Контрольная работа по Английскому языку

Today when we consider design we no longer think just about attractive things but about their attractive use, their meaning. And meaning is alive: it moves and changes with the times.
In the eighties design developed into the mere aesthetics of appearance. Objects were like computer graphics. They consisted solely of infinitesimally thin surfaces. These objects boasted with their owners.
Now a new quality of substance has come on the scene: virtuality. Things used to be simpler. Substance was material. To take an example, a brief history of the modern era can be gleaned from looking at the design of knobs on equipment. In the sixties pressing a knob on a radio set meant exerting physical force against mechanical resistance. For the first time something like a feeling of tenderness for machines appeared in the form of smooth, scalable knobs. In the eighties control knobs became sentimental replicas of real knobs. They were flat, tiny and soft. Now, in the nineties, we mainly operate virtual knobs, like the buttons beneath the glass skin of computer screens.