Text № 10. Networks

TASK: Read and translate the following text. Learn the vocabulary by heart. Tell your groupmates about your own experience when you have used a network. Discuss the text Networks.

Computers can communicate with other computers through a series of connections and associated hardware called a network. The advantage of a network is that data can be exchanged rapidly, and software and hardware resources, such as hard-disk space or printers, can be shared.

One type of network, a local area network (LAN), consists of several PCs or workstations connected to a special computer called the server. The server stores and manages programs and data. A server often contains all of a networked group's data and enables LAN workstations to be set up without storage capabilities to reduce cost.

Mainframe computers and supercomputers commonly are networked. They may be connected to PCs, workstations, or terminals that have no computational abilities of their own. These " dumb" terminals are used only to enter data into, or receive output from, the central computer.

Wide area networks (WANs) are networks that span large geographical areas. Computers can connect to these networks to use facilities in another city or country. For example, a person in Los Angeles can browse through the computerized archives of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The largest WAN is the Internet, a global consortium of networks linked by common communication programs. The Internet is amammoth resource of data, programs, and utilities. It was created mostly by American computer scientist Vinton Cerf in 1973 as part of the United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In 1984 the development of Internet technology was turned over to private, government, and

scientific agencies. The World Wide Web, developed in the 1980s by British physicist Timothy Berners-Lee, is a system of information resources accessed primarily through the Internet. Users can obtain a variety of information in the form of text, graphics, sounds, or animations. These data are extensively cross-indexed, enabling users to browse (transfer from one information site to another) via buttons, highlighted text, or sophisticated searching software known as search engines. (2088)

Vocabulary:

network – сеть

connection – соединение

to exchange – обменивать

hard-disk space – пространство жесткого диска

local area network (LAN) – локальная сеть

workstation – рабочая станция

storage – память

capability – возможность, способность

Wide area network (WAN) – глобальная сеть

to browse – просматривать

mammoth – громадный

to link – соединять

to access – получить доступ

button – кнопка

" dumb" terminal – неинтеллектуальный терминал, терминал ввода-вывода

highlighted – выделенный