高级英语AnInteractiveLife翻译.docx

1、高级英语AnInteractiveLife翻译高级英语An_Interactive_Life翻译课文 An Interactive Life It will put the world at your fingertips, changing the ways you shop, play and learn. But when will the future arrive Barbara Kantrowitz with Joshua Cooper Ramo To get an idea of what the future might bring, step into the past. A

2、t the Edison National Historical Site in West Orange, N. J., theres a room full of a dozen old phonograph machines. Some were built by Thomas Edison, who invented recorded sound in 1877, and others were produced by competitors. In the decades represented by the display, the concept and purpose of so

3、und recording changed dramatically. Edison conceived of his phonograph as a business machine that would help people in distant places communicate. He intended to record voices nothing more. His competitors envisionedthe greater potential for entertainment and art. Where he saw internal memos, someon

4、e else saw Beethoven. 由过去的历史可以推知未来。在新泽西州西奥兰治镇的爱迪生国家历史纪念馆里，有一个陈列留声机的展厅，里面陈列了十二台老式留声机。这些留声机有些是由托马斯?爱迪生制造的，正是他于1877年发明了留声技术；而另外的一些则是那些竞争对手们制造的。在这些展出的留声机所反映的那几十年的历史中，留声技术的概念和功用发生了巨大的变化。在爱迪生的认识里，留声机就是一种能帮助远隔两地的人们进行通讯交流的工具。他只想要录下人们的声音一点也没想到别的，但那些竞争者们却想到了它在娱乐和艺术方面的更大发展潜力。爱迪生从留声机里看到了备忘记事本，别人却从中发现了贝多芬。 Somed

5、ay, there may well be a similar memorial to the unfulfilled prophecies of the creators of the latest breakthrough - interactivity. Will it really change the world With so much big money and so many big dreams pinned to an idea that is still largely on the drawing boards, theres no limit to the hype

6、. Simply put, the ultimate promise is this: a huge amount of information available to anyone at the touch of a button, everything from airline schedules to esoteric scientific journals to video versions at oft-oft-off Broadway. Watching a movie wont be a passive experience. At various points, youll

7、click on alternative story lines and create your individualized version of Terminator X II. Consumers will send as well as receive all kinds of data. Say you shoot a video that you think is particularly artsy. Beam it out and make a small fortune by charging an untold number of viewers a tee for wat

8、ching. Peter Jennings would be obsolete . Video-camera owners could record news they see and put it on the universal network. On the receiving end, the era of the no-brainer will have finally arrived. An electronic device called an intelligent agent would be programmed to know each viewers preferenc

9、es and make selections from the endless stream of data. Viewers could select whatever they wanted just by pushing a button.将来某一天，完全有可能出现一个类似的纪念馆来纪念最新的突破性技术互相作用技术发明者们的尚未实现的预言。这项技术真的能够改变世界吗?一个尚处于理论设计阶段的技术发展计划既得到巨额的资金投入，又成为人们无限的期望所系，也无怪乎其能够轰动一时了。其实，说白了，这一计划的最高期望目标是：任何人只要触动一个按钮即可得到大量的信息从航空班机时刻表到深奥的专业杂志到

10、最最新百老汇戏剧实验中心的戏剧录像节目，各种信息应有尽有。看电影将不再是一种消极被动的经历。你司以一边看，一边随意改动任何一处的故事情节从而创造出具有自己的个人风格的“终结者12号”节目来。消费者既能够接收，也可以发送各种各样的信息。例如，你若能拍摄一部你认为很有艺术价值的录像片，将它播放出去，便可以通过向那些为数不少的观看该片者收费而发一笔小财。彼得?杰宁斯将不再闻名，所有持有摄像机的人都可以自己摄制新闻节目，然后通过环球通用信息网播放出去。而对于收看节目的人来说，无需费力调频道选节目的时代终于到来。一种称作“智能助手”的电子装置可以通过编制好的程序掌握各个观看者的选择意向对无穷无尽的节目信

11、息进行选择。观看者只需按一下按钮就可得到想要的节目。 Sounds great in theory, but even the truest believers have a hard time when it comes to nailing down specifics about how it will actually work. Will we control the data via the telephone, the TV, the personal computer or a combination of all of the above When will it be av

12、ailable Will it be cheap enough for everyone How will we negotiate such a mass of images, facts and figures and still find time to sleep Will government regulate messages sent out on this vast data highway And, frankly, what do we need all this stuff for anyway?这在理论上听起来是棒极了，但一旦具体到究竟如何运作时，就连最真诚的信奉者也感

13、到为难。我们是通过电话、电视、家用电脑，还是上述几种方式的综合运用来支配资料它何时可以上市它能便宜到人人都能买得起吗我们怎样才能处理如此大量的图像、材料、数字而还有时间睡觉政府会对通过这广阔的信息公路发出的信息进行调控吗而且，坦率地讲，我们究竟要这些东西干什么呢 The quick answer is: no one knows. Were a long way from Wild Palms, says Diana Hawkins, who runs an interactive-TV consulting firm in Portola Valley, Calif. But even if

14、 the techno-chaos of that futuristic fantasy mini-series is far off, some consumers may indeed notice that their personal relationships with their TVs, telephones and computers will be entering a new and deeper phase within a year or two. Instead of playing rented tapes on their VCRs , they may be a

15、ble to call up a movie from a library of thousands through a menu displayed on the TV. Game fanatics may be able to do the same from another electronic library filled with realistic video versions of arcade shoot-em-ups. In-stead of flipping through the pages of J. Crew of Victorias Secret, at-home

16、shoppers may watch video catalogs with models demonstrating front and rear views of the latest gear. Some cable companies are also testing other interactive models that allow viewers to choose their own news or select camera angles for sporting events.可以毫不犹豫地回答：谁也不知道。“要达到野棕榈里描写的发展水平还有一个很长的过程，”在加利福尼亚

17、波托拉谷开办着一家互相作用电视咨询公司的黛安娜?霍金斯这样说道。不过，就算这个未来主义的小小的科幻电视系列片中描写的技术发展混乱现象还很遥远，但有些消费者可能已经真切地感觉到在一两年的时间内他们与电视机、电话和电脑之间的关系会进入一个新的更高级的阶段。他们将不必再去租录像带在录像机上放映，而有可能从电视上显示的成千上万的影片目录上选取一部影片。对电视游戏感兴趣的人也可以这样来利用另外一种藏有大量逼真的枪战游戏的电子资料馆。想买衣服的人也不必去翻阅杰克鲁服饰公司或是维多利亚服饰公司印制的新款式服装介绍，坐在家里便可以从电视上看到模特儿全方位地展示最新款式服装。一些有线电视公司也在探索其他的相互作

18、用模式，设法使观众能按自己的兴趣选看新闻或选择观看体育比赛的视角。 While these developments are clever, fun and even convenient, theyre not quite revolutionary. Denise Caruso, editor of Digital Media, a San Francisco-based industry newsletter, calls this fakeinteractive, just one step past passive viewing, pure couch-potato mode. I

19、n the most common version of this scheme, consumers will communicate with the TV through the combination of a control box and their remote control, or, perhaps, the telephone. To some degree, viewers already have accepted a certain amount of fake interactivity by channel surfing with their remotes,

20、ordering pay-for-view movies and running up their credit-card bills on the Home Shopping Network.尽管这些发明创造很聪明，很有趣，甚至带来很多便利，但还不算什么大的改革。设在旧金山的工业通讯杂志数字媒介的编辑丹尼斯?卡鲁索把这称作“假冒的相互作用”，只比被动观看前进一步，纯粹是一种懒散的老式观看电视的风尚。这一方案最常见的一种说法就是消费者通过一个操纵箱、他们的遥控器也许还有电话结合在一起，与电视沟通。在某种程度上，观众已接受了一部分假冒的相互作用，如用遥控器快速选择频道，预定付钱观看的电视，以及利

21、用居家购物网购物，以致信用卡帐单迅速上升。 Moving beyond phase one, into what Caruso calls true interactive, will require major changes in the technological and regulatory infrastructure . Todays television cables will likely be replaced by fiber-optic cables, which are capable of transmitting much more data at higher s

22、peeds. Either a government agency or the communications industry itself will have to set a performance standard so that different networks can connect with each other. At home, viewers may have to learn to use a TV monitor that functions more like a computer screen fronting for a gigantic hard disc

23、full of all kinds of data, everything from games and movies to specially created programs.要跨过第一阶段，进入卡鲁索所谓的“真正相互作用”阶段，首先需要技术和基础设施方面有较大的变化。今天所用的那种电视电线可能被光纤电缆所代替，因为光纤电缆的传送信息量更大，传送速度更快。为使不同的网络彼此连通，必须由政府机关或是通讯部门自己制定一个统一的运作标准。电视接收器若是配上一个大容量硬盘，里面储存从游戏节目到影片到各种特制节目等各种信息，那么电视接收器的功能便颇有点类似计算机显示器屏幕了，观众们恐怕得经过学习才会

24、使用。 The shows of the future may be the technological great grandchildren of current CD-ROM titles. These are compact discs that store data instead of music and can play on either television or computer screens. To play CD-ROMs today, you need a special machine. There are at least four models on the

25、market, and titles produced for one format wont play on another. CD-ROMs do provide e glimpse of what the future might hold, however. A number of companies, including Newsweek, are developing multimedia products that combine text, video, sound and still photographs. The result is what may someday be

26、 a powerful new medium With no set story line as in a book or magazine. Users pick and choose information that interests them. Philips Interactive, for example, has dozens of titles, among them a tour of the Smithsonian, in which the viewer selects which corridor to enter by clicking on the screen.

27、Other titles: Jazz Glants, a musical history, and Escape from CyberCity, an animated adventure game.未来的节目可能是今天的CDROM(光盘只读存储器)视盘的技术后代。CD-ROM视盘是一种储存各种其他信息而非音乐信息的光盘，它既可以在电视机屏幕上播放，也可以在计算机屏幕上播放。但今天放CD-ROM视盘需要用一种专用播放机，这种播放机市面上出售的至少有四种不同的型号，适于一种型号的播放机的视盘换到别种型号的播放机上便不能播放。尽管如此，现有的这种视盘还是有助于我们窥视未来技术发展的前景。包括新闻周

28、刊出版公司在内的许多家公司都在积极研制融图文声像于一体的多媒体产品。其结果也许是将来某一天研制出一种新的信息传播媒体。这种新媒体不像一般书刊一样有固定的信息内容，使用者可以从中任意选取自己感兴趣的信息。例如，菲利浦相互作用公司制作的几十种多媒体光盘中有一种光盘的内容是史密斯博物馆导游，观看者可通过屏幕操作选择要游览的陈列室。其他多媒体光盘有“爵士乐大师”和“逃出塞北城”等。“爵士乐大师”是音乐史剧，“逃出塞北城”是惊险动画游戏片。 Many investors are betting on entertainment as the most lucrative interactive mark

29、et. But some industry observers predict the development of two parallel home markets, one catering to leisure activities and the other to businesses. Hawkins says the work-at-home market could be computer based and provide an outlet for teleconferencing and portable computing devices, like the Newto

30、n touted by Apple chairman John Soulley that can be carried in a pocket and runs on handwritten commands scribbled on a small screen. The entertainment market, primarily games and movies, would be centered on some kind of monitor.许多投资者认定娱乐团是相互作用产品的最有利可图的市场，但一些研究工业发展动态的专家则预言相互作用产品将向两个平行方向发展，一为娱乐用品，一为

31、办公用品。霍金斯认为，办公用品将以电脑为主，也包括电话会议设备和便携式计算器具，如苹果电脑公司总裁约翰?斯考莱极力称颂的牛顿便携机，它可以装入口袋中，可根据小屏幕上的手写指令运行。而主要是游戏和电影的娱乐产品则以某种监视器为主。 If all this comes to pass - still a very big if - the next step could be what Digital Medias Caruso calls complete viewer control. She says consumers would be a little like information cowboys, rounding up data from computer-based archives and information services. There will be thousands of channels delivered, Caruso thinks, through some combination of cable, telephone, satellite and cellular networks . To prevent getting trampled by a stampede of data, viewer s will r