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LESSON 2

HISTORY AND TENDENCIES OF DEVELOPMENT
OF COMPUTER HARDWARE

PART 1

Task 1. Learn the following words and word combinations:
Previously, predominantly, repetitive calculations, navigational
tables, tide charts, planetary positions, astronomical almanacs,
abacus, eccentric, via, slide rule, calculating machines, apparently,
bubonic plague, exorbitant cost, required precision, calculus, stepped
reckoner, fluted drums, circumference, in a stair-step fashion.

Task 2. Make up your own sentences using words and phrases
from the previous exercise.

TEXT 1
THE FIRST COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGIES
The first computers were people! That is, electronic computers
and the earlier mechanical computers were given this name because
they performed the work that had previously been assigned to people.
Computer was originally a job title: it was used to describe those
human beings predominantly women whose job it was to perform the
repetitive calculations required to compute such things as
navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for
astronomical almanacs.
The abacus was an early aid for mathematical computations. Its
only value is that it aids the memory of the human performing the
calculation. The oldest surviving abacus was used in 300 B.C. by the
Babylonians.
In 1617 an eccentric Scotsman named John Napier invented
logarithms, which are a technology that allows multiplication to be
performed via addition. Napier’s invention led directly to the slide

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