1. Give Russian equivalents of the words distinghisted in the text.
2. Read the text and state the main idea.
3. Write the logical plan of the text.
4. Express the main idea of the text in Russian (in English).
Text 5
The Age of Automation
1. "Automation" has been, and still is, a greatly misused word, but its proper meaning, and therefore its implications, is gradually becoming better understood. Well, automation is a concept through which a machine system is operating with maximum efficiency by means of adequate measurements, observation, and control of its behaviour. It involves a detailed and continuous knowledge of the functioning of the system, so that the best corrective action can be applied immediately they become necessary. Automation in this true sense is brought about only through exploitation of its three main elements communication, computation, and control-"the three Cs".
2. Provided with the assistance of a computer the managers are free to concentrate on making policy decisions and on changing the decision of the computer if trey feel the operation does not really make the best sense. Without automation, the manager would have to spend his time making a series of decisions on the basis of very limited information and a great deal of experience. The computeraided manager is in a completely different position. Before he gets it, and even before he needs it, the information is processed, all action which can be decided by the machine already taken, giving him the important facts in a clear-cut form, so that he may sometimes be faced with one, two or three basic choices. He still has to make his selection of these choices, but he knows what the choices are, and he knows the consequences of his choices in advance, because the computer allows hit to test then. Before he makes his final decision, he will probably ask the computer a question: "If I decide to do this instead of that, what will the consequence be?" And be may then find, from the answer the computer gives him, that he has to refer the problem to his superior for a final decision.
3. Mention should be made that automation does not in the least replace human decisions on important problems. It makes sure that the people who have to make these decisions have adequate pre-digested information to work on. It is not a question of machines replacing men: it is largely a question of extending men's abilities by machines so that in fact they become better, more competent men. If you want to see across the ocean, you must use radar. You cannot see across the ocean with a telescope: you have to use the most adequate tools for your purpose; the further you want to see, the most complex your tools have to be. In the same way, if you want someone thousands of miles away to hear you, you do not use a megaphone; you have to use telecommunications.