Mobile phones

手机
by Craig Duncan

克雷格.邓肯著


When Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it was a revolution in communication. For the first time, people could talk to each other over great distances almost as clearly as if they were in the same room. Nowadays, though, we increasingly use Bell’s invention for emails, faxes and the internet rather than talking. Over the last two decades a new means of spoken communication has emerged: the mobile phone.
1876年，苏格兰人亚历山大.格莱恩.贝尔发明了电话，这是人类通讯上的革命。人们第一次能够像在同一个房间里一样，清晰地进行长距离的彼此通话。现今，尽管我们越来越多地使用贝尔的发明来发邮件，传真，上网，而非打电话。在过去的二十年里，新的通讯方式出现了：手机。


The modern mobile phone is a more complex version of the two-way radio. Traditional two-way radio was a very limited means of communication. As soon as the users moved out of range of each other’s broadcast area, the signal was lost. In the 1940s, researchers began experimenting with the idea of using a number of radio masts located around the countryside to pick up signals from two-way radios. A caller would always be within range of one of the masts; when he moved too far away from one mast, the next mast would pick up the signal. (Scientists referred to each mast’s reception area as being a separate “cell”; this is why in many countries mobile phones are called “cell phones”.)
However, 1940s technology was still quite primitive, and the “telephones” were enormous boxes which had to be transported by car.
现代的手机是一个双路收音机的合成版本。 传统的双路收音机是一种很局限的通讯。.一旦用户移出了彼此的广播地域范围，信号就丢失了。.20世纪40年代，研究员开始做实验，他们用安放在乡村周围的许多收音机天线塔从双路收音机那里捕捉信号。呼叫者总是会在天线塔范围内，当他离一天线塔太远时，下一个天线塔就会捕捉到信号。（科学家们把每一个天线塔的接收站归为一个单独的“细胞”，这也是为什么在很多国家，手机都被称为“细胞电话”。）然而，20世纪40年代的技术仍是很落后的，而“电话”是一个必须用汽车运输的大箱子。


The first real mobile telephone call was made in 1973 by Dr Martin Cooper, the scientist who invented the modern mobile handset. As soon as his invention was complete, he tested it by calling a rival scientist to announce his success. Within a decade, mobile phones became available to the public. The streets of modern cities began to feature sharp-suited characters shouting into giant plastic bricks. In Britain the mobile phone quickly became synonymous with the “yuppie”, the new breed of young urban professionals who carried the expensive handsets as status symbols. Around this time many of us swore that we would never, ever own a mobile phone.
马丁.库伯博士，发明现代手机的科学家，在1973年，打了第一通真正的手机通话。当他的发明成功之后，他做了一个测试，打了一通电话给同是科学家的竞争者宣告他的成功。在十年之内，公众也能够使用手机了。在现代都市的街道上，开始看到一些人对着巨大的塑料砖大喊着。在英国，手机很快变成了跟“雅皮士”一样的同义词，新一代的年轻的都市专业人士拿着作为社会地位象征的贵重手机。大约就在这个时代，我们中的大多数人发誓，我们永远不会去买手机了。


But in the mid-90s, something happened. Cheaper handsets and cheaper calling rates meant that, almost overnight, it seemed that everyone had a mobile phone. And the giant plastic bricks of the 80s had evolved into smooth little objects that fitted nicely into pockets and bags. In every pub and restaurant you could hear the bleep and buzz of mobiles ringing and registering messages, occasionally breaking out into primitive versions of the latest pop songs. Cities suddenly had a new, postmodern birdsong.
但是，在90年代中期，一些事情发生了。较为便宜的手机和通话费到来了，那意味着，几乎一夜间，所有人都拥有手机了。而80年代的大块塑料砖也演变成为线条流畅的小物件，可以恰好放入口袋和包包里面。在每一个酒吧和餐厅里，你可以听见手机来电和短信到来的哔哔声，手机偶然还会发出最新流行歌曲的原始版。城市突然间有了新的，后现代主义的鸟鸣声。


Moreover, people’s timekeeping changed. Younger readers will be amazed to know that, not long ago, people made spoken arrangements to meet at a certain place at a certain time. Once a time and place had been agreed, people met as agreed. Somewhere around the new millennium, this practice started to die out. Meeting times became approximate, subject to change at any moment under the new order of communication: the Short Message Service (SMS) or text message. Going to be late? Send a text message! It takes much less effort than arriving on time, and it’s much less awkward than explaining your lateness face-to-face. It’s the perfect communication method for the busy modern lifestyle. Like email before it, the text message has altered the way we write in English, bringing more abbreviations and a more lax approach to language construction. The160-character limit on text messages has led to a new, abbreviated version of English for fast and instantaneous communication. Traditional rules of grammar and spelling are much less important when you’re sitting on the bus, hurriedly typing “Will B 15min late - C U @ the bar. Sorry! :-)”.
此外，人们的守时观念改变了。较年轻的读者会惊讶地发现，不久前，人们口头约定在某一时间某一地点见面。一旦时间地点定下来了，人们就会如约而至。在我们跨入千禧年之际，这种惯消失了。见面的时间变得不那么准时准点了，在新的通讯秩序下，见面的时间随时都会被改变：短信服务，或者叫发短信。快要迟到了？发给短信吧！这要比努力准时赶到少费力得多，也比面对面解释迟到原因要更加灵活。这是忙碌的现代生活方式中最完美的通讯方式。就像之前的电子邮件，手机短信改变了我们所书写的英文，带来了更多的缩写和一种更不严格的语言构造方法。160个字限制的短信催生了很多用以快速即时交流的新缩写版英文。当你坐在公车上，急促地编辑短信“会迟15分，酒吧见，抱歉！”传统的语法和拼写规则变得不那么重要了。


Mobile phones, once the preserve of the high-powered businessperson and the “yuppie”, are now a vital part of daily life for an enormous amount of people. From schoolchildren to pensioners, every section of society has found that it’s easier to stay in touch when you’ve got a mobile. Over the last few years mobiles have become more and more advanced, with built-in cameras, global positioning devices and internet access. And in the next couple of years, we can expect to see the arrival of the “third generation” of mobile phones: powerful micro-computers with broadband internet access, which will allow us to watch TV, download internet files at high speed and send instant video clips to friends.

手机，曾是位高权重的商人和“雅皮士”的独有物，现在变成了许多人日常生活的很重要的部分。从学校的小孩子到退休了的老人，社会上的每个部门都觉得，有了手机，保持联系变得更加容易了。在过去的几年里，手机变得越来越先进了，有了内置摄像头，导航仪和上网功能。在接下来的几年里，我们可以期盼着见到“第三代”手机的到来：可上宽带的强大微型电脑，我们可以通过手机看电视，告诉下载网上的文件，向朋友发送即时的视频片段。


Alexander Graham Bell would be amazed if he could see how far the science of telephony has progressed in less than 150 years. If he were around today, he might say: “That’s gr8! But I’m v busy rite now. Will call U 2nite.”
亚历山大.格莱恩.贝尔如果能看到电话技术在不到150年内就发展进步得这么快，他将会很惊讶。如果贝尔今天还在，他也许会说：“太棒了，但我现忙，今晚电话你。”