Upper-intermediate (B2) Focus: Reading/Vocabulary/Speaking/Fun Tech articles
1 Do you know what these words stand for? GOOGLE SPAM SMILEY EMOTICON
2 Out of the following four articles, only one is true. Read through them and try to guess which one seems most likely. What are the clues that helped you?
1 Google Offline Do you have a house full of empty bookshelves? Then you might consider getting the complete Google in hardcover. The world’s biggest search engine is now the world’s biggest set of reference books. Joining the club of megaworks, Google’s 36,795 volumes will be ten times larger than the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary. The volume “A” set can be pre-ordered online now and will be in bookstores later this month. Google plans to release a new letter of the alphabet every two weeks. The collection could be a godsend for the 40% of the population who don’t yet have Internet access, or simply a convenience for someone who doesn’t want to power up the computer every time they need to run a web-search.
2 The Nigerian letter The Better Business Bureau warns businesses not to be tempted by fraudulent letters from Nigeria that offer get-rich-quick schemes. These e-mail messages, which have been sent worldwide, target small businesses, churches, and other non-profit organizations. A letter marked “urgent” or “confidential” arrives from Nigeria. The sender claims to be an official of a company or government ministry, or has an official-sounding name such as doctor, chief, lawyer, or prince; asking for assistance in transferring millions of dollars of excess money out of Nigeria. The person proposes depositing the money in a trustworthy U.S. bank account, in
exchange for which the account-holder will receive 30 percent or more of the transferred funds. To participate in the deal, the business or organization must provide its bank account number and the name, address, phone and fax numbers of the bank. Using the provided information, the con artists can then plunder the victim’s bank account or they may try to get money directly by requesting extra payments to cover transfer fees, travel expenses, taxes, or necessary bribes before the transaction can occur. Once the money has been wired, the scammers typically disappear and are hard to trace. Needless to say, no one has ever received the promised funds, and losses from participating in illegal foreign business deals are nearly impossible to recover. Worldwide estimates put victims’ losses at more than $US 5 billion and warn that some people have been murdered trying to get their money back. 3 “Kill A Spammer” Initiative Unanimous Senate approval has brought the U.S. one step closer to catching fraudulent and nuisance e-mailers. The House is expected to pass a similar bill next week. Spam now accounts for over 50% of all e-mail, and costs the U.S. economy an estimated $250 billion each year in lost productivity. Most legislators agree that a national “do not spam” list would be largely ineffective so they have called for joining an international trend of simply eliminating the offenders. Based on existing laws in countries like Great Britain, China and Libya, in the U.S. law a reward of up to $5,000 would be paid for each spammer. The Senate bill passed despite opposition from the National Council of Churches which, in a rare show of unity, had issued a joint statement criticizing the legislation. ”Death is too good for them,” it says in part. “We strongly urge congress to consider a punishment that involves amputation of the hands”. 4 The story of the smiley The man who brought the smiley face to the Web isn’t smiling anymore. As the universally-recognized “emoticon” celebrates its 20th birthday, the man who introduced it to countless millions of internet chat rooms and bulletin boards has been sued by the U.S. Federal Court, who claims that its use has caused widespread incidents of neck injury. While he was a doctoral student at university, Scott E. Fahlman was a regular contributor to Carnegie Mellon University’s electronic bulletin boards. Participants frequently typed “kidding” or “joke” after an insult or wisecrack, and Fahlman longed for a way to shorten these lengthy postscripts. It has been recently documented that on or about September 19, 1982,
Fahlman tilted his head and the :-) was born. An endless litany of sideways emoticons soon followed. Tragically, as computer use soared in the 1990’s, a growing number of internet addicts strained their necks to decode the latest cool bit of typing shortcuts. The smiley’s days seem to be numbered. Its decline can be attributed to health-conscious companies such as AOL and Microsoft, whose newer programs automatically insert icons when a user enters old-school emoticons. 3 Read the texts again and decide if the following statements are true or false. 1. Google has already published the first volume. 2. The offline version of Google will be the largest reference book ever. 3. Google wants to take its time and release the volumes over a long period of time. 4. The writer claims that the book will be useful for those only who have no Internet access. 5. The senders of Nigerian letters usually describe themselves as officials of a company or government ministry. 6. After receiving the necessary information, the senders take the victim’s money by breaking into their bank account. 7. The Senate has already passed a bill to sentence those people who send spams to death. 8. The man who invented the smiley has been taken to court for injuring people. 9. Smileys are being used more and more because AOL and Microsoft have started using them as well. 4 Find a synonym for each word or phrase in one of the four texts. 1. published in full (1) 2. comfort (1) __________________________ __________________________
3. an unexpected event which is very helpful (1) _________________________ 4. make something available to the public (1) _________________________ 5. reliable (2) 6. aim at (2) 8. corrupting gifts or money (2) 9. to take part in (2) 10. difficult to find (2) 11. gave out (an official document) (3) 12. getting rid of something/someone (3) __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________
7. to have enough money for something (2) __________________________
13. something bothering (3) 14. quite long (4) 15. rose quickly (4) 16. to try to find out (4) 17. popular, found over a large area (4) 18. dishonest (2, 3) 5 Discuss these questions.
__________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________
Have you ever used google or any other search engine? What are the advantages and disadvantages of searching for information through the internet?
What do you think should happen to people who send unsolicited e-mails? Can you protect yourself against spams? When you write e-mails/SMSs, do you use any emoticons or any other shortened forms? Why (not)? What would you have done if you had received a Nigerian letter? Do you know anyone who would fall for this scam? Have you heard of any other ways of cheating people out of their money?
How do you think writing e-mails and chatting has changed language use?
KEY: 1 GOOGLE – the world’s biggest search engine on the internet SPAM – an unsolicited email message, usually advertising something SMILEY – a smiling face, used for humour, laughter, friendliness, and occasionally sarcasm :-), EMOTICON – a sign used to indicate an emotional state in electronic mail. Although originally intended mostly as jokes, emoticons are virtually required under certain circumstances in high-volume text-only communication forums; the lack of verbal and visual cues can otherwise cause what were intended to be humorous, sarcastic, ironic, or otherwise non-100%-serious comments to be badly misinterpreted. 2 The 2nd article is true.
3 1. F, 2. T, 3. F, 4. F, 5. T, 6. T, 7. T, 8. F, 9. F 4 1. unabridged, 2. convenience, 3. godsend, 4. release, 5. trustworthy, 6. target, 7. cover, 8. bribe, 9. to participate, 10. hard to trace, 11. issued, 12. eliminating, 13. nuisance, 14. lengthy, 15. soared, 16. to decode, 17. widespread, 18. fraudulent