Recent Developments in IT
Ability: can, could, be able to
| Study these ways to describe ability: 1. Swarming robots can work together to perform searches. 2. Washing machines will be able to report any breakdowns for repair. 3. Imagine being able to send music files to your MP3 player without a wire connection. 4. Professor Warwick had a chip fitted into his arm which could activate sensors in doors and computers as he approached. 5. Marconi was able to send a radio signal from Britain to Newfoundland. We use can and be able to to describe ability in the present but can is more common. We use could for general abilities in the past but was/were able to describe an ability on a specific occasion. This table summarises their uses: | Ability
For past negatives and questions both verbs are possible. For example:
Early computers could not/were not able to operate at high speeds. Could they/were they able to store much data? |
Exercise 1. Match items in columns A, B and C in order to make true sentences.
| A | B | C | |
| The programme Easy Recovery | will be able to can being able to could has been able to | keep an eye on the children with the help of the Screenfridge in the kitchen. | |
| AIMP MMC PRO | |||
| Wireless computer | appear in 2050. | ||
| Imagine | communicate with the Internet. | ||
| A washing machine of Ariston | |||
| restore 5 files without registration. | |||
| The first electronic digital computer built in 1945 | |||
| convert your music to MP3. | |||
| Microsoft | be the only producer of OS. | ||
| to represent the new version of Windows (Vista) in 2007. | |||
| to use a water cooling to cool a 5 GHz processor. | |||
| use so much electricity that lights in the nearby town. |
Exercise 2. Read the following texts and describe the ability of different things given in these texts.
1. Thomas of Colmar (A.K.A. Charles Xavier Thomas) created the first successful mechanical calculator. The range of abilities of this calculator consisted of adding, subtraction, multiplication and division. A lot of improved desktop calculators by many inventors followed, so that by about 1890, the range of improvements included:
Accumulation of partial results
Storage and automatic reentry of past results (A memory function)
Printing of the results
Each of these required manual installation. These improvements were mainly made for commercial users, and not for the needs of science.
2. The 19th Conference on Human Factors in Computing, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery, drew nearly 3000 people. All came ready to talk about ways to help people make better use of what Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called the most important machine in history.
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Already, $ 25000-and-up software from Troba Inc. of San Francisco lets Web sites determine, by analyzing patterns of movement among pages, whether online visitors are angry or confused. The refinement of Troba customers sites, mostly online relatives, is a reality now.
Microsoft will devote $ 4billion to research and development of input from handwriting, the human voice, and sensors that use body language and facial expression to infer the users intent.
Exercise 3. Put the words in the right order to make correct sentences.
your/use/to/DVD/you/Nero Express/or/can/disks/CD/clear.
3D/operate/the/could/with/first/graphics/videocards?
or/person/to/as/or/imagine/take/her/we/able/him/take/with/every/being/watches/Tablet PC/mobile phones.
to/we/DVD/will/use/read/soon/be/which/disks/able/players?
was/with/able/to/a/years/not/PDA/multimedia/few/operate/ago.
Exercise 4. Each sentence has a mistake. Find it and correct it.
In 1942-43 in England the electronic device Coloss was created by Alan Turing. This device could to decode radiogram messages of fascist Germany. (specific action)
Computers will be able to be human assistants in intellectual activity.
Imagine have been able to do our homework within one second with the help of a computer.
PC is already been able to give a simple voice command, but a computer cant fully interact with a person.
In future we being able to find ourselves in any place we like by the use of a computer.
The Englishman Charles Babbage designed the project of Analytical device (1830 - 1846). The device can do arithmetical operations, store information, control the operations, input and output something.
The Future of IT
