Fundamentals of Computers and Information Technology: A Guide to Hardware, Software, and Internet Use

There are several different types of computers. A desktop computer is often used in homes, offices, and internet cafes. Laptop or notebook computers are good for traveling. Tablets have a touch screen so they are even smaller and lighter than laptops. And a cell phone with computer capabilities is called a smartphone. Let's review the parts of a computer. All computers have a screen. This is the part of the computer that displays the information. Desktop and laptop computers have a keyboard. Each unit of a keyboard is called a key. English has a specific verb for using the keyboard to write on a computer: type. For example, I can type 100 words per minute. The mouse is a small round object that can be used to move the cursor. That's the little arrow on the screen. Desktop computers often have cables to connect the various parts of the computer. Laptops don't have a mouse. Instead, they have an area you touch called a touchpad. Tablets and smartphones have a touch screen because you put your finger directly on the screen to control the computer.

Inside the computer, your data is kept in files. You can put your files into folders to keep them organized. Sometimes if you need to send a big file or multiple files to someone, you can compress the files into a zipped folder. The person who receives a zipped folder needs to unzip or extract it to see the files inside it. Computers have hardware and software. The word hardware means the physical elements of the computer, such as the keyboard, mouse, hard drive, and CD drive. The word software refers to the programs on the computer, which are also sometimes called applications. Software has features. Features are abilities of the program to do something. For example, this program has an audio editing feature, but not a video editing feature. Often, software also has bugs, errors in the program. Software developers fix the bugs by creating a new version of the program. When you change to a more advanced version of a program, this is called updating or upgrading.

One of the most commonly used programs is Microsoft Word. So let's look at a few features in Word. You can make your text bold, italicized, or underlined. You can also organize it into a bullet point list. Finally, you can change the font. That's the style of the text. Another common program is Microsoft Excel. Excel documents are called spreadsheets. Each spreadsheet has horizontal rows and vertical columns. You can use Excel to add, subtract, multiply, or divide numbers. There are also many more complicated calculations you can do in Excel.

Let's learn about the internet. There are a number of different expressions used for accessing the internet. You can access the internet, connect to the internet, get online, go online, or surf the web. This last expression is informal and is usually used for personal or fun internet use, not work-related internet use. You can connect to the internet through this equipment, which is called an ethernet cable. Or if you don't use a cable, you can connect through wireless internet, usually called Wi-Fi. The program you use to access the internet is called a browser. Some common browsers are Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome. After opening the browser, you type in the URL, the address of the website you want to visit. The internet contains many different types of sites such as blogs, search engines, and social networks. An increasing number of people and companies are also using cloud-based computing. That means programs and services that are delivered through a network or through the internet. Instead of keeping the data on your computer, the data is kept on the internet, which is known as in the cloud, so that you can access it from any computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Finally, when a website, network, or internet service isn't working, we say it is down. For example, I haven't been able to check my email yet today. The internet in the office has been down all morning. Speaking of email, here are a few words that are frequently used with email. After you receive an email, you can reply to the email. That means right back to the original person who sent you the message. You can forward the email. That means send the message to a third person. Or you can delete the email. That means putting it in the digital trash can because you don't need to keep it. When you send an email, you can also add an attachment. That means including a file like a word document or Excel spreadsheet with your message.

Now let's look at some computer problems. If a computer has a very serious problem that makes it stop working, we say the computer crashed. A computer crash is a big disaster and it often results in losing data. A less serious problem is when the computer freezes or locks up. This is when the screen stops and you can't type or move the mouse. This can usually be fixed by restarting or rebooting the computer. There are several things that can cause computers to crash or freeze. One of them is a computer virus, a bad program designed to damage your computer. There's also spyware, programs designed to secretly gather information from your computer. To protect against viruses and spyware, many companies use a firewall. That's a program that protects the entire company network from suspicious programs. Another security measure is installing anti-virus software on your computer. Finally, it's important to back up your data. This means to make a copy of your data and keep it in a safe place. This way, if your computer ever crashes or gets infected by a virus, you can recover your information from the backup.

The above content was collected by Xiao Wu from Qicai website regarding English listening practice for business courses, meetings, negotiations, and phone calls. I hope you have gained something from it!