Unit 8b Book

1. Introduction

Unit 8b deals with the topic of cyber security, which is a huge issue these days as the amount of newly generated data increases every year together with the enormous pace of technological development. Both these factors make online information extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks, which can be dangerous both for companies and the general public. Unit 8b uses the context of a security incident occurring in a company to cover the grammar point of indirect questions and hyphenated adjective phrases.

Contents

• Incident report; product brochure; questioning

• Grammar: direct questions: When was the phone stolen?

• Grammar: indirect questions: I need to know when the phone was stolen.

• Related noun phrases: I need to know the time of the theft.

• Hyphenated adjectives: a fast-growing city; high-speed trains.

2. Listening

Unit 8b deals with computer security and cybercrime. As you can see in the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9hApKU1ZoQ, cybercrime is not just a threat, but it has unfortunately become great business as well. As you watch the video, complete this listening comprehension task.

3. The Case of the Lost Mobile Phone

As you can see on p. 60 in your book (Bonamy, D. (2013). Technical English Level 4 Coursebook. Pearson Longman.), a company-issued mobile phone has been lost. Situations like this might be dangerous for companies especially if SD cards contain sensitive data that can be misused by their competitors. Therefore, it is not surprising that the company´s security director needs to take some measures immediately after the incident. In order to do that, he needs some data from the company´s security administrator. In this task, you can see some direct and indirect questions the company´s security director asks. Complete all of them and when doing so, notice the differences between direct and indirect questions. After that, read about direct and indirect questions in this grammar overview. Then put the words in these direct and indirect questions in the correct order: Direct question A - Associated indirect question A - Direct question B - Associated indirect question B. If you think you need to practise direct questions further in order to revise some basics, complete these three exercises: A, B, C.

4. Vocabulary and Hyphenated Expressions

Now read the text on p. 61 in your book. As you read, answer the questions in this task. Then, using the same context, match the synonyms in this task. After that, focus on the hyphenated expressions in the same text. Match them to their explanations here. Then read more about hyphenated adjectives in this grammar overview. Finally, see how hyphenated adjectives are used in these collocations.

5. Forum 1: Hyphenated Technical Terms

As in all technical fields, there must surely be some hyphenated technical terms in your field. Use this forum to write at least three of them (but, of course, you can write as many of them as possible). Don´t forget to explain what they mean. Let´s see which of you will be able to come up with the highest number of these phrases. In addition to writing at least three hyphenated technical terms + their explanations, your task is also to check hyphenated technical terms submitted by your fellow students. Every time you find a mistake in someone´s hyphenated phrase, do not hesitate to respond and correct this mistake.

6. IT and Cyber Security

As stated in the introduction, this unit deals with a crucial topic because IT cyber security is an important issue for both companies and the general public. But who in fact are hackers? First, read about them in this reading comprehension task. Then express your opinions in this forum. 

7. Word List

The key terms related to the topic of Unit 8b can be found:

• in the Excel format here.

• in the interactive flash card format here. This format is particularly good for drilling the new vocabulary.

• in a zip file here. This file is downloadable, so that after unpacking it, you can drill the new vocabulary on your desktop, laptop or any other portable device where you have a browser installed. Important: after unzipping the zip file, make sure to keep all the related files in the same directory at all times. Do not change any file names and do not transfer or delete anything.

Recommendation: Remember that the best way to learn new vocabulary is to see each new word in a context; that is, step by step as you complete all the tasks in the unit.

8. A printer-friendly version of Unit 8b

A printer-friendly version of Unit 8b exercises and the key to these exercises can be found here.