics es fa cada vegada més breu.

5. Com més estudies, més vols estudiar.

B. The Tense System

73

B.

The Tense System

A. Present Time

TENSES REFERRING TO PRESENT TIME

Present Simple  ILLIMITED DURATION

What do you do? I’m a teacher.

I read a lot of novels.

Unemployment goes up every January.

Present Progressive  LIMITED DURATION

What are you doing? I’m trying to open this door.

I’m reading “The Moonstone”.

Unemployment is going up.

 PRESENT SIMPLE

- To talk about permanent situations or about general facts:

They live in a very nice flat. Water boils at 100 º Celsius.

- To talk about things that happen regularly, repeatedly or all the time:

It always rains at the weekend. Jeremy is a photographer. He takes photos for a newspaper.

- To describe sequenced actions:

74

B. The Tense System

First I take a bowl and break two eggs into it. Next

- To refer to future events which are timetabled:

His train arrives at 11.45.

I start my new job tomorrow.

- In subordinate clauses that refer to the future:

I'll phone you when I get home. We'll go to play tennis if it doesn't rain.

- In suggestions with: Why don't you

?

and certain expressions like:

How do you do? Why don't you take a day off tomorrow?

- With state verbs:

I think you're right.

She likes her job. He wants a new bike.

I know Jane quite well.

State use of verbs:

I think she’s right. I’m thinking about the problem.

He’s French. He’s being silly.

She has a new car. She’s having lunch.

 PRESENT PROGRESSIVE  LIMITED DURATION

- To talk about actions happening now:

I’m speaking.

- To talk about actions happening about now with limited duration:

I’m reading “War and Peace”.

- To talk about changes in progress:

B. The Tense System

75

Unemployment is going up. The climate is getting warmer.

- For repeated actions with always and similar words: constantly, forever to mean very often or too often:

I'm always losing my keys.

- To talk about a pre-planned future:

We’re having a party on Friday.

TENSES REFERRING TO FUTURE TIME

 We use the Present Simple in subordinate clauses of time and condition to make future reference:

When I get home, I’ll have a drink.

 Modal adjectives and future time: upgrading

It is probable that he will succeed. It is likely that he will succeed.

 He is likely to succeed.

It is improbable that he will succeed. It is unlikely that he will succeed.

 He is unlikely to succeed.

It is certain that he will succeed. It is sure that he will succeed.

 He is certain to succeed.

 He is sure to succeed.

 He is bound to succeed.

B. Practice: Tenses referring to Present Time

76

B. The Tense System

1. Fill

in

parenthesis.

the blanks

with the correct present or future form of the verb in

1. (not think) that you

I

(tell) the truth about this point.

2. (the machine go down often)?

3. (arrive) tomorrow.

She

4. (start) classes a little earlier this week.

We

5. (be) able to rest when we

We

(get) to the hotel.

6. The price of PCs

(come) down very quickly.

7. (you understand) what

(happen)?

8. What

9. Now we all

10. The company

(you think) about?

(know) that the figures were not accurate.

(pay) its employees very low salaries.

11. (not pay) attention, because the T.V. is on.

They

12. (have) any information about the problem?

Who

13. (always try) her best.

She

14. (weigh) more than 90 kilos.

John

15. As soon as I

16. Where

(finish) this silly job, I

(give) you a ring.

(you go)? The cinema is at the other end of the street.

17. (you think) the plan will work?

18. The technician

(now weigh) the samples.

2. Rewrite the sentences with the new beginnings.

1. There is a steady rise in the number of unemployed.

Unemployment

B. The Tense System

77

2. Sam will definitely forget about the meeting.

Sam is

3. He isn't in the habit of making backups.

He doesn't

4. They will probably be out together, dancing cheek to cheek.

They are

5. We have arranged to meet next Friday.

We are

6. He probably won't agree to the plan.

He is

7. It's certain that the train will be delayed.

The train

8. It's probable that she will overcome the problem.

She is

9. There will certainly be difficulties.

There are

10. The strike will definitely be massively supported.

The strike is

C. Past Time

Past tense  past time exclusive of the present

Present Perfect tense  past time inclusive of the present

Past tense

Perfect tense

78

B. The Tense System

I

saw her yesterday.

I have seen her today.

I didn’t see her last week.

I haven’t seen her this week.

I

saw her a few minutes ago.

When did you arrive? What did you say? (before I started speaking)

 The PAST SIMPLE tense may refer to a punctual action or to a period of time:

I left my job last week.

As a child, he lived in Africa.

 PRESENT PERFECT: ways of including the present

o

Adverbs

I haven’t seen the film yet. I have just spoken to her.

(have just  a recent past:

I spoke to her a few minutes ago  I have just spoken to her.)

o

Present consequences

He can’t come to the party because he has broken his leg. BUT He can’t come to the party because he broke his leg yesterday.

o

Reference to an indefinite past that includes the present

Have you ever seen “Hamlet”?

I

have never flown in a balloon.

It's the first time I have flown in a balloon.

o

Duration from the past into the present

I have lived here for 10 years.

B. The Tense System

79

I have lived here for 10 years

I began to live here

 PAST PERFECT

I live here now

o Duration from a more remote to a more recent past

I had lived in Paris for three months when I met my wife.

I had lived in Paris for 3 months

when I met my wife

I began to

live

I met my wife

in Paris I was living in Paris

 FUTURE PERFECT

o Duration from the past or present into the future

By 2005 I will have worked here for 15 years.

By 2005 I will have worked here for 15 years

I began to work here in 1990

I will be working here in 2005

 PRESENT PERFECT: ways of including the present

o Duration from the past into the present

I began to live here in 1990.

80

B. The Tense System

I have lived here for x years/since 2000.

I have lived here since I got out of prison.

FOR

SINCE  POINT IN TIME

 PERIOD OF TIME

I moved here in 1990.

I have lived here for 9 years.

I met her in 1990.

I have known her for 9 years.

We met in 1990. We have known each other for 9 years.

D. Practice: Tenses referring to Past Time

1. Fill in the blanks with the correct tense referring to past time of the verb in brackets.

1. (arrive) a few minutes ago.

Ann

2. (not see) such a good film for ages.

I

3. (have) lunch when I

I

(hear) the news on the radio.

4. (not reread) his first novel since it

I

(come out).

5. When Ann

6. It's the first time I

7. When the explosion (happen).

(finally get) to the airport, we

(travel) by balloon.

(occur) we simply

8. (the postman come) yet?

(wait) for two hours.

(not understand) what

9. (phone) for the last ten minutes and I

I

(still not manage) to get

through.

10. They say that the work on the tunnel

11.

I

(fall) asleep when the telephone

(begin) by the end of next year.

(ring).

B. The Tense System

81

12. It was the worst accident that I

(ever see).

13. (just finish) lunch. Would you like a coffee?

We

14. The meeting

(go on) for some time when we

(finally arrive).

2.

Compare the following pairs of sentences and work out the different implications of each pair.

1.

a. He has lived in Spain for two years.

b. He lived in Spain for two years.

2.

a. I have smoked since I left school.

b. I smoked for six months.

3.

a. I didn't see Tom this afternoon.

b. I haven't seen Tom this afternoon.

3.

Finish the second sentence without changing the meaning.

1.

He started studying English eighty years ago.

He has

2.

Is this your first visit to London?

Have you

3.

He hasn't written to his parents for two months.

The last time

4.

I moved to Valencia in 2002 (at 13:58).

I have

5.

I met Wendy in 2005.

I have

4.

Use a present tense, the Simple Past or the Present Perfect to fill in the blanks.

82

B. The Tense System

1.

(visit) the Uffizi when you were in Florence?

2.

(you ever visit) the Uffizi?

3.

I'm ashamed to say I

(never read) the Divine Comedy.

3.

When

(you get) here?

4. I

(live) in Valencia for ten years now.

5. I can't help you just now, I

6.

I

(know) Ann since we

(try) to finish this exercise.

(be) children.

7. I'm a bit nervous, because this is the first time I

(speak) in public.

8. I am really exhausted, I

(work) too much.

9. Just a second, I

10. Paul

(not finish) this exercise yet.

(call) a few minutes ago to say that he'd be late.

11. The sun

(get) colder and colder.

12. (not read) such a good novel for ages.

I

13. He's not here, I'm afraid. He

(just pop) out.

5. In the following exercise you must decide whether the sentences are right (R) or wrong (W). If they are wrong you must correct them.

1. Mary comes for a drink this evening.

2. Phone me when you'll have time.

3. I go to the beach about twice a year.

4. I know her since 1992.

5. What does he do?

6. He often plays computer games with his PC.

7.

When I arrived at the party, she has already gone home.

B. The Tense System

83

8. I'm feeling OK.

9. I'm living in Valencia since 1980.

10. Have you had good weather last weekend?

11. I can't go on holiday because I broke my leg.

12. It's raining since Easter.

6. Make sentences using the present perfect with FOR or SINCE according to the sentences and words given. Use positive or negative forms as indicated. (Remember that FOR is used for a period of time and SINCE for a point of time in the past with reference to the present).

1. I stopped smoking tobacco eight years ago. (smoke/negative)

2. He gave up alcohol after his car accident. (drink/negative)

3. We started running two kilometres every morning in 1990. (run/positive)

4. I play squash (play/positive)

every Friday night.

This

began

when

the squash

court

opened.

5. My brother began to be interested in folk music five years ago. (be/positive)

C. Prepositions

85

C.

Prepositions

A. Introduction

1. The basic prepositions of LOCATION and MOVEMENT

It is important to understand the basic uses of the three prepositions at, on and in to refer to location. These uses depend on the way we view the dimensionality of the location and are summarized in Table 1:

PREPOSITION

DIMENSION

EXAMPLE

AT

0

at the door

at Grunge Studios

at the station

ON

1

on a line

2

on the floor

IN

2 (enclosed)

in the garden

3

in the box

Table 1.

It is useful to subdivide the uses of each of these basic prepositions, for example there are different reasons for considering a location as having no dimensions. These are summarized in Table 2.

TYPE OF 0-DIMENSIONS

EXAMPLES

DIMENSIONALITY IS INAPPROPRIATE

at the bus-stop

at the door

DIMENSIONALTY IS UNSPECIFIED

at the station

at the airport

86

C. Prepositions

DIMENSIONALITY IS UNIMPORTANT

at Grunge Studios

at his/her office

Table 2.

The different uses of on can also be classified. Notice that, we use on to refer to means of public transport, except taxis, when they are used for their typical purposes:

I met him on the train. There were 39 passengers trapped in the train.

The basic uses of on are shown in Table 3:

USE

EXAMPLES

1-dimension

on my way to work

on the coast

on the river Cam

2-dimensions normal

on the table

on the floor

on the shelf

2-dimensions object

on the disk

on the record

on the screen

public transport

on the bus

on the plane

on the train

Table 3.

Finally the basic uses of in are shown in Table 4:

DIMENSION

EXAMPLE

2-dimensions (enclosed)

in the garden

in a field

C. Prepositions

87

in the mirror

in the drawer

in the house

3-dimensions

in London

in the South of England

in Cuba

Table 4.

These three basic prepositions of place are associated with prepositions and adverbs indicating positive and negative movement as shown in Table 5. The prepositions are usually formed by the adverb and the word enclosed in square brackets:

He walked away vs. He walked away from the bus stop.

The prepositions into and onto are sometimes reduced to in and on:

He put the money in(to) his pocket. They got on(to) the bus.

PLACE PREP.

+ MOVEMENT

- MOVEMENT

AT

TO

AWAY [FROM]

ON

ON([TO])

OFF

IN

IN([TO])

OUT [OF]

Table 5.

2. The basic prepositions of TIME

AT: "at" is basically used to introduce points of time, mainly clock time, in the expressions at night, at the weekend and with public holidays:

We'll meet at half past six then.

I was woken up at midnight by an explosion.

There's nothing interesting going on at the moment.

I always sleep in at the weekend.

I won't be here at Easter.

I

often work at night.

88

C. Prepositions

ON: the preposition "on" is basically used for days and dates:

I'll see you on Saturday. The meeting's on the first of July.

We also use "on" if we mention the day and the part of the day:

I'll be seeing her on Friday evening. We're going shopping on Saturday afternoon. We're going out on Friday night.

IN: "in" is used with parts of the day and with periods longer than a day:

I'll do that in the morning. We could go for a walk in the afternoon. We'll be off in August. It was fashionable in the (early/mid-/late) sixties. He must be in his (early/mid-/late) twenties.

Ø: It is obligatory to omit the preposition before deictic time words, last, next, this:

I'll be seeing him next Saturday. We're having a party this weekend. I was in London last week. We didn't go on holiday that year.

3. Other prepositions

The following notes review the basic uses of the above prepositions and explain the most important uses of other prepositions that you should know:

1. IN

a) 3-dimensions

in the house; in a box; in a city; in a region; in a country.

b) 2-dimensions

in the field; in the garden; in the mirror; in the window.

c) time

C. Prepositions

89

in the morning; in the afternoon; in the evening ¹ ; in the first week of January; in the Christmas holidays; in winter; in 1996; in the next century.

d) + attributes (clothes) the man in the blue suit.

2. ON

a) 2-dimensions

on

the floor; on the table; on the disk; on a track; on a mountain; on the screen;

on

a record; on the wall; on the ceiling; on top of.

b) 1-dimension

on a line; on the coast; on the border; on the frontier; on the way (to) ² ; on a route; on a bicycle; on a motorbike.

c) + means of public transport

on a bus; on a train; on a plane; on a ship ³ .

d) time

on the first of June; on Monday; on Monday morning.

e) dependency We rely/depend on her.

3. AT

a) 0-dimensions

at the bus-stop; at the door; at the airport; at a party; at a meeting; at the

beginning/the end of.

b) time

at the moment; at this minute; at this instant; at a time; at ten past seven; at

Christmas; at Easter.

c) intended target It is aimed at beginners; He pointed the gun at me.

4. INTO

a) 3-dimensional destination

He ran in([to] the house); They drove in([to] the country).

b) 2-dimensional destination

He went in([to] the field).

c) change

A compiler translates/transforms/converts/changes high level language into

machine code.

5. OUT OF

a) 3-dimensional negative movement

He ran out (of the house).

¹ Notice the exception "at night".

² Remember that when "way" indicates "manner" we must use the preposition "in".

³ But "in a taxi".

90

C. Prepositions

b) 2-dimensional negative movement He walked out (of the garden).

c) lack He is out of work/luck; we ran out of paper/memory.

d) statistics Seven out of ten people agree with the idea.

e) position (abstract)

The variable is out of range. f) origin It is made out of metal; A new technique emerged out of his pioneering work.

6. ON(TO)

a) two-dimensional destination He climbed on([to] the roof).

b) + means of public transport He got on([to] the bus/train/plane etc).

c) adverb → (+) power He switched/turned the machine on.

7. OFF

a) 2-dimensional negative movement

It fell off the table.

b) + means of public transport He got off the bus/plane train etc.

c) adverb → (-) power He switched/turned the machine off.

8. TO

a) general destination Go to the bus-stop/the cinema; got to London/France

b) indicating limit (with "up" + "down") Salaries fell down to half their previous value; It prints at up to 2,000 lines per minute.

c) to introduce the indirect object

I gave it to John.

9. AWAY FROM negative movement He walked away (from the bus-stop); They drove away (from the house).

10. ABOUT

a) approximately There were about fifty people at the meeting.

b) subject matter He wrote a book about the infinitive; He spoke to me about the subject.

11.

ABOVE/BELOW

C. Prepositions

91

a) difference in level (position) They stood above the hole in the ground; Below the village there was a valley.

b) difference in level on a scale 2 ô C below zero; above average; 5% above the legal rate.

c) textual as we can see in the diagram below; as I explained above.

12. ACROSS/ALONG

a) across → movement from one side to another He walked across the street; He walked across the field.

b) along → movement from one end to another He walked along the street; He walked along the path.

13. AFTER

a) time They arrived after 3 o’clock; after finishing work, I had a drink.

b) position It is the third house after the post-office.

c) movement (pursuit) He ran after the thief.

14. AGAINST

a) position He was leaning against a tree.

b) abstract He was against the idea; He advised us against going to the police; There is

evidence against that theory.

15. AROUND

a) movement He walked around the corner/the room/the city.

b) approximately There were around fifty people at the meeting.

16. BEHIND ≠ IN FRONT OF position He stood behind/in front of the car.

17. BESIDE/BY/NEXT TO/NEAR position They asked for a table beside/by/near/next to the window.

18. BY

a) to introduce the agent of the passive The book was written by Mr. Smith.

b) used with the gerund to indicate method He found the information by consulting an encyclopaedia.

92

C. Prepositions

19. BY MEANS OF means The user can communicate with the computer by means of the operating system.

20. FOR

a) intended destination They left for Paris; they made for home.

b) standard It prints very slowly for a laser printer.

21. FROM origin He stole/got/took/borrowed the money from the bank.

22. OPPOSITE position he sat opposite us; the hotel is opposite the airport.

23. OVER ≠ UNDER

a) position There was a light over the table; There was a carpet under the table.

b) movement The plane flew over the city; He slipped the note under the door.

c) with numbers → more/less than There are over three million people out of work; tickets are half price for children under 16.

d) all over (pervasive meaning) There were papers all over the floor; There were rumours all over the country.

24. PAST movement He walked past the shop; He drove past the building.

25. THROUGH

a) movement He walked through the tunnel; The rain came in through a hole in the roof.

b) method They got into contact through a network.

26. UP ≠ DOWN movement He went up/down the stairs; He moved the cursor up/down the screen.

27. VIA method The program was transmitted via satellite.

C. Prepositions

93

B. Practice

1. In the following exercise you must fill in the blanks using one of the prepositions at, on or in. In some cases more than one answer will be possible.

1. We arrived late and everybody was already sitting

2. There was an enormous poster

the wall.

3. You should turn left

the traffic light.

the table.

4. As it was raining, we decided to shelter

the post office.

5. The explosion caused an enormous hole

the wall.

6. They live

the north of Spain

the border with France.

7. After the elections thousands of people gathered

the town hall.

8. He tried to hide the money

9. There was a picture of the author

10. A lot of students were sitting

his pocket.

the front cover of the book.

the stairs.

2. In the following exercise you should use a preposition or adverb of movement to fill in the blanks.

1. As I was driving

2. Take all those newspapers

the car park, I realized that the briefcase had been stolen.

the shelf.

3. When it started to rain we all ran

the house.

4. We all ran

the policemen as they looked angry and had truncheons.

5. After the robbery the robbers drove

the bank

6. You have to get

the bus at the third stop.

a blue car.

7.

Don't put that glass

the table, you're going to stain it.

94

C. Prepositions

8. I remember putting the wallet back

my pocket.

9. We locked him

the room, but he managed to get

10. The council should come and take all that rubbish

11. Watch out, he's going to fall

12. I have to get some money

his bike.

the bank.

13. When we got

the bus, we realized that it wasn't air-conditioned.

14. I managed to get all the mud

15. Shall we take the meat

my boots.

the oven? It must be done by now.

16. I knocked the gun

his hand.

17. He fell as he was getting

the train and broke his ankle.

18. Get

this house, I’m fed up with you.

3. Fill in the blanks with "at", "on", "in" or “ø”:

1. I'll see you

Saturday.

2. I've got a lot of work

this August.

3. Let's meet

half six.

4. I usually have a light meal

the evening.

5. The company was founded

the 19th century.

6. I've got a lot of problems

7. We're having a party

the moment.

next Saturday.

8. I like to work

night.

9. The meeting's

April the first.

10.

It was a popular group

the eighties.

C. Prepositions

95

11. They usually go on holiday

August.

12. I'll get a couple of weeks off

Christmas.

13. I remember that we went to France for our holidays

14. We can finish it

the morning.

15. Monday.

See you

16. I'd say he was

his late teens.

that year.

17. I'll be going to England

this Christmas.

18. She always does a lot of work

the weekend.

4. Fill in the blanks with an appropriate preposition.

1. He got

his car and walked

the bank.

2. He drank the beer straight

3. They walked

the forest.

the bottle.

4. We have arranged to meet

5. Unfortunately we seem to have run

Sunday afternoon.

memory.

6. I met an old friend

the train to London.

7. You must know the building, you drive work.

it every day

8. He fell

the bridge

9. We managed to jump

the river.

the fence.

10. You should back up important files

11. He lives

the south of France.

12. He can't drive a car because he's

16.

on pen drives.

your way to

13.

There's a man standing

the roof of the house.

96

C. Prepositions

14. He lives

a city

15. He looked very silly

the coast.

such a big coat.

5. Fill in the gaps with an appropriate preposition.

1. It is possible to insert machine code

your programs.

2. His marks in exams were definitely

average.

3. We could pay

£2,000, but no more and we would certainly prefer to pay less.

4. Two losing their job.

every three people interviewed were worried about the prospect of

5. You'll have to drive station.

the bridge and ask for information

the petrol

6. The affair grew

a national scandal.

7. The police are looking for him, so he'll probably try to get

8. It is said to be dangerous to spend too long

9. We walked

the city centre.

10. The machine is rather heavy

a laptop.

the monitor.

11. The situation is very bad in the region and unemployment is well level.

the country.

the national

12. We all ran

13. There was a big box

the policemen.

the floor, but he couldn't see what was

it.

14. She is exceptionally good

a beginner.

15. There was an enormous hole

the wall.


1.

We entered the building.

C. Prepositions

97

We went

2. They left the office in a hurry.

They hurried

3. The passengers boarded the train.

The passengers got

4. All the passengers left the bus.

All the passengers got

5. Ann lent me the money.

I borrowed the money

6. Sales reached one million.

Sales went

7. Hackers managed to penetrate the network.

Hackers managed to get

8. He removed the furniture that was in the room.

He took the furniture

9. She used plastic to make the device.

She made the device

10. She inserted the disk.

She put the disk

the disk drive.

11. He dismounted.

He got

his bicycle.

12. There are more than 3,000 languages in the world.

There are

Progress Test 1

99

Progress Test 1


1. haven't seen my old friend for ages.

I

I

last

2. He went out a short while ago.

He has

3. first met Anne ten years ago.

I

I

have

4. I'll get ready before your arrival.

By the time

5. began to work here in 2003.

I

I

have

6. This year's subjects are more interesting than last year’s.

Last year's subjects

7. It was such an exciting film that I watched it twice.

The film

8. If you eat a lot of chocolate you get fat.

The more

9. The price of petrol is decreasing.

Petrol

10. Nowadays the quality of printers is higher than it used to be.

The quality of printers is getting

D. Relatives

101

D.

Relatives

A. Relative clauses: terminology

The man who phoned was French

relative pronoun = who relative clause = who phoned antecedent = The man

 Relative clauses: defining vs. non-defining

Defining relative clauses give information that is essential to identify the antecedent:

The man who phoned was French.

Non-defining relative clauses do not give essential information, but merely additional information. Non-defining relative clauses are marked by commas and only allow relative pronouns from the wh-series:

Mr. Bono-Bush, who phoned, was angry.

c.f.

The man who/that phoned was angry.

One special case of non-defining relatives is worth mentioning: the use of which to refer to the previous sentence or clause:

He closed the window, which was a good idea.

c.f.

He closed the window which/that was open.

 Relative clauses: wh-series relative pronouns

o The relative pronoun who makes personal reference and can be used in both defining and non-defining clauses:

The girl who we met was really nice.

102

D. Relatives

Mr. Bono-Bush, who has big closet, phoned the carpenter.

o

The relative pronoun which makes non-personal reference and can be used in both defining and non-defining clauses:

The machine which we repaired was old. The Institute, which was founded last year, is bankrupt.

o

The relative pronoun whose indicates possession and can be used in both defining and non-defining clauses:

The girl whose dog bit me was really nice. Mr. Brown, whose wife you worked with, phoned us.

o

The relative pronoun where indicates place and can be used in both defining and non-defining clauses:

The bar where we used to meet is closed. Sueca, where the thinker was born, is in Valencia.

o

The relative pronoun when makes temporal reference and can be used in both defining and non-defining clauses:

There was a moment when I didn’t understand anything. 1954, when the sad event happened, was a bad year.

o

The relative pronoun what contains its own antecedent:

The thing that/What I don’t understand is why he did it. I didn’t hear the thing that/what you said.

 Relative clauses: that

The relative pronoun that can only be used in defining relative clauses; it makes both personal and non-personal reference:

The person that told us this had a very long nose. The problem that faces us is complex.

We can omit that if the relative pronoun is NOT the subject of the relative clause:

The problem that faces us is complex. The problem ø we have is complex. The problem ø we are talking about is complex.

D. Relatives

103

 Relative clauses: prepositions

In English it is normal to place the preposition that governs the relative pronoun towards the end of the relative clause:

This is the person that I was telling you about.

However in formal registers it is also possible to place the prepositions before the relative pronoun. In such cases we must use a pronoun from the wh-series:

The speed at which a human being works is limited.

If the relative pronoun makes personal reference and the preposition precedes the pronoun, we must use the formal non-subject pronoun whom:

That’s the person who I was talking to. That’s the person to whom I was talking.

 Omission of the relative pronoun

After certain nouns it is possible to omit both the relative pronoun and the preposition:

Neural nets mimic the way the human brain works. They mimic the way in which the human brain works.

Omission of the relative pronoun and its governing preposition is possible with adverbial expressions of manner, cause and time:

I don’t like the way he works.

The reason I acted like that is that I am mad.

I’ll never forget the day we first met.

I’ll phone you the minute I arrive.

Access time is calculated from the time a read request is received by the memory unit.

104

D. Relatives

B. Practice

1. Decide whether the following relative clauses are defining or non-defining. If they are non-defining, mark them with commas.

1. I saw the film which you spoke to me about.

2. The man who phoned was very angry.

3. He refused to help which did not surprise me.

4. Ms. Bowles who visited us last year will return at the end to the term.

5. "Watt" which was written during the Second World War was the last of his novels written in English.

2. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate relative pronoun. Use "that" where possible and omit the relative pronoun if possible.

1. He always insults people ……………… try to help him.

2. Instead of keying the text in, ……………… is a long, boring process, you should use a scanner.

3. Mr. Mansfield, ……………… you met in Paris, will be at the meeting.

4. It is the best novel ……………… I have ever read.

5. Pressing Alt-W L brings up the Windows List dialog box, ……………… lists all opened windows.

6. He did everything ……………… he could to help us.

7. They are the people ……………… want to speak to you.

8. ……………… he said surprised everybody.

9. The president of the company, ……………… I saw yesterday, wants you to work for us.

10. I totally agree with ……………… you are proposing.

D. Relatives

105

3. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate relative pronoun. Use "that" where possible and omit the relative pronoun if possible.

1. This is the book ……………… I was telling you about.

2. Memories in ……………… reading and writing can be done on-line are sometimes called read-write memories.

3. I really don't know the people ……………… you are referring to.

4. The reason ……………… I did that was to confuse everybody.

5. We were all pleasantly surprised by the way ……………… he handled the problem.

6. The way in ……………… the user interface is designed will depend on the type of user aimed at.

7. I finally met the person about ……………… I heard so much.

8. I can't remember the exact time ……………… I left the office.

9. The safety of the hostages is ……………… we are interested in.

10. I'll tell him the minute ……………… he arrives.

4. Rewrite the sentences with the new beginnings. If there are two sentences you must join them. You should use "that" where possible.

1. I have never read a better introduction to the subject.

It's the ………………………………………………………………

2. Mr. Douglas's office was broken into.

Mr. Douglas is the man ………………………………………………

3. Are you interested in this book?

Is this the book ………………………………………………………

4. Mrs. Thomas will be at the meeting. You worked with her husband in Cairo.

Mrs. Thomas …………………………………………………………

5.

I disapprove of his behaviour.

106

D. Relatives

I disapprove of the way ………………………………………………

6. Remember that thing I gave you. Did you use it?

Did you use ……………………………………………………………

7. The correct answer was simple to find. Nobody found it.

The correct answer ……………………………………………………

8. He reported the problem to the police. This had no effect at all.

He reported the problem to the police …………………………………

9. That's the person. I saw him leaving the house.

That's the person ………………………………………………………

10. He introduced me to Angelina Jolie. I had heard a lot about her.

He introduced me to Angelina Jolie, about ……………………………

F. Conditional Sentences

119

E.

Linking Words

A. Introduction

SYNTACTIC CONTEXTS

 SENTENCE CONJUNCTS: they are typically the first word in the sentence although some are mobile. They establish a link with the previous sentence:

He was ill. However, he went to work.

 CONJUNCTIONS: they establish a link within a sentence, they must introduce a subordinate clause:

Although he was ill, he went to work. He went to work although he was ill.

 PREPOSITIONS: they establish a link within a sentence, they can only introduce a noun or a gerund:

Despite his illness he went to work. He went to work despite his illness.

Despite being ill he went to work. He went to work despite being ill.

They can be followed by the noun "the fact" and a "that" clause subordinated to the noun:

He went to work despite the fact that he was ill.

1. Linking words expressing CAUSE/EFFECT, REASON

SENTENCE CONJUNCTS

CONJUNCTIONS

PREPOSITIONS

120


Consequently

since

owing to

So

as

due to

Thus

because

because of

Therefore

for ⁴

as a result of

As a result

on account of

That's why

2. Linking words expressing CONTRAST

SENTENCE CONJUNCTS

SUBORDINATING

PREPOSITIONS

CONJUNCTIONS

However

although

in spite of despite

Yet

though

eventhough

Nevertheless

while

Nonetheless

whereas

3. Linking words expressing ADDITION

SENTENCE CONJUNCTS

SUBORDINATING

PREPOSITIONS

CONJUNCTIONS

Besides

besides

Moreover

apart from

Furthermore

In addition

in addition to

4. Linking words expressing TIME

⁴ “For” is almost a sentence conjunct: it introduces an explanation and it must come after the clause that expresses the thing explained.


121

SENTENCE CONJUNCTS

SUBORDINATING

PREPOSITIONS

CONJUNCTIONS

Afterwards

after

after

After this/that

Before

before

before

Meanwhile

while

We cannot use the expression the fact that with these words.

We went to the cinema after dinner / After dinner, we went to the cinema. We had dinner. Afterwards, we went to the cinema. We had dinner. After that, we went to the cinema. We went to the cinema after we had dinner.

It was lovely while it lasted. He called while you were here. I was studying hard. Meanwhile, my friend was travelling all over the world.

5. Linking words expressing PURPOSE

SENTENCE CONJUNCTS

SUBORDINATING

CONJUNCTIONS

PREPOSITIONS

To this end For that purpose

so that so as to in order to to + infinitive for + gerund (-ing)

6. Other important linking devices:

a. COMPARISON

Like

Similarly

Likewise

The word like is used only with nouns. The word as is used with other groups of words. The words similarly and likewise are sentence conjuncts indicating similarity.

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Like my father, I’m fond of photography.

I got a present when I graduated from highschool. Similarly, I’ll get one when I get

my bachelor’s degree.

I know that I will be sick if I drink too much. Likewise, I know I’ll feel sick if I eat too much.

Too, as well and alike also express similarity or coincidence.

I can play piano. I can play guitar as well.

I have a bike. He’s got one, too. Students and teachers alike demanded better schedules.

b. CONDITION

otherwise

Apart from the conditional subordinators already studied, there is one other important conditional linking device: otherwise, which is a sentence conjunct expressing negative condition (“If this is not the case”).

You must really do all the assignments in the course. Otherwise, you will not be able to sit the exam.

B. Practice


1. Although it was an elegant solution, it didn’t work.

Despite

2. During his speech, I fell asleep.

While

3. Due to the heavy traffic we were late for the preview.

As

4. She can speak fluent French and she can pilot aeroplanes.

Besides


123

5. In spite of John's objections our proposal was accepted.

Even though

6. They were working too quickly. Consequently they made a mess of the job.

As

7. He couldn't do the job well as he had the flu.

As a result

8. I won't tell them unless they ask me.

If

9. If you don’t study, you’ll fail the exam.

Otherwise,

10. They had a great deal of work. Nevertheless, they managed to finish it.

Although

11. First he refused the offer, then he changed his mind.

After

12. She is well qualified and has experience in the field.

Apart

13. Although they frequently disagree, they work well together.

In spite

14. You won't understand if you don't pay careful attention.

Unless

15. Despite our desperate attempt to avoid this problem, it has occurred.

Although

16.

Due to its numerous facilities, the package is extremely popular.

124


As

17. The solution is elegant and efficient.

In addition to

18. First she switched off the machine. Then she repaired it.

Before

19. Whereas Windows is a proprietary system, Lynux is not.

Unlike

20. As she reacted quickly, she was able to solve the problem.

Owing

2. Cloze. Read the following review for a pocket PC and fill in the gaps with the words provided in the box.

so

also

even when

otherwise

since

although

but

when

however

due to

Performance of HP iPaq Pocket PC hx4700

Overall, the HP iPaq hx4700 was a solid performer, (1) …………………………… we

expected more from this Pocket PC. (2) …………………………… it possesses the same

624MHz Intel processor as the Dell Axim X30, the hx4700 scored lower than the

Axim in our benchmark tests. This was largely (3) …………………………… its lower scores

in video performance, (4) …………………………… gamers won't find an ideal playmate in

the hx4700. (5) ……………………………, the PDA is very fast, and all applications

responded instantly, (6) …………………………… multiple programs were running in the

background.

What the hx4700 lacks in video performance, it more than makes up in quality. The

4-inch VGA screen is very bright and sharp, with great support for the 3D interface

of Windows CE 4.21. Viewing photos was (7) …………………………… a pleasure on this

crisp screen, and it's easily readable outdoors. It's crystal clear that the iPaq is the

winner over the X30 (8) …………………………… it comes to display quality.


125

The hx4700's wireless connections were superb. We were able to get the device connected to an access point and the Web in a matter of seconds, and it offered great range. Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth worked flawlessly in our tests, and they can run simultaneously. (9) ……………………………, we noticed that using both wireless technologies at the same time drained battery power significantly faster than would normal use.

Speaking of power, the hx4700's battery life was very good. In our drain test, in which the device was left to play a looped video clip with all wireless turned off and both the sound and the backlight cranked all the way up, the HP lasted 5 hours, 25 minutes--that's almost an hour longer than the Dell Axim. (10) …………………………… our test is designed to drain the battery as quickly as possible, the hx4700's battery life can be two to three times longer in real-world usage.

Performance analysis written by CNET Labs project leader Dong Van Ngo.

http://reviews.cnet.com/HP_iPaq_Pocket_PC_hx4700/4514-3127_7-30974570.html

3. Find out an appropriate linking word for each of the following sentences. Use the links in the boxes.

A.

while

consequently

furthermore

so

despite

nonetheless

however

as

1.

After a few years, he became an outstanding basketball player. ……………… playing professionally now.

,

he’s

2.

The concert is expensive. And it’s in Barcelona. ……………… the trip.

. I think it’s worth

3.

Some people think cell phone bills are too high, ……………… aren’t.

home phone bills

4.

The technology of laptops is improving all the time. ……………… getting cheaper and cheaper.

,

they are

5.

It is not easy to make money nowadays with your own business, ……………… many people prefer to work for other people rather than starting their own company.

6.

The actor was sweating ………………

he delivered his monologue.

126


7.

They thought we had forgotten about our appointment, ……………… so late.

we got there

8.

We disliked each other. ………………

, we agreed on that point.

9.

………………

being so young, he earns a lot of money.

B.

moreover on account of

thus

therefore

since

because of

that’s why

1.

, national governments are encouraging the population to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

They estimate that the flu will reach Europe by the end of this year. ………………

2.

Researchers have found evidence that the volcano seems active for several days now.

………………

the population of surrounding villages has been evacuated.

3.

He is really exhausted, ………………

he slept three hours last night.

4.

We couldn’t have lunch outdoors ………………

the bad weather.

5.

One most serious issue to deal with is violence in big cities. ……………… authorities need to pay attention to violence in suburbs.

,

local

6.

They considered him a good candidate to the post ……………… and curriculum vitae.

his personality

7.

She told us to visit the Ghetty museum, ………………

we knew about it.

C.

whereas in spite of as a result of besides

in addition to (even)though apart from besides + NP

yet although as a result

for

owing to

nevertheless

1.

It rained for several days. ………………

, the basement got flooded.


127

2. I hope he succeeds, ………………

he has tried very hard to do a good job.

3. In some cases the subject of a verb can be omitted, ……………… economy.

the principle of

4. ……………… their parents’ home today for longer than they used to only a few years ago.

the increase in the price of apartments, young people tend to stay in

5. Michael is an average student, ………………

very clever.

6. Although his program failed to work properly, he ……………… be used for some tasks.

thought it could

7. Mark is not an economist, ………………

he knows a lot about economics.

8. They waited for us ……………… day.

we had told them we could not get there that

9. You may find your new job attractive, ……………… think it’s not.

some friends of yours may

10. ………………

the flight’s delay, he was on time for the meeting.

11. This problem is too difficult for me to solve alone. ……………… expert on that.

,

I’m not an

12. He was the only person able to ride that horse ………………

his wife.

13. ………………

science.

his colleagues, no one knew that he had a degree in computer

14. That navigator is really convenient. ………………

showing the most relevant

results, it highlights the word or words you were searching.

128


F.

Conditional Sentences

A. Conditional sentences with “if”

In any conditional sentence we can distinguish between the main clause and the subordinate clause. In the following sentence the main clause is "I'll help you", and the subordinate clause is "if you need me":

I'll help you, if you need me.

As the order of the sentences is not important, we can also say:

If you need me, I'll help you.

What we need to know is the tense in each clause. The tenses used depend on the meaning expressed. We can distinguish four types of conditional sentences.

0. To talk about general truths

If I have a big lunch, it makes me sleepy.

We use the present tense in both clauses.

1. To express an open future

If it rains, we'll go to the cinema.

We use the present tense in the subordinate clause and a tense with future reference in the main clause. But we can also use the imperative in the main clause:

If you see her, give her my message, please.

2a. To express an unreal present

If I had money, I would travel around the world.


129

2b. To express an unlikely future

If I won the lottery, I would travel around the world.

Both in 2a and 2b we use the past tense in the subordinate clause and the conditional tense in the main clause. Notice that "would" can be contracted to "’d" and that instead of "would" we can use "could" to indicate conditional ability and "might" to indicate possibility.

3. To express an unreal past

If you had seen the film, you would have enjoyed it.

We use the Past Perfect in the subordinate clause and the Conditional Perfect in the main clause. It is also possible to use "could" or "might" instead of "would".

This classification is simplified: actual usage is more complex. An exception is the mixture of types 2a and 3, in which an unreal past can imply an unreal present and viceversa.

If I had taken his advice, I would be a rich man. If he weren't so proud, he could have asked for help.

The tense agreement rules can be summarized as follows:

1. If + Present  Future / Present

If it rains, I will take my umbrella. If it rains, I take my umbrella.

2. If + Simple Past  Would + infinitive

If it rained, I would take my umbrella.

3. If + Present Perfect  Would + perfect infinitive

If it had rained, I would have taken my umbrella.

130


B. Other subordinating conjunctions

Apart from "if" there are a number of other subordinating conjunctions used in conditional clauses:

unless in case provided (that) providing (that) so/as long as

C. Modal uses of the past tense with several expressions

I wish… If only … …’d rather…

In type 2 conditionals, the past tense does not refer to past time, but to an unreal present or unlikely future. This use of the past tense is called a modal use and there are a number of other contexts in which it is found.

 After the expressions "I wish

"

and "If only

":

(a) we use the Simple Past tense to express regret about the present (to say that we would like something to be different):

I wish I had a car. If only I were more intelligent!

(b) we use the Past Perfect tense to express regret that something happened or did not happen in the past.

I feel sick. I wish I hadn't eaten so much. If only you had explained the situation to me!


131

 After the expression "it's time

",

we use the past tense when we think that

someone should have already done something.

It is late. It is time we left.

We use the past here but the meaning is present or future, not past. With this expression, we can also use an infinitive and if we wish to make explicit reference to the subject of the infinitive, we can introduce it with "for":

It is time (for us) to leave.

 After the expression "…’d rather

(“would rather”), the past tense is generally

used, but the meaning is present or future, as mentioned for the above expressions. “Would rather” is used in this case to say that one person would prefer another to do something.

"

I’d rather you did the housework today. I’d rather we hadn’t get rid of our old printer.

 Subject-Verb inversion with a conditional meaning

Each of the three types of conditional sentences can be rewritten without using a conditional conjunction by means of inversion.

For the first conditionals we have to use the modal verb "SHOULD":

If you find the answer, please let me know. Should you find the answer, please let me know. Should his plane arrive after 11, tell him he will have to take a taxi.

1 ^s^t conditional

Should + subject + verb …, main clause

For the second conditionals we have to use the past of the "BE TO" construction:

If they offered you the post, would you accept it? Were they TO offer you the post, would you accept it?

2 ⁿ^d conditional

Were + subject + TO + infinitive …, main clause

For the third conditionals we simply omit the "if" and invert the subject with the auxiliary "HAD":

132


If he had been careful, he wouldn't have broken the glass. Had he been careful, he wouldn't have broken the glass.

3 ^r^d conditional

Had + subject + verb … , main clause

B. Practice

1. Fill in the correct form of the verb in brackets.

1. If I had known the answer, I …………………

2. I'll tell you the answer if you …………………

….

….

(not phone) for help.

(promise) to keep it secret.

3. He …………… (be) less nervous in the interview if he had slept the previous night.

4. …………………

….

(you buy) the house if you had enough money?

5. I wish we …………………

….

(not waste) so much time yesterday.

6. I …………………

….

(not leave) unless there is no other option.

7. It really is time we …………………

…. (go) to bed.

8. What …………………

9. If we ………………… would have happened.

….

….

(you do) yesterday if you had been alone?

(take) the necessary precautions beforehand, none of this

10. Don't say anything unless he …………………

….

(mention) the subject.

11. If she had had any problems, she …………………

…. (already phone).

12. If only I …………………

….

(not have) to work so much, I could go out more.

2. Fill in the blanks with an appropriate conditional conjunction other than “if”.

1. I won't wait here …………………

….

you promise to come back.

2. There will not be any problem …………………

….

you don't make much noise.


133

3.

I'll take a sandwich …………………

….

I get hungry.

4.

You can go with your friends ………………

….

you are allowed by your father.

5.

I will not finish today …………………

….

you leave me alone.

3.

In the following exercise you have to rewrite the conditional sentences using inversion.

1. If I resigned, would you do the same?

Were

2.

If you see John, tell him the news.

Should

3.

If they offered you a rise, would you stay with the firm?

Were

4.

Phone me if there are any problems.

Should

5.

If I had understood the problem, I wouldn't have asked you.

Had

4.

In the following exercise you have to decide whether the sentences are right or wrong. If they are wrong you must correct them.

1.

I won't do the work unless she pays me.

2.

If you had an accident, phone a doctor.

3.

If I had listened carefully, I would had understood everything.

4.

If you went to Paris you would have met Ann.

5.

Would you follow me if I left this town?

6.

Should there been any difficulty, don't hesitate to get in touch.

134


7.

Had you told me, I might be able to help you.

8.

Providing that you have any problems, give me a ring.

5.

Fill in the appropriate form of the verb in brackets.

1.

I

wish you

(not be) so selfish.

2.

If only you

(ask) me instead of deciding by yourself.

3.

I

wish I

(have) a lot of money.

4.

It really is time you

(finish) your homework.

5.

If only he

(check) the answers, he might have corrected the mistakes.

6.

Rewrite the following sentences with the new beginnings without changing their meaning.

1.

It

was late so we took a taxi home.

If

2.

If I studied a lot, I would pass the exam!

Were

3.

As I am tired, I can't do the work.

If

4.

If you hear any news, let me know.

Should

5.

It's a shame that I don't have more time to study.

I

wish

6.

He didn't get the job because he gave a bad impression in the interview.

If


135

7. I won't do anything unless you ring.

If

8. We wouldn't have acted like that if we had understood the situation better.

Had

9. He was talking on the phone so I couldn't tell him the news.

If

10. I have too much work so I won't go to the match this Saturday.

If

Progress Test 2

127

Progress Test 2

1. Nobody understood

he was saying.

a) which

b) why

c) what

2. It is the best thriller

I have ever read.

a) whose

b) Ø

c) at which

3. He did not repeat the exercise,

a) which

b) that

c) what

I did not like at all.

4. Memories

memories.

reading and writing can be done on-line are called read-write

a) which

b) in which

c) when

5. The words

a) that

b) to which

c) whom

an operating system can interpret are called commands.

6. Some windows contain menus,

a) that

b) which

c) what

are controlled by means of a mouse.

7. he's an expert, he can still make mistakes.

a) Despite

128

Progress Test 2

b) Although

c) Instead

8. There's a post strike at the moment

a) although

b) because

c) owing to

a wage dispute.

9. being well qualified, she has experience in the field.

a) Unlike

b) Apart from

c) Owing to

10. We' ve got a number of computers down

a) owing to

b) in addition to

c) whereas

hardware failure.

11

he did not read the instructions, he was unable to solve the problem.

a) Because of

b) Even though

c) As

12. If I had a better computer, I

a) could

b) would can

c) can

run that program.

13. It's a good idea to have back-up copies by accident.

a) providing

b) unless

c) in case

information gets wiped off the hard disk

14. being able to program in several languages, he is also a good systems analyst.

a) Despite

b) Besides

c) As a result of

15.

I'll do the work provided they

for it.

Progress Test 2

129

a) will pay

b) pay

c) payed

16. If I had known his address, I

a) would write

b) would have written

c) would had written

to him immediately.

17. If only you

a) have not been

b) had not been

c) were not

there at that moment.

18. need any further information, don't hesitate to get in touch.

a) Were you to

b) Had you to

c) Should you

G. The Passive Voice

131

G.

The Passive Voice

A. Introduction

We form the passive voice with the different tenses of the verb be and the past participle. In this way, a transitive sentence, that is with a direct object, can be transformed into a passive one as follows:

Tannenbaum wrote a book about networks.

A book about networks was written by Tannenbaum.

They installed the system successfully.

The system was installed successfully.

In both examples, the direct object in the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive one. But, although in the first sentence we have by introducing the agent (the equivalent to the subject in the active sentence), in the second example, when the agent is unknown, unimportant or obvious, it is not included as it is not relevant for the exchange of information.

 Verbs with two objects

When the active verb has two objects, that is, a direct object and an indirect one, there are two possible passive constructions:

I sent Chris an e-mail message.

a. An e-mail message was sent to Chris.

I sent Chris an e-mail message.

b. Chris was sent an e-mail message.

132


Generally speaking, it is more common to begin a passive sentence with the person, the active indirect object. The verbs that present these two possibilities are "show", "pay", "offer", "teach" and "promise". With verbs followed by a personal complement and a subordinate clause introduced by "that" or an infinitive, the only option is to use the indirect object as the passive subject:

He told me that I should not come.

I was told not to come.

He told me not to come.

I was told not to come.

 Infinitives and gerunds

These can also be in the passive:

The mouse causes the cursor to be moved around the screen.

The mouse moves the cursor around the screen.

The problem should be sorted out as soon as possible.

We should sort out the problem as soon as possible.

I hate people laughing at me.
I

hate being laughed at.

 The passive with certain verbs of opinion and communication

When we talk about what other people say, think, believe, claim, etc, we come across two possible passive constructions:

They say that this program corrects your style.


133

a. It is said that this program corrects your style.

They say that this program corrects your style.

b. This program is said to correct your style.

In the second passive transformation, the subject of the that-clause this program has been upgraded, that is, has become the new subject of the main clause and the verb of that clause has become an infinitive: to correct. This infinitive will vary according to the tense of the verb in the that-clause:

They think that this machine is suffering from viruses.

This machine is thought to be suffering from viruses.

He is reported to have committed suicide.

They report that he committed suicide.

Everybody knows that the company has been overspending.

The company is known to have been overspending.

B. Practice

1. Make the following active sentences passive omitting the agent if it is not significant:

1. They will start work on the project next week.

2. They haven't revealed the name of the suspect.

3. They are re-designing the model.

134


4. They have underestimated the problems.

5. Somebody should explain the incident.

6. database allows you to organise data efficiently.

A

A

database allows

7. Somebody sent them an anonymous letter.

8. Did the company give you any more information?

9. People have told me that it is dangerous to do that.

10.Back-ups prevent you from losing important information.

Back-ups prevent

2. Rewrite the following sentences with the new beginnings:

1. It is rumoured that IBM is interested in the new system.

IBM

2. They say that the government is trying to negotiate a solution with the unions.

The government

3. They now know that the experiment was an utter failure.

The experiment

4.

They suppose that this is the simplest method.


135

This

5. They expect that we design all the software.

We

6. They believe that they were escaping, when the accident happened.

They

7. They say that he introduced the mistakes on purpose.

He

8. They think that the minister threatened to resign.

The minister

9. They report that the agreement is about to be signed.

The agreement

10. They say that the upgrade is simpler to use than the old version.

The upgrade

3. Rewrite the following sentences with the new beginnings:

1. They gave us an ultimatum.

An ultimatum

2. Babbage developed a forerunner of modern computers.

A forerunner

3. They have accepted your offer.

Your offer

4. They told me not to do anything.

I

5.

They won't finish the work according to schedule.

136


The work

6. They should widen this road.

This road

7. They say that he lives alone on an island.

He

8. They think that the disaster happened by accident.

The disaster

9. They are pulling down those old houses.

Those old houses

10. They would have discovered the real reason.

The real reason

C. Translation

1. La memoria principal se asocia con la CPU porque almacena información y programas temporalmente.

2. Para facilitar el procesamiento se necesitan dos cosas: acceso aleatorio y velocidad.

3. Dicen que este programa corrige tu estilo.

4. Se ha anunciado que la nueva versión está a punto de aparecer en el mercado.

5.

Ya me han dicho que vino a verme ayer.


137

6. El nuevo ordenador se instalará el mes que viene.

7. Con los procesadores de texto, se pueden copiar o mover bloques de texto sin tener que introducir los datos de nuevo.

C. Translation

1. La memòria principal s’associa amb la UCP perquè emmagatzema temporalment informació i programes.

2. Per a facilitar el processament es necessiten dues coses: accés aleatori i velocitat.

3. Es diu que aquest programa corregeix el teu estil.

4. S’ha anunciat que la nova versió està a punt d’aparéixer en el mercat.

5. Ja m’han dit que va venir a veure’m ahir.

6. El nou ordinador s’instal·larà el mes que ve.

7. Amb els processadors de text, es poden copiar o moure blocs de text sense haver d’introduir les dades de nou.

H. Modal Verbs

139

H.

Modal Verbs

A. Introduction

Modal verbs express very basic meanings like ability (can), permission (may, can), obligation (must, should), certainty (must) etc. Most modal verbs differ from lexical verbs in various syntactic features:

 They do not take “s” in the third person singular;

 They do not require the operator do/does/did in interrogative or negative forms;

 They take a bare infinitive and not a to-infinitive.

Normal verb

Modal verb

^Hê ^s^wⁱ^m^s ^vê^r^y ^wê^l^l^.

Does he swim well?

He doesn’t swim very well.

He tries to swim well.

He can swim very well.

Can he swim well?

He cannot swim very well.

He can swim well.

 Modal verbs DEONTIC vs. EPISTEMIC uses

Deontic uses of modal verbs refer to obligations, permissions etc.

Epistemic uses of modal verbs refer to degrees of certainty (certainty, possibility, impossibility/negative certainty etc.

Deontic

Epistemic

You may leave.

I give you permission to leave.

You must work harder.

It’s obligatory for you to work harder.

She may succeed.

It’s possible that she will succeed.

It must be 12 o clock.

I’m certain it’s 12 o clock.

140

H. Modal Verbs

You can’t smoke here.

It is forbidden to smoke here.

He can’t be French.

I’m certain he is not French.

The difference is important because we make reference to past time differently. With deontic uses we refer to past time by changing the verb. With epistemic uses we refer to past time by changing the infinitive.

Deontic

Epistemic

I couldn’t smoke at school.

I had to work hard at school.

He can’t have been French.

It must have been about 12 o clock.

Notice that, in deontic uses, the infinitive can also reflect aspect, specifically the difference between limited and unlimited duration:

Limited duration

Unlimited duration

I couldn’t smoke at school.

I had to work hard at school.

He can’t have been French.

It must have been about 12 o clock.

In the exercises, we shall concentrate on three epistemic uses of modal verbs:

Verb

Meaning

must

certainty

may/might/can

can’t

possibility

negative certainty

 Modal Verbs: typical problems

I’m sure she is here

→

She must be here.

I’m sure he isn’t telling the truth

→

He can’t be telling the truth.

H. Modal Verbs

141

Perhaps she arrived early

→

She may have arrived early.

I’m sure they were lying

→

They must have been lying.

B. Practice

1. Use "must", "may (not)/might(n't)" or "can't" with the appropriate infinitive to rewrite the sentences.

1. Perhaps you have a virus.

You

2. I'm quite sure he is wrong.

He

3. I'm sure he doesn't understand the problem.

He

4. I'm positive they aren't using the same method.

They

5. Maybe he misunderstood.

He

6. It's certain that he was hiding important information.

He

7. I'm sure he didn't foresee this problem.

He

8. Perhaps they'll try to undercut our prices.

They

9. I'm sure she hasn't misjudged the situation.

She

142

H. Modal Verbs

10. Perhaps they have overcharged you.

They

2. Instructions as above.

1. It's a virus, there's no doubt about it.

It

2. Perhaps you won't find him at home.

You

3. I'm quite sure that he panicked and ran away.

He

4. I'm positive that she wasn't listening to our conversation.

She

5. Maybe they are planning a surprise attack.

They

6. I'm sure he overheard what you said.

He

7. I'm sure there was some kind of misunderstanding.

There

8. Perhaps she couldn't remember the password.

She

9. It's obvious that he pressed the wrong button.

He

10. I'm sure that he hasn't found out about the plan.

H. Modal Verbs

143

He

11. It's obvious that there wasn't anybody at home.

There

12. There's no doubt about it, he's bluffing.

He

3. Rewrite the sentences using a suitable modal verb.

1. I'm quite certain that the mistake was accidental.

The mistake

2. It's possible that the plan will succeed.

The plan

3. I'm sure he isn't telling the truth.

He

4. Perhaps they have had an accident.

They

5. I'm sure he didn't solve the problem by himself.

He

6. I'm positive they have met that man before.

They

7. It's possible that he made the same mistake.

He

8. I'm sure the company is losing money.

The company

9.

It's obvious that the firm has not been making profits.

144

H. Modal Verbs

The firm

10 It's quite clear that they weren't making any progress.

They

11 Perhaps he was trying to contact us.

He

12 I'm sure she isn't trying hard enough.

She

13 It's obvious that they received the message.

They

I. Multiword Verbs

145

I.

Multiword Verbs

A. Introduction

Multiword verbs are expressions made up of a verb and one or two particles. Sometimes the meaning of the multiword verb is not very different from the meaning of the original verb. The verb "point" for example means to "indicate with the finger", while the multiword verb "to point out" can mean to "indicate something linguistically". Sometimes the particle is used with more or less the same meaning with several verbs, for example "out" is used with a number of verbs to indicate the general meaning of discovery:

I found out the answer yesterday. He managed to work out a solution to the problem. I couldn't figure out the answer.

The particle "on" is the general English preposition of depending:

You can rely on him. Everything depends on her. You can count on me. We are banking on your help.

Similarly the particle "down" is often used to indicate "failure":

The car broke down. The computer went down. He let us down.

Usually, however, the meaning of a multiword verb is not easily deducible from the verb and the particle: "look for" is "to seek", "look after" is "to take care of" and "look up" is "to search in a dictionary or list". Given the enormous amount of multiword verbs that exist in English, this is simply a short introduction to the different grammatical types. In your "real world" contact with English it is necessary to rely on a good dictionary to solve problems with multiword verbs. An excellent specialist dictionary is the "Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs" edited by Collins Cobuild.

The particles may be adverbs or prepositions:

- If the particle is an adverb, the multiword verb is known as a phrasal verb.

146

I. Multiword Verbs

- If the particle is a preposition, the multiword verb is known as a prepositional verb.

- If there are two particles, the first is an adverb and the second is a preposition and the expression is known as a phrasal prepositional verb.

The position of the complement of the multiword verb varies according to the type of verb.

 Phrasal verbs Phrasal verbs may be intransitive (i.e. without a complement) or transitive. With transitive phrasal verbs the complement may come before or after the adverb if the complement is a noun:

He picked up the glass. He picked the glass up.

However if the complement is a personal pronoun ("me", "you", "him", "her", "it", "us", "them"), it comes between the verb and the particle:

He picked it up.

 Prepositional verbs The complement always comes after the preposition:

You can rely on your sister. You can rely on her.

 Phrasal prepositional verbs The complement always comes after the two particles:

I won't put up with your behaviour. I won't put up with it.

B. Practice

1. In the following exercise you should fill in the blanks with a suitable particle to complete the sentence:

1. We had expected John to come, but he let us

2.

John's a very conscientious person indeed, you can rely

him.

I. Multiword Verbs

147

3. We worked very hard but we couldn't work

the answer to the problem.

4. If you don't know the meaning of a word you can always look it dictionary.

5. He asked

more information about the scheme.

6. John pointed

that the project was behind schedule.

7. The “Upcase” function turns a lowercase letter

an uppercase letter.

8. I'll look

the house while you are away.

9. Hackers try to break

networks.

10. I'm afraid that the network server has gone

11. The accident was brought

by negligence.

12. He's a heavy smoker and he can't do

tobacco.

13. The plan is likely to be difficult to carry

in the

2. In the following exercise you must fill in the blanks with a preposition or adverb and put the pronoun in brackets in its correct place in the sentence.

1. If you take care of someone, you look

2. If you can trust someone, you can

3. If one thing causes another, it

(it) .

(them) .

(them) .

4. In a conversation or a text, if you indicate something you

5. If you disappoint someone, you

6. If you enter a place illegally, you

(them) .

(it) .

7. If something is essential to you you can't

8. If you do something, you

(it) .

(it) .

(it) .

9.

If you try to find a word in a dictionary, you

(it) .

148

I. Multiword Verbs

10. If you discover something by means of calculations and deductions you

(it).

3. In this exercise you should choose the correct phrasal prepositional verb to fill in the blanks:

be made up of come up against

face up to be up to

carry on with come up with

run out of

1. If a word is not included in the index, the program

2. After a short rest, we

with our work.

the closest match.

3. We must

the fact that we don't have enough money.

4. You can choose, it

5. Our proposal

you.

strong opposition.

6. The committee

six members.

7. We couldn't print the document, because the printer had

paper.

Progress Test 3

149

Progress Test 3

Rewrite the following sentences with the new beginnings:

1.

It

is claimed that the new up-grade is compatible with earlier versions.

The new up-grade

2.

There's a possibility that the match will be called off

The match

3.

They didn't ask me to tell you anything.

I

4.

They are going to reject the proposal.

The proposal

5.

I

am certain he was innocent.

He

6.

Ann suggested a good idea for the project.

Ann came

7.

He disappointed her.

He

8.

We will send you a fax tomorrow.

You

9.

It's not obligatory to answer the last question.

You

10. The accident was caused by negligence.

The accident was brought

GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS

Glossary

153

Reading 1. Psychology and Computing

artificial intelligence (n.n.c.): intelligence shown by an artificial entity (for many entities a pleonasm) (inteligencia artificial/intel·ligència artificial).

bottom-up (adj.): in a bottom-up model parts of a problem are analyzed in detail (ascendente/ascendent).

frame

(n.c.):

a

cognitive

(marco/marc).

framework

within

which

information

is

processed

massively parallel processing (n.n.c.): an architecture in which each processing element (P.E.) has its own memory and copy of the operating system and each P.E. must communicate with the others (procesamiento masivamente paralelo/processament massivament paral·lel).

neural

networks

(n.c.):

a

group

of

interconnected

artificial

neurons

used

for

information processing (redes neuronales/xarxes neurals).

parallel computing (n.n.c.): (computación paralela/computació paral·lela) a general term that covers different architectures that solve problems by using multiple computers or computers made up of multiple processors.

script (n.c.): a cognitive framework within which information is processed (guión/guió).

top-down (adj.): in a top-down model a general overview of a problem is formed without paying attention to details. Each part of the problem is hen refined in more and more detail (descendente/descendent).

Reading 2. New Input Technologies

artificial intelligence (n.n.c.): the ability of a computer system to perform tasks that seem to require intelligence (inteligencia artificial).

flat panel display (n.c.): a thin computer screen (pantalla plana).

fuzzy logic (n.n.c): a system of logic which allows multiple truth values (lógica difusa).

handwriting recognition program (n.c.): a program that is able to recognise handwritten instructions or data (programa de reconocimiento de escritura).

154

Glossary

highlight (v.): to identify an area of the screen in order to perform some operation (resaltar).

input (n.n.c): data fed into the computer (entrada).

input device (n.c.): a peripheral that provides input for the computer (dispositivo de entrada).

LCD (n.c.): (Liquid Crystal Display) a display technology used in digital watches and portable computers (pantalla de cristal líquido).

keyboard (n.c.): a set of input keys (teclado).

onscreen keyboard (n.c.): a keyboard represented on the screen of the computer (teclado en pantalla).

mouse (n.c.): a hand-held pointing device (ratón).

natural

language

processing

(n.n.c):

the

understanding

procesamiento de lenguajes naturales).

of

human

languages

(el

neural network (n.c.): a computer system that imitates the way the human brain works (red neuronal).

pen-based computing (n.n.c): the use of a pen or stylus to input data to the computer (computación basada en lápiz).

speaker dependent (adj.): capable of learning to recognise the speech of a specific individual (dependiente del locutor).

speaker independent (adj.): capable of recognising anyone's speech (independiente del locutor).

speech-to-text conversion (n.n.c): the automatic conversion of speech into text (la conversión del habla a texto).

speech recognition (n.n.c): the ability to understand spoken input (el reconocimiento del habla).

vertical worker (n.c.): someone who works outside (trabajador exterior).

Reading 3. Colour Printing

Glossary

155

additive colour (n.c.): the colours emitted by a light source (color aditivo).

colour management (n.n.c): the control of colour produced by different peripherals (gestión del color).

dither (v.): to create additional colours or hues from a basic palette (mezclar).

dot (n.c.): a small space that constitutes one element of a matrix used to display or print a character or image (punto).

dot matrix (n.c.): a pattern of small dots that make up a printed or displayed image or character (matriz de puntos).

gamut (n.c.): the range of colours that a device is capable of producing (gama de colores).

grey level (n.c.): a level on the grey scale of a device between white and black (nivel de gris).

pixel (n.c.): (Picture Element) the smallest area of screen whose light can be varied; (píxel, elemento de imagen).

resolution (n.n.c): a measure of the sharpness of a displayed or printed image (resolución).

subtractive colour (n.c.): a colour reflected by an object (color sustractivo).

thermal transfer printer (n.c.): a printer that uses heating elements to melt dots of pigment onto paper (impresora de transferencia térmica).

toner (n.n.c): electrically charged ink used in laser printers (tóner, virador)

Reading 4. Mechanical Athletes Totter Towards Olympic Glory

bank of rules n.c. [in artificial intelligence] a store of rules that is kept ready for use when needed (banco de reglas).

connection n.c. the joint where two wires are joined together (conexión).

engineer v. to develop something following scientific principles and methods (construir).

mechanical adj a mechanical device has moving elements and uses power to work (mecánico/a).

156

Glossary

process v. to perform operations on data (procesar).

reinforce v. to make something stronger (reforzar).

researcher n.c. a person who studies a subject (investigador).

robotics n.n.c. the science of devising and designing robots (robótica).

rule-based system n.c. an expert system based on a bank of rules (sistema basado en reglas).

scan v. look carefully (examinar).

sensor n.c. an instrument which reacts to certain physical conditions or impressions (sensor).

store v. to keep data in a computer (almacenar).

task n.c. a piece of work that has to be done (tarea).

train v. teach somebody to do something, also applied to computer programs that need training (entrenar).

vision system n.c. the system that allows robots to identify the objects they come across (sistema de visión).

visual information n.n.c. data on what the robot has seen (información visual).

Reading 5. Memory Technologies

to access (v.): to gain entry to (acceder a).

access time (n.n.c.): the time taken to retrieve an item of information from storage (tiempo de acceso).

access (n.n.c.): the reading or writing of data, with the connotation that the content of the reading or writing is taken into account (acceso).

auxiliary memory (n.n.c./n.c.): the memory on which information is held for reference but not for direct execution (memoria auxiliar).

backing memory (n.n.c./n.c.): refers to a disk or tape (memoria de seguridad/respaldo).

Glossary

157

cache (n.c.): a type of memory that is used in high-performance systems, inserted between the processor and memory proper (caché).

circuitry (n.n.c.): a set of circuits (circuitería).

computer system (n.c.): a combination of hardware and software with a specific purpose (sistema informático).

input-output program (n.c.): a program which manages the flow of information between the computer and the outside world (programa de entrada/salida).

instruction set (n.c.): the totality of instructions that a computer is capable of performing (conjunto de instrucciones).

internal processor memory (n.n.c./n.c.): the processor built-in memory for its internal operations (memoria interna del procesador).

location (n.c.): refers to a position within the computer memory; the word address is actually used as a synonym (posición).

magnetic disk (n.c.): a storage medium in the form of a circular plate coated on one or both sides with a magnetic film. Data is recorded in concentric tracks in the film (disco magnético).

main memory (n.n.c./n.c.): the storage that is closely associated with the processor of a computer system and from which the program instruction and data can be directly retrieved and to which the resulting data is written prior to transfer to backing store or output device (memoria principal).

to manage (v.): to match requests with the appropriate information (gestionar).

memory technologies (n.c.): kinds of memory (tecnologías de memoria).

memory unit (n.c.): a storage unit of information (unidad de memoria).

memory system (n.c.): a complete storage system (sistema de memoria).

performance (n.n.c.):

(rendimiento).

amount

of useful work that can

be achieved by a system

peripheral (adj. & n.c.): any device, including I/O devices and backing store, that is connected to a computer via the input/output subsystem (periférico).

primary memory (n.n.c./n.c.): another name for main memory (memoria primaria).

processor (n.c.): device to process information, usually the central processor (procesador).

158

Glossary

processor

speed

procesador).

(n.c.):

the

speed

at

which

the

processor

works

(velocidad

del

read request (n.c.): a signal sent through the bus for the memory to be read at the address specified in the address bus (petición de lectura).

read access time (n.n.c./n.c.): the period between the read request and the availability of the requested data (tiempo de acceso para lectura).

register (n.c.): a group of (usually) bistable devices that are used to store information within a computer system for high-speed access (registro).

secondary

storage

secundario).

(n.n.c./n.c.):

another

word

for

backing

store

(almacenamiento

secondary memory (): another word for backing memory (memoria secundaria).

semiconductor (n.c.): a material, such as silicon, whose electrical conductivity increases with temperature and is intermediate between metals and insulators (semiconductor).

storage (n.n.c.): a device or medium that can retain data for subsequent retrieval (almacenamiento).

storage cell (n.c.): another word for storage unit (celda de almacenamiento).

storage capacity (n.n.c.): the amount of information that can be stored in a specific device (capacidad de almacenamiento).

storage device (n.c.): a device that can receive data and retain it for subsequent retrieval (dispositivo de almacenamiento).

storage unit (n.c.): a unit that can receive data and retain it for subsequent retrieval (unidad de almacenamiento).

tape (n.c.): an information storage medium consisting of a magnetic coating on a flexible backing in tape form (cinta).

word (n.c.): a vector of bits that is treated as a unit of information by the computer hardware (palabra).

write access time (n.n.c.): the elapsed time during which a given amount of data is being recorded in some storage device (tiempo de acceso para escritura).

Reading 6. Operating Systems

Glossary

159

allocation (n.n.c.): the act of making a resource available to a process (or the amount of a particular resource that has been allocated) (asignación).

allocate (v): to make a resource available to a process (asignar).

allocator (n.c.): the operating system acts as a resource allocator as it allocates resources to programs and users (asignador).

blocked (adj.): a process which is unable to proceed because it lacks some necessary resource (bloqueado).

compiler

a

(compilador).

(n.c.):

program

that

translates

high-level

language into

machine code

computer resource management program (n.c.): a program which controls the resources of the computer (programa de gestión de recursos de ordenador).

concurrent (adj): simultaneous, in parallel (concurrente).

CPU time (n.n.c.): the time for which a process has been receiving service from the processor (tiempo de CPU).

disable (v): to make a device inactive (suprimir, desactivar).

environment (n.c.): the particular surrounding (entorno).

file management routine (n.c.): a routine concerned with the overall management of files, e.g. their allocation to space in backing store, writing backup copies, etc. (rutina de gestión de archivos).

file storage space (n.n.c.): the space left for storing files (espacio de almacenamiento de archivos).

firmware (n.n.c.): system software that is held in read-only memory (ROM) (soporte lógico inalterable).

hardware (n.n.c.): the physical portion of a computer system (soporte físico).

interrupt request (n.c.): a request for a temporary interruption (petición/solicitud de interrupción).

interrupt (n.c.): a signal to a processor indicating that an asynchronous event has occurred (interrupción).

160

Glossary

interrupt-handling routine (n.c.): a section of code to which control is transferred when a processor is interrupted (rutina de control de interrupciones).

invoke (v.): call (invocar, llamar).

I/O processor (n.c.): a specialized computer that permits autonomous handling of data between I/O devices and a central computer or the central memory of the computer (procesador de entrada/salida).

I/O device (n.c.): any unit of a system that is the entry and/or exit point for information (dispositivo de entrada/salida).

I/O device control programs (n.c.): the part of the system software that controls the I/O hardware (programas de control de dispositivos E/S).

kernel (n.c.): the lowest layer into which a large operating system is subdivided, each layer dealing with some aspect of the system hardware (núcleo).

memory allocation/deallocation request (n.c.): the asking for memory allocation or deallocation (petición de asignación/desasignación de memoria).

memory space (n.n.c.): the space that is left in memory (espacio de memoria).

multiuser environment (n.c.): a system that is serving more than one user simultaneously (entorno multiusuario).

operating system (n.c.): the set of software products that jointly controls the system resources and the processes using these resources on a computer system (sistema operativo).

performance (n.n.c.): troughput (rendimiento).

process (n.c.): a stream of activity; a process is defined by its code, i.e. the ordered set of machine instructions and the memory space assigned to the process (proceso).

processor scheduling routine (n.c.): the routine used to determine which of several processes will actually be granted use of the processor (rutina de planificación del procesador).

programming language translator (n.c.): a program that converts a program written in one language to the equivalent program in another language (traductor de lenguaje de programación).

ready (adj.): a state in which a process is waiting for the resources it needs to enter the running state (preparado).

Glossary

161

real-time system (n.c.): any system in which the time at which output is produced is significant (sistema de tiempo real).

reliability (n.n.c.): the ability of a computer system to perform its required functions for a given period of time (fiabilidad).

resource (n.c.): any of the component parts of a computer system and the facilities that it offers (recurso).

response time (n.c.): the elapsed time between a service request by a computer-system user and the receipt of some form of response or feedback from the system (tiempo de respuesta).

running (adj.): active; currently being executed (en ejecución, activo).

schedule (v.): control the use of a shared resource (planificar).

secondary memory (n.n.c./n.c.): another name for backing memory (memoria secundaria)

software (n.n.c.): the programs executed by a computer system as distinct from the physical hardware of that computer system (soporte lógico).

state-switching (n.n.c.): the change of state of the computer processes (cambio de estado).

subroutine (n.c.): a piece of code that is obeyed out of line, i.e. control is transferred to the subroutine and, on its completion, control reverts to the instruction following the call (subrutina).

system resources (n.c.): the resources in a computer system (recursos del sistema).

task (n.c.): another name for process (tarea).

timesharing (n.n.c.): a technique for sharing the time of a computer among several jobs (tiempo compartido/compartición del tiempo).

transaction-processing system (n.c.): a method of organizing a data processing system in which transactions are processed to completion as they arise (sistema de proceso de transacciones).

user command (n.c.): user instruction or statement (comando de usuario).

utility programs (n.c.): the collection of programs that forms part of every computer system and provides a variety of generally useful functions, including file copying and deleting, etc. (programa de utilidad).

162

Glossary

virtual memory routine (n.c.): a routine in which a process workspace is held partly in high-speed memory and partly on some slower, and cheaper, backing-store device (rutina de memoria virtual).

wide-area network (n.c.): a communication network distinguished from a local area network because of its longer-distance communications (red de área amplia).

Reading 7. Networks

circuit or line switching (n.n.c.): a method of communications that is used in telephone systems and requires a physical transmission path -a circuit- to exist between the two devices wishing to communicate (conmutación de circuitos o líneas).

common carrier (n.c): a private business or corporation that offers to the public general communication services (empresa de servicios públicos).

e-mail (n.n.c.):electronic mail sent between users of computer systems , the computer systems being used to hold and transport messages (correo electrónico).

file (n.c.): information held on backing store (fichero).

keyboard (n.c.): an array of keys on a plane that can cause a discrete signal when pressed with a finger (teclado).

LAN (n.c.): local area network (red de área local).

message switching (n.n.c.): a data-switching strategy that requires no physical path to exist between sender and receiver before communication can take place (conmutación de mensajes).

network (n.c.): a collection of resources used to establish and switch communication paths between its terminals (red).

screen (n.c.): the surface of a display on which information can be shown (pantalla).

store-and-forward (n.n.c.): a method in which information is passed from node to node in a communication network, pausing in each node until sufficient resources are available for the next leg of the journey (almacenamiento y envío).

terminal (n.c.): a data input and/or output device that is connected to a controlling processor to which it is subservant and usually remote (terminal).

Glossary

163

Reading 8. Multiprocessors

distributed memory computer (n.c): a multiprocessing system in which each processor has its own main memory (ordenador de memoria distribuida).

fault-tolerant (adj.): able to operate in spite of faults (tolerante a fallos, a prueba de fallos).

global memory (n.n.c./n.c): main memory that all processors in a shared-memory computer can access (memoria global).

graceful degradation (n.n.c): the ability to operate correctly at a reduced performance level despite faults (degradación elegante).

loosely coupled system (n.c.): a distributed memory computer (sistema levemente acoplado).

main memory (n.n.c./n.c): a fast memory that stores programs and data during computer operation and that can be accessed by the CPU instruction set (memoria principal).

multicomputer system (n.c.): a computer system made up of several autonomous computers (sistema multicomputador).

multiprocessor (n.c.): a computer system characterized by the presence of several CPUs (multiprocesador).

program library (n.c.): a collection of functions and procedures that can be invoked by a program (biblioteca/librería del programa).

secondary memory unit (n.c.): any peripheral storage device (unidad de memoria secundaria).

shared memory computer (n.c.): a multiprocessing system in which all processors can access main memory or a large part of main memory (un ordenador de memoria compartida).

jk system software (n.n.c.): programs used to control the computer and to run applications programs (programas de sistema).

throughput (n.n.c.): the speed at which a computing system can process data (caudal de procesamiento).

tightly

coupled

acoplado).

system

(n.c.):

a

shared-memory computer

(sistema

estrechamente

164

Glossary

uniprocessor (n.c.): a computer system containing a single processor (uniprocesador).

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Popolare in Reading (Process)

5	one widely accepted view is that the mind is a serial von Neumann virtual machine implemented on massively parallel hardware.
5	In the psychology of reading in particular a number of concepts have been imported from computer science. For example it has become normal to talk about two basic strategies for interpreting a written text: bottom-up strategies and top-down
10	strategies. If a reader uses a bottom-up strategy she interprets the signs on paper to construct her interpretation of a text. If she uses context or her knowledge of the world to work out meaning, she is said to follow a top-down strategy. The importance of this background knowledge in the reading process has been evident since, at least, the 1930s, but the first attempts to formalize its contribution to the understanding of
15	new information were made in the sixties by computer scientists working in the field of artificial intelligence. In AI this back-up information into which details of new information are fitted receives several names such as scripts, mental models or, more commonly frames.
15	In the seventies a number of important psychologists held that top-down strategies
20	were the most fundamental in the reading process. They claimed that the reader only refers to the text to confirm or disconfirm her hypotheses. Empirical evidence has shown that this is not true. Currently psychologists believe that both top-down and bottom-up processes are fundamental to reading and that good readers are characterised by automatic word recognition. Moreover good readers are more flexible
25	in their approach to reading, they adopt different reading strategies for different texts and different purposes. The extensive use of top-down strategies is now known to be a characteristic of poor readers.
25	If we apply these findings to the situation of people learning to read in a second or foreign language, we can see that one of the main problems they will come up
30	against will be the acquisition of a large vocabulary that they can recognise automatically. The best way to attain a large vocabulary is by reading as much as possible. It also follows that a person studying a second language must have a thorough command of the grammatical system of the language they are studying. It is likely that a good reader who is learning to read in a second language will use top-
35	down strategies more extensively than she would if she were reading in her first language. We hope that this text will help you to organize your study of English at our University.

1.	Decide whether the following statements are true or false according to the text you have just read. If they are false, you must change them so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.
1.	Although computing has influenced cognitive psychology, it has not had an important influence on the psychology of reading.
2.	Today we know that good readers make exclusive use of bottom-up strategies to extract meaning from texts.
3.	In the past investigators believed that top-down strategies were basic to the reading process.
4.	Poor readers use top-down strategies too often.
5.	A good reader who is reading in a second language will probably use more top-down strategies than he does in his first language.
2.	What words in the text do the following words refer to?
1.	it (l. 4)
2.	it (l. 8)
3.	she (l. 10)
4.	its (l. 14)
5.	they (l. 33)
6.	it (l. 33)
3.	Give synonyms for the following expressions:

on the other hand computer scientists computer science	argue	about	field	goes on
	means	behavior	to	approach
	the mind	but rather	whether	each one

to communicate (3)	description of (4)	process, designed by (5)
programmer, to (6)	processor which executes it. For (7)		successful
communication it is necessary to have (8)		language which (9)	programmers

help (2) programmer to avoid making errors and that aid (3)		detection of
those errors which are in fact made. Since (4)	correctness of (5)	finished

1.	La psicología ha utilizado diferentes paradigmas de investigación de la informática.
2.	El cerebro funciona sobre la base del paralelismo masivo.
3.	Un buen lector hace uso tanto de las estrategias descendentes como de las ascendentes para construir el significado de un texto.
4.	Uno	de	los	objetivos	más	importantes	de la psicología es	proporcionar una
	descripción científica del comportamiento humano.
5.	Muchos investigadores de la ciencia cognitiva utilizan modelos basados en las redes neuronales.
6.	Es peligroso tratar de aplicar un paradigma tomado de una disciplina a otra disciplina diferente.

5	development of more natural input devices.
5	One area that has received a great deal of attention is that of pen-based computing. There are a number of systems currently on the market that are aimed at "vertical workers", that is workers that need to input data outside the office in situations which disallow the use of a keyboard. These computers use a pen input system to allow the
10	user to introduce data and commands.
10	Some of them incorporate an onscreen keyboard which is activated by means of a pen. Such systems also allow the pen to be used like a mouse: for example the user can highlight an option using the pen and then tap the Execute box or s/he can make use of a side button on the pen, which corresponds to the second button on a mouse.
15	Other pen-based systems include handwriting recognition programs, enabling the user to write directly onto the screen (the screen is always a flat panel display and nowadays usually an LCD). Most of these programs have a handwriting trainer program to train the system to recognise the user's handwriting. There are basically two classes of handwriting recognition programs: those that recognise only block text
20	and those that will recognise cursive text; the latter require considerably more computing power.
20	The problem of the amount of computing power necessary is common to all these systems, which are at present far slower than systems using more conventional input technologies. Moreover these systems still cannot reliably recognise everyone's hand-
25	writing. However researchers are attempting to overcome these problems, using methods based on Artificial Intelligence, neural networks and fuzzy logic (i.e. a logic which allows more than two truth values).
25	Another field of research which has received a lot of attention is speech input. Computers capable of recognising speech can be classified on the basis of their
30	abilities. Thus a machine may be capable of discrete speech or continuous speech recognition. The speech recognition may be speaker-dependent or speaker- independent. And finally the machine may have a small vocabulary or a large vocabulary.
30	The problems facing speech recognition are basically two: speech-to-text conversion
35	(i.e. recognising what is said) and natural language processing (i.e. understanding what is said). Although these problems can be considered separately, they are interdependent.

40	for an individual speaker. But basically the process is as follows. Samples of speech are picked up every centisecond by means of a microphone and analyzed by a signal processor. The analysis produces a set of features which represent important characteristics of speech in a compact form. These features represent a vector of speech parameters. The incoming vectors are then matched against stored sound
45	patterns or templates. To overcome the problem of diversity in pronunciation, it is normal to use a number of probabilistic techniques taken from statistics and information theory.
45	Natural language processing is also an extraordinarily complicated process and is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges that AI researchers face. The first steps
50	involve sentence parsing (or syntactic analysis) and semantic analysis, in which the structures identified during parsing are interpreted as pertaining to objects in the environment. These two components of NLP are relatively well understood in comparison to the other two basic components: context correlation and pragmatic interpretation. Each of these components requires access to databases that contain
55	extensive knowledge about the world. A central issue in NLP is how this knowledge should be represented.

1.	one area that has received (l. 6)
2.	Such systems (l. 12)
3.	most of these programs (l. 17)
4.	a set of features which represent (l. 42)
5.	it is normal to use (l. 45)
3.	Give synonyms for or explain the meaning of the following words and phrases.
1.	lack (l. 2)
2.	led (l. 4)
3.	research (l. 4)
4.	a great deal of (l. 6)
5.	currently (l. 7)
6.	allow (l. 9)
7.	considerably (l. 20)
8.	amount (l. 22)
9.	Moreover (l. 24)

1.	Translate the following sentences into English:
1.	Els sistemes que utilitzen les tecnologies d’entrada convencionals són molt més ràpids que els que utilitzen programes de reconeixement de l’escriptura.
2.	En general com més natural és un sistema de entrada, més potencia computacional requereix.
3.	El processament del llenguatge natural és un dels reptes més complexos al qual s’afronta la intel.ligència artificial.
4.	Les	computacions	realitzades	per	les	maquines	són	molt	més	fiables	que les
	computacions fetes pels éssers humans.
5.	En el reconeixement de l’escriptura, elr econeixement estàtic pot comportar més dificultat que el reconeixement dinàmic atés que es disposa de menys informació per identificar la letra que s’ha escrit.
2.	Translate this second set of sentences into English:

5	make use of a small number of primary colours that are either mixed or dithered to create the required output colours.
5	Colour printers work by combining the three primary subtractive colours, cyan, magenta and yellow, to form the other colours. For example magenta plus yellow produces red, yellow plus cyan forms green and cyan plus magenta produces blue.
10	Equal amounts of cyan, magenta and yellow combine to form black. However most colour printers include a separate black colour (called K in the printing industry) to generate a truer black. This forms the standard four-colour or CMYK model in the printing industry.
10	The most usual colour printers print dots of a single colour and of a fixed size. Thus,
15	using the CMYK colour model, they are capable of generating only seven colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, blue and black). In order to produce the other colours they make use of dithering: they print pixels which are formed by arrays of very small colour dots. When the eye views the document at a distance, it cannot distinguish the individual dots, but combines them to form a composite image. The
20	same technique is used in black and white laser printers to generate different grey levels by varying the ratio of black dots to the white paper background.
20	One drawback of dithering is that due to the use of larger pixels, the output resolution of the printer is reduced. If, for example, a 4 by 4 dot matrix is used for each pixel a printout resolution 300 dpi is reduced to one fourth, or 75 dpi.
25	Another problem of colour printing is that in the case of thermal transfer and laser printers, each of the primary colours must be laid down separately. This means that the print head has to make three or four passes over the same sheet of paper. Consequently the alignment of the dot patterns on the paper, or registration, must be precise, since otherwise the colour pattern shifts, and the image becomes fuzzy.
30	However the most basic problem facing colour printing is the difficulty of matching printed colour with the colours displayed on screen. The difficulty lies in the fact that these two output devices create colour in fundamentally different ways. The colour we usually see in the real world is reflected light. We perceive printed colour because the pigments in the ink or toner absorb light selectively so that only parts of the spectrum
35	are reflected to the eye (hence the term subtractive colours applied to the colour used in printing technology). CRT monitors, in contrast, emit light directly by causing red, green and blue (the primary additive colours) dots to glow. Thus the two output devices produce different sets, or gamuts, of colours. At the moment the computer industry is developing colour management tools in an attempt to ensure colour

1.	Most colour printers cannot store enough different kinds of ink for each colour they produce.
2.	By dithering colours, colour printers are able to generate seven colours.
3.	One drawback of dithering is that it lowers the printer's resolution.
4.	Ink-jet printers need three or four passes to lay down all the colours.
5.	All colour printers have a separate black colour.
2.	What words in the text do the following words refer to?
1.	They therefore make use (l. 4)
2.	they are capable of (l. 15)
3.	it cannot distinguish (l. 18)
4.	combines them to form (l. 19)
5.	it is still not possible (l. 41)
3.	Give synonyms for or explain the meaning of the following words and phrases:

4.	Match these words that appear in the text with a suitable synonym:
1.	drawback	correspondence
2.	shift	disadvantage
3.	since	thus
4.	match	move
5.	hence	as
5.	Fill in the gaps with one suitable word.

5	obstacles without having to stop. Most robots need to scan each obstacle and process that information every time it encounters something in its path. Peter Mowforth, one of the judges from the Turing Institute, said: "Every component in the system was beautifully engineered." Japan now wants to stage the next games for the mechanical athletes.
10	The games, held in the sports hall of the university, got off to a shaky start. Trolleyman, the robot designated to light the Olympic flame, suffered an electrical fault. Instead of carrying the flame from The Parthenon Greek restaurant to the games, the robot's creators had to take the robot to the games in a Land-Rover.
10	The competitors, from schools, universities and amateur groups, seemed dogged by
15	technical hitches. One six-legged robot from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology refused to start its race. Photographers' flashguns blinded the sensors on some robots, disrupting their movements. The electronics in another failed and its designers could not buy the replacement parts they needed.
15	Nevertheless, experts attending the show thought that the effort was worthwhile, both
20	for encouraging school children to take an interest in robotics and for the exchange of information between competitors.
20	Ruzena Bajcsy, a professor of computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "What we have here represents the efforts of universities and enthusiasts. We don't have robots from the automobile industry or the military. At least in the US,
25	they are the big sponsors."
25	Bajcsy said that the biggest problem that robotics faces is perception. The aim that she and other experts are pursuing, is to produce a robot that will learn to recognise objects, without having to refer to vast banks of rules they store in their electronic memories. Rule-based systems are rigid and have many shortcomings.
30	Rusell Beale and Tom Jackson from the University of York gave an example of the problem. To recognise a tree according to rules, the robot's memory would contain a description of a tree as an object with a trunk, branches and leaves. If a robot then encountered a palm tree, it would not recognise a tree. It is necessary to train robots so that they would decide that there was a strong possibility that a palm tree was a

5	access to memory, so the time required to transfer information between the processor and memory should be such that the processor can operate at, or near to, its maximum speed. Unfortunately, however, memories that operate at speeds comparable to processor speeds are very costly. It is not possible (except for very small systems) to employ a single memory using only one type of technology. Instead
10	the stored information is distributed over a variety of different memory units with very different physical characteristics.
	The memory components of a computer system can be divided into three main groups:
	1.	Internal processor memory. This comprises a small set of high-speed registers
15	which are used as a working memory for temporary storage of instructions and data.
	2.	Main memory (also called primary memory). This is a relatively large, fast memory
	used for storing programs and data during computer operation. It is characterized by the fact that locations in main memory can be accessed directly and rapidly by the CPU instruction set. The principal technology used for main memory is based on semi-
20	conductor integrated circuits.
	3.	Secondary memory (also called auxiliary or backing memory). This is generally
	much larger in capacity but also much slower than main memory. It is used for storing programs, large data files and the like which are not continually required by the CPU. Information in secondary storage is accessed indirectly via input-output
25	programs that first transfer the required information to main memory. Representative technologies used for secondary memory are magnetic disks and tapes.
	More and more machines employ another type of memory called a cache, which serves as an intermediate temporary storage unit logically positioned between the processor registers and main memory.
30	The major objective in designing any memory system is to provide adequate storage capacity with an acceptable level of performance at a reasonable cost.

40	one word) from the memory. This is termed the read access time or, more commonly, the access time of the memory and is denoted by t _A . (The write access time is defined similarly; it is typically, but not always equal to the read access time.) Access time depends on the physical characteristics of the storage medium, and on the type of access mechanism used. t _A is usually calculated from the time a read request is
45	received by the memory unit to the time at which all the requested information is available at the memory output terminals. The access rate b _A of the memory, defined as 1/t _A and measured in words per second is another widely used measure of performance for memory devices.
45	Although low cost and high access rates are desirable characteristics for memory, they
50	are to a great extent incompatible. Memory units with high access rates are generally expensive, while low-cost memories are relatively slow.

3.	Find the word or words these pronouns refer to:
1.	for its operation (l. 2)
2.	it is desirable that (l. 4)
3.	its maximum speed (l. 6)
4.	It is not possible (l. 8)
5.	It is used for (l. 22)
6.	it is typically (l. 42)
4.	Fill in the gaps with one suitable word.

4.	En general, cuanto más rápida es la tecnología de memoria, más cara es.
5.	En los ordenadores actuales el sistema de memoria principal está constituido por la memoria principal y uno o dos cachés. Generalmente uno de estos cachés está situado en el chip del procesador, mientras que el otro está ubicado fuera del chip.
B.	Translate the following sentences into English:

2.	La majoria de les tecnologies de memòria funcionen a velocitats molt més lentes que el processador.
3.	Els	discos	magnètics	són	capaços	d’emmagatzemar	grans	quantitats	de	dades.
	Representen la tecnologia de memòria secundària més comuna.
4.	En general, quant més ràpida és la tecnologia de memòria, més cara és.
5.	Als ordinadors actuals el sistema de memòria principal està constituït per la memòria principal i una o dos caus. Generalment una d’aquestes caus està situada al xip del processador, mentre que l’altre està ubicat fora del xip.

5	interference between programs and so on. In multiuser environments the operating system is oriented towards timesharing, being responsible for the efficient sharing of such resources as CPU time, memory space, IO devices, utility programs and so on. There are also specialized operating systems for computers that require very short response times (real-time systems) and for wide-area networks (transaction-
10	processing systems).
10	The basic unit of computing managed by an operating system is a process or task, a loose definition of which could be a self-contained program module in the course of execution: for instance, a subroutine being executed by a CPU or an IO program being executed by an IO processor might be typical examples of processes. The resources
15	required by a process, such as a processor and memory space, are usually allocated it dynamically during execution.
15	Some processes are created in response to user commands to the operating system, others are created by other processes. While in existence, a process has three major states: ready, running and blocked. In a ready state a process is waiting, perhaps in a
20	queue with other processes, for the resources it needs to enter the running state. A blocked process is waiting for some event to occur, such as completion of some other process that provides it with necessary data. A transition from one state to another is triggered by various conditions such as interrupts and user instructions to the operating system. When no longer needed, a process (but not the underlying
25	program) can be deleted via the operating system so that any resources currently allocated to it are released.
25	An operating system contains huge amounts of software, as it is made up of a large number of computer resource management programs such as processor scheduling routines, virtual memory routines and IO device control programs. Moreover some
30	commonly used utility programs like programming language translators, text editors etc. are often considered part of the operating system and are invoked via commands to it. All of this software is far too much to store in main memory in its entirety. As a result the less frequently used parts of the operating system such as file management routines and compilers reside in secondary memory, and are only brought into main
35	memory when needed. The other portion of the operating system consisting of the most frequently used parts remains continuously in main memory and is termed the kernel.

1.	Decide whether the following sentences are true or false according to the text. If they are false, change them so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.
1.	Compilers are normally stored permanently in primary memory.
2.	When a process is not needed it may be erased.
3.	All operating systems are transaction-processing systems.
4.	Some processes can come into being as a result of user instructions.
5.	If a process is ready, it may be waiting in a queue.
2.	Give synonyms for the following words and expressions that come up in the text:
1.	because (l. 1)
2.	concurrent (l. 1)
3.	overall (l. 3)
4.	designed (l. 3)
5.	major (l. 18)
6.	occur (l. 21)
7.	provides (l. 22 )

5	general-purpose terminals with keyboard and screen to highly specialized devices. They perform two main functions: local data processing tasks and the processing needed to communicate with the central computer. An example of a terminal-based network is found in a large department store where many points-of-sale are linked to a central computer. Terminal-based systems with thousands of terminals can also be
10	found, for example, computer networks used for airline reservations. One of the earliest computer networks was the American Airlines SABRE (Sales and Business Reservations done Electronically) reservation system built in the 1960s. This prototype of all subsequent reservation systems linked over a thousand terminals scattered throughout the United States to a central computer system maintaining all
15	the airline's flight information.
15	Computer-based networks, on the other hand, are characterized by the presence of multiple distributed computers with decentralized control. This type of network is used extensively for the transmission of files, including e-mail messages, among users of different computers on the network. Where communication distances less than a few
20	kilometres are involved, for instance, a computer network within a single building or university campus, the term local area network (LAN) is used. LANs often employ data-transmission links (electrical or optical cables) that are private to the network in question. For computer networks spread over large geographical areas, sometimes termed wide-area networks (WANs), the data-transmission facilities are typically
25	supplied by communications companies called common-carriers, which in many countries are government-owned or -regulated organizations. The various national and international telephone networks are extensively used for both local and long- distance computer communications, but they are increasingly being supplemented by networks designed specifically for digital data transmission. Like the telephone
30	networks, these public data networks are composed of a heterogeneous mixture of electrical, optical and microwave links.
30	Communications costs are major contributors to the total cost of using a wide-area computer network. There are various techniques for sharing the long-distance communication links to reduce these costs. The establishment of a dedicated
35	communication path from source to destination for each information exchange is called circuit or line switching. It is the usual mode of communication used in the public telephone network. Circuit switching is established by dialling and implemented by telephone exchanges. It has the disadvantage that once a path is established between two locations, it cannot be used by other potential users along the path,

1.	Decide whether the following sentences are true (T) or false (F) according to the text. If they are false, make the necessary changes so that they become true. If they are true, give the lines where the text provides the relevant information that justifies your choice.
1.	Common-carriers are always regulated or owned by the government.
2.	The SABRE network connected more than a thousand terminals all over the USA.
3.	WANs must use the communications facilities provided by common-carriers.
4.	Circuit switching ensures an optimum use of the communication path.
5.	With message switching messages are stored at different switching centres before reaching their destination.
2.	Explain the meaning of or give synonyms for the following words:
1.	remote (l. 4)
2.	needed (l. 7)
3.	linked (l. 8)
4.	scattered (l. 14)
5.	supplied (l. 25)
6.	designed (l. 29)

3.	What words or expressions do the words in bold type refer to?
1.	They perform two main functions (l. 6)
2.	that are private to the network (l. 22)
3.	which in many countries are (l. 25 )
4.	it has the disadvantage (l. 38)
5.	forward it to the next destination (l. 43)
4.	Using affixes or suffixes form a new word from the word in brackets:
1.	Multimedia will rely on new forms of data …………………. (store).
2.	Don’t …………………. (plug) the PC, I haven’t quitted the program.
3.	The	………………….	(process)	stage	takes	place	before	processing	and	the
	…………………. (process) stage takes place afterwards.
4.	We can be sure of the …………………. (accurate) and …………………. (rely) of the data.
5.	Many users are …………………. (grade) to Word 1 April 2010.
6.	………………… (compute) is big business.
7.	They finally reached an …………………. (agree).
8.	Rapid data …………………. (retrieve) is the essence of a good database.
9.	The …………………. (delete) operation was very useful for moving text in MS DOS.

5	on separate tasks. The various PEs making up a multiprocessor typically share resources such as communication facilities, input-output devices, program libraries, databases etc., and are all controlled by a common operating system.
	The two main reasons for including multiple PEs in a single computer system are to improve performance and to increase reliability. Performance (i.e. throughput)
10	improvement is obtained either by allowing many PEs to share the computation load associated with a single large task, or by allowing many smaller tasks to be performed in parallel in separate PEs. A multiprocessor composed of n identical processors is an example of a n-unit processor that can, in principle, provide n times the performance of a comparable single-unit system or uniprocessor. A major goal in designing n-
15	processor systems is to obtain a speedup S(n) that is as near to n as possible. System reliability is improved by the fact that failure of one CPU need not cause the entire system to fail. The functions of the faulty processor and its local resources can be taken over by the other processors; consequently multiprocessors allow fault- tolerance to be incorporated into the system. Of particular interest is the ability of
20	fault-tolerant multiprocessors to operate correctly at a reduced or degraded performance level in the presence of hardware or software failures, a property called graceful degradation. By enabling such facilities as secondary memory units and system software to be shared efficiently, a multiprocessor architecture can lead to significant reduction in overall system cost.
25	Multiprocessors can be classified by the organization of their main-memory systems.
	If	main memory, or a major portion of main memory, can be directly accessed by all
	the PEs of a multiprocessor, the system is termed a shared-memory computer, and the shared portion of main memory is called global memory. Information can therefore be shared among the processors simply by placing it in the global memory.
30	Distributed-memory computers, on the other hand, have no global memory. Instead each processing element has its own private or local main memory. Distributed memory systems share information by transmitting it in the form of messages between the local memories of different processors; such message passing requires a series of relatively slow input-output operations. Shared-memory and distributed-
35	memory multiprocessors are also called tightly coupled and loosely coupled, respectively, reflecting the speed and ease with which they can operate on common tasks.

1.	Decide whether the following statements are true or false. If they are false make the necessary changes so that they become true. If true, give the lines that justify your choice.
1.	Multiprocessors are computer systems characterized by the presence of several PEs operating on different computational tasks independently.
2.	One of the principal goals of multiprocessing is to ensure that the whole system continues to work despite the fact that one of its PEs goes down.
3.	One way in which multiprocessors obtain better performance is to split up the computations necessary for a task among several PEs.
4.	By sharing certain facilities efficiently, graceful degradation may make the cost of the overall system smaller.
5.	In tightly coupled multiprocessors each PE has its own memory.
2.	What do the following words or expressions refer to in the text?
1.	which cooperate (l. 2)
2.	are all controlled (l. 7)
3.	its local resources (l. 17)
4.	their main-memory systems (l. 25)
5.	with which they can operate (l. 36)
3.	Give synonyms for or explain the meaning of the following words and expressions taken from the text:
1.	tasks (l. 3)
2.	making up (l. 5)

	Multiprocessors
Definition
Basis of classification
Type 1	Described in line(s)
Type 2	Described in line(s)
Aim of multiprocessors 1	Described in line(s)

big	bigger	the biggest
great	greater	the greatest
fast	faster	the fastest

quickly	more quickly	the most quickly
economically	more economically	the most economically

	Specifications
Operating systems	Microsoft® Windows Mobile™ 5.0, Phone Edition with Messaging and Security Feature Pack
installed
Processor	Intel® PXA270 Processor 416 MHZ
Connectivity, std.	Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Wi-Fi (802.11b), Bluetooth® 1.2, IrDA SIR
	1.2
Expansion slot	Integrated Mini-SD slot
Memory, std.	45 MB available for persistent user storage; 64 MB SDRAM for running applications