Bend Me, Shape Me: Flexible Phones 1. Can you roll a telephone up, drop it, squish it in your backpack or step on it – without any damage? Researchers are working on just such handsets – razor-thin, paper-like and bendable. Numerous companies are working on the technology – LG, Philips, Sharp, Sony and Nokia among them – although reports suggest that South Korean phone manufacturer Samsung will be the first to deliver. Morph is one of the bendable prototypes Nokia has been working on. Samsung favours smartphones with so-called flexible OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology, and is confident that they will be «very popular among consumers worldwide». Their screens will be foldable, rollable, wearable and more, [and] will allow for a high degree of durability through their use of a plastic substrate that is thinner, lighter and more flexible than conventional LCD technology.
2. There are other technologies that could make a smartphone bendy. E-ink is an innovation developed by a US company of the same name. The screens are black and white, and work by reflecting natural light instead of glowing themselves, mimicking the way text looks in paper books. There are about 30 million flexible e-ink displays in the field today. They are well-suited for simple phones, memory and battery indicators, smart credit cards, wristwatches, and signs. To have a fully flexible finished product, both parts of the display have to be flexible – the optical frontplane and backplane, where transistors are – as well as the device`s battery, the outer shell, the touchscreen and other components.
3. South Korean film LG Displays has just begun mass-producing fully flexible e-ink screens. Another company working with E-Ink is UK firm Plastic Logic. It uses the US firm`s optical frontplane but adds on its own backplane made out of non-rigid plastics, and then sells the part to device-makers. In 2012, Plastic Logic demonstrated a paper-like flexible screen capable of playing video in colour, which is achieved by placing a filter on top of the original black-and-white display.
4. Some other researchers are taking a different approach. Prof Andrea Ferrari from Cambridge University works on future bendy displays using graphene. The material was first produced in 2004 by two Russian-born scientists at the University of Manchester.
5. Graphene is a sheet of carbon just one atom thick – yet it is stronger than diamond, transparent, lightweight, has great conducting properties – and is flexible. Researchers believe that graphene may in future replace silicon and revolutionize electronics as we know it.
6. Whatever the technology, it seems certain that very soon our phones will be not just smart, but bendy too.
XI. Say which sentence corresponds to the contents of the text:
1. South Korean firm LG Display has just begun mass-producing fully flexible e-ink screens.
2. To have a fully flexible finished product, both parts of the display have to be flexible – the optical frontplane and the backplane.
3. Samsung is really quite advanced in this field.
4. Graphene is stronger than diamond and has great conducting properties.
5. E-ink is an innovation developed by a US company of the same name.
XII. Read sentence 2 of passage 1 and divide it into sense groups. State the dependency relations between them.
XIII. Compress passage 2 of the text to the maximum. Express its main idea in 3 sentences.
XIV. Translate passage 3 and 4 into Russian.
Итоговый тест
I. Подберите слово близкое по значению данному.
| 1.
| accurate
| |
| a) careless
| b) tidy
| c) correct
| d) beautiful
| | 2.
| to adjust
| |
| a) to change
| b) to fix
| c) to develop
| d) to agree
| | 3.
| drawback
| |
| a) point
| b) reason
| c) cause
| d) disadvantage
| | 4.
| application
| |
| a) a use
| b) data
| c) device
| d) property
| II. Заполните пропуски в тексте подходящим по смыслу словом.
| a) including
| b) being done
| c) called
| d) processing
| e) cutting
| f) creating
|
Scientists are developing a revolutionary technology that could replace paper, (5)___electronic ink. E-Ink technology aims at (6) ___ a digital book that can type-set itself and that readers could leaf through just as if it were made of regular paper. E-Ink has several advantages, (7) ___: low power usage, flexibility and readability. Moreover, the technology saves trees by (8) ___ the demand on paper!
III. Поставьте глагол, данный в скобках, в нужную неличную форму глагола.
13.The computers (link) the two networks are being adjusted now.
14.Work (do), the scientists can apply the results.
15.While (calculate) the speed the student made a mistake.
16.The material (investigate) is of great value.
IV. Выберите русский эквивалент для английской конструкции.
| 17.is the first to mention about the electric current
18.competent enough to fulfill
19.task having been repaired the device was used
20.the error turned out to have been found out
| a) оказалось, что ошибки были обнаружены
b) полученные сведения были представлены
c) достаточно компетентный, чтобы выполнить задание
d) будучи отремонтированным, устройство использовалось
e) первый, кто упомянул про электрический ток
| V. Каждому из предложений в левой колонке подберите соответствующий элемент из правой колонки.
| 17.The team seems ___ a positive feedback from the software consultant.
| a) to be connected
b) used
c) to have received
d) is reported
e) being described
f) having analyzed
| | 18.___ the situation he managed to carry out the experiment.
| | 19.For the experiment we need several electric devices ___ in series.
| | 20.A bridge is a hardware and software combination ___ to connect the same type of data.
|
VI. Заполните пропуски в тексте.
Electricity is something we do not notice until we do not have it. So, what is electricity? Electricity is simply a movement of (21) ___ particles through a (22) ___ circuit. The electrons, which flow through this wire, carry a negative charge. A (23) ___ discharge is the same idea, just without the wire. Electricity is made by (24) ___ some form of energy into flowing electrons at the power plant. The type of power plant depends on the source of energy used: thermal power, solar power, kinetic power and chemical power.
| a) closed
| c) converting
| e) having sent
| | b) to be
| d) charged
| f) lightning
|
VII. Прочитайте текст. Затем изучите утверждения после текста и отметьте: R (right), если утверждение верное; F (false), если утверждение неверное; N (no information), если в тексте об этом не говорится.
A robot is a machine that gathers information about its environment and uses that information to follow instructions to do work. Imitating humans, robots also sense magnetic fields and ultrasonic waves. Robotic light sensors work by creating or changing an electric signal when light falls on them. When navigating, the robot sends out a beam of infrared light, which bounced off objects and returns to a light sensor of the robot. However, making 3D images requires large amounts of computer memory. Most robots have a microcomputer for «brains», which allows programming a lot of information. Neural networks are modelled after the human brain. Once trained, the neural net responds to an input with a likely output. Unlike rule-based systems, neural networks are incapable of giving definite answers. So, if robots eventually think like us, detect and express emotions, pursue their own interests and even make copies of themselves, drawing the line between machines and living things will be increasingly difficult.
25. A robot is a device ruled by a scientist remotely.
26. Most robots can «think», so it is possible to programme a great amount of information.
27. Neural networks are complicated systems used in the field of artificial intelligence.
28. The neural net of a robot responds to an input data without a likely output information.
APPENDIX
Word Formation
Словообразование
|