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Listen&Learn: History of the Internet

Posted by: Jaksyn Peacock
Learn the origins of the world’s largest information source

Pre-listening vocabulary

  • military: the armed forces of a country
  • potential: possible, anticipated
  • fund: to provide money for a project
  • store: to keep something in a specific place
  • engineer: someone who builds machines
  • programmer: someone who writes computer code
  • accessible: easy to use

Listening activity

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Gapfill exercise

The internet began as a military tool. During the Cold War, the United States government wanted to protect important from potential attacks. They decided to create a system that could information around instead of storing it in one place. Government-funded engineers built this network, called the ARPANET, in 1969. The ARPANET used telephone lines to connect computers at across the country. Despite the original goal, the ARPANET was mostly used for communication between researchers, and universities from other countries began to join the network in the mid-1970s. In 1991, an English programmer named Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, which information into “webpages” that were easy to find and read. This invention made the internet much more accessible to the .

Comprehension questions

See answers below

  1. The internet began as a tool for
    a. university researchers
    b. the US military
    c. media outlets
  2. The original goal of the ARPANET was to
    a. protect information by storing it across multiple places
    b. connect universities around the world
    c. allow the public to find information for free
  3. In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee invented
    a. Wi-Fi networks
    b. the World Wide Web
    c. email

Discussion/essay questions

  1. How has the world changed since the invention of the internet? Do you think the internet has had a generally positive or negative effect on the world? Why?

Transcript

The internet began as a military tool. During the Cold War, the United States government wanted to protect important information from potential attacks. They decided to create a system that could move information around instead of storing it in one place. Government-funded engineers built this network, called the ARPANET, in 1969. The ARPANET used telephone lines to connect computers at universities across the country. Despite the original goal, the ARPANET was mostly used for communication between researchers, and universities from other countries began to join the network in the mid-1970s. In 1991, an English programmer named Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web, which organized information into “webpages” that were easy to find and read. This invention made the internet much more accessible to the public.

Answers to comprehension questions

1b 2a 3b

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Written and recorded by Jaksyn Peacock for EnglishClub
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