Reading: “Computer genius” Malena Giordano

Reading: “Computer genius”

Before you read the text, answer the questions below. They will help you think in English and prepare for the reading activity:

1. Are you computer literate?
2. Are you connected to the Internet?
3. Have you ever studied a language using your computer?
4. Where do you use your computer?
5. Do you use e-mail? How many e-mails do you get and send a day?
6. What are some of your favorite computer games? 

Last month Sam and Janet Barnes, twins from Barnstaple, were invited to London by an electronics company to test a new family computer. The company invited them onto a ship on the River Thames. Sam, who is only 12, has already written several computer programs and he thinks that computers are better than TV: ‘Instead of sitting doing nothing, you can make a computer talk to you and play games.’

Sam and Janet experimented with the new computer, which has a voice and about seventy programs. This computer is very user friendly”, said Janet, The instructions on the screen are easy to follow, and it even has a friendly voice like R2D2 in Star Wars’!’

Sam already has a computer at home, and he and his family use it for doing all sorts of things. What did he think of the new one? ‘Great! There are lots of things you can do with it and it isn’t very expensive.’ While he was on the boat, Sam invented a game in which fighter planes appeared at the top of the screen and fired at moving targets below.

Janet is interested in music, and she tried composing computer music by arranging the notes electronically. ‘Soon a machine like this will compose a pop song good enough for the pop charts’, she said. ‘Instead of playing the piano or the guitar, you can use a computer.’ Sam thinks the new computer will be very popular, and he is pleased because the company is interested in buying one of his programs. ‘When you know how to use a computer,’ he says, ‘it’s like having a genius for a friend!’

A. Answer these questions about the text IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:

1. Why did Sam and Janet go to London?

2. Who invited them to go to London?

3. How old is Janet?

4. What did Sam do with the new family computer?

5. What about Janet?

6. Do you also think computers are better than TV? Why/Why not?

B. Find words in the text which mean the same as the following:

1. A brother or sister who is born at the same time.

2. Easy to use.

3. The glass surface on a television where pictures appear.

4. Costing a lot of money.

5. Happy or satisfied.

ANSWERS:

A-

1- To test a new family computer.

2- An electronics company.

3- 12 years old. (Sam and Janet are twins)

4- Sam invented a game in which fighter planes appeared at the top of the screen and fired at moving targets below.

5- Janet tried composing computer music by arranging the notes electronically.

6- (personal answer)

B-

1- TWINS.

2- USER FRIENDLY.

3- SCREEN.

4- EXPENSIVE.

5- PLEASED.

Teacher Malena Giordano