《高中英语 Unit3 单元背景知识学习学案 牛津版选修11》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《高中英语 Unit3 单元背景知识学习学案 牛津版选修11（7页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、Part I Background InformationI. More information about Sir Clive SinclairSir Clive Sinclair (born in July 30, 1940) is a well-known British entrepreneur and inventor of the worlds first slim-line electronic pocket calculator in 1972 and the ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum computers in the late 1970s and
2、early 1980s, amongst many other things.The ZX80 was the UKs first mass market home computer to be sold for under 100. Sinclair was fascinated by electronics and miniaturization from his teenage years. In 1961 he started his own company, Sinclair Radionics Ltd, after spending several years as assista
3、nt editor for Practical Wireless and Instrument Practice to raise funds.In recent years Sinclair has become a keen poker player and appeared in the first three seasons of the Late Night Poker TV series. He won the first season final of the Celebrity Poker Club spin-off, defeating Keith AllenHis most
4、 recent invention is the A-bike, an ingenious folding bicycle for commuters that weighs only 5.5 kilograms (12 pounds) and folds to a very small size for easy carrying on a train or bus. Early life, family and education. Sinclairs father and grandfather were engineers; both had been apprentices at V
5、ickers the shipbuilders. His grandfather George Sinclair was an innovative naval architect who got the paravane, a mine sweeping device, to work. George Sinclairs son Bill Sinclair attempted to break the family tradition of engineering by expressing a preference for going into the church - or perhap
6、s becoming a journalist. His father suggested he train as an engineer first; Bill became a mechanical engineer and has been in the field ever since. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939 he was running his own machine tools business in London and later worked for the Ministry of Supply. Clive Sinc
7、lair was born in 1940 near Richmond. He and his mother left London to stay with an aunt for safety in Devon, where they eventually travelled to Teignmouth. A telegram arrived shortly after bringing the news that their home in Richmond had been bombed. Clives father, Bill Sinclair, found a house in B
8、racknell in Berkshire. Sinclairs brother Ian was born in 1943 and his sister Fiona in 1947.Clive enjoyed the freedom of the holidays and had interests in swimming and boating. At an early age he designed a submarine, possibly being influenced by his grandfather George. During the holidays he could p
9、ursue his own ideas and teach himself what he wanted to know. Sinclair had little interest in sports and found himself out of place with others at school. He preferred the company of adults, this type of companionship he only got from his family.Sinclair attended Box Grove preparatory school. At sch
10、ool, he excelled in mathematics. By the time Clive was ten, his father Bill Sinclair had financial problems. He had branched out from machine tools and planned to import miniature tractors from the US; however, he eventually had to give up the business. Because of his fathers financial problems, Sin
11、clair had to move school several times. Sinclair took his O-levels at Highgate School in London in 1955 and S-levels in physics, and pure applied maths at St. Georges College, Weybridge.During his early years, Sinclair earned money mowing lawns and washing up, and earned 6d (old pence) more than per
12、manent staff in the cafe. Later he went for holiday jobs at electronic companies. At Solatron he started to enquire his mentors about the possibility of electrically propelled personal vehicles. Sinclair applied for a holiday job at Mullard and took along one of his circuit designs; he was rejected
13、for the theoretical precociousness. While still at school he wrote the first article for Practical Wireless. Sinclair did not want to go to university when he left school just before his 18th birthday. By this time, he knew that he wanted to sell miniature electronic kits by mail order to the hobbyi
14、st market.Career Advertisement for the Sinclair Micrometric radio.Sinclairs Micro Kit was formalized in an exercise book dated 19 June 1958 three weeks before the start of his A-levels. In the book, Sinclair drew a radio circuit, Model Mark I, with a components list, cost/set 9:11d (49p) + colored w
15、ire & solder nuts & bolts + celluloid chassis (drilled) = 9/- (45p). Also in the book are the advertisement rates for Radio Constructor (9d (3p)/word, minimum 6/- (30p) and Practical Wireless (5/6 (27p) per line or part line).Sinclair estimated to produce at the rate of 1,000 a month, orders placed
16、with the companies supplying the components for 10,000 of each to be delivered at a call off rate of 1,000 per month. Sinclair wrote a book for Bernards Publishing, Practical transistor receivers Book 1, appeared in January 1959. It was re-printed late that year, and nine times subsequently. His practical stereo handbook was first published in June 1959; and reprinted seven times over a period of 14 years. The last book Sinclair wrote as an em
