Ресурсы английского языка для Преподавателей и Учащихся
Topic 6
Information Age, Parts 1, 2 and 3 (The History and Development of Internet and Other Communication Systems
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Ресурсы английского языка для Преподавателей и Учащихся |
| EXPLORATIONS - October 2002:
Information Age, Parts 1, 2 and 3 By Paul Thompson VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we begin a series of three programs about modern communications. Our first program tells about the history of communications. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Information always has been extremely important. Throughout history, some information has had value beyond measure. The lack of information often cost huge amounts of money and, sometimes, many lives. One example of this took place near the American city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Britain and the United States were fighting the War of Eighteen-Twelve. American and British forces fought near New Orleans on January eighth, eighteen-fifteen. The battle of New Orleans is a famous battle. As in all large battles, hundreds of troops were killed or wounded. After the battle, the Americans and the British learned there had been no need to fight. Negotiators for the United States and Britain had signed a peace treaty in the city of Ghent, Belgium, two weeks earlier. Yet news of the treaty had not reached the United States before the opposing troops met in New Orleans. The battle had been a terrible waste. People died because information about the peace treaty traveled so slowly. VOICE TWO: From the beginning of human history, information traveled only as fast as a ship could sail. Or a horse could run. Or a person could walk. People experimented with other ways to send messages. Some people tried using birds to carry messages. Then they discovered it was not always a safe way to send or receive information. A faster method finally arrived with the invention of the telegraph. The first useful telegraphs were developed in Britain and the United States in the eighteen-thirties. The telegraph was the first instrument used to send information using wires and electricity. The telegraph sent messages between two places which were connected by telegraph wires. The person at one end would send the information. The second person would receive it. Each letter of the alphabet and each number had to be sent separately by a device called a telegraph key. The second person would write each letter on a piece of paper as it was received. Here is what it sounds like. For our example we will only send you three letters: V-O-A. We will send it two times. Listen closely. (SOUND: Telegraph key) VOICE ONE: In the eighteen-fifties, an expert with a telegraph key could send about thirty-five to forty words in a minute. It took several hours to send a lot of information. However, the telegraph permitted people who lived in cities to communicate much faster. Telegraph lines linked large city centers. The telegraph soon had a major influence on daily life. The telegraph provided information about everything. Governments, businesses and individuals used the telegraph to send information. At the same time, newspapers used the telegraph to get the information needed to tell readers what was happening in the world. Newspapers often were printed four or five times a day as new information about important stories was received over the telegraph. The telegraph was the quickest method of sending news from one place to another. VOICE TWO: On August fifth, eighteen-fifty-eight, the first message was transmitted by a wire cable under the Atlantic Ocean. The wire linked the United States and Europe by telegraph. This meant that a terrible mistake like the battle of New Orleans would not happen again. Reports of the daily news events in Europe began to appear in American newspapers. And the news of the United States appeared in European newspapers. Information now took only a matter of hours to reach most large cities in the world. This was true for the big cities linked by the telegraph. It was different, though, if you lived in a small farming town, kilometers away from the large cities. The news you got might be a day or two late. It took that long for you to receive your newspaper. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE ONE: On November second, nineteen-twenty, radio station K-D-K-A in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, broadcast the first radio program. That broadcast gave the results of a presidential election. Within a few short years, news and information could be heard anywhere a radio broadcast could reach. Radios did not cost much. So most people owned at least one radio. Radio reporters began to speak to the public from cities where important events were taking place. Political leaders also discovered that radio was a valuable political instrument. It permitted them to talk directly to the public. If you had a radio, you did not have to wait until your newspaper arrived. You could often hear important events as they happened. VOICE TWO: Some people learned quickly that information meant power. Many countries in the nineteen-thirties began controlling information. The government of Nazi Germany is a good example. Before and during World War Two, the government of Nazi Germany controlled all information the German people received. The government controlled all radio broadcasts and newspapers. The people of Germany only heard or read what the government wanted them to hear or read. It was illegal for them to listen to a foreign broadcast. VOICE ONE: After World War Two, a new invention appeared -- television. In the industrial countries, television quickly became common in most homes. Large companies were formed to produce television programs. These companies were called networks. Networks include many television stations linked together that could broadcast the same program at the same time. Most of the programs were designed to entertain people. There were movies, music programs and game programs. However, television also broadcast news and important information about world events. It broadcast some education programs too. The number of radio and television stations around the world increased. It became harder for a dictator to control information. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In the nineteen-fifties, two important events took place that greatly affected the communication of information. The first was a television broadcast that showed the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States at the same time. The two coasts were linked by a cable that carried the pictures. So people watching the program saw the Pacific Ocean on the left side of the screen. On the right side of the screen they saw the Atlantic Ocean. It was not a film. People could see two reporters talk to each other although they were separated by a continent. Modern technology made this possible. The other event happened on September twenty-fifth, nineteen-fifty-six. That was when the first telephone cable under the Atlantic Ocean made it possible to make direct telephone calls from the United States to Europe. Less than six years later, in July nineteen-sixty-two, the first communications satellite was placed in orbit around the Earth. The speed of information again greatly increased. VOICE ONE: By the year nineteen-hundred, big city newspapers provided the people of the city with news that was only hours old. Now, both radio and television, with the aid of satellite communications, could provide information immediately. People who lived in a small village could listen to or watch world events as they happened. A good example is when American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. Millions of people around the world watched as he carefully stepped onto the moon on July twentieth, nineteen-sixty-nine. People in large cities, small towns and villages saw the event as it was happening. There was no delay in communicating this important information. VOICE TWO: Only a few years after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, the United States Department of Defense began an experiment. That experiment led to a system to pass huge amounts of information around the world in seconds. Experts called it the beginning of the Information Age. The story of that experiment will be our report next week on EXPLORATIONS. ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week on the Voice of America for our second program about the Information Age. ****************** EXPLORATIONS - October 23, 2002: Information Age, Part 2 By Paul Thompson VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the second part of our series about communications. We tell how computers are linking many millions of people around the world. (THEME) VOICE ONE: Last week we told about the history of the communication of information. We described how the telegraph was the first important device that could move information quickly from one place to another. And we discussed the beginning of satellite communications. About six years after the first communications satellite was placed in orbit, the American Department of Defense began developing a new project. It began linking major research universities across the United States. The project began in the early nineteen-seventies. VOICE TWO: Professors at many American universities do research work for the United States Government. The Department of Defense wanted to link the universities together to help the professors cooperate in their work. Department of Defense officials decided to try to link these universities by computer. The officials believed the computer would make it easier for researchers to send large amounts of information from research center to research center. They believed they could link computers at these universities by telephone. VOICE ONE: They were right. It became very easy to pass information from one university to another. University researchers working on the same project could share large amounts of information very quickly. They no longer had to wait several days for the mail to bring a copy of the research reports. VOICE TWO: This is how the system works. The computer is linked to a telephone by a device called a modem. The modem changes computer information into electronic messages that are sounds. These messages pass through the telephone equipment to the modem at the other end of the telephone line. This receiving modem changes the sound messages back into information the computer can use. The first modern electronic communication device, the telegraph, sent only one letter of the alphabet at a time. A computer can send thousands of words in a very few seconds. VOICE ONE: The link between universities quickly grew to include most research centers and colleges in the United States. These links became a major network. Two or more computers that are linked together form a small network. They may be linked by a wire from one computer to another, or by telephone. A network can grow to almost any size. For example, let us start with two computers in the same room at a university. They are linked to each other by a wire. In another part of the university, two other computers also are linked using the same method. Then the four are connected with modems and a telephone line used only by the computers. This represents a small local network of four computers. Now, suppose this local network is linked by its modem through telephone lines to another university that has four computers. Then you have a network of eight computers. The other university can be anywhere, even thousands of kilometers away. These computers now can send any kind of information that can be received by a computer - messages, reports, drawings, pictures, sound recordings. And, the information is exchanged immediately. VOICE TWO: Some experts have said it is easier to understand this network of computers if you think of streets in a city. The streets make it possible to travel from one place in the city to another. Major streets called highways connect cities. They make it possible to travel from one city to another. Computers communicate information in much the same way. Local networks are like the city streets. And communication links between distant local networks are like the major highways. These highways make communication possible between networks in different areas of the world. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-eighty-one this communication system linked only two-hundred-thirteen computers. Only nine years later, it linked more than three-hundred-fifty-thousand computers. Today experts say there are hundreds of millions of computers connected to networks that provide links with computers around the world. The experts say it is no longer possible to tell how many computers are linked to the information highway. The experts also say the system of computer networks is continuing to grow. VOICE TWO: This system of computer networks has had several different names since it began. It is now called the Internet. Almost every major university in the world is part of the Internet. So are smaller colleges and many public and private schools. Magazines, newspapers, libraries, businesses, government agencies, and people in their homes also are part of the Internet. VOICE ONE: Computer experts began to greatly expand the Internet system in the last years of the nineteen-eighties. This expansion was called the World Wide Web. It permits computer users to find and exchange written material and pictures much quicker than the older Internet system. How fast is the World Wide Web part of the Internet system? Here is an example. A computer user in London, England is seeking information about the volcanoes in the American state of Hawaii. She types in the words “Hawaii” and “volcano” in a World Wide Web search program. Within seconds the computer produces a list. She chooses to examine information from the National Park Service’s headquarters at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The Park Service computer in Hawaii provides information about the huge volcanoes there, and how they were formed. It also has other useful information. The researcher in London looks at the information. Then she has her computer print a copy of it. Within seconds she has a paper copy of the National Park information including pictures. It has taken her less than five minutes to complete this research. (MUSIC BRIDGE) VOICE TWO: The Internet and the World Wide Web have become vehicles for speedy information exchange for most people who can use a computer. Much of the information on the Internet is very valuable. As a research tool, the Internet has no equal. Suppose you want a copy of this Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. You can find the information by looking for the Voice of America and Special English on the World Wide Web. The electronic address is www dot voa special english dot com. (www.voaspecialenglish.com) You can find written copies of most of our programs and print them for your own use. Almost any kind of information can be found through the Internet. There are electronic magazines for poetry or children’s stories. There are areas within this electronic world where you can play games or discuss politics or science. You can find valuable medical information, read history, learn about new farming methods or just about anything that interests you. You can look at and collect the beautiful color pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. You can watch musicians perform their latest songs. You can even join a group that meets electronically to discuss the music of their favorite rock and roll music group. VOICE ONE: Who pays for the Internet? That is not easy to explain. Each network, small or large, pays for itself. Networks decide how much their members will pay for their part of the cost of the local service connecting time. Then all of the large networks decide how much each will pay to be part of the larger network that covers a major area of the country. The area network in turn pays the national network for the service it needs. Each person who has a computer at home pays a company that lets the computer connect to the Internet. These companies are called Internet service providers. Most charge less than twenty dollars a month for this service. VOICE TWO: Next week the EXPLORATIONS program will examine the future of the Internet and the World Wide Web. We will tell about modern technology that lets networks link with telephones that do not need wires. (THEME) VOICE ONE: This Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember. Listen again next week to the Voice of America for the last part of this series about the Information Age ************************ EXPLORATIONS - October 30, 2002: Information Age, Part 3 29 Oct 2002, 20:33 UTC VOICE ONE: This is Mary Tillotson. VOICE TWO: And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we finish our three-part series about the history of communications. We tell about the Internet system called the World Wide Web. And we tell about the future of communications. Things have changed ((THEME)) VOICE ONE: In our first two programs we discussed the history and importance of communicating information. We told how the invention of the telegraph increased the speed at which information could be sent. We told how satellites in space greatly increased the speed of communications. In our second program, we told about the development of the computer and the linking of computers into major systems called networks. These networks led to the high-speed sharing of information among major universities and research centers around the world. The largest of these systems, the Internet, has made it possible for almost anyone with a computer and a telephone to share in what is called the Information Age. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: In July nineteen-forty-five, the Atlantic Monthly magazine printed a long report written by an important scientist. His name was Vannevar Bush. Mister Bush explained that researchers around the world were producing new ideas and useful information every day. He said the information was being produced faster than anyone could read it, remember it, or even know where to find it. He explained that the technology of nineteen-forty-five permitted information to be kept only in books or pictures. He said some new device must be invented that would make it possible to search for, find and use new information much more quickly. VOICE ONE: Mister Bush explained that research information is most valuable when it is new. One small piece of information could help a researcher finish an extremely important project. Mister Bush wrote that he hoped a device would be invented that could store information. He said people should be able to easily link with this device to search for and gather useful information. Such a device would greatly speed gathering information and would greatly aid research. VOICE TWO: The device that Mister Bush dreamed about in nineteen-forty-five is now very real. It is the modern computer, linked with other computers. The link is through the Internet and the World Wide Web communications system. The computer and the Internet now make it possible to find and gather information about any subject within a few minutes. Here is a good example. Oncology is the study of the disease cancer. There are many hundreds of medical research centers that are working to cure cancer. The Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is one of many publications that prints important cancer research information. The research papers tell about the results of treatment for many different kinds of cancer. The information in this journal is written for medical experts. VOICE ONE: The editors of this cancer research journal place valuable cancer research information on the World Wide Web. This makes it possible for health care professionals and researchers all over the world to use the information for educational or research purposes.By using the Internet, a researcher anywhere in the world is able to find information from the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology and print a copy in just a few minutes. To find the journal, a researcher would only have to type three words into an Internet search system on a computer. The three words are oncology, research and journal. Within seconds, the World Wide Web provides a list of several possible research papers from several countries. The study in the Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology is only one of many valuable research papers that are on the World Wide Web. Not every search is easy. Sometimes it can take a while before the right combination of words produces the needed result. However, the World Wide Web and the Internet will almost always provide the researcher with a way to find the needed information. The computer provides a quick link to the new information that scientists like Vannaver Bush said was badly needed. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: Eric Benhamou is the head of a computer company called Three-Com Corporation. Mister Benhamou says people are using the computer and the Internet to communicate for work and to exchange information with their families and friends. He says people also use the Internet to learn new things and visit different places. Today almost one-hundred-fifty-million people use the Internet in the United States. A recent study showed they use the Internet for communication and for research. The study also showed that much of the research that is done leads to buying products with the aid of a computer and the Internet. The study also showed that more people than ever are now using the computer to buy products. VOICE ONE: Governments, private groups and individuals have criticized the Internet. Some governments do not trust the Internet because they say it is extremely difficult to control the information that is placed there. Some government officials say extremist groups place harmful information on the Internet. They say dangerous political information should be banned. Other groups say it is difficult to protect children from sexual information and pictures placed on the Internet. They say this kind of information should be banned. VOICE TWO: Other critics say that it is becoming extremely difficult to know if you can trust the information that is found on the Internet. They wonder if the information is true. Did the person who placed it on the Internet make any mistakes? Still other critics say the Internet is no longer a free exchange of information and ideas. They say it has become a big business that sells products, services and information. They want the Internet to be used only for research and education. VOICE ONE: In nineteen-forty-five, scientist Vannevar Bush said researchers needed some device that would make information easier to find, use and store. The modern computer and the Internet now provide this and much more. They are an important method of communicating and doing business and will continue to be in the future. In the United States, many businesses expect their workers to know how to use computers. Children now begin learning to use computers in their first years of school. Many universities in the United States now require all new students to have their own computer. Most colleges provide special rooms that have computers for the use of all students. ((MUSIC BRIDGE)) VOICE TWO: What is the future of communications and the Internet? Experts do not really know. Computers continue to grow smaller and more powerful with each passing year. Computers that were thought to be very powerful ten years ago are now considered extremely weak and slow. It is now possible to connect a computer with a wireless telephone that can link with communications satellites. A person with a small computer that can be easily carried can now link with other computers from anywhere in the world. A person can that use a computer that receives its electric power from batteries and is linked with a satellite telephone. This person can communicate from anywhere in the world. VOICE ONE: Some experts say that in the future people will not use large computers on their desks. They will use only small computer devices that link to the Internet. These devices will be easily carried from place to place. All the information people use for business or for fun will be on their own area of the World Wide Web. This has already happened. Many people already have their own private area on the World Wide Web. Businesses have their own special areas. A husband and a wife with a new baby place photographs of the baby in a special area so relatives can see the new addition to the family. People now communicate, listen to radio or watch television. They to do business buy or sell goods, write a letter or send a picture from anywhere in the world at any time of the day or night. And they will communicate around the world at almost the speed of light. ((THEME)) VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Caty Weaver. This is Steve Ember. VOICE ONE: And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America. |