Английский для бакалавров. Макеева М.Н - 30 стр.

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30
"Who invented the computer?" is not a question with a simple answer. The real answer is that many
inventors contributed to the history of computers and that a computer is a complex piece of machinery
or programmable machine that receives input, stores and manipulates data, and provides output in a
useful format, made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention.
A computer is a machine which manipulates data according to a list of instructions. The earliest known
tool for use in computation was the abacus, and it was thought to have been invented in Babylon circa
2400 BCE. Computers take numerous physical forms. Early electronic computers were the size of a
large room, consuming as much power
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as several hundred modern personal computers. Today, simple
computers may be made small enough to fit into a wrist watch and be powered from a watch battery.
Personal computers in various forms are icons of the information age and are what most people think of
as "a computer". However, the most common form of computer in use today is by far the embedded
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computer. Embedded computers are small, simple devices that are often used to control other devices –
for example they may be found in machines ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital
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cameras, and even children's toys. The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs
makes computers extremely versatile
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and distinguishes them from calculators. Any computer with a
certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other
computer can perform. Therefore, computers with capability and complexity ranging from that of a
personal digital assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks given
enough time and storage capacity.
A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the
1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features that are seen in modern computers. The use of
digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937) and more flexible programmability
were vitally important steps.
Nearly all modern computers implement
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some form of the stored program architecture, making it
the single trait by which the word "computer" is now defined. By this standard, many earlier devices
would no longer be called computers by today's definition, but are usually referred to as such in their
historical context. EDSAC* was one of the first computers to implement the stored program
architecture. The term hardware
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covers all of those parts of a computer that are tangible objects.
Circuits, displays, power supplies, cables, keyboards
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, printers and mice
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are all hardware.
Software
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refers to parts of the computer which do not have a material form, such as programs,
data, protocols, etc. When software is stored in hardware that cannot easily be modified (such as BIOS
ROM in an IBM PC compatible), it is sometimes called "firmware"
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to indicate that it falls into an
uncertain area somewhere between hardware and software. Programming languages provide various
ways of specifying programs for computers to run. Unlike natural languages, programming languages
are designed to permit no ambiguity and to be concise. They are purely written languages and are often
difficult to read aloud. They are generally either translated into machine language by a compiler or an
assembler before being run, or translated directly at run time by an interpreter. Sometimes programs are
executed by a hybrid method of the two techniques. There are thousands of different programming
languages – some intended to be general purpose, others useful only for highly specialized applications.
As the use of computers has spread throughout society, there are an increasing number of
careers involving computers. Following the theme of hardware, software and firmware, the brains of
people who work in the industry are sometimes known irreverently as wetware
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or "meatware".
*EDSAC – Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer.
7. Read and translate the following text into Russian in writing.
Retell the text
to your partners in detail.

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