节目资讯
刊物:生活知识家
日期:2009-03-13
难易度:High
关键字:scramble, abbreviate, dabble, ultimate, TECHNOLOGY
(Music).
Welcome back from the break, everyone.
We are talking about a revolution.
It’s a computing revolution.
There’s a computer revolution going on,
and it’s happening in the clouds.
Welcome to the convenience of cloud computing.
Some of you have already started computing in the clouds and may not even be
aware of it.
Are you one of them?
Let’s find out.
But first here are two key words you need to know.
The first is dabble as in:
She first dabbled in politics when she ran for the local school board.
The second word is ultimate.
The ultimate purpose for our or of our meeting rather was to decide whether or
not to cut back on staff.
OK.
This portion of the reading begins on the top of the right-hand column.
Please follow along in your magazines as we read.
Life in the Clouds.
Generally speaking, cloud computing refers to computer services that are
delivered entirely over the Internet.
If you’ve ever used a web-based e-mail account like Yahoo or G-mail, you’ve
already dabbled in cloud-based computing.
The ultimate goal of cloud computing is to provide all computer services over
the Internet.
Word processing, photo editing, calendars, music storage - everything is managed
through a web browser.
Software is a service, not a physical product,
and the computer is little more than an access point,
so any computer will do the job.
Welcome back.
We’ve been talking about an example or a story of how cloud computing might be
helpful to you.
And now our author is going to give us small definition of what cloud computing
is.
And he says that generally speaking, cloud computing refers to computer services
that are delivered entirely over the Internet.
So again, it means you can go anywhere you want and your documents and your
services are... accessible anywhere on any computer.
It’s all through the Internet.
And it says that a lot of us have dabbled in cloud computing maybe without even
realizing it.
Yes.
Our text says that if you’ve ever used a web-based e-mail account like Yahoo or
G-mail,
then you’re one of those people who has already dabbled in cloud-based
computing.
So that word dabbled is a verb.
And Rachel, could you tell us what it means to dabble in something?
Well, when I think of dabble, I think of kind of playing around with something.
Maybe you’re not always serious with it, but you’re interested in it.
So you... you play around or you work with it.
Uh, you’re not a professional though.
Right. You might double around with it.
You might do it just a little bit to see if you like it.
I actually have dabbled around with biking a little bit.
Riding a bicycle on trails.
Just to see if I liked it.
Have you dabbled it all with Yahoo or G-mail?
Personally I haven’t, so I haven’t dabbled too much in cloud-based computing.
Well, actually I have more than dabbled in G-mail and Yahoo.
I have a G-mail account and a Yahoo account.
And as do I.
I have a G-mail account and I use it very often.
And I have started to play around a little bit beyond the e-mail part into
saving documents to G-mail on this cloud computing.
And it is very helpful.
That’s good to know.
I think I’m interested now in... in trying this and knowing that I could save
my...
my information on the Internet as opposed to using a flash drive or something
that can be easily lost.
Sure.
Less to lose or you know, the... the risk of having something gets stolen would
be lessened.
And you don’t have to carry around with you as much as you normally would if
you’re in cloud computing,
because that information is with you everywhere you go.
That’s right.
And it did tell us earlier that cloud computing provides convenience.
It makes it much easier.
Now let’s take a look at our text again.
It says:
The ultimate goal of cloud computing is to provide all computer services over
the Internet.
So the ultimate goal.
What does that mean?
The ultimate goal.
Well, I think it... means like the final goal or the top goal.
We... Usually we use the word ultimate to describe the furthest for the highest
of something.
So if you have an alternate goal, that is where you want to be, your final goal.
And this goal is to provide all computer services over the Internet.
So sounds like they can’t do everything yet,
but someday soon I’m sure it will be able to do just about anything through this
cloud computing.
Well, it sounds like you can do word processing, like have a word processor.
You can do photo editing, uh, calendars, music storage.
We can already do so much, uh, all of that on the Internet without having that
software saved on your computer.
And that makes it so easy.
I know personally, I really enjoy doing photo editing and things that are
creative like that.
And now that I know that I can do it all just right there on the Internet.
It saves so much space on my computer and frees it up so I can do other things
on my computer.
It is pretty interesting.
And it’s all managed through a web browser.
So you’re pretty... you’re probably pretty familiar with web browsers.
Uh, the one that always comes to mind when I’m thinking of browsers is Google.
Of course, there’s also like MSN and Yahoo and uh, Firefox, all kinds of
browsers that people use.
But it’s nice to know you can do a lot of these different functions over the
Internet.
I guess the one question is you have to make sure you uh, have a computer -
right? - available,
because maybe if you travel, you might go to a place and it might be hard to
find a computer.
So you do need to find a computer with good Internet access.
Right.
That would be difficult.
If you’re going to an area where you don’t have good quality Internet access,
then cloud computing might have more problems than convenience.
Exactly.
It might be easier just to take your flash drive just in case you can’t get
online.
Well, we see here again in our text that software is a service in cloud
computing, not a physical product.
That’s what makes it so unique.
Yes. It’s not something that you have to go out and buy.
They don’t sell cloud computing at the store.
You just go to your computer and you may be go to a site like G-mail or Yahoo.
And it’s already part of that web browser.
You don’t have to buy anything.
It’s free.
Right, because software is a service that your computer does.
Your computer can simply be an access point to get to that server which... er...
that service which is on the Internet.
And that word ”access point” uh, might be a helpful one for us to define.
Yeah. I think it just means it’s very accessible.
We’ve talked about this word before.
It means you can get to it easily.
So the computer is an access point.
That’s what you use to get your information, the information that you have saved
on that web browser.
It’s a place where you can access that information.
Yes.
And the last line of our text there just points out again that any computer will
do the job.
So if you already have a computer and some Internet access, you’re in luck.
You can do cloud computing.
Let’s take a look at the Chat Room right now.
And we’ll be back tomorrow to share more with you.
Hello, everyone.
And welcome to the Chat Room.
I’m Brandon.
And I’m Ken.
So Brandon, how are you doing today?
I’m doing OK, generally speaking.
Hmm, generally speaking.
I notice that this phrase is also used in our article today.
That’s right, Ken.
It is.
And it’s quite useful.
So what do you mean that you’re doing OK, generally speaking?
Well, I mean that most things in my life are going OK,
but maybe some things are not OK.
The term ”general” means for the most part or all together.
So what’s the opposite of generally?
If you’re not speaking generally, then you are speaking specifically.
If I say that in general, I am doing OK, but there are some specific things in
my life that are not going very well,
then that means that I had a few small problems in my life.
Here specific is talking about individual details.
(Chinese).
So can this be used in other ways?
Yes. You can speak in general about any topic.
This means that you give the important points about that topic or the overall
view of that topic.
Or you can talk about the specific points of a topic.
In this case, you would be talking about all the small details of a topic.
So there are times when someone will ask for your general thoughts about
something,
and other times when they will ask you for specific thoughts?
You got it, Ken.
OK. Let’s now go to Michelle to learn the specific details about today’s
Language Tips.
(Chinese).
And don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more Language Tips.
See you then.
Bye-bye.
Thank you, Michelle.
Friends, have you ever dabbled in cloud computing?
That’s one of our Talk About It questions.
Take a look at some of the other questions on page twenty-one and choose one to
start a short dialogue with your classmate or friend.
We have much more to discuss about the cloud computing revolution.
So everyone, please join us tomorrow for day two of Life in the Clouds.
Until then, we hope you have a fantastic day.
Goodbye, everyone.
See you then.
(Music).