Unit 4: Listening Activity #2
| BACKGROUND: |
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| Christy majors in information science at Ming Chuan University and is really into computers. She is talking to her friend, Tracy, who is just starting to computers and the Internet. |
| BACKGROUND: |
|---|
| Christy majors in information science at Ming Chuan University and is really into computers. She is talking to her friend, Tracy, who is just starting to computers and the Internet. |
Tracy: So what's the best way to find information on the Internet?
Christy: That depends on what kind of information you're looking for. Usually the best way is to start with a search engine, most of which are on the Web.
Tracy: So you mean something like Yahoo, right?
Christy: Yeah. Yahoo - which is located at www.yahoo.com - is probably the most famous search engine.
Tracy: Don't I have to type in "http://" before that address?
Christy: Well, all World Wide Web addresses do start with "http://", but with many browsers today, you don't actually need to type this in.
Tracy: So what's your favorite search engine?
Christy: Profusion - which is located at www.profusion.com is often best for English language searches. For searches in Chinese, I prefer to use Goyoyo - which is located at www.goyoyo.com.tw/.
Tracy: What about if I am trying to locate somebody's e-mail address? Where's the best place to go to find the e-mail address of somebody?
Christy: There are many search engines which specialize in e-mail addresses. A fairly good one is WhoWhere, which you can find at www.whowhere.com. Another good one is *******, which is at **********.
Tracy: So do you use the Web to study English?
Christy: Sometimes. My favorite place to visit is Dave's ESL Cafe at www.pacificnet.net/~sperling. A good source of learning links is at /www.surrey.ac.uk/ELI/online1.html.
Tracy: Wow! You sound like a real cyber-gal! How did you learn all this?
Christy: Well, I've been net-surfing for about three years. I just remember the places I like, that's all.
Tracy: This summer I'm thinking of going to South Korea with my parents. I'm interested in learning some Korean phrases, just to make the trip easier. Any advice?
Christy: A few days ago I came across one URL that has many foreign language phrases. Just go to Travlang's foreign language page at www.travlang.com/languages/ and you can learn some basic phrases in over 70 foreign languages.
Tracy: Sounds good. Are you half-robot? Your brain almost seems like a computer.
Christy: No, I'm not a nerd - I just like finding out things. Sometimes I think my father is a half-robot: he designs computer hard drives. But I am 100% woman. By the way, the university computers are really slow - especially in the afternoon. I do most of my netsurfing at home. The school's Internet connection will is so slow I will get "time out errors" all the time.
Tracy: Time out errors?
Christy: Yeah - if a web page can't load within 2-3 minutes, usually the computer will say "I'm sorry - time's up!" and stop trying to load that web. It happens a lot when net traffic is high.
Tracy: I see. Just one final question. Where is the best place on the Web to find travel information about other countries? You know, tourist information and information about hotels - that sort of stuff?
Christy: The Lonely Planet offer really good online information about many countries. I don't remember their URL, but if you type in "Lonely Planet" on a search engine, you should get be able to find them.
Tracy: OK. I'll give it a try. Thanks for you information, Christy!
Christy: No problem.
