Unit A. Gadgets Vocabulary Make sure that you know the words
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| Unit A. Gadgets
Vocabulary 1. Make sure that you know the words: appliance novelty to vary variable invariable gizmo to trace back according to evidence evident evidently precise precision circulate circulation to contradict contradiction nautical naval derive derivation hammer reserve inclusion include implement implementation exact fitment lever mascot to steer to borrow from to relieve relief connotation define definition circumstance desire clip-on USB 2. Match the words in the box with the appropriate definition below:
Reading 3. Read the text and say if the information is new for you: GADGETS A gadget is a small technological object (such as a device or an appliance) that has a particular function, but is often thought of as a novelty. Gadgets are invariably considered to be more unusually or cleverly designed than normal technological objects at the time of their invention. Gadgets are sometimes also referred to as gizmos. History The origins of the word "gadget" trace back to the 19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there is anecdotal evidence for the use of "gadget" as a placeholder name for a technical item whose precise name one can't remember since the 1850s; with Robert Brown's 1886 book Spunyarn and Spindrift, A sailor boy’s log of a voyage out and home in a China tea-clipper containing the earliest known usage in print. The etymology of the word is disputed. A widely circulated story holds that the word gadget was "invented" when Gaget, Gauthier & Cie, the company behind the repoussé1 construction of the Statue of Liberty (1886), made a small-scale version of the monument and named it after their firm; however this contradicts the evidence that the word was already used before in nautical circles, and the fact that it did not become popular, at least in the USA, until after World War I. Other sources cite a derivation from the French gâchette which has been applied to various pieces of a firing mechanism, or the French gagée, a small tool or accessory. The October 1918 issue of Notes and Queries contains a multi-article entry on the word "gadget" (12 S. iv. 187). H. Tapley-Soper of The City Library, Exeter, writes: A discussion arose at the Plymouth meeting of the Devonshire Association2 in 1916 when it was suggested that this word should be recorded in the list of local verbal provincialisms. Several members dissented from its inclusion on the ground that it is in common use throughout the country; and a naval officer who was present said that it has for years been a popular expression in the service for a tool or implement, the exact name of which is unknown or has for the moment been forgotten. I have also frequently heard it applied by motor-cycle friends to the collection of fitments to be seen on motor cycles. 'His handle-bars are smothered in gadgets' refers to such things as speedometers, mirrors, levers, badges, mascots, &c., attached to the steering handles. The 'jigger' or short-rest used in billiards is also often called a 'gadget'; and the name has been applied by local platelayers to the 'gauge' used to test the accuracy of their work. In fact, to borrow from present-day Army slang, 'gadget' is applied to any old thing. The usage of the term in military parlance extended beyond the navy. In the book "Above the Battle" by Vivian Drake, published in 1918 by D. Appleton & Co., of New York and London, being the memoirs of a pilot in the British Royal Flying Corps, there is the following passage: "Our ennui was occasionally relieved by new gadgets - "gadget" is the Flying Corps slang for invention! Some gadgets were good, some comic and some extraordinary." By the second half of the twentieth century, the term "gadget" had taken on the connotations of compactness and mobility. In the 1965 essay "The Great Gizmo" (a term used interchangeably with "gadget" throughout the essay), the architectural and design critic Reyner Banham defines the item as: A characteristic class of US products – perhaps the most characteristic –is a small self-contained unit of high performance in relation to its size and cost, whose function is to transform some undifferentiated set of circumstances to a condition nearer human desires. The minimum of skills is required in its installation and use, and it is independent of any physical or social infrastructure beyond that by which it may be ordered from catalogue and delivered to its prospective user. A class of servants to human needs, these clip-on devices, these portable gadgets, have coloured American thought and action far more deeply––I suspect–than is commonly understood. Today, the term has gained widespread currency in a variety of industries and activities. It can refer to tools and toys as diverse as "smartphones", GPS navigation devices, key finders, USB toys, and radio controlled cars.
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to surf (the Web) to impress impression
Reading
Mobile phones, or cellular phones, are devices that enable communication to all types of telephones while moving over a wide area called the coverage area. The term ‘cellular’ comes from the fact that the phone calls are made through base stations, communication towers or antennas, which divide the coverage area into cells. As you move from cell to cell, the calls are transferred to different base stations belonging to the same or different telephone company. This capability of mobile phones is called roaming. The phone is said to be out of range when it cannot communicate with a base station.
Mobile phones, also called (1)……., or cell phones for short, need a network of towers or antennas to transmit calls. In a cellular system, a city is divided into smaller sections or (2)……., where the (3)……. usually occupy a central position. When you are outside your service provider’s (4)…….. area, your telephone may become out of (5)…….. unless your telephone allows (6)……, i.e. the ability to use another service provider’s network.
Read the text and decide if these sentences are True or False. If they are false, correct them.
‘My mobile has programmable ring tones, so I can personalize my phone melodies or sounds, and changeable faceplates, which make the front look different. I used to just send SMS (short message service), short text messages. Now I can also make pictures with the built-in digital camera.’ Mobiles have become an essential part of our lives and there are many uses of them. Read the sayings of the people: ‘I’ve bought a new mobile with Bluetooth, a wireless technology, to connect my phone to other devices at home or at my office. It also has WAP, Wireless Application Protocol, which enables access to the wireless Web, and integrated PDA, a digital assistant, where I keep my appointments and sales records.’ I сбрарлою ‘I’m mad about music, so I love having a mobile which integrates radio and MP3, the most usual music format on the Web. I can download music from the Net and listen to it on my mobile.’ ‘I’m very concerned about safety in the car. That’s why I bought a hands-free kit, so I can drive and talk on the phone without taking risks. This mobile also has a speakerphone: I can talk without holding the handset. I also use it when I want several people to participate in the call.’
6. Cell Phone Etiquette
Mobiles can be very annoying for other people and they can even be dangerous in certain situations. Look at the information on this website and learn how to become a more responsible mobile user. Cell-phone etiquette is really just common courtesy. Most people today have a Mobile phone. In fact, many people can't imagine how they ever got along without a portable phone. However, many people also complain about cell phone users. People complain about other people loudly discussing personal matters in public places. They complain when cell phones ring in movie theaters and concert halls. They complain about people driving too slow, and not paying attention to where they are going because they are talking on a cell phone. And they complain about people walking around talking to people who aren't there. Whenever a new communications technology becomes popular, it changes the way society is organized. Society has to invent rules for the polite way to use the new devices. Our social etiquette, our rules of politeness for cell phones, is still evolving. Cell-phone etiquette applies to most public places. Always try to keep your phone ringer as low as possible or put your mobile phone on vibrate, so it does not distract the people around you. A good time to leave your phone at home, or at least in the car, would be at a funeral, wedding or some event along those lines. Basic Cell phone etiquette rules include: Switching it Off : Know when to turn it off or vibrate it, e.g. meetings, movies, worship, seminars, etc. Choose vibrate mode when in places where you can take a call, but don't want to disturb others. Be Brief : When you get a call and you're with friends, keep the call short. Permission : Often, it is correct etiquette to inform others at the beginning of the meeting that you are expecting an important call and get their permission. Be Polite : Don't scream : speak in a lower-than-normal voice, you will be heard by the caller, and not others in the room. Don't Distract : Avoid talking where you may be distracting to others. Driving : It is not only very dangerous, but also unlawful in most countries to drive & talk on your cell Phone
• Switch off your mobile or turn it to vibrate when you are at a meeting, in church, at the cinema, etc. Never use it in mobile-free zones. • Don't talk and drive unless you have a hands-free mobile. • Don't shout while you're speaking. Remember that you can't judge how loud your voice is to the other person while you are using a mobile, and hearing a loud voice can be annoying for other people. • You can talk as much as you want if you are talking to friends. • Use your mobile to phone your friends anytime, anywhere. • Inform others if you are going to use your mobile and get their permission if appropriate.
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2. Match the words in the box with the appropriate definition below:
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine. PC games have evolved from the simple graphics and gameplay of early titles like Spacewar!, to a wide range of more visually advanced titles. PC games are created by one or more game developers, often in conjunction with other specialists (such as game artists) and either published independently or through a third party publisher. They may then be distributed on physical media such as DVDs and CDs, as Internet-downloadable, possibly freely redistributable, software, or through online delivery services such as Direct2Drive and Steam. PC games often require specialized hardware in the user's computer in order to play, such as a specific generation of graphics processing unit or an Internet connection for online play, although these system requirements vary from game to game. History Early growth 
Spacewar!, developed for the PDP-13 in 1961, is often credited as being the second ever computer game. The game consisted of two player-controlled spaceships maneuvering around a central star, each attempting to destroy the other. Although personal computers only became popular with the development of the microprocessor and microcomputer, computer gaming on mainframes and minicomputers had previously already existed. OXO, an adaptation of tic-tac-toe for the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator), debuted in 1952. Another pioneer computer game was developed in 1961, when MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students Martin Graetzand Alan Kotok, with MIT student Steve Russell, developed Spacewar! on a PDP-1 mainframe computer used for statistical calculations. The first generation of computer games were often text adventures (текстовые новеллы) or interactive fiction4, in which the player communicated with the computer by entering commands through a keyboard. An early text-adventure, Adventure, was developed for the PDP-11 minicomputer by Will Crowther in 1976, and expanded by Don Woods in 1977. By the 1980s, personal computers had become powerful enough to run games like Adventure, but by this time, graphics were beginning to become an important factor in games. Later games combined textual commands with basic graphics, as seen in the SSI5 Gold Box games such as Pool of Radiance, or Bard's Tale for example. By the late 1970s to early 1980s, games were developed and distributed through hobbyist groups and gaming magazines, such as Creative Computing and later Computer Gaming World. These publications provided game code that could be typed into a computer and played, encouraging readers to submit their own software to competitions. Microchess was one of the first games for microcomputers which was sold to the public. First sold in 1977, Microchess eventually sold over 50,000 copies on cassette tape. Like with second-generation video game consoles at the time, early home computer games began gaining commercial success by capitalizing on the success of arcade games at the time with ports or clones of popular arcade games. By 1982, the top-selling games for the Atari6 400 were ports of Frogger and Centipede, while the top-selling game for the Texas Instruments7 TI-99/4A was the Space Invaders clone TI Invaders. That same year, Pac-Man was ported to the Atari 800, while Donkey Kong was licensed for the Coleco Adam. In late 1981, Atari attempted to take legal action against unauthorized clones, particularly Pac-Man clones, despite some of these predating Atari's exclusive rights to the home versions of Namco's game.
As the video game market became flooded with poor-quality cartridge games created by numerous companies attempting to enter the market, and over-production of high profile releases such as the Atari 2600 adaptations of Pac-Man and E.T.8 grossly underperformed, the popularity of personal computers for education rose dramatically. In 1983, consumer interest in console video games dwindled to historical lows, as interest in computer games rose. The effects of the crash were largely limited to the console market, as established companies such as Atari posted record losses over subsequent years. Conversely, the home computer market boomed, as sales of low-cost color computers such as the Commodore 64 rose to record highs and developers such as Electronic Arts benefited from increasing interest in the platform. The console market experienced a resurgence in the United States with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). In Europe, computer gaming continued to boom for many years after. Computers such as the ZX Spectrum and BBC Micro were successful in the European market, where the NES was not as successful despite its monopoly in Japan and North America. The only 8-bit console to have any success in Europe would be the Sega Master System. Meanwhile in Japan, both consoles and computers became major industries, with the console market dominated by Nintendo and the computer market dominated by NEC's PC-88 (1981) and PC-98 (1982). A key difference between Western and Japanese computers at the time was the display resolution, with Japanese systems using a higher resolution of 640x400 to accommodate Japanese text which in turn had an impact on game design and allowed more detailed graphics. Japanese computers were also using Yamaha's FM synth sound boards from the early 1980s.
The North American video game crash was a massive recession of the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985. Revenues that had peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, fell to around $100 million by 1985 (a drop of almost 97 percent). The crash was a serious event that brought an abrupt end to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. The crash almost destroyed the then-fledgling industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing home computers and video game consoles in North America, including Atari. It lasted about two years, and many business analysts of the time expressed doubts about the long-term viability of video game consoles. The video-game industry was revitalized a few years later, mostly due to the widespread success of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which was released in North America in 1985 and had become extremely popular by 1987. There were several reasons for the crash, but the main cause was supersaturation of the market with hundreds of mostly low-quality games which resulted in the loss of consumer confidence. The full effects of the industry crash would not be felt until 1985.
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2. Solve anagrams:
New genres Increasing adoption of the computer mouse, driven partially by the success of games such as the highly successful King's Quest series, and high resolution bitmap displays allowed the industry to include increasingly high-quality graphical interfaces in new releases. Meanwhile, the Commodore Amiga computer achieved great success in the market from its release in 1985, contributing to the rapid adoption of these new interface technologies. Further improvements to game artwork were made possible with the introduction of FM synthesis sound. Yamaha began manufacturing FM synth boards for computers in the early-mid 1980s, and by 1985, the NEC and FM-7 computers had built-in FM sound. The first sound cards, such as AdLib's9 Music Synthesizer Card, soon appeared in 1987. These cards allowed IBM PC compatible computers to produce complex sounds using FM synthesis, where they had previously been limited to simple tones and beeps. However, the rise of the Creative Labs Sound Blaster card, released in 1989, which featured much higher sound quality due to the inclusion of a PCM10 channel and digital signal processor, led AdLib to file for bankruptcy by 1992. Also in 1989, the FM Towns computer included built-in PCM sound, in addition to a CD-ROM drive and 24-bit color graphics. In 1991, id Software produced an early first-person shooter, Hovertank 3D, which was the company's first in their line of highly influential games in the genre. There were also several other companies that produced early first-person shooters, such as Arsys Software's Star Cruiser, which featured fully 3D polygonal graphics in 1988, and Accolade's Day of the Viper in 1989. Id Software went on to develop Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, which helped to popularize the genre, kick-starting a genre that would become one of the highest-selling in modern times. The game was originally distributed through the shareware distribution model, allowing players to try a limited part of the game for free but requiring payment to play the rest, and represented one of the first uses of texture mapping11 graphics in a popular game, along with Ultima Underworld. While leading Sega and Nintendo console systems kept their CPU speed at 3-7 MHz, the 486 PC processor ran much faster, allowing it to perform many more calculations per second. The 1993 release of Doom on the PC was a breakthrough in 3D graphics, and was soon ported to various game consoles in a general shift toward greater realism. In the same time frame, games such as Myst took advantage of the new CD-ROM delivery format to include many more assets (sound, images, video) for a richer game experience. Many early PC games included extras such as the peril-sensitive sunglasses that shipped with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. These extras gradually became less common, but many games were still sold in the traditional over-sized boxes that used to hold the extra "feelies"12. Today, such extras are usually found only in Special Edition versions of games, such as Battlechests from Blizzard13. Contemporary gaming By 1996, the rise of Microsoft Windows and success of 3D console titles such as Super Mario 64 sparked great interest in hardware accelerated 3D graphics on the IBM PC compatible, and soon resulted in attempts to produce affordable solutions with the ATI14 Rage, Matrox15 Mystique and S3 ViRGE16. Tomb Raider, which was released in 1996, was one of the first third person shooter games and was praised for its revolutionary graphics. As 3D graphics libraries such as DirectX and OpenGL matured and knocked proprietary interfaces out of the market, these platforms gained greater acceptance in the market, particularly with their demonstrated benefits in games such as Unreal. However, major changes to the Microsoft Windows operating system, by then the market leader, made many older MS-DOS-based games unplayable on Windows NT, and later, Windows XP (without using an emulator, such as DOSbox17). The faster graphics accelerators and improving CPU technology resulted in increasing levels of realism in computer games. During this time, the improvements introduced with products such as ATI's Radeon R300 and NVidia's GeForce 6 Series have allowed developers to increase the complexity of modern game engines. PC gaming currently tends strongly toward improvements in 3D graphics. Unlike the generally accepted push for improved graphical performance, the use of physics engines18 in computer games has become a matter of debate since announcement and 2005 release of the NVidia PhysX PPU, ostensibly competing with middleware such as the Havok physics engine. Issues such as difficulty in ensuring consistent experiences for all players, and the uncertain benefit of first generation PhysX cards in games such as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and City of Villains, prompted arguments over the value of such technology. Similarly, many game publishers began to experiment with new forms of marketing. Chief among these alternative strategies is episodic gaming, an adaptation of the older concept of expansion packs, in which game content is provided in smaller quantities but for a proportionally lower price. Titles such as Half-Life 2: Episode One took advantage of the idea, with mixed results rising from concerns for the amount of content provided for the price.
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PC game development Game development, as with console games, is generally undertaken by one or more game developers using either standardized or proprietary tools. While games could previously be developed by very small groups of people, as in the early example of Wolfenstein 3D, many popular PC games today require large development teams and budgets running into the millions of dollars. PC games are usually built around a central piece of software, known as a game engine, that simplifies the development process and enables developers to easily port their projects between platforms. Unlike most consoles, which generally only run major engines such as Unreal Engine 3 and RenderWare due to restrictions on homebrew software, personal computers may run games developed using a larger range of software. As such, a number of alternatives to expensive engines have become available, including open source solutions such as Crystal Space, OGRE19 and DarkPlaces.
The multi-purpose nature of personal computers often allows users to modify the content of installed games with relative ease. Since console games are generally difficult to modify without a proprietary software development kit, and are often protected by legal and physical barriers against tampering and homebrew software, it is generally easier to modify the personal computer version of games using common, easy-to-obtain software. Users can then distribute their customised version of the game (commonly known as a mod) by any means they choose. The inclusion of map editors such as UnrealEd with the retail versions of many games, and others that have been made available online such as GtkRadiant, allow users to create modifications for games easily, using tools that are maintained by the games' original developers. In addition, companies such as id Software have released the source code to older game engines, enabling the creation of entirely new games and major changes to existing ones. Modding20 (моддинг) had allowed much of the community to produce game elements that would not normally be provided by the developer of the game, expanding or modifying normal gameplay to varying degrees. Arguably, the most notable example is Counter-Strike, a mod for Half Life. Counter-Strike turned the initial adventure FPS (First-person shooter) into a round based, tactical FPS. Multiplayer Local area network gaming Multiplayer gaming was largely limited to local area networks (LANs) before cost-effective broadband Internet access became available, due to their typically higher bandwidth and lower latency than the dial-up services of the time. These advantages allowed more players to join any given computer game, but have persisted today because of the higher latency of most Internet connections and the costs associated with broadband Internet. LAN gaming typically requires two or more personal computers, a router and sufficient networking cables to connect every computer on the network. Additionally, each computer must have a network card in order to communicate with other computers on the network, and its own copy of the game in order to play. Optionally, any LAN may include an external connection to the Internet.
Online multiplayer games have achieved popularity largely as a result of increasing broadband adoption among consumers. Affordable high-bandwidth Internet connections allow large numbers of players to play together, and thus have found particular use in massively multiplayer online role-playing games, Tanarus and persistent online games such as World War II Online. Although it is possible to participate in online computer games using dial-up modems, broadband internet connections are generally considered necessary in order to reduce the latency between players (commonly known as "lag"). Such connections require a broadband-compatible modem connected to the personal computer through a network interface card (generally integrated onto the computer's motherboard), optionally separated by a router. Online games require a virtual environment, generally called a "game server". These virtual servers inter-connect gamers, allowing real time, and often fast paced action. To meet this subsequent need, Game Server Providers (GSP) have become increasingly more popular over the last half decade. While not required for all gamers, these servers provide a unique "home", fully customizable (such as additional modifications, settings, etc.) – giving the end gamers the experience they desire. Today there are over 510,000 game servers hosted in North America alone. Video game controversy PC games have long been a source of controversy, particularly related to the violence that has become commonly associated with video gaming in general. The debate surrounds the influence of objectionable content on the social development of minors, with organisations such as the American Psychological Association concluding that video game violence increases children's aggression,] a concern that prompted a further investigation by the Center for Disease Control in September 2006. Industry groups have responded by noting the responsibility of parents in governing their children's activities, while attempts in the United States to control the sale of objectionable games have generally been found unconstitutional. Video game addiction is another cultural aspect of gaming to draw criticism as it can have a negative influence on health and on social relations. The problem of addiction and its health risks seems to have grown with the rise of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). Alongside the social and health problems associated with computer game addiction have grown similar worries about the effect of computer games on education. 3. Look through the all parts of the text and answer the questions:
4. Render the whole text in English/Russian, try to cover all the main points of it. Computer Games in Education Vocabulary 1. Make sure that you know the words: majority to suggest suggestion to devote moderate to consume consumer consumption to express expression mental to behave behavior violence
opinion to amplify attitude to claim
2. Read the text: Computer games have come a long way since Pong, a high tech version of table tennis, became the first to hit the screen in 1972. The vast majority of children now regularly play games ranging from ND Mario to Mortal Combat. One study has suggested that one teenager n fifteen devotes thirty hours a week to them, though the majority are moderate consumers. What does it do to young minds? For years concern has been expressed by parents and teachers about the effect of computer games on the moral and mental make-up of the next generation. Some have warned that a relentless diet of whizz-bang ‘shoot-‘em-ups’ fosters antisocial behavior, even playground violence. Others believe that the age of the zombie is upon us. But expert opinion is shifting radically. Psychologists in America and Britain now suggest that while computer games hold some dangers for children, they also provide opportunities their parents never enjoyed to amplify powers of concentration and memory. Researchers have also highlighted the positive response of children to the way computer games reward success thereby spurring them on to look for greater challenges a boon if the same attitude is applied to school work. A leading academic at the University of Washington has even claimed that children think differently when they play computer games, learning to deal with problems in parallel rather than in sequence. In effect, children are being trained to tackle problems in a fashion which is not only more rapid but also more effective. In the long term, the facility that game player develop with computer graphics could help much in future career. It could, for example, be of particular benefit to children who go on to become engineers or scientists. Games are also now being developed or pre-school children to encourage reading and writing skills. At Lanterns, a private nursery in east London, computer games make up part of the syllabus. Each week its sixteen pupils – the youngest aged two – are treated to a whirlwind tour of cyberspace. Every day the pupils attend a special class, such as dance or drama, an on Tuesdays they have a computer workshop where they spend an hour playing games. All the children love it. There is not technophobe among them. 3. Now look back at the text and complete the notes below:
Supplementary texts for reading, translation and discussion Directory: sites -> default -> files -> osnmaterial files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations files -> Nstructions for Acquiring Excess Equipment online, through the 1033 Program files -> Occupational health and safety files -> The Black Panther Party’s Ten Point Program files -> International programs roel profile files -> Fermi Questions a guide for Teachers, Students, and Event Supervisors Lloyd Abrams, Ph. D. DuPont Company, cr&D/ccas experimental Station Wilmington, de 19880 files -> Personal Information Name: Maha Al-Ammari Nationality: Saudi Relationship Status osnmaterial -> Pc games From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A pc game, also known as a computer game osnmaterial -> The uk economy Download 363.04 Kb. Share with your friends:
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