READING COMPREHENSION WORKSHOP 1.How a magneto-optical system works Complete with the number of the proper sentence/phrase.

Magneto-optical (MO) disks are erasable and transportable. They can hold large amounts of information, (______) such as image and graphics storage, archiving, text storage and system back-up. They usually come in two formats: 5.25 optical disks (______) a cartridge and have an approximate capacity of 600 MB; 3.5 floptical disks (______) have a storage capacity of 128 MB. Both formats work the same way, (______). The disk surface is sensitive to both light and magnetic fields. A laser beam at high-power heats the coating (______) the magnetic field along the disks tracks and write` data. (______), the tracks are cool and can be read` from by a weaker laser beam. A magneto-optical system combines the technology and advantages of (______) and laserbased CD-ROM and WORM drives. The laser used with MO drives allows data to be recorded (______) of megabytes of information are contained on a single disk. As with magnetic drives, you can write, alter and delete your own data, avoiding the read only` limitation of CD-ROMs and the write once` limitation of WORMs. Erasable optical disks are not affected by magnetic fields-unless the laser is on to heat the disk surface. This means that they are secure and stable. For example, they can be transported through airport metal detectors without the data on them being damaged. They only have two disadvantages: the drives are (______) they are slower than hard disks. As technology advances, the speed will probable increase (______) of optical disk may become the ideal medium for back-up and portable mass storage. (Infotech. English for computer users, 1997, p.114) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. both conventional magnetic drives both requiring a magneto-optical drive so closely that hundreds so that a magnetic write head can change still expensive, and to hard disk levels of performance and this type which are enclosed in a case similar to which are the same size as a diskette and

9. 10.

which makes them ideal for memory-hungry applications When the intense laser is not active

Fill in the blanks with a word from the chart. ALLOW AVOID FEATURE METHOD WAY ENERGY AS ALONG DISTANCES SIGNAL

BASIS THROUGH 2.Optic fibre amplifiers

Fill in the blanks with a word from the chart. To [______________] the effects of attenuation in the fibre, we must introduce repeaters at intervals to amplify the signals. This involves a light detector to convert the signal from light to an electrical signal. The electrical [_____________] is then amplified and used to power another light source for the next section of fibre. Much development is continuing on an alternative [_____________].Optic fibre amplifiers [_____________] a signal to be amplified without converting it to an electrical signal first, a direct light in-light out repeater. The heart of the matter is a length of very special fluoride based fibre. It is constructed in the same [_____________] as the standard silica fibre but it has the [_____________] of being able to transfer light energy between two different signals which are travelling in the same direction in the fibre. We use a light source called a pump to inject energy into the fluoride fibre. The pump light and the weak incoming signal pass [_____________] the fibre and as it does so, energy is passed from the pump light into the molecules of the fibre and from there into the signal to be amplified. The wavelength of the pump is critical and [_____________] on the design of the amplifying fibre in use. As the light energy travels [_____________] the fibre, the pump light becomes weaker [_____________] the energy is absorbed by the fibre and the incoming signal is amplified by absorbing [_____________] from the fibre. A length of about 20 meters can provide an amplification of up to +30 dB (x 1000) giving the possibility of using repeaters at [_____________] of well over 100 km.