《英语散文》改变你生活的三样事物

Today our lives are changing faster than at any time in history. Here we report on three important changes that will have a big impact on our everyday lives in the future.

　　今天我们的生活变化得比历史上任何时候都快。下面我们报道的是未来将对我们日常生活产生重大影响的三个重要变化。

The cashless society Cash and bank-notes will disappear almost completely. They will be replaced by smart cards -- plastic cards with microchip processors "loaded" with some money. When we pay for goods, the retailer will insert our small card into a payment terminal and money will be transferred from our card to the retailer's card. When all the money is used up, we will be able to "load" it by inserting it into a telephone, dialing our bank account and transferring money to the card from the account. If we want to transfer money from our card to a bank account, we will use the same method. Smart cards will be able to hold several different currencies at the same time, so if we go aboard, we will use our smart cards in the same way.

无现金社会

　　现金和纸币几乎将完全消失。取代它们的将是智能卡——存有一定金额的内置微芯片处理器的塑胶卡片。当我们支付所购物品时，零售商将把我们的智能卡插人一个付账终端机中，这时支付的金额就从我们的卡中转移到零售商的卡中。当所有的金额用完后，通过将卡插入电话然后拨打我们的银行账号，就可以重新向智能卡中注入一定金额。假如我们打算从智能卡中向银行账号转账，我们可以用同样的方法。这种智能卡可以同时存入几种不同的币种，所以如果我们出国，我们仍然可以同样的方式使用该卡。

Interactive telephones Human telephone operators will be sharply replaced by talking computers. These computers will recognize speech, ask us what information we need, access the information from a database, and convert it to speech. If we want to book a fight or pay a bill by phone, we will interact with a talking computer to do so. Of course, this won't happen until all the technology is in place, but when it is we will soon get used to interacting with computers in this way. Human telephone will be used only for more complex operation such as dealing with complaints or solving concrete problems.

交互式电话

　　 交互式计算机将很快取代人工电话接线员。这些计算机能够识别声音，询问我们需要何种信息，从某个数据库中获取我们所需的信息并把该信息转化为声音。假加我们希望利用电话订购机票或支付账单，我们将可以接通这种会说话的计算机交由它们去完成。当然，这些要等到所有的技术都准备就绪后才能变成现实，但是一旦交互式电话出现后，我们将很快习惯通过这种方式使用交互式计算机。将来只有在诸如拨打投诉电话或解决具体问题等复杂操作时才会用到人工接线员。

Intelligent cars Traffic congestion in cities will be reduced because drivers will use electronic route maps to find the quickest at to their destination and avoid traffic jams. Congestion will also decrease when electronic systems start changing motorists for driving in cities. As soon as motorists have to pay to drive in cities, they will stop using their cars and use public transport instead. Speed control systems will be built into cars. These systems will automatically regulate the speed of the car to take account of traffic and weather conditions and prevent accidents. It will be many years before these changes bring results but when they do, there will be a titanic improvement in road safety.