“学府杯”江苏省第二届科技翻译竞赛.docVIP

“学府杯”江苏省第二届科技翻译竞赛原文 1. 英译汉 Digital Computers and Their Uses In the digital computer the numbers to be manipulated are represented by sequences of digits which are first recorded in suitable code—usually the binary code—, are often converted into positive and negative electrical impulses, and stored in electrical or magnetic registers which serve basically the same purpose as the counting wheels in a desk calculating machine. The technique of making the computer carry out a particular calculation is known as ‘programming’, which involves first breaking the calculation down into a sequence of arithmetic operations, and then preparing a series of instructions which cause the computer to carry out the required operations on the stored information in the correct order. It is now possible to add or subtract two large numbers in one to two microseconds, and to multiply or divide them in ten to twenty microseconds, so that a computer can perform as much arithmetic in a quarter of an hour as an efficient clerk with pencil and paper might reasonably hope to achieve in a lifetime. These are many situations in which this ability to handle and to analyze large quantities of arithmetic data according to instructions is of great value. Some examples are fields of scientific investigation such as crystallography, atomic physics and astronomy, where masses of experimental data are involved and complex theoretical concepts need to be tested against them; in engineering design where the design parameters, of which there are many, can be varied systematically and their effects studied and optimized; and for the storage of reference data in libraries and insurance offices in such a way as to afford ready access to particular references on request. A particular important application of the digital computer in simplified form is as a component in the control equipment of manufacturing processes—as the nerve centre which accumulates and analyzes data recording the operating conditions and