Doretta Ardu

Maria Grazia Bellino

Giusy Di Giorgio

Bit by Bit è un testo di inglese rivolto in particolare agli studenti dei corsi a indirizzo Informatico e, in generale, a coloro che hanno l’esigenza di utilizzare la lingua inglese come strumento di studio e/o di lavoro in questo settore.
 Materiali integrativi <ul><li>Teacher’s Book. - Soluzioni, testi degli esercizi di ascolto, test di fine unità e di fine modulo, proposte di domande orali e di griglie valutative, real-life tasks, mappe per ogni unità, programmazione didattica, guida didattica di supporto per studenti BES.
</li><li>ONLINE RESOURCES. - Ulteriori esercitazioni, approfondimenti letterari, esempi di reading comprehension per le certificazioni EUCIP Core e FIRST/IELTS, test adattati per studenti BES.</li></ul>

Module 1 - The birth and role of computers

Unit 1- Computer science and ict

Unit 2 - ICT and society

Unit 3 - Computers

Vocabulary

Grammar • Prefixes, suffixes and compound nouns

Listening • Digital libraries

Speaking • New technological trends in teaching and studying

Writing • Learning with technology

Mapping your mind

Film • Bicentennial man

Module 2 - The body of computers

Unit 4 - The electronics of computers

Unit 5 - The structure of computers

Unit 6 - The peripherals of computers

Grammar • Relative clauses

Listening • At the computer shop

Speaking • Discussing computers

Writing • Describing computers and computer problems

Film • Strange Days

Module 3 - The mind of computers

Unit 7 - Computer languages

Unit 8 - Computer programming

Unit 9 - Operating systems

Grammar • Conditionals

Listening • Working in a software house

Speaking • Writing computer code

Writing • Programming languages

Film • Desk Set

Module 4 - The uses of computers

Unit 10 - Main software

Unit 11 - Graphics software

Unit 12 - Other software programs

Grammar • The passive voice

Listening • Learning and playing with computers

Speaking • Interviewing

Writing • Improving sound, music, pictures and texts

Film • AI - Artificial intelligence

Module 5 - Linking computers

Unit 13 - Communication networks

Unit 14 - The internet

Unit 15 - Sharing online

Grammar • Main verb tenses

Listening • Slideshare and other online activities

Speaking • Past and future

Writing • Social media

Film • Lucy

Module 6 - Protecting computers

Unit 16 - Computer threats

Unit 17 - Computer protection

Grammar • Comparatives and superlatives

Listening • Internet privacy

Speaking • Security problems

Writing • Data encryption

Film • The Imitation game

Appendices

1 Biz bits

2 Careers

3 How to…

Technical glossary

Acronyms

3 COMPUTERS THE BINARY SYSTEM AND THE UNITS OF MEASURE Answer these questions. a. Do you know how computers do their calculations? b. Name at least four types of different computers. c. What do you imagine the future of computers will be? codon: codone frame: struttura to occur: capitare overlapping: che si sovrappone remainder: resto string: stringa, sequenza Storing, processing and transmitting data through electronic devices is possible because of the binary system, but what exactly is it? As the word  binary  says, 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. So, for example, the number 3586 can be written in the decimal system as: 3 x (10)3 + 5 x (10)2 + 8 x (10)1 + 6 x (10)0. Electronic devices can only understand the binary system, so it is necessary to convert the 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 number 81: 81 : 2 = 40 : 2 = 20 : 2 = 10 : 2 = 5 :2 = 2 :2 = 1 :2 = Two bytes meet. First byte asks:  Are you ill?  Second byte replies:  No, just feeling a bit off . RESULT REMAINDER 40 20 10 5 2 1 0,5 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 Number 8110 = 10100012 When working with any kind of processor, each digit (0 or 1) corresponds to a bit. Every string of 8 bits is called 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. For example, the letter  A  is expressed as the ASCII code 65, but 65 is a decimal number, so if you convert it to binary number, you get 01000001. These 8 digits, or byte, are known to the computer as the letter A. When writing, you can identify bits and bytes by their spelling: upper case  B  is used for bytes and lower case  b  for bits. So 1MB is a MegaByte, 1Mb is a Megabit and 1kb is a kilobit. For example, monitoring data transfer speed when you download a file from the Internet, you may notice that your browser indicates the transfer rate in KiloBytes per second (KBps). Here is a table showing the most common multiples of bits: TERM bit byte kilobyte (KB) megabyte (MB) gigabyte (GB) terabyte (TB) 32 Module 1 FLOWCHARTING VALUES IN BYTES 1/8 (= 1 character) 1 (= 8 bits) 1,024 1,048,576 1,073,741,824 1,099,511,628,000 VALUES IN 2N 21 28 210 220 230 240 

1 1.8 Listen to these scrambled paragraphs, put them in the right order and choose the right headline for each of them. Protecting data   Starting and stopping   Byte sizes   Counting digits Binary Code vs Genetic Code (by Daniel Walton) Title: ................................................................................. Paragraph no. ............. 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 no. ............. 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. Title: ................................................................................. Paragraph no. ............. 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. ACTIVITIES Title: ................................................................................. Paragraph no. ............. 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. Adapted from: http://oureverydaylife.com/binary-code-vs-genetic-code-40378.html 2 Look at these words from the text above. Identify and underline their prefixes or suffixes and then write down another word using them with the same function. PREFIX/SUFFIX FUNCTION EXAMPLES Overlap Useful Inaccurate Respective Possibility Biological Binary Computer THE BIRTH AND ROLE OF COMPUTERS Module 1 33 

Preparazione inglese per studenti di informatica: materiali integrativi, esercizi, soluzioni e risorse online per il miglior apprendimento.

Bit by bit

English for Information and Communications Technology

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