美語情景對話 第510期:Technology 科技

Todd: So, Jeff, let's talk about technology. These days we have all types of new technology, computers,

託德：傑夫，我們來談談科技吧。現在有各種各樣的新科技，比如電腦……

Jeff: Can we just end this right now. I don't like technology, so can we talk about something else.

傑夫：我們能不談這個話題嗎？我不喜歡科技，我們談些別的吧。

Todd: What? You don't like technology.

託德：什麼？你不喜歡科技。

Jeff: No, I don't like technology.

傑夫：對，我不喜歡科技。

Todd: What do you mean you don't like technology.

託德：你說你不喜歡科技是什麼意思？

Jeff: Technology is, I think it's gone against what it was originally invented for, and that is for convenience to make people's lives more easy and to give them more free time, and I think it's totally gone against what it was originally invented to do.

傑夫：我認爲科技和最初發明的理念背道而馳，最初發明這些技術是爲人們的生活提供更多便利，使人們擁有更多自由時間，可是我認爲現在科技已經違背了這一最初的理念。

Todd: Yeah, but technology does make your lived easier, like it saves us time, it communicates,

託德：是的，不過科技的確使你的生活更方便了，而且也爲了我們節省了時間，像交流……

Jeff: But does it save us time?

傑夫：真的節省了我們的時間嗎？

Todd: I think so. I mean, before you had to type something up, now you can just type it up on a word processor. It's quicker. Before you had to walk to a phone. Now the phone is in your pocket. You can just pick it up and call anytime, anywhere in the world.

託德：我是這樣認爲的。你看，以前你只能去外面打印，可是現在能用文字處理器打印，這樣更快捷。以前你必須要去外面打公用電話，現在電話就在你的口袋裏。你可以隨時拿起電話，和世界各地的人通話。

Jeff: Kind of. I kind of agree with that, but sometimes that walk to the phone is sort of pleasant and you had time to think about other things, but now as you're walking to the phone, you're typing something into your PDA while you're listening to your MP3 player, and then you get into your car and you drive to your office and the first thing you do is check your e-mail and then right after that you check your voice mail and then you send an e-mail to someone and then, I think it's just sort of, it's cluttered. It's cluttered our lives versus clean it up.

傑夫：有點兒道理。我有點兒同意這個觀點，不過有時去外面打電話是种放鬆，你有時間可以想想其他的事情，可是現在你邊走邊講電話，一邊聽着MP3一邊在平板電腦上打字，開車到辦公室以後，第一件事就是檢查電子郵件、語音信箱，然後你給某個人發電郵，時間排得非常滿。實際上你的生活更混亂了，而沒有清淨。

Todd: Yeah, but maybe if you did not have that, then you would probably have something else that would just clutter up your life. I'm sure people were busy before they had technology.

託德：對，可是如果沒有這些科技，那也可能會有其他事情讓你的生活變得混亂。我確定以前沒有這些科技的時候人們也很忙碌。

Jeff: Mm, I agree. I think they were busy but maybe more wholesome things, or less, I think, I think you, we, our mind's are sort of, our minds are always bombarded with images or news and a lot of this stuff is not needed but because it is there we use it. I don't think we have to see so much news or read so many different things on the internet and see so much on television and the DVD player, get our news on our MP3 players and our hand-held, our little hand-held computers, our PDA's. I think it's just, we fill our time now with things that are not really needed or not maybe as useful or as clean as the old days: reading and writing and poetry, and when was the last time you wrote a letter to one of your friends and a nice hand-written letter, and put it in an envelope and put it in the mailbox.

傑夫：我同意。我認爲以前的人們忙碌的事情更健康，現在我們的頭腦中總是充斥着各種畫面和新聞，而這些事情其實沒有必要，可是我們卻在使用這些技術。我認爲我們沒有必要在網上瀏覽過多的新聞、閱讀太多的東西、看過多的電視節目和影片、在MP3和掌上電腦上獲得各種新聞。現在我們的時間都被沒有必要的事情佔據了，這些事情可能沒有過去那樣有用和有益：以前人們會讀書、寫詩，你上一次給你朋友親筆寫信，裝進信封裏然後放進郵筒寄出去是什麼時候？

Todd: About three or four years.

託德：大約三四年前吧。

Jeff: Or a postcard even.

傑夫：那明信片呢？

Todd: Four years.

託德：四年前。

Jeff: So, I think it's, technology is good but I think it's sometimes defeats it's own original purpose.

傑夫：所以我認爲科技雖然很好，但是有時卻違背了我們的初衷。

譯文屬僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載

重點講解：
1. go against
違背；違反；
eg. He hasn't the courage to go against the stream of public opinion.
他沒有勇氣逆輿論潮流行事。
eg. It goes against my principles to deceive a man.
欺騙人是違揹我的處世原則的。
2. type up
把（手寫稿）打印成文；
eg. I wanted the whole play typed up properly and neatly.
我想把整個劇本非常整潔地用打字機打出來。
eg. I need you to type up this memo.
我需要你幫我打這份備忘錄。
3. clean up
打掃；清掃；把…弄乾淨；
eg. The mayor has decided to clean up the city.
市長決定清除城市裏的一切不良現象。
eg. I need some help in cleaning up the mess.
我需要幫手幫我打掃這亂七八糟的東西。
4. bombard with
連珠炮似的質問（或批評）；使大量面對；
eg. During the storm the phone company was bombarded with reports of downed wires.
暴風雨期間電話公司收到許多有關被吹倒的電話線的投訴。
eg. The choices we make to smoke cigarettes or eat hamburgers are strongly influenced by the messages their producers bombard us with.
我們吸菸或吃漢堡包的決定受到了它們的製造商對我們狂轟濫炸的信息的強烈影響。