UNIT  2 (WB –vocabulary revision))

1/ Match the words in A with the words in B

A                                            B

1 deliver                             a/a solution
2 find                                   b/equipment
3 allocate                            c/a problem
4 install                               d/the costs
5 tackle                                e/stage
6 carry out                          f/resources
7 bump up                         g/a project
8 planning                          h/a plan


2/Put the VERBS and other words(nouns to  adjectives) in brackets into their correct forms:
Managing complexity

On September 14th, the radios in an air-traffic control centre in Palmdale, California
……………………………………………………(shut down, ground) hundreds of flights in southern California and Nevada, and
leading to five mid-air encounters between aircraft ……………………..(not able –adj.) to talk to the
ground controllers. Disaster …………………………………..(avert) because aircraft managed to communicate with
more ……………………………(distance – adj.) back-up facilities. But why did Palmdale´s radios fail?
A glitch in the software ………………………………….(run) the system meant the computers ..………………………………….(have
to, re-boot) every 30 days, and somebody……………………….(forget, do) so. But software ………………………(run) a
mission-critical system should not …………………………………(have to, restart) every month. The culprit: poor
design and no contingency plan.
As software ……………………..(become) more and more……………………………(pervade –adj.)in business and government,
and more complicated, the impact of poor software design ……………………………(be, grow) steadily. A study
earlier this year by the Standish Group, a technology consultancy, ……………………(estimate) that 30% of
all software projects ……………………………………(cancel), nearly half come in over budget, 60%
………………………………….(consider) failures by the organisations that ………………………(initiate) them, and nine out
of ten come in late.
A 2002 study by America´s National Institute of Standards, a government research body,
……………………..(find) that software errors ………………………….(cost) the American economy 59,5 billion dollars
annually. Worldwide, it would be safe ………………………………………..(multiply) this figure by a factor of two.
So who is……………………………(blame) for such negligence?
Delays are common in numerous industries – few large infrastructure projects , for instance,
………………………….(complete) either on time or within budget. But it is peculiar to software that billions
of dollars and other resources ………………………….(can, use) only for nothing ………………………………..(use-adj.) to
result.
At a very basic level, it is the fault of the software engineers who …………………………….(write)the
programs, and of their bosses. Even companies that specialise in software development suffer from
delays and ………………………(be)behind schedule. An obvious example is Microsoft: its „Longhorn“, the
long-heralded successor to its Windows XP operating system, ……………………………………….(schedule) for launch
this year. Longhorn is now not expected before mid-2006, and many of its key
features……………………………………………………..(put off) until 2007.