10.An Educated Man and Computer

Computers are everywhere, so the computer industry is one of the largest in western countries and especially in the USA. It includes companies that manufacture, sell and lease computers, as well as companies that supply products and services for people, working with computers.

Computer is a machine that performs calculations and processes information with astonishing speed and precision. A computer can handle vast amounts of information and solve complicated problems. The forerunner of today’s computer was built by Harvard University pshysicist Howard Aiken in 1944.

Each computer has its hardware and software. Computer hardware consists of a computer, a monitor, a keyboard, a printer and their connections. The software contains the various programs, you run on your computer. The most common programs, used in business, are those for:

1/ word processing (writing letters, faxes, documents, contracts);

2/ spread sheets (for budgets and financial analysis);]

3/ database management programs (for keeping names and addresses of customers);

4/ accounting (for bookkeeping);

5/ graphic programs (for drawing charts);

6/ communication programs (for E-mail, Internet);

7/ desktop publishing programs (for producing manuals, catalogues).

Most of the computers in the world use software, invented by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. So the most successful software company now is Microsoft with its Windows programs for different years.

The Internet, a global computer network which embraces millions of users all over the world, began in The United States in 1969 as a military experiment. In was designed to survive a nuclear war. Information, sent over the Internet, takes the shortest path available from one computer to another. The Internet can provide different services for businessmen and simply users. The most popular Internet service is e-mail. Most of people, who have access to the Internet, use the network only for sending and receiving e-mail messages. However, other popular services are available on the Internet: reading USENET News, using the World-Wide- Web, telnet etc. (and so on). Some American banks and companies even conduct transactions over the Internet.

Computer have changed the way people work. They handle many tasks in business, education, manufacturing transportation and other fields. Many tasks, performed by large numbers of clerical workers are now done by computers. They provide scientists and other researchers with a clearer understanding of nature. They give people, who work with words, an effective way to create documents. They enable designers and artists to see things, that never been seen before.

The value of computers lies in their ability to perform certain basic tasks and produce new information extremely quickly and accurately, that they are changing people’s view of the world.

11. My Future Profession

It’s not always easy to decide on future career. Usually our plans for the future can change many times during the school years. Choosing a career and then getting a job are two things, any person does in his lifetime. It is very important for everybody to make the right choice of profession. But the occupation you want to devote your life to, has to bring you satisfaction. So it should be something you can do and you really want to, that’s why I decided to enter the college to study Economics, Statistics, Probability Theory and many other new subjects.

Having left the Cherkasy Business College, I’m going to work as an economist. Economists define economics as the study of how goods and services get produced and how they are distributed. By goods and services, economists mean everything that can be bought and sold. By produced, they mean the way in which goods and services are divided among people.

Economics studies are usually divided into two kinds: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics is connected with small parts of the economy and the relationship between these parts, while macroeconomics is concerned with the behavior of broad aggregates affecting the whole economy.

An economist must be communicative, experienced, be skillful to plan the activity of the enterprises, know computers, be able to foresee the result of the work.

There are a lot of establishments where economists are needed. For example, plants, firms, factories, enterprises. I would like to work for a company. I think I’ll be able to cope with my obligations and duties and make a profit for my firm. Probably in the future I’ll organize my own business.

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