节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-11-22
难易度:High
关键字:harness, compute, chunk, malaria, background task
Today in our lesson Charity Engine, we're learning about this organization and
what it does to help charities around the world.
Now what about you?
Charity Engine uses computers like yours and the power from computers to do
this.
So how much do you use your computer?
Well, how much power does your computer have?
What can it do?
Maybe you can be a part in helping Charity Engine and helping charities in
various places around the world.
Because what can happen if you can harness all of that extra energy to solve
global problems?
This is a very good thing to do.
Let's continue learning about Charity Engine.
Charity Engine.
The computers.
Charity Engine offers a free app that has the user's computer do research as a
background task.
The program runs automatically, without direction from the user.
Each computer works on a small chunk of a larger project and sends back its
results.
The results are combined to answer the researchers' questions.
The researchers.
Charity Engine mostly uses its computing power for companies doing scientific,
medical or commercial research.
For example, Rosetta@home attempts to help find cures for serious diseases by
discovering the shapes of proteins.
Another project, Einstein@Home, tests scientific theories.
And another helps establishments in Africa such as universities search for ways
to fight the spread of malaria.
Those are some very good things to be researching.
But before we talk about the researchers and their work, let's go back to the
beginning of this section and learn about the computers.
Charity Engine offers a free app that has the user's computer do research as a
background task.
So if you have a background task running, then you don't really need to do
anything with it, right, Gabe?
That's right, because it's just going on in the background.
You're doing your work, the things that you need to do and concentrate on, but
something else is going on with your computer.
That's right.
There's a free app that you can use or download.
And that way, Charity Engine can use some power on your computer to do something
in the background.
What else can you use this word "background" to talk about?
Well, maybe you have some background music.
Maybe you're doing your work and listening to some background music.
That's right.
And we continue reading that the program runs automatically without direction
from the user.
So once you download this, it will continue to run without you doing anything.
It runs automatically.
Well, that sounds easy enough.
It sounds like something that any of us can take part in.
Well, we continue here.
Each computer works on a small chunk of a larger project and sends back its
results.
OK. Well, before we continue learning about the results, let's take a look at
that word from our Word Bank: chunk.
Chunk is a piece or a mass of something.
Maybe you have a chunk of ice in your glass of water.
That's right.
Usually I hear this where talking about food, so a chunk of meat, a chunk of
cheese.
But it can also just mean a large part or a piece of something.
So you could also use it to describe money.
It cost a large chunk of money to fix my car.
That's right.
When you're talking about money, a chunk is a substantial amount. OK.
It makes a difference.
It costs of large chunk of money to fix my expensive car.
Well, the results here, we're learning about the results um, that the computers
can produce.
The results are combined to answer the researchers' questions.
So again, researchers are using your computer or the power from your computer,
and they're getting the results from your computer.
That's right.
And now it is time to learn about the researchers.
Charity Engine mostly uses its computing power for companies doing scientific,
medical or commercial research.
So your computing power can be used to help these companies with their research.
And they all seem like pretty good things to be doing research for, right, Gabe?
Well, yeah.
Scientific... scientific research, um, promoting or advancing science, OK.
What about medical research?
Maybe they're trying to figure out the cures to certain diseases like cancer or
AIDS.
And commercial research! Well, this is good for a lot of people.
That's right.
And we have an example. We read:
For example, Rosetta@home attempts to help find cures for serious diseases by
discovering the shapes of proteins.
And your computer could help with that project.
OK. Well, we see another project here.
Another project, Einstein@Home tests scientific theories.
All right.
So there are many scientific theories out there.
And of course Einstein@Home is going to help to test these theories to see if
they can actually be proven to be true.
That's right.
Well, these names are very interesting.
And Steve and Ken have something they want to share with us about those names in
the Information Cloud.
On occasion, we at the Info Cloud like to look deeper into the origin of English
words because knowing where words come from helps us to remember their meaning
better.
Today let's look at another way words enter the English language - through
people's names.
OK. They're called eponyms, words that come from a person's name, either real or
mythical.
In today's lesson we see the name Einstein.
Now years ago, seeing this name, we would assume it to be a reference to the man
Albert Einstein,
the famous and incredibly intelligent scientist with crazy-looking hair.
And today, not necessarily.
The name Einstein has since become a word to stand for the genius that a certain
person,
or in today's case, a scientific research company possesses.
Right.
If I said Ken's an Einstein, I mean he's super intelligent.
Uh, thanks. But I think "intelligent" will do just fine.
Besides Einstein, there are hundreds of eponyms like braille, diesel, guillotine
and silhouette.
One of my favorites is the word sandwich, named after a British nobleman.
OK. Eponyms are very similar to illusions.
And so like illusions, if an eponym you use is too obscure, no one will
understand your reference.
However, if it's too common, it might be regarded as cliche.
(Chinese).
Thank you, guys.
Well, we're learning about certain projects here.
We read: And another helps establishments in Africa such as universities search
for ways to fight the spread of malaria.
All right.
Of course we're trying to find the cure for diseases like malaria, and we want
to fight the spread of malaria.
Now at the beginning of this sentence, we read another helps establishments.
What we mean here is another project or another organization helps to do this.
That's right.
And the last word of that sentence "malaria" is a word from our Word Bank.
It means it's a kind of disease.
Right, Gabe?
It's a type of illness that is spread by mosquitoes, and it's very serious.
It's true.
Malaria can be found in different parts of the world that are especially humid,
uh, some places in South America, lots of countries in Africa and India and
other places in the world.
You might need to be careful.
If you're traveling to these countries, you might need to get malaria shots.
That's right.
So be careful if you are traveling to those areas.
But you can also contribute the power of your computer to help fight the spread
of malaria.
Well, right now it is time for us to continue learning with Michelle in the
Language Lab.
All right.
(Chinese).
And now, back to our lesson.
We've been learning a lot about Charity Engine today and how they are trying to
help charities and help solve these different problems that researchers are
working on.
Now I wonder, do you know of any organizations that also try to help charities?
Gabe?
Well, organizations that maybe help a couple of different groups of people at
the same time... uh, Studio Classroom.
Another name that we go by is ORTV.
And ORTV does help churches as well as, of course, teach English.
So I think that there are a lot of organizations like this.
Can you think of any?
Well, one that I think of is Kiva.
And it's a microlending website.
We've talked about microlending before.
And they take small loans and give them to people to help them buy things
like... cars or building materials or farm supplies, and you just need a little
bit of money.
OK. Well, I think that there are some other organizations like this who are
trying to help multiple people at the same time.
Thank you for joining us today.
And of course, we have more to learn about Charity Engine right here at Studio
Classroom.
See you then.