Тамара Овчинникова - We study English

She earned the title of "he Queen of the Net" after being dubbed so by Barron's Magazine in 1998 when she wrote "The Internet Report".

More lately her 2012 Internet Trend Report put just about every industry on alert. Her persuasive argument urged leaders to re-imagine nearly everything about their businesses in no uncertain terms from advertising, to mobile to media consumption. Meeker serves on the board of Square and is involved in KPCB's investments in Twitter, Groupon, Spotify, Jawbone and One King's Lane.

Questions for discussion:

1) Pick any person in this reading and write a 300 word essay on their life and why they inspire you.

2) Pick a computer scientist from Russia and write a small biography of them. You may say how much they inspire you!

3) Does programming require physical effort, mental creativity, innovative spirit, and a high degree of patience nowadays? What more qualities does a programmer need, to your mind?

4) Will you be considered a famous or great IT person in your lifetime? Write why or why not.

5) What innovative sector would you like to work in? What projects or programs would you take part in? What position would you choose for yourself?

6) Learn the names of developers and their innovations to be able to reproduce the information. Are you surprised at the number of persons in the list?

7) Prepare papers (доклады) and multimedia presentation on the list, discuss main points.

– не боюсь делать грамматические ошибки: даже наиболее продвинутые в английском ошибаются грамматически;

– учу правила и делаю упражнения на те темы, в которых я менее компетентен (-на);

– пытаюсь осмыслить грамматические явления, обобщая, сравнивая их

– разговариваю на английском в реальных ситуациях, в таких условиях обучение грамматике наиболее естественно

3.2.1 Find in the text the English equivalents to: урождённая (перед девичьей фамилией); законная дочь; женщина, придерживающаяся независимых взглядов; рано проявляться (о таланте); математик; аналитическая машина; забросить проект; далеко впереди; по предположению; оказаться в два раза длиннее; точнее не скажешь; алгеброические узоры; жаккардовый ткацкий станок.

3.2.2 Text Ada Lovelace

Her name was Augusta Ada Byron, later Countess of Lovelace (née Byron, 18151852). Ada, the only legitimate daughter of the the infamous poet Lord Byron., was also herself a "free spirit", albeit one with an astonishingly brilliant intellect behind it. Her interests ranged from music to horses to calculating machines. Not only did she have the usual accomplishments in language and music, she was also an excellent mathematician. The latter was most unusual for a young lady in the nineteenth century.

Ada's mathematical abilities became apparent when she was only fifteen. She studied mathematics with one of the most well known mathematicians of her time, Augustus de Morgan.

In 1833 Ada met Babbage and was fascinated with both him and his Engines. Later Ada became a competent student of mathematics. Ada, married to the Earl of Lovelace and the mother of three children under the age of eight, translated a paper on Babbage's Engines by General Menabrea, later to be prime minister of the newly united Italy. Ada added extensive notes which constitute the best contemporary description of the Engines, and the best account we have of Babbage's views on the general powers of the Engines. Beautiful, charming, temperamental, an aristocratic hostess, mathematicians of the time thought her a magnificent addition to their number.

She became one of the first to suggest the use of "Jacquard Loom" type cards as a way of programming the Analytical Engine as well providing what may have been the first software programs. Lady Lovelace wrote, "that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves."

She suggested to Babbage writing a plan for how the engine might calculate Bernoulli numbers. This plan, is now regarded as one the first computer programs. Lady Lovelace could be very focused and a mathematical taskmaster. Ada's prescient comments included her predictions that such a machine might be used to compose complex music, to produce graphics, and would be used for both practical and scientific use. She was correct. Though her life was short (like her father, she died at 36), Ada anticipated by more than a century most of what we think is brand-new computing. A software language developed by the U.S. Department of Defense was named "Ada" in her honor in 1979.

3.2.3 Exercises

1 Read the text about the world's first computer programmer as many times as you can in 6 minutes. Then reproduce as much info as you can remember in a written form.

2 Translate the text into English. Add new details to Ada’s biography.

Ада Лавлейс разработала первые программы для аналитической машины, заложив тем самым теоретические основы программирования. Она впервые ввела понятие цикла операции. В одном из примечаний высказала главную мысль о том, что аналитическая машина может решать такие задачи, которые из-за трудности вычислений практически невозможно решить вручную. Так впервые машина была рассмотрена не только как механизм, заменяющий человека, но и как устройство, способное выполнять работу, превышающую возможности человека.

Ада создала программу для вычисления чисел Бернулли. Хотя программы не отлаживались и не работали, однако ряд высказанных ею общих положений (принцип экономии рабочих ячеек, связь рекуррентных формул с циклическими процессами вычислений) сохранили свое принципиальное значение и для современного программирования. В наши дни А.Лавлейс по праву называют первым программистом в мире.

3 Answer the following questions, exchange your opinions with partners, make comments to their answers, discuss the problem:

a) What kind of machine was the Analytical Engine?