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?

Large System

It is impossible to know how minicomputers and mainframes are related to one another. The difference lies in their processing ability and the capacity of their primary storage. Microcomputers are the smallest, with a primary storage range of 4 to 64 K bytes, as well as the slowest, while minicomputers have a primary storage range 16 to 512 K bytes and greater processing speed. Mainframes are the fastest and can have over 1 M bytes in primary storage. They are commonly used in time sharing systems.

In a time sharing system, many companies log on to the same computer via telephone lines. To do this, a modem should be installed. A modem enables a computer to transmit data over telephone lines. A telephone line used only for data communication is called distributed data processing. The opposite concept – a centrally located computer system – is called centralized data processing.

With distributed data processing, the branch communities with the CPU via a terminal. A terminal located away from the CPU is referred to as a remote device. It can be a visual display or hard copy terminal connected by telephone lines; but it can also be a secondary storage device or even a card reader, that is an input device that transfers data from punched cards to primary storage.

In this case, punch cards are coded in Hollerith code and contain 80 columns in which holes can be punched. There are twelve rows in each column. The pattern of holes in the column determines the character being represented. The holes are punched with a key punch which has a keyboard similar to that of a typewriter. However, only 80 characters can be recorded in a card reader. Of course it is very slow process of input devices; however, for batch processing, it is considered a very useful method of input.

In this respect, supermarkets often use a similar method with which a Universal Product Code (CPU) is printed on a label. The CPU includes information, such as the product, the manufacturer and the price. All of that information from the label. It is in fact a terminal which can be used to keep inventory.

Answer the following questions based on the text above!
1. What is the primary storage range of microcomputers?
2. What is commonly used in time sharing systems?
3. What can a modem do?
4. What is meant by dedicated line?
5. What is the difference between “distributed data processing” and centrally located computer system?
6. How are punched cards coded?
7. Why can only 80 characters be recorded on a punched card?
8. What is CPU?

Operating Systems

An application program designed to manipulate data rather than govern the operation of the computer. A group of programs which governs the computer’s operations is called the operating system. With older computer, a computer operator was responsible for taking care of many duties: setting switches on the computer, loading the correct translator, putting data cards, and the like. While these duties being performed, the expensive computer was idle. Thus, it wasted a lot of money.

Therefore, the operating system was designed to reduce the need for human activity and to allow the computer to perform these activities at electronic speed. The operating system is made up of the major programs. The supervisor program, such as the supervisor, translator, and utility programs. The supervisor program, for example, is the most important part of the operating system because it provides overall control of the computer system. There are two types of translators: compilers, which has been previously discussed, and the assemblers. The compilers are supposed to translate a high level language into machine language; and the assemblers translate symbolic language into machine language.

Next is utility program. It performs jobs commonly required in most data processing systems, such as sorting and copying. The operating systems are supplied by computer manufacturer and are usually machine dependent.

There are some other techniques to improve computer efficiency. Multiprogramming, for example, makes it possible to run more than one program at a time. The CPU can perform calculating on one program while other programs are using input and output devices. This makes for greater throughout. Another example is the data base, Functioning as the centralized collection of data. Data base management system is a group of programs that maintains the data base. Look at the system flowchart. It will show how the data flows from one component of the system to another.

Answer the following questions based on the text above!
1. What is an applications program?
2. What were the duties of a computer operator in the old days?
3. Why was such a system said to be wasting time?
4. What programs make up the operating system?
5. What does the supervisor program do?
6. What does the utility program do?
7. What is the function of multiprogramming?
8. What is the data base?

Programming Tools

There are a number of rules to follow in writing good programs. Years ago good programs simply ran and got results. However, in today’s world, programs the run well are not necessarily good. Despite producing correct results, as expected, a program may still have problems. For instance, a program needs modification which can be very difficult in a complicated program. For this, flowcharting is very important and helpful to the programmer.

Structured programming refers to group of techniques used to make programming easier. When programmers use these techniques, less time is required, there are fewer errors, and programs are easier to modify. Structured programs rely on the use of subroutines.

What are subroutines? There are times when the computer should perform a specific task several times within a program, or even throughout many program. Rather than rewriting the same instructions every time the task needs to be done, a programmer can write the instructions once, as a subroutine, and the computer is directed to the subroutine whenever necessary. This also has something to do with a loop (in flowcharting), namely a sequence of instructions in a program that can be executed repetitively until an exit criterion is met. One loop cycle is called a pass, and a nested loop is a loop within a loop.

In a program flowchart, there is what is called decision tree. It is a type of program flowchart. The base of the tree is usually at the left, with branches drawn from left to right. The branches represent different outcomes to various decisions. Unlike other flowcharts, the branches are never rejoined.
With regard to programming, the differences between a decision tree and a decision table should be made. The decision tree is a diagram, while the decision table is a chart. Finally the term pseudo code, or simply a pseudo code design refers to a design resembling a correctly coded program. It is a sequence of English sentence that uses only a few words. These key words correspond to the structures found in the program instructions. Many people think pseudo code is easier to write and modify than program flowchart.

A. Answer the following questions based on the text above!
1. How can a programmer write good programs?
2. How important is “structured programming”?
3. What is a Subroutine?
4. What is a decision tree?
5. What is a pseudo code design?
6. What is a decision table?
7. What is represented by the branches?
8. It in “it is a type of program flowchart” refers to …