TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Bettina Bair: Inside your computer

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Do you reebmmer when you first rzeleaid that your computer was more than just a monitor and keyboard? That between the mouse click and the veido pnyilag, there was something that captured your intention, understood it, and made it real? What is that something? Is it gremlins? Let's imagine that we can srinhk down to the size of an electron and inject ourselves into a click of a mouse. If you took your mouse apart, you'd see that it's really a very spimle machine. It has a couple buttons and a system for detecting motion and distance. You might have an oticpal mouse that makes these mrmestaeeuns with lights and sensors, but oedlr ones did this with a hard rubber ball and some plastic wheels. Same cpcoent. When you click the button on your mouse, it sends a massgee to the computer with information about its position. When your mouse click is received, it's handled by the basic input/output subsystem. This stesysubm acts like the eyes and ears and mouth and hands of the computer. Basically, it provides a way for the computer to interact with its environment. But it also acts like a buffer to keep the CPU from being ohwemreevld by distractions. In this case, the I/O subsystem decides that your musoe click is pretty important so it generates an interrupt to the CPU. "Hey, CPU! Got a click here." The CPU, or central processing unit, is the brains of the whole cotemupr. Just like your brain doesn't take up your whole body, the CPU doesn't take up the whole computer, but it runs the show all the same. And the CPU's job, its whole job, is fetching instructions from memory and executing them. So, while you're typing, typing, typing, maybe really fast, like 60 words a minute, the CPU is fenhticg and executing billions of instructions a second. Yes, billions every second: instructions to move your mouse around on the screen, to run that ccolk wedigt on your desktop, play your internet radio, maagne the files you're editing on the hard drive, and much, much more. Your computer's CPU is one heck of a multitasker! "But oh my gosh there's a very itamprnot mouse click coming through now! Let's drop everything now and deal with that!" There are programs for everything that the CPU does. A special program for the mouse, for the clock widget, for the internet radio, and for danileg with letters sent by the keyboard. Each program was initially written by a human in a human-readable pimmrrngoag language, like Java, C++, or Python. But human programs take up a lot of space and contain a lot of unnecessary information to a computer, so they are compiled and made smaller and stored in bits of ones and zeros in memory. The CPU riezaels that it needs instructions for how to deal with this mouse click, so it looks up the address for the mouse program and sends a reqseut to the memory subsystem for instructions stored there. Each instruction in the mouse dvciee driver is duly fcteehd and executed. And that's not nearly the end of the story! Because the CPU lranes that the mouse was clicked when the cursor was over a picture of a button on the monitor screen, and so, the CPU asks memory for the monitor program to find out what that bouttn is. And then the CPU has to ask mreomy for the program for the button, which means that the CPU needs the monitor pgorram again to show the video associated with the button, and so it goes. And let's just say there are a lot of programs involved before you even see the button on the screen light up when you clicked it. So, just the simple task of clicking your mouse means visiting all of the critical components of your computer's architecture: peripherals, the biasc input-output system, the CPU, programs, and memory, and not one gremlin.

Open Cloze

Do you ________ when you first ________ that your computer was more than just a monitor and keyboard? That between the mouse click and the _____ _______, there was something that captured your intention, understood it, and made it real? What is that something? Is it gremlins? Let's imagine that we can ______ down to the size of an electron and inject ourselves into a click of a mouse. If you took your mouse apart, you'd see that it's really a very ______ machine. It has a couple buttons and a system for detecting motion and distance. You might have an _______ mouse that makes these ____________ with lights and sensors, but _____ ones did this with a hard rubber ball and some plastic wheels. Same _______. When you click the button on your mouse, it sends a _______ to the computer with information about its position. When your mouse click is received, it's handled by the basic input/output subsystem. This _________ acts like the eyes and ears and mouth and hands of the computer. Basically, it provides a way for the computer to interact with its environment. But it also acts like a buffer to keep the CPU from being ___________ by distractions. In this case, the I/O subsystem decides that your _____ click is pretty important so it generates an interrupt to the CPU. "Hey, CPU! Got a click here." The CPU, or central processing unit, is the brains of the whole ________. Just like your brain doesn't take up your whole body, the CPU doesn't take up the whole computer, but it runs the show all the same. And the CPU's job, its whole job, is fetching instructions from memory and executing them. So, while you're typing, typing, typing, maybe really fast, like 60 words a minute, the CPU is ________ and executing billions of instructions a second. Yes, billions every second: instructions to move your mouse around on the screen, to run that _____ ______ on your desktop, play your internet radio, ______ the files you're editing on the hard drive, and much, much more. Your computer's CPU is one heck of a multitasker! "But oh my gosh there's a very _________ mouse click coming through now! Let's drop everything now and deal with that!" There are programs for everything that the CPU does. A special program for the mouse, for the clock widget, for the internet radio, and for _______ with letters sent by the keyboard. Each program was initially written by a human in a human-readable ___________ language, like Java, C++, or Python. But human programs take up a lot of space and contain a lot of unnecessary information to a computer, so they are compiled and made smaller and stored in bits of ones and zeros in memory. The CPU ________ that it needs instructions for how to deal with this mouse click, so it looks up the address for the mouse program and sends a _______ to the memory subsystem for instructions stored there. Each instruction in the mouse ______ driver is duly _______ and executed. And that's not nearly the end of the story! Because the CPU ______ that the mouse was clicked when the cursor was over a picture of a button on the monitor screen, and so, the CPU asks memory for the monitor program to find out what that ______ is. And then the CPU has to ask ______ for the program for the button, which means that the CPU needs the monitor _______ again to show the video associated with the button, and so it goes. And let's just say there are a lot of programs involved before you even see the button on the screen light up when you clicked it. So, just the simple task of clicking your mouse means visiting all of the critical components of your computer's architecture: peripherals, the _____ input-output system, the CPU, programs, and memory, and not one gremlin.

Solution

dealing
fetching
optical
measurements
button
playing
overwhelmed
realized
subsystem
important
basic
message
manage
mouse
learns
remember
realizes
memory
device
concept
fetched
shrink
simple
video
computer
program
older
request
clock
programming
widget

Original Text

Do you remember when you first realized that your computer was more than just a monitor and keyboard? That between the mouse click and the video playing, there was something that captured your intention, understood it, and made it real? What is that something? Is it gremlins? Let's imagine that we can shrink down to the size of an electron and inject ourselves into a click of a mouse. If you took your mouse apart, you'd see that it's really a very simple machine. It has a couple buttons and a system for detecting motion and distance. You might have an optical mouse that makes these measurements with lights and sensors, but older ones did this with a hard rubber ball and some plastic wheels. Same concept. When you click the button on your mouse, it sends a message to the computer with information about its position. When your mouse click is received, it's handled by the basic input/output subsystem. This subsystem acts like the eyes and ears and mouth and hands of the computer. Basically, it provides a way for the computer to interact with its environment. But it also acts like a buffer to keep the CPU from being overwhelmed by distractions. In this case, the I/O subsystem decides that your mouse click is pretty important so it generates an interrupt to the CPU. "Hey, CPU! Got a click here." The CPU, or central processing unit, is the brains of the whole computer. Just like your brain doesn't take up your whole body, the CPU doesn't take up the whole computer, but it runs the show all the same. And the CPU's job, its whole job, is fetching instructions from memory and executing them. So, while you're typing, typing, typing, maybe really fast, like 60 words a minute, the CPU is fetching and executing billions of instructions a second. Yes, billions every second: instructions to move your mouse around on the screen, to run that clock widget on your desktop, play your internet radio, manage the files you're editing on the hard drive, and much, much more. Your computer's CPU is one heck of a multitasker! "But oh my gosh there's a very important mouse click coming through now! Let's drop everything now and deal with that!" There are programs for everything that the CPU does. A special program for the mouse, for the clock widget, for the internet radio, and for dealing with letters sent by the keyboard. Each program was initially written by a human in a human-readable programming language, like Java, C++, or Python. But human programs take up a lot of space and contain a lot of unnecessary information to a computer, so they are compiled and made smaller and stored in bits of ones and zeros in memory. The CPU realizes that it needs instructions for how to deal with this mouse click, so it looks up the address for the mouse program and sends a request to the memory subsystem for instructions stored there. Each instruction in the mouse device driver is duly fetched and executed. And that's not nearly the end of the story! Because the CPU learns that the mouse was clicked when the cursor was over a picture of a button on the monitor screen, and so, the CPU asks memory for the monitor program to find out what that button is. And then the CPU has to ask memory for the program for the button, which means that the CPU needs the monitor program again to show the video associated with the button, and so it goes. And let's just say there are a lot of programs involved before you even see the button on the screen light up when you clicked it. So, just the simple task of clicking your mouse means visiting all of the critical components of your computer's architecture: peripherals, the basic input-output system, the CPU, programs, and memory, and not one gremlin.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
mouse click	4
monitor program	2

Important Words

acts
address
asks
ball
basic
basically
billions
bits
body
brain
brains
buffer
button
buttons
captured
case
central
click
clicked
clicking
clock
coming
compiled
components
computer
concept
couple
cpu
critical
cursor
deal
dealing
decides
desktop
detecting
device
distance
distractions
drive
driver
drop
duly
ears
editing
electron
environment
executed
executing
eyes
fast
fetched
fetching
files
find
generates
gosh
gremlin
gremlins
handled
hands
hard
heck
human
imagine
important
information
initially
inject
instruction
instructions
intention
interact
internet
interrupt
involved
java
job
keyboard
language
learns
letters
light
lights
lot
machine
manage
means
measurements
memory
message
minute
monitor
motion
mouse
mouth
move
older
optical
overwhelmed
peripherals
picture
plastic
play
playing
position
pretty
processing
program
programming
programs
python
radio
real
realized
realizes
received
remember
request
rubber
run
runs
screen
sends
sensors
show
shrink
simple
size
smaller
space
special
stored
subsystem
system
task
typing
understood
unit
unnecessary
video
visiting
wheels
widget
words
written
zeros