L istening skills
Listen to Vicky Cameron, the Information Technology (IT)
Lecturer from Units 7 and 12, talking to her students about c language. Complete the table with the relevant information.
Developed by Date Characteristics Uses Extension
Dennis Ritchie …… Created to replace Originally C+C and
At…………… ………………… designed for ……….
……………… ………………… ………… Object-
The language is ………… oriented
small, ………. Today it is Languages
……………… used to….
S upplementary reading
FEED IN ENGLISH,
PRINT OUT IN FRENCH
Once upon a time, according to a much told story, a computer was set a task of translating ‘traffic jam’ into French and back into English. The machine buzzed, clicked, blinked its lights and eventually came up with ’car-flavored marmalade’. Machine translation has come a long way since then. Computer translation systems are now in use in many parts of the world.
With so many official languages, translating and interpreting take up more than 50% of the Community’s administrative budget. But although the efficiency of machine translation is improving rapidly, there’s no question of human translators being made redundant. On the contrary, people and machines work together in harmony. Today’s computers are of little value in translating literary works, where subtlety is vital, or the spoken word, which tends to be ungrammatical, or important texts, where absolute accuracy is essential. But for routine technical reports, working papers and the like, which take up so much of the translation workload of the international organizations, computers are likely to play an increasing role. The method of operation will probably be for the machines to make a rough version, which the translator will then edit, correcting obvious mistakes, and where necessary referring back to the original.
If machines can translate languages, could they ever teach languages? Yes say enthusiasts, although they doubt that the teacher could ever be totally replaced by a machine in the classroom. Good old teachers know best!
FINAL
TEST
Put the following sentences in the same sequence as the information is arranged in the introductory text (Расположите следующие предложения в той же последовательности, в какой информация представлена в вводном тексте)
1. A. Programs written in assembly languages are translated into machine code by a special program called an assembler.
B. It’s possible to expect the appearance of computers, which will be able to understand human languages.
C. High-level languages make programs easier to write, modify and understand.
D. Writing a machine code program takes a very long time is best left to experts
Choose the right English equivalent to the following Russian sentence (Выберите верный английский эквивалент следующему русскому предложению).
2. Программу, написанную на одном из языков высокого уровня, следует преобразовывать в машинный код.
The program, written in one of high-level languages, should be converted into machine code.
The program, written in one of assembly languages, should be converted into machine code.
The program, written in one of low-level languages, should be converted into machine code.
Choose the right Russian equivalent to the following English sentence (Выберите верный русский эквивалент следующему английскому предложению)
3. Although the efficiency of machine translation is improving rapidly, there’s no question of human translators being made redundant.
A. Вследствие того, что эффективность машинного перевода быстро растёт, встаёт вопрос о том, что перевод, выполненный человеком, больше не потребуется
B. Хотя эффективность машинного перевода быстро растёт, не может быть речи о том, чтобы отказаться от переводов, выполненных человеком.
C. Несмотря на то, что эффективность машинного перевода быстро уменьшается, встаёт вопрос о том, чтобы отказаться от переводов, выполненных человеком.
Find the equivalents in two languages (Найдите эквиваленты в двух языках)
4. low-level language A.пригодный для
5. to solve problems B. исходная программа
6. suitable for C. решать проблемы
7. high-level language D. язык низкого уровня
8. source program E. язык высокого уровня
Complete the sentences with the proper word (Закончите предложения подходящим по смыслу словом)
9. High level language, which is mainly used for business applications but is not as suitable for mathematics is called …
10. Codes which consist of a series of binary digits and which central processors operate on are known as…
11. Basic languages, where the program is similar to the machine code version, are…
12. A general-purpose language often used in colleges and universities as a teaching language is called…
13. Computer languages, which resemble English to some extent, are called…
14. A general-purpose language, which is interactive, easy for beginners and very user-friendly, is known as…
15. Programs written in one of the high level languages are known as …
16. Computer language developed to support the UNIX operating system is called…
17. A computer program that translates instructions from a low-level language into machine code is called…
Choose the right variant (выберите правильный вариант)
18. The only language computer can understand directly is called…
A. Assembly language B. High-level language
C. Machine code D. Low-level language
19. LISP language was written in…
A. 1958 B. 1973
C. 1964 D. 1959
20. FORTRAN was really designed for use on…
A. minicomputers B. mainframe computers C.microcomputers
21. … as a means of communication is very difficult to write.
A. symbolic language B. machine code
C. high-level language D. compilation
22. High-level languages are usually…
A. problem-oriented B. machine-oriented
23. Computer language designed to be used by very young children is…
A. PASCAL B. FORTRAN
C. ALGOL D. LOGO
24. High-level programming languages are…
A. BASIC, FORTRAN B. assembly and machine
Languages