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UNIT 2
THE WEB
Task 1 Look at the screenshot of a typical web page. How many of the
features (a-k) can you say in English?
a b c d e f g
h
i
j
i
j
Task 2 Read the following text and label the features on the screenshot
with the terms in bold.
A TYPICAL WEB PAGE
At the top of the page is the URL address. URL means Uniform Resource
Locator - the address of a file on the Internet. A typical URL looks like this:
[Link]
In this URL, http:// means Hypertext Transfer Protocol and tells the program to
look for a web page, www means world wide web, [Link] is the domain
name of the server that hosts the website - a company based in the UK; other top-
level domains are .com (commercial site), .edu (education), .org (organization) or .net
(network); radio is the directory path where the web page is located. The parts of the
URL are separated by (dot), / (slash) and: (colon). Some sites begin fpt://, a file
transfer protocol used to copy files from one computer to another.
The toolbar shows all the navigation icons, which let you go back one page or go
forward one page. You can also go to the home page or stop the current transfer
when the circuits are busy.
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Tab buttons let you view different sites at the same time, and the built-in search
box helps you look for information. If the feed button lights up, it means the site
offers RSS feeds, so you can automatically receive updates. When a web page won’t
load, you can refresh the current page, meaning the page reloads (downloads
again). If you want to mark a website address so that you can easily revisit the page
at a later time, you can add it to your favourites (favorites in American English), or
bookmark it. When you want to visit it again you simply click show favourites.
On the web page itself, most sites feature clickable image links and clickable
hypertext links. Together, these are known as hyperlinks and take you to other web
pages when clicked.
Task 3 Study this URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
domain name extension country code
[Link]
protocol Web domain directory path document name
prefix service
Which part of the address tells you:
1. the company is in the UK
2. this is the webpage
3. the type of transmission standard your browser must use to access the data
4. this points to the computer where the webpage is stored
5. this is where the webpage is stored in the computer
6. this is a company
7. this is a Web file
Task 4 Match these approved domain name extensions and their
meanings.
Extension Meaning
1/ .aero a/ cooperatives
2/ .biz b/ gateway or host
3/ .com (.co in UK) c/ military agency
4/ .coop d/ government
5/ .edu (.ac in UK) e/ professionals
6/ .gov f/ aviation industry
7/ .info g/ commercial
8/ .int h/ educational and research
9/ .mil i/ international organization
10/ .net j/ non-profit organization
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11/ .org k/ businesses
12/ .pro l/ general use
Task 5 Read the article quickly and find websites for the following tasks.
1. to search for information on the Web
2. to buy books and DVDs
3. to participate in political campaigns
4. to view and exchange video clips
5. to manage and share personal photos using tabs
6. to buy and sell personal items in online auctions
7. to download music and movies, sometimes illegally
8. to look up the meanings of new terms
9. to make free phone calls or video conferencing
10. to set up a virtual world in which users can pretend to be whomever – or
whatever – they want to be.
TOUR THE COLLECTIVES OF CYBERSPACE
The Internet isn’t just about email or the Web anymore. Increasingly, people
online are taking the power of the Internet back into their own hands. They’re posting
opinions on online journals - weblogs, or blogs; they’re organizing political rallies on
[Link]; they’re trading songs on illegal file-sharing networks; they’re
volunteering articles for the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia; and they’re collaborating
with other programmers around the world. It’s the emergence of the ’Power of Us’.
Thanks to new technologies such as blog software, peer-to-peer network, open-
source software, and wikis, people are getting together to take collective action like
never before.
eBay, for instance, wouldn’t exist without the 61 million active members who list,
sell, and buy millions of items a week. But less obvious is that the whole marketplace
runs on the trust created by eBay’s unique feedback system, by which buyers and
sellers rate each other on how well they carried out their half of each transaction.
Pioneer e-tailer Amazon encourages all kinds of customer participation in the site -
including the ability to sell items alongside its own books, CDs, DVDs and electronic
goods. MySpace and Facebook are the latest phenomena in social networking,
attracting mlllion of unique visitors a month. Many are music fans, who can blog,
email friends, upload photos, and generally socialize. There’s even a 3-D virtual
world entirely built and owned by its residents, called Second Life, where real
companies have opened shops, and pop stars such as U2 have performed concerts.
Some sites are much more specialized; such as the photo-sharing site Flickr.
There, people not only share photos but also take the time to attach tags to their
pictures, which help everyone else find photos of, for example, Florence, Italy.
Another successful example of a site based on user-generated content is YouTube,
which allows users to upload, view and share movie clips and music videos, as well
as amateur videoblogs. Another example of the collective power of the internet is the
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Google search engine. Its mathematical formulas surf the combined judgements of
millions of people whose website link to other sites. When you type Justin
Timberlake into Google’s search box and go to the star’s official website, the site is
listed first because more people are telling you it’s the most relevant Justin
Timberlake site - which it probably is.
Skype on the surface looks like software that lets you make free phone calls over
the Internet - which it does. But the way it works is extremely clever. By using Skype,
you’re automatically contributing some of your PC’s computing power and Internet
connection to route other people’s calls. It’s an extension of the peer-to-peer network
software such as Bit Torrent that allow you to swap songs - at your own risk if those
songs are under copyright. Bit Torrent is a protocol for transferring music, films,
games and podcasts. A podcast is an audio recording posted online. Podcasting
derives from the words iPod and broadcasting. You can find podcasts about almost
any topic - sports, music, politics, etc. They are distributed through RSS (Really
Simple Syndication) feeds which allow you to receive up-to-date information without
having to check the site for updates. Bit Torrent breaks the files into small pieces,
known as chunks, and distributes them among a large number of users; when you
download a torrent, you are also uploading it to another user.
Task 6 Read the article again and match the sentence beginnings (1-5)
with the correct endings (a-e).
1. A weblog, or blog, is an electronic a. web pages on a particular subject.
journal b. for downloading files over the
2. A peer-to-peer system allows Internet.
3. You can use a search engine to find c. users to share files on their
4. Bit Torrent is a peer-to-peer computers.
protocol used d. about fresh, new content on your
5. RSS keeps you constantly informed favorite websites.
e. that displays in chronological order
the postings of one or more people.
Task 7 Finds words in the article with the following features.
1. open source, editable web pages
2. the same as electronic retailer, or online store
3. a blog that includes video
4. a program that allows you to make voice and video calls from a computer
5. an audio broadcast distributed over the Internet
Task 8 Find 03 simple sentences, 03 compound sentences, 03 complex
sentences and 02 mixed sentences in the text above. Underline
the main verbs in these sentences.
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Task 9 Buffering is a way of ensuring that web videos run smoothly.
Refer to the flowchart of video buffering and the words given to fill
in the gaps in this description of buffering.
Internet – buffer – movie – occur – bandwidth – streaming -
downloads – uninterrupted - bottom
The player feeds Streaming is a way of dealing with ………….
audio or video data problems when you download video from the ……
One key to successful …………. is the process of
100101011010 buffering. If you download a movie, the video player
stores part of the ………… in memory while playing
Buffer it. Imagine the buffer as a container filled from the top
as shown in the flowchart. When the container is full,
110111011101 the player sends data on for playback from the ………
Data keeps coming in while a clip plays. The user can
Data goes out to the view the beginning of the movie while the rest of the
player’s decompression clip ………… If connection slowdowns or
and playback routines interruptions ………… , the amount of data in the
buffer decreases but as long as some remains,
playback is …………… Playback continues at a
steady rate until the ……….. is empty.
Task 10 Link each word in column A with a word which it often occurs with
from column B. In some cases, more than one link is possible.
Column A Column B
bulletin board
domain button
file engine
graphical link
mobile map
search message
site name
synchronous page
text phone
web transmission
