Lekcja 4
Advertising
Advertising can be defined as a service to the community. Perhaps it would be interesting to examine the nature of advertising and discuss its kinds, techniques or effects it may have. Advertising is a way of persuading and encouraging people to buy certain products. It may also be seem as a kind of guide in the mass markets and as an important way of selling goods. Its purpose is not only to attract customers and sell goods but also to inform people about the new products and remind them of the existence of the old ones. Advertisements appear on television and radio where they are announced in the breaks between programmes; they are printed in papers; hung in shop-windows or underground subways in the form of posters, and so on. There are many different techniques used in advertising. First, there is the repetition technique which makes the advertised product remain deep in a customer?s mind. The second technique is called the ?before and after? technique. It operates on contrasts and usually shows a certain product before using it and then pointing out its wonderful effects, for example a dirty shirt becomes as white as snow after using an advertised powder or soap. The third technique is psychologically motivated and appeals to basic human instincts, such as vanity, fear, or greed. Thanks to this technique people buy consumer goods or insurance, fashionable clothes and cosmetics, they eat more than necessary, imitate famous actors and singers and try to ?keep up with the Joneses?. Advertising often makes use of slogans and catch-phrases for its purposes. People have different attitudes to advertising. Some claim that it is necessary and useful because it creates mass markets for products and, therefore, goods are cheap; it informs people about household goods, jobs available, births, marriages in newspapers; it makes life more cheerful and streets more colourful. On the other hand, people have many objections to advertising. They call it the ?unproductive industry? on which vast sums of money are spent and which creates the demand for things that people do not need. Moreover, many advertisements are in poor taste; they are imposed on audiences often interrupting good television programmes. Besides, they give enormous profits to companies and it is the consumer who pays for it. Some people think that certain restrictions should be imposed on advertised products which are harmful to health, for example cigarettes or alcohol. They believe that good quality goods do not need to be advertised. Having looked at some aspects of advertising-its kinds, techniques, effects it has, its advantages and disadvantages one may now see that in spite of a few objections, it performs a useful service to the community and is an integral part of modern life.
VOCABULARY
service – usługa
community – społeczność
to persuade – przekonywać
to entourage – zachęcać
guide – przewodnik
market – rynek
to sell goods – sprzedawać towar
purpose – cel
to attract – przyciągać
customers – klienci
to keep up with the Joneses – dotrzymywać kroku innym
slogan – slogan
catch-phrase – fraza
attitude – podejście
goods – towary
cheap – tanie
available – dostępne
objection – zastrzeżenia
unproductive industry – nieproduktywny przemysł
demand – popyt
profit – zysk
consumer – konsument
restriction – restrykcja
to impose – narzucić
harmful – szkodliwe
good quality goods – towary wysokiej jakości
advantage – zaleta
disadvantage – wada
integral part – nieodłączna część
products – produkty
to remind – przypominać
advertisement – reklama
poster – plakat
technique – technika
to operate on contrasts – operować kontrastami
to pint out – wskazywać
effect – efekt
powder – proszek
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Lekcja 5
Robots
A robot is a machine. But it is not just any machine. It is a special kind of machine. It is a machine that moves. It follows instructions. The instructions come from a computer. Because it is a machine, it does not make mistakes. And it does not get tired. And it never complains. Unless you tell it to!
Robots are all around us. Some robots are used to make things. For example, robots can help make cars. Some robots are used to explore dangerous places. For example, robots can help explore volcanoes. Some robots are used to clean things. These robots can help vacuum your house. Some robots can even recognize words. They can be used to help answer telephone calls. Some robots look like humans. But most robots do not. Most robots just look like machines.
Long ago, people imagined robots. Over 2,000 years ago, a famous poet imagined robots. The poet?s name was Homer. His robots were made of gold. They cleaned things and they made things. But they were not real. They were imaginary. Nobody was able to make a real robot. The first real robot was made in 1961. It was called Unimate. It was used to help make cars. It looked like a giant arm.
In the future, we will have even more robots. They will do things that we can?t do. Or they will do things that we don?t want to do. Or they will do things that are too dangerous for us. Robots will help us fight fires. They will help us fight wars. They will help us fight sickness. They will help us discover things. They will help make life better.
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Lekcja 6
Computers
Section I. Reading. Read the text and do the exercises.
The Language of Computers
50 years ago, people hadn?t even heard of computers, and today we cannot imagine life without them. Nearly everything we do in the modern world is helped , or even controlled by computers because they are more efficient than human beings. They have much better memories and they can store much information.
Computer technology is the fastest-growing industry in the world. The first computer was the size of a minibus and weighed a ton. Today, its job can be done by a chip the size of a pin head. And revolution is still going on.
Very soon we?ll have computers that we?ll wear on our wrists or even in our glasses and earrings. Such wearable computers are being developed in the USA.
Japan?s biggest mobile-phone company has just released its cleverest product so far, the i-mode, a mobile phone that allows you to surf the Internet and make calls. People are already using the phone to check the news headlines, follow the stock -market and download the latest jokes. Soon they will be able to buy cinema tickets and manage their bank accounts.
The next generation of computers will be to talk and even think for themselves. They will contain electronic ?neural networks?. Of course, they?ll be still a lot simpler than human brains, but it will be a great step forward. Such computers will help to diagnose illnesses, find minerals, understand and control the world?s money markets, identify criminals and control space travel.
Computer revolution is changing our life and our language, too. We are constantly making up new words or giving new meanings to old ones. Most of computer terms are born in Silicon Valley (not far from San Francisco), the world?s top computer-science centre.
Exercise 1. Comprehension. Decide if the statements below are true(T) or false (F) .
Exercise 2. Choose the best answer.