新概念英语第三册Lesson51重点句子及解析
【课文】
Predicting the future is notoriously difficult. Who could have imagined, in the mid 1970s, for example, that by the end of the 20th century, computers would be as common in people's homes as TV ts? In the 1970s, computers were common enough, but only in big business, government department清朝人物
s, and large organizations. The were the so-called mainframe machines. Mainframe computers were very large indeed, often occupying whole air-cond经典语录励志短句
itioned rooms, employing full-win的名词
time technicians and run on specially-written software. Though the large machines still exist, many of their functions have been taken over by small powerful personal computers, commonly known as PCs.
In 1975, a primitive machine called the Altair, was launched in the USA.黑木耳做法
It can properly be described as the
first 'home computer' and it pointed the way to the future. This was followed, at the end of the 1970s, by a machine called an Apple. In the early 1980s, the computer giant, IBM produced the world's first Personal Computer. This ran on an 'operating system' called DOS, produced by a then small company named Microsoft. The IBM Personal Computer was widely copied. From tho humble begin平津战役纪念馆
nings, we
have en the development of the ur-friendly home computers and multimedia machines which are in common u today.
Considering how recent the developments are, it is even more remarkable that as long ago as the 1960s, an Englishman, Leon Bagrit, was able to predict some of the us
of computers which we know today. Bagrit dismisd the idea that computers would learn to 'think' for themlves and
would 'rule the world', which people liked to believe in
tho days. Bagrit foresaw a time when computers would be
small enough to hold in the hand, when they would be capable
of providing information about traffic jams and suggesting alternative routes, when they would be ud in hospitals to help doctors to diagno illness, when they would relieve office workers and accountants of dull, repetitive clerical work. All the computer us have become commonplace. Of cour, Leon Bagrit could not possibly have foreen the development of the Internet, the worldwide system that
enables us to communicate instantly with anyone in any part
of the world by using computers linked to telephone networks. Nor could he have foreen how we could u the Internet to obtain information on every known subject, so we can read it
on a screen in our homes and even print it as well if we want to. Computers have become smaller and smaller, more and more powerful and cheaper and cheaper. This is what makes Leon Bagrit's predictions particularly remarkable. If he, or someone like him, were alive today, he might be able to tell
us what to expect in the next fifty years.
【课文翻译】
众所周知，预测未来是非常困难的。举个例子吧，在20世纪70
年代中叶又有谁能想得到在2祁宏
0世纪末的时候，家庭用的计算机会像电
视机一样普遍?在70年代，计算机已经相当普及了，但只用在大公司，政府部门和大的组织之中，它们被称为主机。计算机主机确实很大，
常常占据了装有空调的多间房间，雇用专职的技师，而且得用专门编
写的软件才能运行。虽然这种大计算机仍然存有，但它们的很多功能
已被体积小但功能齐全的个人电脑——即我们常说的 PC机——所代替了。
1975年，美国推出了一台被称为“牛郎星”的原始机型。严格地说起来，它能够被称为第一银河系中心黑洞
台“家用电脑”，而且它也指了今后的方向。70年代末，在牛郎星之后又出现了一种被称为“苹果”的机型。80年代初，计算机行业的王牌公司美国国际商用机器公司(IBM)生产出了世界上第一台个人电脑。这种电脑采用了一种被称为磁盘操作系统(DOS)的工作程序，而这种程序是由当时规模不大的微软公司生产的。IBM的个人电脑被大规模地模仿。从那些简陋的初级阶段，我们看到了现在都已普及的、使用简便的家用电脑和多媒体的微机的发展。
想一想这些发展的时间多么短，就更觉得英国人莱昂.巴格瑞特有着非凡的水平。他在60年代就能预言我们今天知道的计算机的一些用途。巴格瑞特根本不接受计算机能够学会自己去“思考”和计算能够“统治世界”这种想法，而这种想法是当时的人们都愿意相信的。巴格瑞特预示有一天计算机能够小到拿在手上，计算机能够使办公室人员和会计免除那些枯燥、重复的劳动。计算机的所有这些功能现在都变得很平常。当然了，莱昂.巴格瑞特根本没有可能预测到国际交互网——就是把计算机连结到电话线路上，以便和世界上任何一个地方的人立即实行联系的一个世界范围的通讯系统——的发展。他也无法
预测到我们能够利用国际交互网获取相关任何已知专题的信息，以便在家里的屏幕上阅读，如果愿意的话甚至能够将其打印出来。计算机已经变得体积越来越小，功能越来越多，价格越来越低，这就是莱昂.巴格瑞特的预测非凡的地方。如果他或是积极向上的座右铭
像他的什么人今天还活着的话，他大概能够告诉我们下一个50年后会发生什么事情。
【词汇】
notoriously adv. (尤指因坏事)众所周知地
full-time adj. 专职的
technician n. 技师
