80. Reading Skills Comprehension: HARRY POTTER BOOK

HARRY POTTER BOOK

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:  

1. This may seem like straight out of a Harry Potter book, but it happens to be true. The three-thousand-year-old publishing medium-paper might soon get obsolete. Or, its use might get severely curtailed, with the arrival of electronic link-a close cousin to the e-paper.

2. The functionality of the whole experiment lies in its simplicity. The new technology not only looks, feels and is portable like the conventional paper, but is also eco-friendly.

3.E-ink, a US-based company is on the fast track of developing e-ink that looks just like grey paint, but inside there are hundreds and thousands of microcapsules, which change their colour from light to dark when exposed to an electronic field.

4. Since these microcapsules float free in an oil-based liquid-the “carrier medium”, they can be printed on just about any flat surface, convex, concave or even cloth material. Currently, e-ink is hawking this technology only to the like of JC penny, which has begun to use its simplified versions for a futuristic promotional campaign. Commercial application is still a bend away. The primitive version of the technology was developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre and was promptly christened Gyricon (from a Greek word standing for rotate + image). This was because the technology involved floating microspheres.

5. The success formula behind this cutting-edge technology lies in the reusable paper that can ‘typeset’ itself through a wireless system, enabling operation of contents throughout the day-almost like a web update.

6. The fundamentals are so simple, it is amazing how it eluded scientists for so long. In a nutshell, it combines the clarity, user-friendliness and affordability of the conventional paper, with the immediacy of the Web and can even be folded and kept in the briefcase for an easy lugging to the office.

7. If one is to replace paper, the electronic alternative should also look like paper. This might please the environmentalists. According to one estimate, an estimate, the average reader consumes nearly 740 pounds of paper every year.

8. Another drawback with the paper industry is the printed words are so static that they can neither be erased nor updated. The new technology creates a dynamic high-resolution display over a thin and flexible medium introducing a new reading style, the e-books and e-paper, that can display volumes of information as easily as turning a page and permanent newspaper surfaces that update themselves daily via wireless broadcast.

9. The commercial advantages include its thinness, low weight and power efficiency (0.1 watts). The system is networkable through wireless and wired systems and is also mobile (if supported by a wireless system). Thus the displays can be controlled from one central location. Need a publisher or a reader ask for anything more?

On the basis of your understanding of the above passage answer each of the questions given below with the help of options that follow:

(a) According to the writer, the paper may soon become obsolete because

(i) the arrival of the electronic paper

(ii) the arrival of the electronic ink

 (iii) the conventional paper is not eco-friendly

(iv) it can be carried everywhere without any difficulty

(b) the first version of this technology was named Gyricon because

 (i) it came from a Greek word

 (ii) it was developed by Xerox Research Centre

 (iii) it consisted of floating microspheres which could rotate and create images

 (iv) none of the above

 (c) the company that has developed this technology is

(i)JC Penny                  (ii) Xerox

 (iii) Gyricon               (iv) E-ink

(d) Because of its composition, it can

(i) change its colour from light to dark at all times

 (ii) float in all oil-based liquids

 (iii) printed on any surface including cloth

 (iv) all of the above

Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(e) How can one update contents using this technology?

(f) Why are environmentalists expected to support this technology?

(g) What is the main difference expected between a conventional newspaper and this one?

 (h) Why has the writer made a reference to Harry Potter?

(i) What does the writer mean by the term ‘commercial advantage’?

 (j) How can these displays be controlled from one central location?

 (k) Find words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following:

(i) selling /vending (para 4)

(ii) opposite of dynamic (para 8)

ANSWERS:-

 (a) (ii);            (b) (iii);

(c) (iv);             (d) (iv)

(e) The reusable paper and e-ink can be updated through wireless systems, similar to web updates.

(f) Because it would replace paper, saving about 740 pounds of paper annually, per person.

(g) Unlike a conventional newspaper, the new technology could update the same page daily and share a larger volume of information.

 (h) It is a book about magic, and this technology also seems magical.

 (i) Commercial advantages are the factors that will make the technology popular as a product to be sold.

( j) The system is mobile and connected through wireless and wired networks, making it easily controlled from one central location.

(k) (i) Hawking;           (ii) Static

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