Vocab Dose

Perils of cyber crime

Case was twenty-four. At twenty-two, he’d been a cowboy rustler, one of the best in the Sprawl. He’d been trained by the best, by McCoy Pauley and Bobby Quine, legends in the biz. He’d operated on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth and proficiency, jacked into a custom cyberspace deck that projected his disembodied consciousness into the consensual hallucination that was the matrix. A thief, he’d worked for other, wealthier thieves, employers who provided the exotic software required to penetrate the bright walls of corporate systems, opening windows into rich fields of data. He’d made the classic mistake, the one he’d sworn he’d never make. He stole from his employers. He kept something for himself and tried to move it through a fence in Amsterdam. He still wasn’t sure how he’d been discovered, not that it mattered now. He’d expected to die, then, but they only smiled. Of course he was welcome, they told him, welcome to the money. And he was going to need it. Because — still smiling — they were going to make sure he never worked again. They damaged his nervous system with a wartime Russian mycotoxin. Strapped to a bed in a Memphis hotel, his talent burning out micron by micron, he hallucinated for thirty hours. The damage was minute, subtle, and utterly effective.

Excerpt from William Gibson’s Neuromancer

MATCH THE WORDS WITH THEIR MEANINGS

1. Rustler – (ruhs-ler) (n)   2. Sprawl – (sprawl) (n)   3. High – (hahy) (adj)   4. Proficiency – (pruh-fish-uh n-see) (n)   5. Jacked – (jakt) (v)   6. Cyberspace – (sahy-ber-speys) (n)   7. Disembodied – (dis-em-bod-eed) (adj)   8. Consensual – (kuh  n-sen-shoo-uh  l)        (adj)   9. Hallucination – (huh-loo-suh-ney-shuh  n)        (n) 10. Exotic – (eg-zot-ik) (adj) 11. Fence – (fens) (n) - A person who deals        in stolen goods 12. Strapped – (strapt) (v) 13. Micron – (mahy-kron) (n) 14. Subtle – (suht-l) (adj)

a.   A high degree of skill; expertise b.   An experience involving the apparent perception of something that is not present c.   The notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs d.   A unit of length equal to one millionth of a metre e.   A person who deals in stolen goods f.   The disorganized and unattractive expansion of an urban or industrial area into the adjoining countryside g.   Not usually encountered; out of the ordinary h.   an energetic or vigorous person i.   so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyse or describe j.   Relating to or involving consent or consensus, something that is agreed upon k.   connected to, usually via wire l.   Feeling euphoric, especially from the effects of drugs or alcohol m.   Held down or fastened with the help of tethers n.   Separated from or existing without the body

Answers

1. h	2. f	3. l	4. a	5. k
6. c	7. n	8. j	9. b	10. g
11. e	12. m	13. d	14. i