Nilai Bahasa Inggris semester 2

Nilai Bahasa Inggris 2 Universitas AKI Ngabang th 2009
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The Magic Sound

Alexander Graham Bell is famous for the invention of telecommunication, one of the important devices that has helped to build modern live. Born in Edinburg, Scotland, on March 3, 1847. Bell was educated at Edinburg High School and at the Edinburgh Universities of Edinburgh and London. Teaching deaf people was the Bell family’s profession. His grandfather has also taught deaf people in Scotland. Alexander Graham Bell did not only teach the deaf, he did even more than that. He opened a private school to train teachers for the deaf.

At Boston University he studied the sciences of speech and later he became a professor there. In 1874 he started working on his electricity merely to help the deaf. He tried to discover a way through which people could talk other over short distance through a string of wire. So, he experimented to send sound vibrations over long distance by using electricity.

In 1875, after Thomas A. Watson had become his assistant, the two of them found that the vibrations could be send from one place to another by using electronic current. Early in 1876 the first message “Mr. Watson, come here; I want you” was sent successfully by Bell over an electronic wire to Watson two floors above.

Bell’s telephone consisted on two similar instruments; one for the transmitter and the other for the receiver. Each one had an electro-magnet, consisting of a piece iron which was made magnetic by wire carrying an electronic current coiled around it. They are very thin sheet of iron, called line wires, joining the transmitter to the receiver. Speech sound waves caused the diaphragms of the transmitting instrument to vibrate in tune with the vibrations in the transmitter. Thus, the sounds delivered to the receiver were heard coming from the transmitter a long distance away.

Answer the following questions based on the text above!
1. What did Bell have in mind when in 1874 he started his effort to invent a device for sending speech?
2. What was the first message Bell sent?
3. What was the function of the coiled around you?
4. Where did Bell study the science of speech?
5. When did Thomas A. Watson become his assistant?
6. How was the transmitter and receiver connected?
7. Mention the instruments of Bell’s telephone!
8. Where was diaphragm put?

Electronic Media

At the end of the nineteenth century newspaper were the main public sources of information. At the end of the twentieth century, was still have newspaper, but they are no longer the main sources of information. Nowadays we have the electronic media, the internet, radio and television.
The electronic media link Indonesia to the rest of the world. The electronic media make us part of global village. If we want to find out what is happening in Europe of the United States, we can listen to satellite TV stations, such as BBC or CNN. We can talk in English to people from all over the world.

In the twenty first century the internet will be the most important source of information. Even now there is so much information on the internet. Soon people will not buy newspaper from kiosks anymore. They will read electronic newspaper on internet. All the television channel will be on the internet. If you get tried of watching TVRI, you will be able to switch to a New York Channel or a channel from Argentina or Ireland.

Answer the following questions based on the reading above!
1. According to the text what are the main sources of information now?
2. Which of the electronic media help us find out what the ordinary people think?
3. According to the writer, what will be the main source of information in the twenty first century?
4. Where will people read electronic newspaper?
5. How can we find out what normal people in many countries think?

Programming Languages

There are many different programming languages. Most programming languages can be used for different applications, although some are better designed for specific uses than others. Many programming languages have long and complicated names which are usually reduced to acronyms. These include ALGOL (Algorithmic Language), a language generally used for scientific programming and APL (A Programming Language), used mainly for mathematical application. There are literally hundreds more programming languages, including BASIC, COBOL, and FORTRAN, which are currently among most popular and frequently used languages.

BAISC, stands for Beginner’s All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It was developed in 1965 at Dsrtmouth College by Dr. John Kemeny and Dr. Thomas Kurtz. BASIC was originally designed to be used by college students in many fields. It was also designed to be easier and more versatile than others, more scientific language. In addition, BASIC was designed as an interactive language. An interactive language in one which is much more communicative language allows interaction – type of conversation – between the computer and the user both during the preparation of programs and their execution.

BASIC is much less complicated than other programming languages. As it is easier and friendlier than many other languages, BASIC is the most frequently used programming language among the general population. BASIC continuous to become more and more popular everyday especially for personal and educational uses.

FORTAN, stands for formula Translation and was first developed by IBM from 1954 – 1957. It has since gone through several revisions, and was put into a final and standard form in 1977. FORTAN is more complicated and structured than BASIC and is generally harder to master. It is not designed for interactive purposes, but to express mathematical calculations and scientific formulas as easily and as accurately as possible. FORTAN instructions are stated in a combination of English algebraic formulas. FORTAN is better suited for work with numbers than any other programming languages, and is therefore the most commonly employed language in the scientific and mathematical fields.

COBOL, the acronym for Common Business Oriented Language, is the best and the most popular of all programming languages which have business applications. COBOL was first released in 1960 and was developed to fulfill the needs of both business and government. It has been revised and improved several times, and its present form was approved in 1974. COBOL is more similar to English FORTAN or BASIC. In fact, statements in COBOL are so English – like that they are quite easy to read because they use English verbs such as read, write, add, or subtract to express computer functions.

PASCAL, was first used in the early 1970’s, is not an acronym like BASIC or FORTAN. Rather, Pascal was named for Blaise Pascal, the developer of one of the earliest calculating machines. Pascal, a multipurpose language, can be used for many people feel it will one day be more commonly used for programming micro computers than BASIC.

Answer the following questions based on the text above!
1. How many programming languages do you know? Can you mention them?
2. What computer language do most programmers use?
3. What is meant by BASIC as an interactive language?
4. What computer language is mostly used in science?
5. Who first developed FORTAN?
6. When was FORTAN out into standard?
7. How does COBOL expresses the computer functions?
8. Why is FORTAN more difficult to master?