PCs - Reading in English


(adapted from ESTERAS, Santiago Remacha. Infotech. 3rd ed., 2002. OLIVEIRA, Sara. Reading Strategies for Computing, 1999)

A. Give an appropriate title to the text below.

Title:

Computers can help students perform mathematical operations and solve difficult questions. They can be used to access the Internet, teach courses such as computer-aided design, language learning, programming, mathematics, etc.
PCs (personal computers) are also used for administrative purposes: for example, schools use databases and word processors to keep records of students, teachers and materials.

Race organizers and journalists rely on computers to provide them with the current positions of riders and team in both the particular stages of the race and in the overall competition.
Workstations in the race buses provide the timing system and give up-to-the-minute timing information to TV stations. In the press room several PCs give real-time information on the state of the race. Computer databases are also used in the drug-detecting tests for competitors.

Computers store information about the amount of money held by each client and enable staff to access large databases and to carry out financial transactions at high speed. They also control the automatic cash dispensers which, by the use of a personal coded card, dispense money to clients.

Airline pilots use computers to help them control the plane. For example, monitors display data about fuel consumption and weather conditions. In airport control towers, computers are used to manage radar systems and regular air traffic.
On the ground, airlines are connected to travel agencies by computer. Travel agents use computers to find out about the availability of flights, prices, times, stopovers and many other details.

 

B. Find in the text you have just read ten examples of cognate words.

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.


CONTEXTUAL GUESSING

TASK 01 - Quando você está lendo um texto e encontra palavras cujo significado você não conhece, o que você faz?

a. salto a palavra e volto a ela mais tarde.
b. tento adivinhar o significado da palavra e vou em frente.
c. tento adivinhar o significado da palavra e releio a sentença.
d. procuro a palavra no dicionário ou glossário e releio a sentença.

 

                A leitura é um processo interativo, portanto dinâmico, que envolve uma série de componentes essenciais: o próprio texto é o primeiro deles. Contudo, o bom leitor geralmente vai muito além do texto quando está processando a compreensão do que está lendo. Ele faz uso de um conjunto de estratégias para criar, recuperar, e intercambiar significados e informações muitas vezes apenas implícitas dentro do texto.
           Assim, usar apenas o que está explícito no texto não basta. É preciso ir além e utilizar o nosso conhecimento de mundo, das coisas que nos cercam e, mais especificamente, o conhecimento prévio que temos sobre o assunto tratado; usar o contexto também é garantia de que estamos fazendo deduções corretas (guessing). É mais ou menos o trabalho de um detetive que busca indícios, pistas, detalhes, informações para diminuir o leque de incertezas e chegar ao verdadeiro “culpado”.
              Podemos ainda comparar com o trabalho executado pelo computador, que busca em sua memória principal conhecimentos/informações relevantes que possam ajudar na resolução de um problema. Quanto mais rápido você puder recuperar informações passadas, associá-las e aplicá-las à situação atual, mais facilidade você terá de ver a questão resolvida.

            É claro que quanto mais trabalhamos em determinado campo de atividade, ou estudamos, experimentamos e solucionamos problemas, mais chances teremos de acumular informações confiáveis e acuradas para a resolução ou entendimento de uma questão. Entender uma língua estrangeira é um processo semelhante.
              A leitura é, pois, um processo inferencial em que a compreensão final do texto é o resultado final da interação do que está sendo explicitado com o que previamente já sabemos sobre o assunto, sobre os personagens envolvidos, o cenário, o autor, o momento histórico-cultural em que o texto foi escrito, etc. Às vezes, é buscar informação nas linhas e também nas entrelinhas!
            

      

TASK 02 – Explicite o que o leitor(a) precisa saber a fim de interpretar o texto abaixo adequadamente:
a. An Apple for the teacher (but a PC is just as good)               The Times

TASK 03 – Fill in the blanks with words that make sense in the text.

HINTS:
•Read the whole text. It's important to understand what the text is about.
•Read the whole sentence before and after the gap.
•Before you look at the options do you know what type of word is missing? Is it a noun? A verb? A preposition? etc.
•Read the whole sentence with your word. Does your word make sense in the sentence?
•Check that your word is grammatically correct in the sentence.
•If you don't know an answer, guess. You may be right!
•Check your answers carefully when you finish.
•Missing words are often auxiliary verbs, pronouns, relative pronouns, articles, quantifiers, prepositions, phrasal verbs, modals and linking words.

GAMES-PLAY IS NOT ANTI-SOCIAL

Long hours playing video (1) do not transform your (2) into an aggressive teenager, according to new (3) research. In a paper presented in a (4) in London, Dr. Colwell found that (5) of 13 or 14 who played (6) for long sessions had higher self-steem and (7) levels of aggression than those who didn’t (8) , despite the violence of the most (9) computer games.

 

TASK 04 – Let's do another one. Go to the this website: Write words to complete a text. Then, click on "Check your grammar: gap fill".

SKIMMING AND SCANNING

Skimming and scanning are reading techniques that use rapid eye movement and keywords to move quickly through text for slightly different purposes (http://www.butte.edu).

Click here to check skimming and scanning characteristics in more details.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

Let's see two definitions: "It means to find meanings that are intended but that are not directly expressed in something said or written (Cambridge Dictionary)". "To infer or understand the real or hidden meaning behind the superficial appearance of something. 'Lines' refers to lines of text on a printed page (The Free Dictionary.com)."

TASK 05. Match the phrases from the letter to what Jackie is really thinking. Follow this link to answer: Reading between the lines.

 

Extra activity
PCs: History and Development
‘Computers: From the Past to the Present’

(Adapted by Sandro L. Sousa from www.cambridge.org/elt/infotech, 2003.)

Pair Work

A. Click on this link http:// www.eingang.org/Lecture and read a lecture by Michele A. Hoyleand. After that, answer the questions.

01. The device used in China as a calculating machine, 4000 years ago
.
02. The first mechanical calculator
.
03. The scientist considered the "father of computing"
.
04. The machine used by H. Hollerith in 1890 to read the US census
.
05. The computer developed by Konrad Zuse in 1941
.
06. The digital computer built by engineers at IBM and H. Aiken in 1950
.
07. The device designed by Alan Turing to perform logical operations
.
08. The giant machine which had more than 2,000 vacuum tubes
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09. The company that designed the first microprocessor in 1971
.
10. The main uses of the Web and where it was developed

B. Translate these expressions into portuguese:

01. Computer science
02. Desktop publishing
03. Search
04. Punched card
05. Vacuum tube
06. Cathode ray tube
07. Bus
08. Personal computer
09. Word processor
10. Basic input output system

 

 

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