Unit 5 Tert a PRE-READING TASK Exercise 1 Before reading the passage, try to answer the questions 1. how much do you know about the internet? 2. What do people usually do on the internet' 3. What has made the Internet possible? Modern communication: The laser and Fiber-Optic revolution In April 1995, a young Chinese chemistry student at Beijing University lay dying in a Beijing ospital. She was in a coma, and although her doctors had performed numerous tests, they couldnt discover what was killing her. In desperation, a student friend posted an SOs describing her symptoms to several medical bulletin boards and mailing lists on the Internet. Around the world, doctors who regularly checked these electronic bulletin boards and lists responded In Washington, D. C, Dr John Aldis, a physician with the U.S. Department of State, saw the message from China. Using the Internet, he forwarded the message to colleagues in America Soon an international group of doctors joined the e-mail discussion. a diagnosis emerged - the woman might have been poisoned with thallium, a metal resembling lead. A Beijing laboratory confirmed this diagnosis -the thallium concentration in her body was as much as 1000 times normal. More e-mail communication followed, as treatment was suggested and then adjusted. The woman slowly began to recover. Well over a year later, the international medical community was still keeping tads on her condition through the electronic medium that served her life It's 11: 30 p.m., you're in San Francisco on business, and you want to check for messages at your office in Virginia. First you dial in and get your voice mail. Next you plug your portable computer into the hotel-room telephone jack hit a few keys, and pick up e-mail from a potential client in South Africa, your sister in London, and a business associate in Detroit. Before writing your responses, you do a quick bit of search on the Internet, tracking down the name of the online news group you had mentioned to the man in Detroit and the title of a book you wanted to recommend to your sister. A few more keystrokes and in moments your electronic letters have reached London and Detroit. Then, knowing that the time difference means the next workday has begun in South Africa, you call there without a second thought These stories reflect societys increasing reliance on a system of global communication that can link you equally easily with someone in the next town or halfway around the world. The expanded telephone-line capacity that has allowed the growth of these forms of communication is a recent phenomenon. The United States has enjoyed domestic telephone service for more than a century, but overseas telephone calls were difficult until relatively recently. For a number of years after World War Il, calls to Europe or Asia relied on short-wave radio signals. It sometimes took an operator hours to set up a 3-munite call, and if you got through, the connection was often noisy In 1956, the first transatlantic copper wire cable allowed simul taneous transmission of 36Unit 5 Text A PRE-READING TASK Exercise 1 Before reading the passage, try to answer the questions. 1. how much do you know about the internet? 2. What do people usually do on the internet? 3. What has made the Internet possible? Modern Communication: The Laser and Fiber-Optic Revolution In April 1995, a young Chinese chemistry student at Beijing University lay dying in a Beijing hospital. She was in a coma, and although her doctors had performed numerous tests, they couldn’t discover what was killing her. In desperation, a student friend posted an SOS describing her symptoms to several medical bulletin boards and mailing lists on the Internet. Around the world, doctors who regularly checked these electronic bulletin boards and lists responded immediately. In Washington, D.C., Dr. John Aldis, a physician with the U.S. Department of State , saw the message from China. Using the Internet, he forwarded the message to colleagues in America. Soon an international group of doctors joined the e-mail discussion. A diagnosis emerged – the woman might have been poisoned with thallium, a metal resembling lead. A Beijing laboratory confirmed this diagnosis – the thallium concentration in her body was as much as 1000 times normal. More e-mail communication followed, as treatment was suggested and then adjusted. The woman slowly began to recover. Well over a year later, the international medical community was still keeping tads on her condition through the electronic medium that served her life. It’s 11:30 p.m., you’re in San Francisco on business, and you want to check for messages at your office in Virginia. First you dial in and get your voice mail. Next you plug your portable computer into the hotel-room telephone jack. hit a few keys, and pick up e-mail from a potential client in South Africa, your sister in London, and a business associate in Detroit. Before writing your responses, you do a quick bit of search on the Internet, tracking down the name of the online news group you had mentioned to the man in Detroit and the title of a book you wanted to recommend to your sister. A few more keystrokes and in moments your electronic letters have reached London and Detroit. Then, knowing that the time difference means the next workday has begun in South Africa, you call there without a second thought. These stories reflect society’s increasing reliance on a system of global communication that can link you equally easily with someone in the next town or halfway around the world. The expanded telephone-line capacity that has allowed the growth of these forms of communication is a recent phenomenon. The United States has enjoyed domestic telephone service for more than a century, but overseas telephone calls were difficult until relatively recently. For a number of years after World War II, calls to Europe or Asia relied on short-wave radio signals. It sometimes took an operator hours to set up a 3-munite call, and if you got through, the connection was often noisy. In 1956, the first transatlantic copper wire cable allowed simultaneous transmission of 36