Hi Liran. There's a wealth of information on aircraft carriers on the Web. Type something like "aircraft carrier history" or "aircraft carrier development" in any search engine.

Basically a carrier is a large ship with a flat top. This is the runway & also used for storage of aircraft so it gets a tad crowded. Many early carriers were converted battleships or merchantmen.

The arrester cables are a series of strong cables that can be raised across the runway near the stern for the tailhook on the aircaft to catch when landing. The cables are actually wound round a reel or drum which acts as a braking sytem. The steam catapaults (usually two or more) are near the bow. Probably the most important development in carriers was the introduction of the angled flight deck. This might interest you. http://www.stevenwillingale.com/cva.htm
There are many similar sites.

PS. I found these excellent pix here. http://people.howstuffworks.com/aircraft-carrier.htm