UNLOCK5课文20篇+参考译文(文字整理版).docxVIP

UN5-U01-R1 Are we living in the digital dark ages? 我们生活在数字黑暗时代吗？ Imagine these scenarios: (1) 2040: A box of memorabilia, including floppy discs and VHS tapes is found in the attic of an old house with a label that says, ‘Records and early videos of Bill Gates (1975-1985).’ (2) 2050: You find an envelope labeled ‘bank records’ in your grandmother’s desk. Inside the envelope, there is an old CD marked with the date 1998, your great-grandfather’s name, and the words ‘all overseas bank accounts’. 想象一下这些场景：（1）2040年：在一栋老房子的阁楼上发现了一盒纪念品，其中包括软盘和VHS磁带，标签上写着“比尔盖茨的记录和早期视频（1975-1985）”。（2）2050年：你在祖母的办公桌上发现了一个标有“银行记录”的信封。信封里有一张旧CD，上面写着1998年的日期，你曾祖父的名字，还有“所有海外银行账户”的字样。 If these stories were really to happen, the people who found these items would be very excited – at least at first. Their excitement would be quickly followed by frustration because it would be very difficult for them to access the information on the discs and tapes. Even if the records were still in good condition, it would be very hard to find a device that could read them. Compare these discoveries to one that might have occurred around the turn of the twentieth century: a box of old letters and photographs on a high shelf at the back of a cupboard. The information these items contain would be immediately accessible because you would only need your eyes. 如果这些故事真的发生了，发现这些物品的人会非常兴奋 -- 至少一开始时是这样的。 他们兴奋之后很快就会沮丧，因为他们很难获取光盘和磁带上的信息。 即使这些记录仍然完好无损，也很难找到能够读取它们的设备。 将这些发现与二十世纪初可能发生的一件事进行比较：橱柜后面的高架子上放着一盒旧信件和照片。 这些物品所包含的信息立即可以靠你的眼睛所见来获取。 Computers and digital technology have vastly expanded our capacity to store all kinds of information but how long will our access to this stored information last? In fact, the people who found the discs and tapes in our scenarios would be lucky because discs and tapes are physically real. Information on the web is much more vulnerable; it is completely digital and can disappear in a flash. This is a problem that began to worry technology experts in the early twenty-first century. They became