The Digital Age

We are now living in the digital ages, meaning that computers have become an essencial part of out lives. We are sorrounded by technology.

How are computers used?

• Cashpoints or ATM, are used to take out cash, check your balance and print receipts.
• Computers allow students to search information, create documents, send and recieve files.
• Air traffic can use the computer to find the exact location of each plane, recieve information about the weather and comunicate with all the planes.
• Modern cellphones are used to make calls, send and recieve messages, organize the schedules for hormeworks and exams.

There are different types of words in a text, reading the text allow us to recognize the what type of word is.

1. Perform: Verb.
2. Word processor: Noun.
3. Online: Adverb.
4. Download: Verb.
5. Build-in: Adjetive.
6. Digital: Adjetive.
7. Store: Verb.
8. Financial: Adjetive.
9. Monitor: Noun.
10. Data: Noun.

Match the previous words with the correct meanings.

1. Keep, save: Store.
2. Execute, do: Perform.
3. Monetary: Financial.
4. Screen: Monitor.
5. Integrated: Built-in.
6. Connected to the internet: Online.
7. Collection of facts and figures: Data.
8. Describes information that is recorded or broadcast using computers: Digital.
9. Program used for text manipulation: Word processor.
10. Copy files from a server to your PC or mobile: Download.

Collocations

Collocations are a combination of words between verbs and nouns.

Look at the Help Box and match the verbs with the nouns to make collocations.

1. Give presentations.
2. Keep records.
3. Access databases.
4. Enter a PIN.
5. Transfer money.

Use the previous collocations and the help box to complete the sentences.

1. Thank's to Wi-fi, it's now easy to access the internet from cafes, hotels, parks and many other public places.
2. Online banking lets you carry out transactions between your accounts easily and securely.
3. Skype is a technology that enables users to make calls over the internet for free.
4. In many universities, students are encouraged to give presentations using Powerpoint in order to make their talks more visually attactive.
5. The web has revolutionized the way people do research with sites such as Google and Wikipedia, you can find the information you need in seconds.
6. Cookies allow a website to store information on a user's machine and later retrieve it, when you visit the website again, it remembers your preferences.
7. With the latest mobile phones, you can send texts with multimedia attachments - pictures, audio, even video.

How do I use my Computer

The next image it's a scan from my notebook. I had to describe how do I normally use my laptop.

Computer Essentials

Label the elements of the computer system.

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Read these advertising slogans and say witch computer element each pair refers to.

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1. Mouse.
2. Screen/Monitor.
3. DVD.
4. CPU.
5. Printer.

Find words in the slogans with the following meanings.

1. To press the mouse button: click.
2. Clear; easy to see: sharp.
3. To make an extra copy of something: back up.
4. Selection: point.
5. Shows: display.

Whats a Computer?

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Match these words from the previous text with the correct meanings.

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1. Software: c.
2. Peripherals: f.
3. Main Memory: g.
4. Hard Disk: h.
5. Hardware: b.
6. Input: d.
7. Ports: i.
8. Output: e.
9. CPU: a.

Computer: Concept Map

Using the text from the book Infotech English for Computer Users (http://thebookisonthetable1.blogspot.com/2013/04/whats-computer.html)

I created a Conceptual Map that includes all the parts of a computer.

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Classifying

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Look at the Help Box and then use suitable classifying expressions to complete there sentences.

1. A computer can be divided in hardware and software.
2. Peripherals are classified into three types; input, output and storage devices.
3. A word processing program consist of a software witch lets the user create and edit text.
4. There are two classes of network architecture; peer-to-peer, where all computers have the same capabilities, and client-server (e.g. the internet), where servers store and distribute data, and clients access this data.

Inside a PC System: Concept Map

Using the following text from the book Infotech English for Computer Users, I created a Conceptual Map that includes all the parts of a PC System.

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Relative Clauses

Look at the Help Box and then complete the sentences with suitable relative clauses. Put brackets round the relative pronouns you can leave out.

1. That's the computer [which] I'd like to buy.
2. Core 3 Duo is a new intel processor that contains about 291 million transistors.
3. A webmaster is a person who designs, develops and mantains a website.
4. A bus is an electronic pathway which carries signals between computer devices.
5. Here's the DVD [that] you lent me!.
6. Last night I met someone who works for GA as a software engineer.

Conclusion 1

In the first unit I learned about the huge influence of the computers and the technology in our lives. 

It's very important to read the texts carefully, because many types of word can be used in different ways. For example, "store" it can be used as a verb or a noun, depending of the context.

I also learned to recognize adverbs on a sentence. Adverbs complements the verb, in the same way the nouns are complemented by the adjetives.

Something I didn't know were the collocations, phrases conformed by a noun and a verb. For example "surf the web" and "make calls".

Classifying is used to put things on groups, and it's very useful when we are designing a concept map, there are many expressions we can use such as "includes", "consists of" and "there are X types of Y".

Finally, we discovered more details about the PC system's components and I learned how to define things or people using the relative clauses, that can be left out in some cases.