---

1.- Reading.

Read the text aloud and translate it orally. Pay attention to the pronunciation of words.


A PC has three main components: the tower, which has most of the hardware; the keyboard, which usually has 102 keys; and the monitor (modern computers have a flat screen instead). Most PCs also have a mouse, for graphic interfaces.

Laptops have a touchpad instead of a mouse, and their keyboards do not have so many keys, because they have to be smaller, so they have no numeric pad.

The tower has a lot of connectors and slots for the most common devices: a hard disk drive, which can have enough capacity for many hours of video recordings; a DVD drive, graphic and sound cards, printer, scanner, and all kinds of USB devices... Many modern computers even have a camera.

The tower also has some connectors for external microphones and headphones or loudspeakers, and it usually has between 2 and 4 USB connectors.

A mouse can have two or three buttons, and most of them also have a scroll wheel. Wireless keyboards and mice do not have a cable.

2.- Vocabulary homework. Read the text and make a glossary (a list in alphabetical order) of all the words, with their meaning in Spanish. Make four lists: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other words.

3.- Language work.

The most common verb in this text is HAVE.



MEANING The most common meaning of HAVE is "tener", in the sense of "own" (="poseer") or in other senses: Tener (in the sense of "own"): I have a laptop computer. Tener (other senses different from "own"): A keyboard has a lot of keys. You can have a serious accident without an antivirus program. But it can also have other meanings: Tomar (food, drink, medicine): I usually have coffee for breakfast. Have a drink! Darse (a shower or a bath): I usually have a shower in the morning. When it is followed by TO and another verb, it means "tener que": We have to fix a bug in the program. When it is an auxiliary verb, it means "haber": I have finished. = He terminado.

FORM HAVE has two forms: The 3rd person singular is HAS (= tiene) The other form is HAVE (= tienes, tenemos, tenéis, tienen) When HAVE means "tener" or "tener que", it can have a long form (have / has) or a short form ('ve got / 's got): I have a problem. / I've got two questions for you. He has to study the problem. / He's got to find a solution. HAVE has two negative forms: as a main verb, and as an auxiliary: I don't have that information. I haven't got that information. For the interrogative form we put HAVE in front of the subject, and GOT after it, or we use DO (without GOT): Have you got a screwdriver? Do you have a screwdriver? The gerund of HAVE is HAVING: Having a virus in your computer is very dangerous.

USE HAVE is, together with BE, one of the most important and useful verbs in English, and we have to use it very often. We can use it for many different things: - To talk about our possessions: I have a wireless mouse. - To talk about our relatives: You have a younger sister, haven't you? - To talk about our obligations: He has to revise all these documents. - To talk about things that we need to do: I have to buy a new DVD drive. - To talk about what we eat: I often have a glass of wine with my dinner. - To ask for things: Have you got a pencil? Have you got a cheaper mouse, please? Could I have your phone number, please? HAVE is also used as the auxiliary verb in all the compound tenses, such as the present perfect: «Have you inserted the sound card?» and the past perfect: «I installed an antivirus because I had already had a virus infection». Notice: in the last example, the first "had" is the auxiliary in the simple past (= había); the second one is the main verb in the past participle (= tenido).

4.- Grammar practice a) Write these sentences in negative form. b) Write these sentences in interrogative form. c) Revise the list of wh- words if necessary. d) Ask questions about the underlined information.

5.- Grammar homework a) Write 6 affirmative sentences using HAVE / HAS (three with each). Example: He's got a good modem. / He has a good modem. b) Then write them in negative and interrogative form. Example: He hasn't got a good modem. / He doesn't have a good modem. Has he got a good modem? / Does he have a good modem?

6.- Grammar homework a) Choose 6 wh-words from the list below. Write 3 questions using them and HAVE, and another 3 questions with HAS. b) Then answer the questions, and underline the information they refer to. Example: How many mice have you got? I've got three. WH- words: who, what, which, where, when, why, whose, how, how old, how much, how many, how often

7.- Language work: that / which.

We use WHICH (=que) to join two sentences after a comma:


The CPU, which is the main component of a computer, is very delicate.


We can use THAT (=que) or WHICH (in more formal English) to join two sentences when there is no comma:


The CPU that you have is too slow.
The memory card which you choose is important.


We can omit THAT or WHICH when there is no comma if there is a subject after it:


The CPU you have is too slow.


But we can't omit WHICH after a comma, or when THAT or WHICH is the subject of the sentence (when the verb comes immediately after it):


The CPU that doesn't work correctly is this one.

8.- Vocabulary homework. Write 3 examples with WHICH (after a comma) and 3 with THAT.

9.- Language work: more / most.

Apart from using these words for comparative and superlative adjectives, they are used for other things:

You should work more. = Deberíais trabajar más.
You should study more (than you do now). = Deberíais estudiar más (de lo que estudiáis ahora).
We need more bandwidth. = Necesitamos más ancho de banda.
More and more computers access the Internet. = Cada vez más ordenadores acceden a Internet.

Most computers have a DVD-ROM. = La mayoría de los ordenadores tienen un lector de DVD.
Most of us can use a computer. = La mayoría de nosotros sabe usar un ordenador.
Most of the software I use is freeware. = La mayor parte del software que uso es freeware.
Your computer is most probably infected with spyware. = Lo más probable es que tu ordenador esté infectado por spyware. / Tu ordenador está muy probablemente infectado por spyware.

10.- Vocabulary homework. Write 3 examples with MORE and 3 with MOST where they are not next to an adjective.

11.- Writing homework. Write a similar text to the one in activity 1 describing the hardware of your computer.