节目资讯
刊物:生活知识家
日期:2009-03-14
难易度:High
关键字:deploy, workstation, readily, backup, TECHNOLOGY
(Music).
Hi, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us here at Studio Classroom Worldwide today.
We are on the topic of a revolution.
Now we’re talking about Life in the Clouds.
We’re on day two of this lesson.
It’s a lesson about a new approach to using computers.
Admittedly, this approach is not necessarily brand-new,
but it is still somewhat of a fresh idea,
and it is gaining momentum.
One reason for its growing popularity is convenience.
It’s very convenient.
Let’s quickly look at three key words that will help us in this half of the
lesson.
The first is deploy as in:
The military is going to deploy more soldiers to the troubled region.
The second is workstation.
My workstation is such a mess.
I even spilled coffee on the keyboard!
And finally, the adverb:
readily,
as in:
Sam is such a nice guy.
He always readily agrees to help me when I need it.
OK. Let’s get our magazines open to page twenty-two and follow as we begin the
reading on line one.
Life in the Clouds.
Cloud computing is not an entirely new idea.
Early computers were big and expensive,
so it wasn’t practical to deploy full systems to every user.
Businesses use ”dumb terminals” - simple workstations that had no computing
power of their own.
These terminals communicated with room-sized ”mainframe” computers that did the
heavy lifting.
Modern computers are smaller and cheaper,
and even the lowest-priced laptops are much more powerful than old mainframe
computers.
So with computing power so readily available,
why the shift toward cloud computing?
Cloud computing supporters point to the convenience factor.
Hi, everyone.
I’m Rachel.
And I’m Chip.
And I’m Chelsea.
And thanks for joining us for our second day of talking about cloud computing.
Now before we get going on today’s lesson, Chip, could you remind us what cloud
computing is?
Well,
cloud computing is the... kind of a recent revolution or recent technology or a
way of doing computing by doing it totally over the Internet.
Uh, cloud computing is resources... computing resources that are available
totally over the Internet.
So it really doesn’t matter if you have your laptop with you or not.
If you’re hooked up to the right web browser, you can access your documents or
your photos or your music anywhere in the world.
So you think that this was a new idea, right?
But according to our author, it’s not an entirely new idea.
Now that sounds new to me.
But our author says that this cloud computing concept or idea has been around
from the beginning of computer services.
Let’s talk a little bit about that beginning of computer serverses.
Our article says:
Early computers were big and expensive,
so it wasn’t practical to deploy full systems to every user.
Now that word delpoy is a verb.
Rachel, what does it mean if you deploy something?
Well, I often think of the military when I think of this,
when you deploy troops to another country or send them out to another place.
Here we’re just talking about making something ready to be used.
So uh, I guess what we’re saying here is they’re making these systems, these
computer systems ready for each user to use.
And it wasn’t very practical, right?
I mean I even remember when I started using computers, I never had my own,
because they were so big and bulky and we maybe shared one computer for fifteen
students.
Right.
You could not have a... an early computer in... in your home like you have
computers in your home right now.
They were too big, too expensive.
So what did people do?
Well, businesses use what they call ”dumb terminals” or simple workstations that
had no computer power of their own.
Now I know whenever I go to work, I have a computer sitting at my desk and at my
workstation,
and I’m able to work on it all day.
So that word ”workstation” is one that we need to look at.
Chip, what is a workstation?
Well, a station is a place where things happen.
And so a workstation would be a place where you work.
Um, maybe your workstation could refer to the place, uh, maybe your desk uh, in
your office at work.
Or it could refer to a simple... a small desk with a... a small computer there
where you’re able to access the Internet.
That’s right.
All of us have workstations probably, well, at work and well, even at school we
might have some workstations that we can access.
So the key point here is it wasn’t practical to deploy these systems to every
user,
so the businesses used simple workstations that had no computing power of their
own.
So obviously, things have changed a lot in the last few years.
I can’t imagine going to work and not having my computer.
I use it so often and for so many different things.
But that’s only come about in the recent past.
So these terminals communicated with room-sized mainframe computers that did the
heavy lifting.
So again, we’re just talking about computers and how they used to be.
They were very big, filled the entire rooms.
And we know today we can do cloud computing on a very small laptop.
So what a second! Wait a second!
Did these mainframe central computers lifte things?
Hahaha, Chip.
It almost sounds like it... these computers were lifting things.
Yeah, that would be nice, huh?
But I don’t really think that’s the intention here.
It just sounds like they did a lot of the work.
The heavy work or...
I’m not quite sure actually.
I just know that they were room-sized.
They were big.
And it sounds maybe they were like the control center of the rest of the
computers.
I’m not sure.
I... I never got to experience this.
I’ve always been able to work where I have my own personal computer.
OK.
Maybe the heavy lifting that our author’s talking about is referring to the
complicated computing that sometimes a computer needs to do.
But we know today things are much easier.
Modern computers are smaller and cheaper.
Thank goodness.
And even the lowest-priced laptops are much more powerful than the old mainframe
computers that took up the whole room.
So this is good news for us.
It’s definitely good news.
And I know I have a laptop now finally and I love it.
It’s lightweight.
And it does great work quickly.
So I’m really pleased that we’ve gone in that direction.
So with computing power so readily available,
why the shift toward cloud computing?
Wow.
First we need to go to Grammar on the Go with Liz to look at this sentence
structure.
And then we’ll come back and look at that key word:
readily.
Stay with us.
Hello, friends.
My name is Liz.
And it’s time for Grammar on the Go.
I’m here at this lovely little cafe to do some work on my laptop computer.
It’s a good thing we have cloud computing nowadays.
So convenient.
Speaking of cloud computing, let’s look at today’s grammar tip sentence.
So with computing power so readily available, why the shift toward cloud
computing?
Notice the second half of the sentence:
why the shift...
The structure may seem strange to you.
That’s because it’s a shortened and more direct way of saying:
So with computing power so readily available,
why is there a shift toward cloud computing?
Basically, ”is there” is taken out to condense the sentence.
The shortened way of asking a question is often found in informal and / or
conversational situations.
For example:
You’ve never liked sports, so why the sudden interest in the upcoming ball game?
Or:
She’s always been so calm about everything,
so why this sudden outburst of complaints?
If you’d like to see some more example sentences, you’ll find them in today’s
grammar tip in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That’s it for now.
Time for me to go work on my computer.
Well, this is Liz with Grammar on the Go signing off.
Bye-bye.
Thanks, Liz.
Let’s take a closer look at that word:
readily.
If something is readily available, it’s quickly and easily available at all
times.
So why the shift toward cloud computing, Chip?
Well, it looks like it has something to do with convenience.
Uh, this convenience factor is probably the reason for the shift uh, toward
cloud computing.
We’re gonna take a break now.
And first we’re gonna visit to Chat Room.
Welcome to the Chat Room, everybody.
I’m Brandon and I have Ken here with me today.
Hi, everyone.
Hi, Brandon.
So, what should we chat about today, Brandon?
Well, today’s article mentions the word:
practical.
So I think we should talk about what it means to be practical.
Do you have any thoughts?
Well, does it have something to do with practice?
Actually, yes, it does.
The root of practical is practice.
In this case, practice simply means to do some sort of action.
And as someone as being practical,
then he or she is doing something or thinking of something that is useful.
Many times we want to be practical when it comes to teaching something,
because people want to know how they can use the information they are learning.
So if a person is being practical, then he or she is actually putting what they
have learned into practice?
That’s right, Ken.
They’re actually using what they have learned.
(Chinese).
So what would be the opposite of practical?
Unpractical?
Well, you could say unpractical.
But most Americans would say impractical.
If you talk about impractical learning,
it means that what you’re learning is not very useful and you can’t really put
it into practice.
Oh.
So if something is helpful for you to use in your daily life, then that means
it’s practical.
But if it’s not very helpful, then that’s called impractical.
Yes. That’s right.
Good summary, Ken.
Thanks.
(Chinese).
And now let’s do something practical.
Take a break.
Studio Classroom will be right back.