Poem – Car Breakers

Poem – Car Breakers 

There’s a graveyard in our street,

But it’s not for putting people in;

The bodies they bury here

Are made of steel and paint and tin.

The people come and leave their wrecks

For crunching in the giant jaws

Of a great hungry car – machine,

That lives on bonnets, wheels and doors

When I pass by the yard at night,

I sometimes think I hear a sound

Of ghostly horns that moan and whine,

Upon that metal – graveyard mound.

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Story – Cream of Thurber

Story – Cream of Thurber

Read this story which is adapted from Cream of Thurber

Mr. Munroe was not good with machines, or even with his hands. He could not do things: for example one of his major problems was to get the water to the right temperature for him to have a bath. He would fill the tub with cold water and then pour the hot water. The water was always too cold then. He tried putting in the hot water first, and then adding the cold water. The water was too hot then.

He tried mixing the two in a small bucket and then transferring the water to the big bath tub. The result was worse. He often burnt himself. He spent so long over the process that there was never enough water for him to have a proper bath.

So, when Mr. and Mrs. Munroe went on a holiday and booked in at a hotel in the country Mr. Munroe was looking forward to a proper bath. The hotel had double rooms with attached baths, but this was very expensive. After discussing with the Manager, Mrs. Munroe was glad; they had booked a room, which has two baths to every five rooms. One was already occupied.

Their room was lovely. It was the middle one. Mr. Munroe was glad; he thought the sound of everyone else bathing would keep him up. They thought they would have early dinner and have a proper rest. Mr. Munroe would take his bath first, Mrs. Munroe could follow later.

So he went in ready for a bath, laden with bathrobe, soap, shampoo etc, to the bathroom. Mrs. Munroe settled down to read in bed, and soon fell asleep.

Meanwhile Mr. Munroe was having difficulties. He had thought of trying out the taps. He tried the handle, it was just a trickle, then he turned it a wee bit more. Then the water gushed out. It was cold. Mr. Munroe was both angry and somewhat frightened. He kept muttering and turning the handle. The water would gush out, stop, and gush out. It was very cold.

He was standing in about a foot of water now and the water was draining into the next bath, and filling in that floor too. The man in the adjoining shower shouted to him to turn the handle farther to the right. Munroe shot it all the way to the right. The handle came off. Instantly a stream of boiling water poured down from the shower. The cold water gushed down. The water was coming almost up to his knees now.

The man from the adjoining shower shouted. Munroe could not understand what he said. In a little while, the hotel manager came with a workman and returned a very wet Mr. Munroe to Mrs. Munroe. “Did you enjoy the bath dear?” she inquired, hardly opening her eyes.

By now the hotel had run out of water. The boiler had to be repaired.   

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The Computer

The Computer

Uma was interested learning about the spell checker from the moment she heard it from Upul. So she read a book entitled “The changing world” this is the first chapter of that book. Let’s see what she read.

  

A computer has several essential components. It is a machine with a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse and a central processing unit (CPU) or systems unit; this is what is referred to as a computer.

The monitor is like the screen on television which displays all visuals. It is also called the Visual Display Unit (VDU).

The keyboard is quite similar to an electronic typewriter with additional keys for new functions. It is the main device through which the operator enters the data.

It has four main types of keys: data keys used to enter letters, numbers and punctuation marks, shift keys to produce capital letters, control keys to help move the cursor (pointer on the computer screen). Function keys are used to issue common commands.

The mouse got its name when its long tail – like cord was connected to the CPU. It does the services of a pointer called the ‘cursor’. The mouse is divided into two segments: the left and right.

A mere press called the ‘click’ on any of its segments would mean a simple message or a serious command depending on the type of operation. Often the mouse rests on a pad.

The Central Processing Unit or the Systems Unit is the heart of the computer. It does the major part of the instruction fed by the operator and stores the document for future reference, thus action as a store house. These four parts are interdependent and therefore we get the term ‘computer system’. A system is the mechanism of working according to a set order.

The above four main component of a computer appear in various shapes and sizes. The future of computers is hard to predict. Computer of the future will be smaller, faster, and more powerful. They may be found in every room in your house. They may be the size of a wristwatch.

Whatever the future holds, one thing is for sure: computer technology will continue to charge our lives.

Did you know that the first computer was the man? In the good old days, people who would calculate problems in Mathematics were called computers, because the word, mean to count or figure out.

Computers follow instructions from humans. They can solve only the problems that people tell them to solve.

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