The World Wide Web turns 20!

BBC Learning English
6 Minute English
The World Wide Web
NB: This is not a word for word transcript
6 Minute English c bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Rob: Hello, I'm Rob.
Yvonne: I'm Yvonne.
Rob: And this is 6 Minute English! Today we’re celebrating a very special
anniversary - the 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web.
Yvonne: Ah, the World Wide Web. That’s something that's really changed our lives -
and in such a short space of time.
Rob: Hmm - definitely. Well, we’ll talk more about that in a moment - but first I
have a question for you: on average, how long does someone spend surfing the
net each day in the UK? Is it:
a) 7 minutes
b) 27 minutes or
c) 57 minutes
Yvonne: Umm – I'm going to say 27 minutes Rob, because I think people spend much
more time on things like Facebook.
6 Minute English c bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Rob: Hmm – that's true. Well, I’ll give you the right answer at the end of the
programme. But now, let’s find out more about the World Wide Web – or
'www' for short.
Yvonne: www – that’s an acronym! It was on Christmas Day, 20 years ago, that a
breakthrough was made in the development of the internet.
Rob: Yes, a breakthrough or a discovery. The man most associated with this
discovery is Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He’s been nicknamed ‘The Father of the
Web’.
Yvonne: What an amazing thing to invent - but of course, other people were also
involved.
Rob: Yes, of course. Tim Berners-Lee has been quoted as saying: “the remarkable
progress of the Web today has been quite gratifying to me”. 'Gratifying' – that
really means being satisfied - or pleased.
Yvonne: Mm... so he’s really pleased with what has happened to the web – and rightly
so! Rob, can you tell me a bit more about his achievement?
Rob: Well, Sir Tim Berners-Lee worked on the first web page in his spare time. He
was a computer scientist and a computer programmer.
Yvonne: And what did his groundbreaking web page say?
6 Minute English c bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Rob: It was just information about the project that he was working on. The web
page had a very catchy address: nxoc01.cern.ch!
Yvonne: Ha ha! Yeah, really catchy!
Rob: C.E.R.N spells CERN, and that’s the European Organisation for Nuclear
Research, which is where he worked. But the page didn't actually go online
until August 1991.
Yvonne: But this really heralded the start of people communicating by computer?
Rob: Yes. It really showed how computers could talk to each other using a language
called Hyper Text Mark up Language.
Yvonne: Ah - that’s HTML for short!
Rob: Very good!
Yvonne: So, HTML is the language that computers use to talk to each other – to
communicate with each other.
Rob: It’s very clever isn’t it?
Yvonne: Hmmm.
Rob: And since then the internet has evolved at a rapid rate. Now, there are believed
to be around one trillion web pages.
6 Minute English c bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Yvonne: Whew! And I’m sure almost everyone uses the internet now – but I wonder
how we'd cope without it?
Rob: Well, we've been asking people just that. Listen to what they said when we
asked: how would you cope without the World Wide Web?
Insert:
Man:
I'd just have to do without it, wouldn't I? If you remember all the scare stories of the
millennium that, you know, all the power stations would shut down and all that – it
didn't happen. As long as my central heating wasn't controlled by the internet, I'd just
have to manage.
Woman:
Probably not very well. Umm - I imagine that most of my social relationships would be a
lot more difficult. And also keeping in contact with people far away would also be
impossible.
Man:
Err – with great difficulty (laughs)! It would be the phone, I imagine, and lots more
writing, lots more paper. Umm – we'd need bigger file cabinets.
Rob: So the first man would cope without the internet, as long as the computers
which help provide power for his central heating – that's the system he uses to
keep warm – isn't affected! He says he'd just have to 'do without it'.
Yvonne: The woman was most worried about her social relationships – keeping in
contact with her friends and family.
Rob: Yes, especially those who are far away. In fact, she thinks keeping in contact
with them would be impossible without the internet. But the last man we heard
6 Minute English c bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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from doesn't agree. Although he says he would cope with great difficulty, he
does have some alternatives – ideas about what we could do instead.
Yvonne: And he has a good point I think, Rob. We could write to each other - like we
used to before we had the internet. It would be lovely to get more hand-written
letters from friends and family rather than just e-mails, I think.
Rob: That's what we call 'snail-mail'. But of course, as that man pointed out, lots
more paper would mean that we'd need bigger file cabinets – the pieces of
furniture that are used to keep all those bits of paper safe.
Yvonne: It’s incredible how the World Wide Web has expanded in twenty years, and
how much we now rely on it. I wonder what it will be like after another twenty
years.
Rob: Well, Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said: “we have only scratched the surface of
what could be realised with deeper scientific investigation into the Web’s
design, operation and impact on society”.
Yvonne: It’s true. We've only just begun to understand how useful the World Wide Web
can really be, especially for people in developing countries.
Rob: So this technological breakthrough, twenty years ago, is something worth
celebrating! Now, Yvonne, earlier I asked you a question. On average, how
long does someone spend surfing the net each day in the UK?
6 Minute English c bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Yvonne: And I said 27 minutes.
Rob: And you were wrong.
Yvonne: Oh no!
Rob: The average time people spend on the internet each day is a lot longer than that.
It's 57 minutes.
Yvonne: Oh - and without Sir Tim and his colleagues’ work, it wouldn’t be possible at
all.
Rob: That’s right. Well, we do hope you’ve enjoyed today’s 6 Minute English.
Both: Bye bye.
6 Minute English c bbclearningenglish.com 2010
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Vocabulary and definitions
anniversary a date that is remembered each year because something
special happened
surfing searching, looking at, browsing information on the internet
a breakthrough an important discovery, development or achievement
gratifying satisfying, pleasing
heralded signalled something that was going to arrive or happen in
the future
scare stories news that frightens many people unnecessarily, all or parts
of which may not be true
social relationships connections with family and friends
file cabinets (filing cabinets) furniture that is used to keep documents or papers safe;
usually found in offices
More on this story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/berners_lee_tim.shtml
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2010/12/101223_6min_www_page.shtml