Page 166 - DENG401_Advance Communication Skills

Unit 8: Comprehension

Notes
I felt myself dwarfed standing next to the majestic Emperor Asoka. Asoka led two lives,
one as a ruthless conqueror and the other as a compassionate ruler. The man I stood beside
was the one who had just returned from conquest. But victory had been obtained at heavy
cost: the battle of Kalinga claimed the lives of at least 300,000 people and an equal number
were wounded. I saw everyone looking at Asoka who fell on his knees and removed his
armour and crown. His face was pale, reflecting the death surrounding him. He looked at
the sky.
(From the book ‘Ignited Minds’ by APJ Abdul Kalam)

Questions
1. Who are the five people whom the writer accepts as the symbol of the finest attributes?
2. How does the writer feel standing next to Emperor Asoka?

I wrote my first software program when I was thirteen years old. It was for playing tic-tac-
toe. The computer I used was huge and cumbersome and slow and absolutely compelling.
Cutting a bunch of teenagers loose on a computer was the idea of the Mothers’ Club at
Lakeside School in Seattle. The mothers decided that the proceeds from a big rummage
sale should go to installing a terminal and buying computer time for the students. Letting
students at a computer was a pretty progressive idea in the late 1960s—and a decision I’ll
always be grateful for.
The computer terminal didn’t have a screen. To play, we typed in our moves on a typewriter-
style keyboard and then sat around until the results came chug-chugging out of a loud
printing device. We’d rush over to take a look and see who’d won or decide on a next
move. A game of tic-tac-toe that would take thirty seconds with a pencil and paper might
eat up most of a lunch period. But who cared? There was just something neat about the
machine.
I realized later that part of the appeal must have been that here was an enormous, expensive,
grown-up machine and we, the kids, could control it. We were too young to drive or do
any of the other things adults could have fun at, but we could give this big machine orders
and it would always obey.

Computers are great because when you’re working with them you get immediate results:
You know right away whether your program works. It’s feedback you don’t get from
many other kinds of activity. The feedback from simple programs is particularly
unambiguous. To this day it thrills me to know that if I can get the program right it will
always work perfectly, every time, just the way I told it to. Experiencing this thrill was the
beginning of my fascination with software.
(From the book ‘The Road Ahead ’by Bill Gates with Nathan Myhrvold and Peter Rinearson)

Questions
1. At the age did the writer his first software programme? What was it meant for?
2. Describe how the writer used to play with the computer in those days?

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