星火30篇文章貫通考研詞匯30
Unit 30 Something about Telephone…………………533
電話點滴
現(xiàn)在，電話已經(jīng)成為世界上最普通的音頻通訊工具，今天的電話較之當(dāng)時貝爾發(fā)明的簡陋裝置，是無以倫比的精巧和有效，而且，今天使用電話的方式也是貝爾當(dāng)年不可能預(yù)見的……
When imaginative scientists first suggested the possibility that one person could speak directly to another over a long distance, few people took them seriously. Among the few who did was a Scots-born(蘇格蘭出生的) American named Alexander Graham Bell(亞歷山大?格拉海姆?貝爾，美國發(fā)明家), who was one of the first to develop a telephone in 1876. Now the most common means of voice communication in the world, the telephone of today, is infinitely more sophisticated and effective than the crude instrument developed by Bell, and it is being used in ways he could not possibly have foreseen.
One area that is rapidly expanded is communications service “on the move”. Because America is such a highly mobile society—a society on wheels—telephones in cars and trucks are becoming as essential as those in homes and offices. Industry officials have predicted that mobile communications service will soon be more competitive in many respects than the service provided by telephones that do not move.
Another area rapidly developing is overseas telephone service. In 1927, when overseas telephone service was inaugurated(開創(chuàng)) with a radio telephone call between New York and London, the occasion was heralded(宣布) as “thrilling”. Today, many telephone users regard international calls as routine, and overseas service, thanks largely to undersea cables(海底電纜) and communications satellites, has undergone extraordinary improvement. Transmission has been made clearer, charges have been greatly reduced and dependability has been improved. Overseas telephone service has now been extended to nearly 350 countries and areas throughout the world.
The introduction of direct distance dialing in 1951was one of the most significant developments in the effort to improve long-distance service. Direct distance dialing is not only fast and convenient for the caller, it has also enabled telephone companies to handle the extraordinary growth of telephone use that has occurred since the 1950s. between 1950 and 1973 the number of telephone in the United States tripled, with the addition of 90 million telephones. For the Bell Telephone System(貝爾電話公司) alone, long-distance calls in the same period have increased from 1.4 billion to 8.5 billion, and indications have shown that long-distance calls will continue to increase significantly in the years ahead. In 1972, 77 percent of the 8.5 billion long-distance calls were dialed by the customer.
Another very significant development in telephone use is in the area of data communications. Here is an example of how medical data are being transmitted. In a small town in the western part of the United States about 300 people gathered in the local school to undergo tests for lung diseases. The procedures followed marked a major advance in detecting diseases by providing almost instantaneous computer diagnosis over long-distance lines. First, technicians at the school used touch-tone telephones(按鍵式電話) to send vital statistics on the person being tested to the computer, which was located in a hospital 60 miles away. The individual then exhaled into a spirometer(肺活量計測儀), which measures volume and rate of air exhalation(呼氣), and these measurements were automatically transmitted to the computer. The computer instantly calculated the results and within two seconds relayed them back to the testing center. Normally, it takes hours or even weeks to evaluate spirometer measurements. By utilizing a computer and data communications, however, the time lag is reduced to seconds. Moreover, people in a remote community are put within arm’s length of the most up-to-date medical facilities available.
For many people the most exciting development in recent years is picturephone service(可視電話業(yè)務(wù)). Picturephone services, which will become available commercially at the beginning of this century, is being used by large business corporation; but it will no doubt spread from the office to the home. It is already clear that the next best thing in telephone service is going to be picturephone call.
Possibly the most significant research now being conducted is in the use of the laser beam in telephone communications. This wonderful light, first produced by scientists in 1960, can beam continuously and with extraordinary intensity. Instead of using light to see by, telephone researchers are thinking of way to use light to communicate by. In other words, they are thinking of using light as radio waves to transmit telephone calls, television programs and data messages from one point to another, with the expansion of picturephone service and high-speed data communications between computers, present message-carrying capacities may soon become inadequate. If it turns out to be technically and economically sound, the laser might prove to be a major breakthrough in telephone communications.
Current research in telephone communications is so extensive and changes are coming about so rapidly that no one can predict with accuracy what the telephone of tomorrow will look like. But there is at least one prediction that can be made with assurance: there will be more and more telephones in the future, and the will be much better than present ones.
注釋:
imaginative
infinitely
foresee→★before
rapidly
expand
highly
predict→★dictionary
competitive→★compete
overseas→★sea
thrilling
routine→★route
largely→★large
improvement→★prove
extend→★tend
introduction
dial
significant→★sign
indication
procedure
detect→★protect
instantaneous
technician→★technique
statistics→★state
automatically
calculate
utilize
lag
length
commercially→★merchant
corporation→★corporation
laser
intensity
prediction
assurance→★sure
譯文:
對于許多人來說，近幾年來最令人興奮的進展是可視電話的產(chǎn)生。可視電話將在本世紀(jì)初投入商業(yè)性使用，當(dāng)前正為一些大型企業(yè)所采用。無疑，它將從辦公室擴展到家庭。已經(jīng)很清楚，可視電話即將成為電話業(yè)務(wù)中的下一個最好的業(yè)務(wù)。
目前進行的最重大的研究可能是激光在電話通訊方面的應(yīng)用。這種于1960年被科學(xué)家首先創(chuàng)造出來的神奇光線能夠以極高的亮度連續(xù)發(fā)射。電話研究人員不是研究利用光來看東西的技術(shù)，而是研究利用光進行通訊的技術(shù)。換句話說，他們正在想辦法用光取代無線電波，把電話、電視節(jié)目和數(shù)據(jù)信息由一個地點輸送到另一個地點。隨著可視電話業(yè)務(wù)的擴展以及計算機之間高速數(shù)據(jù)通訊的發(fā)展，目前的信息傳遞容量可能很快就難以滿足需求。如果證明激光在技術(shù)上可靠、在經(jīng)濟上可行，那么在電話通訊中，激光可能成為一項重大的突破。
目前在電話通訊方面的研究，內(nèi)容如此之廣，變化如此之快，沒有人能準(zhǔn)確地預(yù)言未來的電話將會是什么樣子。但至少可以有一個很有把握的預(yù)言：未來，電話的數(shù)量將日益增多，其性能也將比現(xiàn)在的電話更為優(yōu)異。
