Vocabulary practice Section 3

1. Complete the gaps choosing the right option.

1. Input-output devices allow the computer to ………. with its external environment.

a) compute; b) command; c) communicate.

2. An I/O interface is a special ………. that converts input data to the internal codes.

a) register; b) processor; c) plotter.

3. I / О ……… match the physical and electrical charac­teristics of input-output devices.

a) interchanges; b) interfaces; c) interpretations.

4. Letter-quality, dot-matrix and ink-jet printers are all ……… printers.

a) line; b) page; c) character.

5. Input-output units link the computer to its external ………

a) requirement; b) development; c) environment.

6. I / О devices can be classified according to their speed, visual displays being ……… devices.

a) high-speed; b)medium-speed; c) low-speed.

2. Look at these extracts from people talking about printing jobs. Which type of printer is each person talking about?

1. “Can you order some more toner for the printer on the third floor?”

2. “The plans for the new office building are almost ready. Shall I print a copy for the meeting?”

3. “We’re almost out of bar codes. Simon, can you print some more?”

4. “I couldn’t believe it – I was in the middle of printing my report and I ran out of ink!”

5. “As soon as the client approves this version, you need to print a high-quality colour copy for them to check.”

6. “Andrew, can you print off another set of address labels for me?”

3. Complete these sentences with words from the Key Information Section.

1. The differences in ……. are noticeable: the more dots per inch, the clearer the image.

2. A resolution of between 600 and 2400 ……. ensured that even text as small as 2 pt was legible.

3. Passengers with an electronic ticket will need a …….. of ticket confirmation or a boarding pass to be admitted to secured gate areas.

4. The key advance of recent years is printing speed: the latest generation of ink-jets prints black-and-white text at 15 …….(…..).

5. With appropriate software, you can view the images on a computer, manipulate them, or send them to a ……. and produce excellent quality colour copies.

6. A ……. is a dedicated computer that connects a printer to a network. It enables users to share printing resources.

7. A ……. is a utility that organizes and arranges any documents waiting to be printed.

8. In computers, a ……. is a program installed to control a particular type of printer.

4. Choose the most appropriate type of printer for these situations.

1. a home user who wants to print text documents and family photographs. 2. businessmen who need to print in large quantities at high quality in an office. 3. engineers who want to make detailed line drawings. 4. professional typesetters in desktop publishing (e.g. to publish magazines). 5. a company that wants to print carbon copies of bills and receipts.

5. Identify these types of printers.

1. The resolution depends on the number of pins (9, 24 or 48)
2. The quality (resolution) of the images ranges from 300 to 1,200 dots per inch (dpi)
3. Provides high quality output - a resolution of 600/2,400 (dpi)
4. Provides the highest resolution - more than 3,000 dpi
5. Provides high quality for linework (like lines and curves)

6. Find the terms which correspond to these definitions.

1. a container that holds the ink in an ink-jet printer.

2. powdered ink used in laser printers.

3. small needles that press on the inked ribbon to make the characters on paper.

4. technology that produces text and pictures by hammering pins against a ribbon and the paper.

5. a language that tells a printer how to print a document.

6. a peripheral combining a printer, a fax machine, a photocopier and a scanner into one device.

7. Read the advertisements for printers below, and then answer the questions. Look at the advertisements again and compare the printers. Talk about their: speed, memory, fonts, emulations, resolution, service, price, noise.

	CRYSTAL LASER PRINTER II 14 pages per minute. 20 MB RAM. Two 200 sheet selectable input trays. LCD display. 80 internal scalable fonts. A resolution of 2,400 dpi. Comes with PostScript language and PCL (printer control language). Telephone hotline support. ₤999		MICRO LASER XT Personal laser printer. 5 pages per minute. 4 MB RAM expandable to 64 MB. Parallel interface. 200 sheet input tray. 35 resident fonts. One-year on-site maintenance. Prints on a wide range of materials and sizes. ₤649

		COLOUR POSTSCRIPT PRINTER Colour printer. 40 Adobe Postscript fonts. 36 MB RAM with a SCSI Interface for an optional 20 MB hard disk. Parallel, serial and AppleTalk interfaces. HP plotter emulation. Thermal printing system. 30-day money-back guarantee and 1 year's on-site parts and labour. ₤2249
	COLOUR INK-JET Stunning Plug & Play colour printer. Brilliant photo quality (up to 720 dpi) and fast-drying ink. Produces 8 pages per minute in plain text and 4 ppm in colour. 150 page paper tray. Fast, friendly service. ₤210

	STYLUS DOT-MATRIX PRINTER Dot-matrix printer with 24 pins. Prints text and graphics. 450 cps. Compatible special interface. Free unlimited hotline support for our customers. One year on-site maintenance. ₤179		TURBO LASER WRITER QR Workgroup laser printer. 15 pages per minute. 1,200 dpi for graphics. 36 MB of RAM. Includes Adobe Postscript and Hewlett Packard PCL printer languages. 75 resident fonts. Connectivity: one bi-directional parallel port, one LocalTalk port, and one Ethernet port for networks. 12 month warranty. ₤1150