Reading for Thinking - Vocabulary Practice
Terms Related to the Internet

Directions: Fill in the blank in each passage by first clicking a phrase in the list on the left and then clicking the blank in the sentence where it belongs. Use the same steps to change the phrase in a sentence. Be aware that each phrase has to be used exactly once.

JavaScript browser database digital divide encryption file sharing filtering software metasearch engines platform-independent search engine

1. During wartime, spies used methods of to make sure that the enemy would not discover their secrets. Nowadays, it?s not just spies who scramble messages, but anyone who wants to send information via computer without having that information viewed by someone else.

2. As the amount of unsolicited e-mails advertising products and services has increased, computer users have rushed to install , which functions like nets that collect unwelcome "spam." Computer programmers have been forced to continually update and improve their anti-spam programs as spammers figure out new ways to slip their messages through the net.

3. Software that is can run on computers with different operating systems, such as a Macintosh or an IBM PC.

4. People who do not have a home computer with Internet access may suffer from being on the wrong side of the . Today, technological literacy has become increasingly important for one?s education, career advancement, and financial success.

5. Before the widespread use of computers, extensive records were organized into thick books or placed in filing cabinets. Now, this information is often stored in a , which is like an electronic filing system. In an online telephone book, for instance, a computer user can look up a phone number by typing in a person?s last name and then viewing the phone numbers matching that last name.

6. Google, the world?s largest and most popular , works by sending programs known as "spiders" into the World Wide Web to look for all of the pages they can find. Crawling through the links from page to page, these spiders summarize what they find in huge databases that can be searched for key terms.

7. In 1999, the Napster online music service promoted by providing computer users with a network for trading song files. By 2001, however, the site was forced to shut down when the Recording Industry Association of America and individual artists accused Napster of facilitating copyright violations.

8. Web pages can be designed to be much more than just static text on a screen. Thanks to , computer users can visit Web pages to complete crossword puzzles, play poker, or make maps.

9. Serving as a computer user?s front door to the Internet, a provides access to billions of Web pages. It also allows users to move from one Web page to another by clicking on "links" to other sites.

10. According to an old saying, "Two heads are better than one." In other words, the more people who participate in generating ideas, the more numerous and more varied those ideas will be. In keeping with this principle, such as Dogpile and MetaCrawler are programs that blend the search results from many different search engines into one list.