Roy Palmer

Doretta Ardu

L’argomento.
 Bit by Bit è un corso di inglese specialistico per il settore Informatico.
 
 I contenuti sono ordinati secondo criteri di graduale complessità concettuale e linguistica e vengono esplorati utilizzando le quattro abilità in modo omogeneo e integrato. I brani offrono un assortimento di stili, registri e livelli di difficoltà.
 
 La struttura.
 Bit by Bit è diviso in sei Moduli, ognuno dei quali è ripartito in un numero variabile di Unità.
 
 Ogni Unità è suddivisa in brevi Capitoli su due pagine – teoria ed esercizi – per favorire uno studio più parcellizzato e la scelta antologica da parte dell’insegnante. Brevi link (curiosità, ampliamenti, rimandi, attività o mini-approfondimenti) arricchiscono i brani per consentire una maggiore interattività. Un ricco apparato iconografico correda i brani di lettura, per ognuno dei quali è previsto un esauriente glossario.
 
 Al termine di ogni Unità sono presenti le seguenti sezioni:
 
 <ul><li>Grammar: Revisione delle strutture grammaticali più comuni con esercizi di rinforzo calati nel contesto;
</li><li>Citizenship: Attività che prendono spunto da contenuti dell’unità per agganciarsi a tematiche legate all’educazione civica e alla cittadinanza.
</li></ul>Alla fine di ogni Modulo, il testo propone ulteriori attività:
 
 <ul><li>Vocabulary: Esercizi di revisione e consolidamento;
</li><li>Real-life skills: Compiti di realtà e collaborativi, lavori di gruppo con un taglio di tipo pratico calato nella realtà;
</li><li>Case study: Argomento di attualità corredato di esercizi mirati all’approfondimento e alla discussione;
</li><li>Clip: Breve clip tratta da film attinenti agli argomenti del Modulo;
</li><li>Mapping your mind: Mappa concettuale riepilogativa.
</li></ul>Il testo si conclude con due ampie appendici:
 
 <ul><li>Biz bits: presenta testi e attività relativi al mondo del commercio e dell’economia;
</li><li>Careers: descrive le varie fasi della ricerca di un lavoro e analizza diversi profili lavorativi nel settore ICT.</li></ul>

MODULE 1 - THE BIRTH AND ROLE OF COMPUTERS

Unit 1.1 • Computer science, ICT and digital literacy

Unit 1.2 • Computers

VOCABULARY

REAL-LIFE SKILLS Choosing the right computer

CASE STUDY Artistic creations with e-waste

CLIP FILM The Time Machine

MAPPING YOUR MIND

MODULE 2 - THE BODY OF COMPUTERS

Unit 2.1 • The electronics of computers

Unit 2.2 • The structure of computers

Unit 2.3 • The peripherals of computers

REAL-LIFE SKILLS Dealing with QR codes and barcodes

CASE STUDY Federico Faggin and Intel 4004

CLIP FILM Strange Days

MODULE 3 - THE MIND OF COMPUTERS

Unit 3.1 • Computer languages

Unit 3.2 • Computer programming

Unit 3.3 • Operating systems

REAL-LIFE SKILLS Choosing the best programming language for your task

CASE STUDY Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer

CLIP FILM Steve Jobs

MODULE 4 - THE USES OF COMPUTERS

Unit 4.1 • Main software

Unit 4.2 • Graphics software

Unit 4.3 • Other software programs

Unit 4.4 • The new frontiers of ICT

REAL-LIFE SKILLS Organising your school week and your notes

CASE STUDY The Story of Open Office

CLIP FILM AI – Artificial Intelligence

MODULE 5 - LINKING COMPUTERS

Unit 5.1 • Communication networks

Unit 5.2 • The Internet

Unit 5.3 • Sharing online

REAL-LIFE SKILLS Choosing a name and a template for a class blog

CASE STUDY Trivago: an aggregator website

CLIP FILM Lucy

MODULE 6 - PROTECTING COMPUTERS

Unit 6.1 • Computer threats

Unit 6.2 • Computer protection

Unit 6.3 • Protecting yourself and your data

REAL-LIFE SKILLS Encrypting and decrypting messages with Caesar cipher

CASE STUDY 2017 Wannacry ransom attack

CLIP FILM The Imitation Game

APPENDICES

1 • Biz bits

2 • Careers

3 • Technical Glossary

4 • Acronyms

1.2 COMPUTERS THE BINARY SYSTEM AND UNITS OF MEASURE Some less common terms are nibble, which corresponds to 4 bits, and octet, which is a synonym of byte. How do you translate the word string in the following expressions? 1. A ball of string; 2. Guitar strings.   The binary system Storing, processing and transmitting data through electronic devices is possible because of the binary system, but what exactly is it? As the word  binary  suggests, only two digits, 0 (zero) and 1 (one), are combined to express a number in a binary system, while the common decimal system is built on the combinations of 10 possible digits (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). The decimal system uses the power of 10, whereas the binary system uses the power of 2.   Converting decimal numbers into binary ones ONLINE RESOURCES   ASCII code codon: codone frame: struttura to occur: capitare to overlap: sovrapporre remainder: resto string: stringa, sequenza Electronic devices can only understand the binary system, so it is necessary to convert decimal numbers (or instructions) into binary numbers. To perform such a conversion, we have to repeat the process of division by 2 till the quotient is 0 or less than 1. The binary number arises from the reading of the remainders from the bottom to the top. Here is the conversion, for example, of the number 81: Result Remainder 81 : 2 = 40 1 40 : 2 = 20 0 20 : 2 = 10 0 10 : 2 = 5 0 5 :2 = 2 1 2 :2 = 1 0 1 :2 = 0,5 1 Number 8110 = 10100012   Bits and bytes When working with any kind of processor, each digit (0 or 1) corresponds to a bit . Every string of 8 bits is called a byte. In ASCII code (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) any character you type on your keyboard is interpreted by the computer as a byte. When writing, you can identify bits and bytes by their spelling: upper case  B  is used for bytes and lower case  b  for bits. Here is a table showing the most common multiples of bits. Term Memory units Bit 1/8 (= 1 single binary digit) Byte 1 (= 8 bits) Kilobyte (KB) 1,024 bytes Megabyte (MB) 1,024 KB (about 1 million bytes) Gigabyte (GB) 1,024 MB (about 1 billion bytes) Terabyte (TB) 1,024 GB (about 1 trillion bytes) Petabyte (PB) 1,024 TB (about 1015 bytes) Exabyte (EB) 1,024 PB (about 1018 bytes) Zettabyte (ZB) 1,024 EB (about 1021 bytes) Yottabyte (YB) 24 THE BIRTH AND ROLE OF COMPUTERS 1,024 ZB (about 1024 bytes) 

1 Read these paragraphs, put them in the correct order and choose the appropriate heading for each one. Protecting data   Starting and stopping   Byte sizes   Counting digits Binary Code vs Genetic Code Title: .............................................................................. , Paragraph n. Both binary and genetic codes contain signals that indicate where to begin and end the reading of their messages. Computers use start and stop bits for this purpose, while the genetic code contains one start codon and three stop codons. However, DNA often exhibits greater flexibility in starting and stopping, as certain parts of the genetic code can be read in different, overlapping segments. These different interpretations are called open reading frames, and often each frame codes for an entirely different but still useful, final product. Title: .............................................................................. , Paragraph n. In digital code, a single inaccurate bit causes its byte to have a different value, which can introduce significant errors into a computer program. DNA is considerably more resilient in comparison, as many nucleotide changes do not result in changes to the value of the amino acid coded by a codon. Although 64 codons are possible, biological machinery uses only 20 amino acids in the construction of proteins. Many codons that differ by one nucleotide therefore code for the same amino acid, a property known as redundancy. Redundancy protects genetic data from some of the inevitable errors that occur in the replication and reading of DNA. 2 O R Title: ............................................., Paragraph n. The simplest unit of binary code is the binary digit, or  bit,  which can have one of two values: 0 or 1. The simplest unit of DNA, on the other hand, is the nucleotide, which can have one of four bases: adenine, cytosine, thymine or guanine (A, C, T or G). This increased variation means that each nucleotide of DNA can hold twice as much information as each digit of a binary program. Title: ............................................................................. , Paragraph n. Computers and biological systems both read their respective codes in blocks of several units instead of analysing each bit or nucleotide individually. Binary information is grouped into sets of eight bits, called bytes; each byte thus has one of 256 possible configurations of zeros and ones. Genetic information, on the other hand, comes in triplets of nucleotides, known as codons, which represent different amino acids, meaning that each DNA  byte  has only 64 possibilities. Adapted from: http://oureverydaylife.com/ binary-code-vs-genetic-code-40378.html D W S Look at these words from the text above. Identify and underline their prefixes or suffixes and then write down another word that uses that prefix/suffix with the same function. Overlap Prefix/suffix Function Examples over- Above, too much Overcrowded, overtime Useful Inaccurate Respective Possibility Biological Binary Computer 1.2   COMPUTERS 25 

English for information and communication technology. Bit by Bit è un corso di inglese specialistico per il settore Informatico.

Bit by Bit New edition

English for Information and Communications Technology

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