A. Text Study

II. Look at the title. What do you think this reading will be about? Read the text and define its main idea.

Text A

COMPUTERS AND CYBERNETICS

The computers or high-speed electronic machines of today have created entirely new technical possibilities in automatic control of industrial processes. First designed for solving mathematical problems, they soon paved the way for a new field of science — cybernetics — that studies general principles of control both in life and non-live systems. The importance of cybernetics is great in the sphere of engineering sciences. A newly developed field of knowledge is technical cybernetics. Its objectives are to control automatic industrial processes, to study problems of transmission of information and to develop new principles of automatic control.

One of the main problems of technical cybernetics is the development of control algorithms to be used in processing and control of information flows. The algorithms worked out for employment in control machines are called programs. These are based on subdivision of the computation process into simple arithmetical operations and on determination of the logical operations to be performed with a view to fulfil the program which gives the sequence of the machines and must be coded or expressed in the adopted code systems.

Two systems of computers are now created for control computer design.

One of these is the development of general-purpose control machines that may have much wider application but require more complicated logical circuitry and greater number of instructions and commands employed in the computer. This approach permits control of a great variety of industrial units with the aid of one and the same computer.

The second system utilizes modern microcomputer techniques to develop special-purpose machines designed to control a particular process. This leads to the creation of more easily operated and low-cost control computers. Tests of some control computers manufactured for specific industrial units have shown their efficiency and quite sufficient reliability.

In our country both systems of control are applied. Electronic digital computers perform both arithmetical and logical operations, making it possible to govern processes under rather complicated conditions.

II. Read the text again carefully and answer the questions.

1. What possibilities have the computers created?

2. What does cybernetics study?

3. What are the objectives of technical cybernetics?

4. What is the main problem of technical cybernetics?

5. Where are control algorithms used?

6. What are programs?

7. What are programs based on?

8. How many systems are now created for control computer design?

9. What can you say about the first system?

10. What does the second system utilize?

11. Where are both systems of control applied?

12. What do electronic digital computers perform?

III. Which of the vocabulary units used in paragraphs 1-2 could be regarded as international words (scientific terms)?

IV. Read the translation of the first and the second paragraphs. Compare it with the original and say if everything is right.

Третья система использовала современную технологию микрокомпьютеров для развития машины специального назначения, сконструированной для контроля за отдельными процессами. Это привело к созданию легко работающего и дорогого контрольного компьютера. Тесты контрольного компьютера, изготовленного для специфического промышленного прибора, показывают его эффективность и недостаточную надёжность.

В нашей стране применялись все системы контроля, электронный цифровой компьютер выполняет арифметические и логические операции, делающие возможным управлять процессом в самых простых условиях.

V. Find the English equivalents of the following words and word combinations in paragraph 4:

применение, требовать, сложный, компоновка электрической схемы, подход, разнообразие, помощь, устройство;

in paragraph 5:

особенный, создание, низкая стоимость, действенность, достаточный, надежность.

VI. Find passage about one of the main problems of technical cybernetics and translate it into Russian.

VII. Choose a passage and read it aloud (1-2 minutes).

VIII. Find complex grammar structures in the text and divide them into simple ones.

IX. Find out the subject-matter and the means of its secondary expression. e.g. The children are hungry. Give them something to eat.

X. Find key words, phrases and the topic sentences which express the general meaning of each paragraph best of all.

XI. Using the information obtained from the paragraphs make a plan of the text.

XII. Speak about computers, technical cybernetics using key words, phrases, the topic sentences and the plan of the text.

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