§ 20. Самостоятельная работа обучающихся. Написать заметку
«Средства массовой информации и коммуникации» (1 час)
Пользуясь словарём, прочтите один из текстов, представленных в данном параграфе: «Mass Media», «Satellites and Telecommunications» или «Television is doing Irreparable Harm». Представьте основную информацию прочитанного текста, (это может быть и самостоятельно найденный источник), как заметку по теме «Средства массовой информации и коммуникации».
В заметке обязательно выскажите собственное мнение по поводу средств массовой информации и коммуникации, например: «Телевидение – «жевательная резинка» для глаз и ушей» (Television is a «chewing gum» for ears and eyes).
Mass Media
The most popular sources of entertainment and information are the press, radio, TV, and movies.
The press plays an important part in the life of society. Millions of Americans in their free time read newspapers. The English word 'newspaper' does not really. Describe everything that you can read in this kind of publication. Newspapers include not only stories about recent events (news), but opinions, advertising, and other non-news items. The first American newspaper was called Public Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestic. This paper was first published in Boston in 1690. Now there are about 2,600 newspapers published in the USA. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times are three of the most important daily papers that describe foreign and domestic news.
The radio does not interfere with your activities. You can listen to the radio while doing some work about the house, reading a book or driving a car. On the radio one can hear music, plays, news, and different commentary and discussions called 'forums'. At a forum several authorities exchange views on social, economic and political problems. A peculiar feature of the American radio is soap opera. It is a sentimental serial drama that describes domestic problems and which is for housewives. Soap opera is usually broadcast every day. Most people find soap opera boring. There ate a lot of games on the radio. They are called «panel games». Radio brings also cultural and educational programs. Many programs are made up of classical music.
Television is a 'chewing gum for ears and eyes'. There are many serials on TV in the USA. They appeared in the 1950s. TV games- attract a large audience, too. During TV quiz programs TV viewers answer different questions. There is a lot of education on television. For example, you can take a TV course in history, political economy, management, banking and in many other subjects, or learn a foreign language by TV. Educational TV films and programs are shown in schools and colleges as a part of the curriculum.
Satellites and Telecommunications
Our world is becoming an increasingly complex place in which, we are very dependent on other people and organizations. An event in some distant part of the globe can rapidly and significantly affect the quality of life in our home country.
This increasing dependence, on both a national and international scale, forced us to create systems that can respond immediately to dangers, enabling appropriate defensive or offensive actions to be taken. These systems are operating all around us in military, civil, commercial and industrial fields.
A worldwide system of satellites has been created and it is possible to transmit signals around the globe by bouncing them from one satellite to an earth station and then to another satellite and soon.
Originally designed to carry voice messages, they are able to carry hundreds of thousands of separate simultaneous calls. These systems are being adopted to provide for business communications, including the transmission of voice and facsimile messages, data and video data.
It is probable that future wide use of satellites in the area of telecommunications will provide a great variety of information services to transmit directly into our homes, possibly including personalized electronic mail. The electronic computer is at the heart of many such systems, but the role of telecommunications is not less important- There will be a further convergence between the technologies of computing and telecommunications. The change of this kind will lead us to the database culture, the cashless society, the office at home, the gigabit-per-second data network.
One cannot doubt that the economic and social impact of these concepts will be very significant. Already, advanced systems of communication are affecting both the layman and the technician.
The new global satellite-communication systems offer three kinds of service.
The first one is voice messages. Satellite telephones are able to make calls from anywhere on the? Earth to anywhere else. That makes them especially useful to use in remote, third-world villages (some of which already use stationary satellite telephones), for explorers. Today's mobile phones depend on earth-bound transmitters, whose technical standards vary from country to country. Satellite telephones can solve this problem, but it is not a cheap service.
The second service is messaging. Satellite messages have the same global coverage as satellite telephones, but carry text alone, which is extremely useful for those with laptop computers. As we see, the Internet works in space too. The only problem for ordinary users is one-way transmissions. This problem is solved by using combine transmissions, when you make a call using land communications and receive ordered information through your satellite plate.
The third service is tracking. Voice and messaging systems also tell their users where they are to within a few hundred meters. Combined with the messaging service, the location service could help rescue teams, to find lost adventurers, the police to find stolen cars, exporters to follow the progress of cargoes and so on. Satellite systems provide better positioning information to anyone who has a receiver for their signals.
Maybe, satellite method of communication is the future for all kind of telecommunications.
Television is doing Irreparable Harm
«Yes, but what did we use to do before there was television?» How often we hear statements like this! Television hasn't been with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it.
Before we admitted the one-eyed monster into our homes, we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time. We used to enjoy civilised pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, we used to entertain our friends and be entertained by them, we used to go outside for our amusements to theatres, cinemas, restaurants and sporting events. We even used to read books and listen to music and broadcast talks occasionally. All that belongs to the past.
Now all our free time is regulated by the «goggle box». We rush home or gulp down our meals to be in time for this or that programme. We have even given up sitting at table and having a leisurely evening meal, exchanging the news of the day. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do — anything providing it doesn't interfere with the programme. The monster demands and obtains absolute silence and attention. If any member of the family dares to open his mouth during a programme, he is quickly silenced.
Whole generations are growing up addicted to the telly (телевизор, телевидение). Food is left uneaten, homework undone and sleep is lost. The telly is a universal pacifier. It is now standard practice for mother to keep the children quiet by putting them in the living-room and turning on the set. It doesn't matter that the children will watch rubbishy commercials or spectacles of sadism and violence — so long as they are quiet.
Television encourages passive enjoyment. We become content with second-hand experiences. It is so easy to sit in our armchairs watching others working. Little by little, television cuts us off from the real world. We get so lazy, we choose to spend a fine day in semi-darkness, glued to our sets, rather than go out into the world itself.
Television may be a splendid medium of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other. We only become aware how totally irrelevant television is to real living when we spend a holiday by the sea or in the mountains, far away from civilisation in quiet, natural surroundings, we quickly discover how little we miss the hypnotic tyranny of King Telly.
§ 21. Самостоятельная работа обучающихся:
работа с учебным текстом и словарями. Подготовить диалог:
«Роль Интернета в жизни современных студентов». (1 час)
Прочтите учебный текст «The Role of Internet in Students’ Life», пользуясь словарём.
The Role of Internet in Students’ Life
The Internet can help by studies very much. The Internet makes research quick, simple and easy, but more importantly, it makes it enjoyable. Web pages are much more up-to-date than old text books. They are also designed to engage students. Trends change so quickly, but the Internet has the capabilities to update pages continually, so they are always appealing for the intended audience. With the Internet, the learning possibilities are limitless.
The Internet also provides immediacy; something that today’s generation desire. Young people often want something to happen quickly. They do not want to wait a week for a book to arrive, they want to jump on the Internet right away and research it. If they send a letter, they want an immediate response, it is the function of email.
The Internet also allows a new level of socialising. It means that people can get in touch with friends at any time of day or night and interact as a group with social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. They make it easy to share links, views, opinions, music and films in a matter of seconds. All these things are an important part of youth’ life.
Ответьте на вопросы - подготовьтесь к диалогу «Роль Интернета в жизни современных студентов». Предложите свои вопросы по теме.
1) Are you the second-year student? 2) Do you often need the Internet by your studing? 3) Are the Web pages more attractive for the modern students than the text-books? Why? 4) Do you often visit the Internet libraries? 4) How can you comment the idea that the learning possibilities are limitless with the Internet? 5) What information do you want to find in the Internet when you rest? 6) Are you a member of any social networking sites? 7) Do they make it easy to share links, views, opinions, music and films? 8) Is it important for you? Why? 9) How long do you surf the Internet per day?
§ 22. Самостоятельная работа обучающихся: работа с текстом
и словарями. Подготовить вопросник: «Интернет – друг или враг?»
(1 час)
Прочтите со словарём один из текстов данного параграфа: «Internet Addiction» или «Virtual Reality», письменно составьте к нему перечень вопросов. Тоже самое вы можете сделать к тексту, найденному самостоятельно; в данном случае не забудьте принести в класс оригинал.
Например, первый вопрос к тексту «Internet Addiction» может выглядеть так: «How do you think, is the problem of internet addiction topical for our life?»
Internet Addiction
Last week, in a private rehabilitation clinic outside Edinburgh, Leo Edwards, a sixteen-year-old schoolboy, was going through severe withdrawal symptoms. His body often shook violently and uncontrollably, and at mealtimes he regularly threw cups and plates around the dining room. The boy's addiction had nothing to do with alcohol, drugs, gambling or food. His problem was «Net obsession» — an over-dependency on the Internet.
An international group of psychologists has recently suggested that anyone who surfs the Internet for long periods is clinically ill and needs medical treatment. According to their report, Internet addicts should be treated in the same way as alcoholics, drug addicts, compulsive gamblers and people with eating disorders.
Leo Edwards is not an isolated case. Russell Hopkins, aged fifteen, from Gateshead in north-east England, is a typical online addict.
Every day after school, and after dinner until three or four in the morning, he will be found in his room surfing the Net or playing computer games. By the end of the day he will have spent more than six hours online. Understandably, his parents are extremely worried. Not only has his school work suffered, but Russell's addiction has also destroyed his social life and his spare-time interests. For instance, he has just dropped out of his school's basketball team in order to spend more time at his computer. Instead of spending next weekend having a good time out with friends, he'll be spending it indoors surfing the Internet.
Russell has recently joined an Internet online support group. It may seem ironic that many of the support groups for Internet addicts are online but at least Russell has sought help. Not everyone does. Dr Ann Hoffman, who runs an online support group, says, «People don't realise that being online for more than four hours a day amounts to addiction and that they have a serious problem. I predict that the number of people who join online support groups will have risen dramatically within three years».
Virtual Reality
Not long ago computers were considered an amazing invention. Today they form part of our everyday life. The latest thing today is Virtual Reality. A Virtual Reality system can transport the user to exotic locations such as a beach in Hawaii or the inside of the human body.
The Virtual Reality system is still in the early stages of its development. At the moment it is necessary to put a large helmet on your head to see the simulated world and you have to wear a special glove on your hand in order to manipulate the objects you see there. Lenses and two miniature display screens inside the helmet create the illusion that the screen surrounds you on every side.
You can «look behind» computer — generated objects, pick them up and examine them, walk around and see things from a different angle.
Already today Virtual Reality is used in medicine. In hospitals, surgeons could plan operations by first «travelling» through the brain, heart or lungs without damaging the body. It is also used in police training schools. In schools pupils could explore the Great Pyramid or study molecules from the inside. Developers of Virtual Reality say its potential is powerful.
The word which comes closest to describing Virtual Reality is «simulator». Virtual Reality technology resembles the flight simulators that are used to train pilots. But of course there are dangers as well as benefits. In the wrong hands Virtual Reality can be used for power fantasies and pornography.
§ 23. Самостоятельная работа обучающихся: работа с аутентичными
текстами. Написать инструкцию: «Интернет: правила безопасности» (1 час)
Пользуясь материалом, представленным в данном параграфе или источника, найденными самостоятельно, напишите инструкцию «Интернет: правила безопасности». Это может быть как руководство для широкого круга пользователей, так и для детей, и/или их родителей. Достаточно 2-3 советов, снабдите свою инструкцию переводом на русский язык!
Internet Safety Basics
Part 1. Some Useful Tips for Children to Follow while Using the Internet
HEY KIDS, DON’T CHAT WITH STRANGERS!
Your parents are RIGHT when they say «DON’T TALK TO STRANGERS». As far as possible NEVER talk with strangers in chat rooms. You really don’t know who the person is that you are chatting with. Because you can’t see or even hear the person it would be very easy for someone to mislead you.
ASK YOUR PARENTS AND SURF
Only surf where your parents have given you permission. There’s a reason why they restrict your surfing area and you should listen to them.
If a website looks suspicious or has a warning page about you being underage, leave immediately. Some sites are not meant for kids. Do not go exploring. If you come across a site that you aren’t sure about ask, your parents. Don’t download any applications from the Internet that are from questionable sites. Some sites have viruses which come free with the downloads! So be very careful with downloads. Better be safe than sorry.
PASSWORDS
Passwords are a secret so don’t give out your passwords to anyone. Do not fill any online forms without asking your parents. Never put your email password on any website while registering.
EMAIL SAFETY
Never open up any email or attachments that you receive from people you don’t know. Ask your parents to look at it first. Sometimes emails may contain viruses which could harm your computer. Ask your parents to install the latest anti-virus programmes.
KEEP A WATCH
Never reply to emails from strangers. If you have got an email attachment even from a known person, do a virus scan before opening.
CHILD-SAFE BROWSERS
Ask your parents to install child-safe browsers meant for children. These browsers are colorful and fan. These browsers help & guide you to visit good and safe sites and automatically protect you from the bad ones.
Part 2. Guidelines for Parents
SET YOUR TIME
Don’t spend all your time online. Set a time limit on your computer use. Keep your parents informed about sites you visit.
DISCOURAGE CHATTING WITH STRANGERS
Unfortunately Chat rooms are what kids enjoy most. They are also often the most dangerous places online especially for children.
Discourage your child from talking to strangers. There have been several unfortunate cases of harassment by strangers in many countries.
PARENTAL CONTROL TOOLS
As a parent, you could install parental control software and programmes on your computer which can help block access to adult sites, block usage after a particular time and can log surfing activities (allowing parents to see which sites a child has visited).
SAFETY HABITS
Educate your children not to open up any email or attached files or web pages that you receive from people you don’t know.
KEEP A WATCH
If possible, route your child’s email through your account and share their password. Monitor their surfing habits. Tell them not to fill in any online forms without your consent or give out credit card numbers to friends.
Keep the computer in a central family location, not in the child’s room. The computer should be a family activity.
SET AN EXAMPLE
Most of all set an example to them through your good surfing habits. Children tend to copy their parents.
Should you become aware of the existence of any vulgar or indecent materials involving your child or any incidence of harassment, immediately notify your local police station.
|
