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Computer Virus

Date: Feb 19 2001

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Last week a terrible computer virus spread through the Internet. It traveled through an email about Snow White, a popular American fairy tale. Listen to what happened when the email came to Tanis!

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Zach

Tanis

Zach: What’s going on with your computer?

Tanis: I must be the worst computer person. Yesterday I get this cute little email saying – “Snow White!” so I tried to open it but it wouldn’t open. So I just deleted it and um, it turns out that’s a real bad virus that I think I’ve infected everyone with.

Zach: You sent out a virus to the whole office?

Tanis: I didn’t mean to! I didn’t send it to anyone, but it turns out it’s sending.

Zach: No, I’m just kidding. It’s not your fault.

Tanis: It is my fault!

Zach: No, no, no. Those things happen. Anytime you’re using a computer you’re always at risk for those things to happen.

Tanis: Well, let me just illustrate my stupidity, OK? I was sitting in John’s office, talking to him about something and he said, “What’s this? Snow White?” and I said, “Oh yeah, I tried to open that!” and then he said, “Well, Tanis, do you know what this extension is?” and I said, “No…” and he said, “Well, that could be a virus.” So John’s all smart and good with the computer and knew just to delete it right away, but I got real nervous and snuck back in here and deleted it. Anyways, I fear that I may have infected us all and I’m so sorry.

Lesson MP3

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Discussion

Well, Tanis learned a good lesson about nasty computer viruses. Sometimes these things appear in our email, and it’s hard to know that it might be dangerous. Our recommendation is that you never open an attached file unless you know who it came from and it’s a common file type (jpeg, mpeg, doc, etc.) Be careful out there! Did you get the Snow White virus? Have you ever gotten any other kind of virus on your computer? Tell us about it at the Life Goes On message board! See you next week!—John