Reading practice section. Internet: voice recognition takes off

Internet: Voice recognition takes off

You don't need a sophisticated cell phone to surf the Internet when you're on the road - just your own voice. That's the idea behind a new breed of voice service that is popping up all over the place.

Subscribers (1) …… a toll-free phone number and use spoken (2) ……. to listen to anything from weather conditions to stock quotes, or flight information to news stories. Half a dozen of these services - such as Audiopoint, BeVocal, TellMe and TelSurf Networks - have already gone live or are testing their systems.

These launches are all happening because two crucial technologies have come of age. (3) ……. software from companies such as Lucent, Nuance and Speechworks can now understand a wide range of accents and diction without having to be trained to a specific voice. And computer languages such as VoiceXML make it as easy to write voice services as (4) ……. has made it to write web pages. With (5) ……., the human voice becomes a substitute for a computer mouse and the spoken command for a click. It doesn't, however, call up conventional web pages, but content which is specially composed for a telephone: sound clips, numbers, music, spoken texts.

7. Look at the groups of words and decide what part of speech each word is. Then complete the sentences with the correct word.

compile compiler compilation

1. Programs written in a high-level language require ……., or translation into machine code.

2. A ……. generates several low-level instructions for each source language statement.

3. Programmers usually ……. their programs to create an object program and diagnose possible errors.

program programmers programming programmable

4. Most computer ……. make a plan of the program before they write it. This plan is called a flowchart.

5. A computer ……. is a set of instructions that tells the computer what to do.

6. Converting an algorithm into a sequence of instructions in a programming language is called …

bug debug debugger debugging

7. New programs need ……. to make them work properly.

8. Any error or malfunction of a computer program is known as a …….

9. The best compilers usually include an integrated ……. which detects syntax errors.

8. In the word debug the prefix de- is used. This prefix means 'to reverse an action'. Here are a few more examples.

defrost debrief declassify decode decompose decentralize

Write down the base form of each verb. What do the verbs mean in your language? And what do the verbs with de- mean?

Can you think of any more verbs with de- in English?

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