美語情景對話 第420期:Computers 電腦

Computers are an amazing thing, you know they have really improved people's lives over the past 15 or 20 years. You know you can do word processing. You can access libraries of information. You can communicate with your friends 24 hours a day across the globe. You can do art. You can watch movies. You can play music. All sorts of interesting and cool stuff, that makes life more pleasurable, or makes life easier, you know, it's really an amenity that's been a big part of most people's lives for a long time now, and they always seem to be improving and getting bigger and better. Well, actually, they're getting smaller and better, but why is it that over this time, that computers never seem to run smoothly all the time. There's always little glitches and problems. You know, computers are getting better but so are viruses. Programs are getting easier and better, but they're also getting more expensive and you always have to upgrade because what you want to get doesn't work necessarily with what you have on your computer, you know.

電腦是件很神奇的東西，你知道，它們在過去15-20年改善了人們的生活。你知道你可以用電腦進行文字處理。也可以獲得信息庫。你可以每天24小時和全球的朋友進行交流。你也可以做和藝術相關的事情、可以看電影、聽音樂等等。各種有意思的事情會讓生活更愉悅，也更舒適，你知道，它作爲人們生活中重要的便利設施已經存在很長時間了，它們一直在不斷改進，變得更大更好。實際上，它們是越來越小，越來越好，但是爲什麼這麼長時間以來電腦都沒能保持順利運行呢？總是會出現小故障和問題。你知道，電腦越來越好，可是病毒也是如此。程序變得越來越簡單，越來越好，但是它們也越來越昂貴，你不得不升級因爲你電腦上的程序不能滿足你的需求。

Internet connections are always speeding up, but there's always a slow internet connection, at least 20 or 25 percent of the time. You know, if you want to run something you always need to download this or download this. This program is incompatible with this program. When you are on the internet, there is always strange pop-up ads and things like that. E-mail! Ah, your e-mail box is full, too much memory, yeah, printers, printers are the worst of all. You know after all this time, why is it that printers always break down when you need to print something on time. Hey, there's my little ramble about computers, but all in all, they're good, cause without computers there wouldn't be such a wonderful site lke ELLLO.

網絡連接在不斷加快，但是20%到25%的時間網絡連接都很慢。你知道，如果你想運行某個東西，你就需要下載。這個程序和那個程序可能會不兼容。你在上網的時候，總是會有奇怪的彈出式廣告。電子郵件！你的電子郵箱滿了，有太多的內存，還有打印機，打印機是最糟糕的。你知道這麼長時間以來，在你需要打印東西的時候打印機總是會出故障。嘿，這些就是我對電腦的漫談，不過總的來說，它們很好，因爲沒有電腦就不會有像ELLO英語這樣棒的網站了。

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重點講解：
1. speed up
（使）（某一過程或活動）加快；
eg. Federalists are convinced this will speed up european integration.
聯邦主義者相信這會加速歐洲整合的速度。
eg. Nothing I do or say to the insurers seems to speed up this process.
無論我對保險公司做了或說了什麼，似乎都不會加快他們辦事的進程。
2. be incompatible with
不能和諧相處的；不協調的；不一致的；
eg. Late hours are incompatible with health.
熬夜則不會健康。
eg. That's not the only time I've found my education incompatible with real life.
我不僅一次發現我所受的教育與現實生活是有很大矛盾的。
3. break down
（機器或車輛）出毛病，損壞；
eg. Men are left idle when machines break down.
機器壞了時，工人們便無事可做了。
eg. If the car should break down on the way, you would have to walk back.
萬一汽車中途拋錨，你就得走回來。
4. all in all
總的說來；從各方面來說；總之；
eg. We both thought that all in all it might not be a bad idea.
我們兩人都認爲總的說來它或許不是個壞主意。
eg. All in all, it appeared that a pretty depressing summer awaited Jones.
總之，等待瓊斯的似乎是一個相當令人沮喪的夏天。