World Link Book 2 Video Scripts

Unit 11

City Living

The First Word Processor

Mrs. Morgan: Good. So change the first part and make those corrections and your paper will be great.

Tara: OK. Thanks for all your help. Professor Morgan. I’ll e-mail my paper to you later today.

Mrs. Morgan: You know. Technology is amazing. In high school I used to write my term papers on a typewriter.

Tara: It must have taken a long time to write a paper on a typewriter.

Mrs. Morgan: Well, I was pretty fast, but I made some mistakes. Actually, the typewriters weren’t that bad. Now, as for the first computers... Oh my Gosh!

Tara: What do you mean?

Mrs. Morgan: The first computers were so unreliable. They used to crash all the time. And they were not as affordable or as fast as they are now.

Tara: Mine’s pretty fast, but not as fast as some of the newer, more expensive ones.

Mrs. Morgan: I know! And nowadays, almost everyone has a computer. In those days, nobody had their own computer. We used to use the ones at the university.

Tara: In the computer lab?

Mrs. Morgan: Yeah, that’s all we had. I’ll never forget, one spring, during final exams. Everybody was working on their term papers, and the electricity went out!

Tara: So? No big deal ... laptops have batteries... Mrs. Morgan: Yes, but remember, in those days we didn’t have laptops. If your computer crashed, you lost everything.

Tara: Everything?

Mrs. Morgan: Everything. We used to lose information all the time, but that time it was terrible. Everybody lost their papers that afternoon ... including me.

Tara: What did you do?

Mrs. Morgan: I went back to the good, old-fashioned way.

Tara: You mean typewriters?

Mrs. Morgan: Nope. I used something more affordable, portable, reliable, disposable, something that always worked.

Tara: What was that?

Mrs. Morgan: (holds up pencil and paper) The first word processor.

Global Viewpoints

Technology Today

Reda: I really don’t know a lot about electronics but I think that new phones ... new cell phones with ah... cameras... which have digital cameras are very cool and they’re so easy to use. And you don’t have to think all the time that you forgot the camera... you know? Because you always have it with you and that’s so smart.

Kevin: I like the laptop because it’s very, very thin. It’s maybe less than one inch and it's about four pounds and I can carry it anywhere I want.

Alejandra: My favorite feature of my computer is the Instant Messenger. The reason for this is that it’s very affordable, fun and convenient and allows me to chat with my friends from all over the world.

Denise: I stay in touch with my family in Brazil with like Instant Messenger.

Jackie: I use the computer for chatting online, searching the web and downloading music.

Catherine: I have a lot of friends in New York and Philadelphia and California, so instead of talking on the phone with them, I e-mail them constantly...

Dave: My laptop computer is fun because I can do all sorts of things on it. I can write a paper while I’m on the train on the way home.

Julianna: I use my computer to surf on the Internet, to do my homework, and to work. My computer was expensive, but it is reliable.

Jonathan: I don’t really like my computer because it’s old and not reliable.