Directions: Read the following passage carefully and then translate
the underlined sentences into Chinese.
Computers are permeating almost every aspect of our lives,
including many areas previously untouched by technology. 1. But unlike such
other pervasive technologies as electricity, television and the motor car,
computers are on the whole less reliable and less predictable in their behavior.
This is because they are discrete state digital electronic devices that are
prone to total and catastrophic failure. Computer systems, when they are "down,"
are completely down, unlike electromechanical devices, which may be only
partially down and are thus partially usable. Computers
enable enormous quantities of information to be stored, retrieved, and
transmitted at great speed on a scale not possible before. 2. This is all
very well, but it has serious implications for data security and personal
privacy because computers are inherently insecure. The recent activities of
hackers and data thieves in the United States, Germany, and Britain have shown
how all-too-easy it still is to break into even the most sophisticated financial
and military systems. The list of scams perpetrated by the new breed of
high-tech criminals, ranging from fraud in airline-ticket reservations to the
reprogramming of the chips inside mobile phones, is growing daily.
Computers systems are often incredibly complex--so complex, in fact, that
they are not always understood even by their creators (although few are willing
to admit it). This often makes them completely unmanageable. Unmanageable
complexity, can result in massive foul-ups or spectacular budget "runaways." For
example, Jeffrey Rothfeder in Business Week reports that Bank of America in 1988
had to abandon a $20-million computer system after spending five years and a
further $60 million trying to make it work. Allstate Insurance saw the cost of
its new system rise from $8 million to a staggering $100 million and estimated
completion was delayed from 1987 to 1993. Moreover, the problem seems to be
getting worse: in 1988 the American Arbitration Association took on 190 computer
disputes, most of which involved defective systems. The claims totaled $200
million--up from only $31 million in 1984. 3. Complexity can
also result in disaster: no computer is 100 percent guaranteed because it is
virtually impossible to anticipate all sorts of critical applications, such as
saving lives, flying aircraft, running nuclear power stations, transferring vast
sums of money, and controlling missile systems--sometimes with tragic
consequences. For example, between 1982 and 1987, some twenty-two servicemen
died in five separate crashes of the United States Air Force’s sophisticated
Blackhawk helicopter before the problem was traced to its computer-based
"fly-by-wire" system. At least two people died after receiving overdoses of
radiation emitted by the computerized Therac 25 X-ray machines, and there are
many other examples of fatal computer-based foul-ups. Popular
areas for less life-threatening computer malfunctions include telephone billing
and telephone switching software, and bank-teller machines, electronic
funds-transfer systems, and motor-vehicle license data bases. Although computers
have often taken the "blame" on these occasions, the ultimate cause of failure
in most cases is, in fact, human error. Every new technology
creates new problems as well as new benefits for society, and computers are no
exception. 4. But digital computers have rendered society especially
vulnerable to hardware and software malfunctions. Sometimes industrial robots go
crazy, while heart pacemakers and automatic garage door openers are rendered
useless by electromagnetic radiation or "electronic smog" emitted from
point-of-sale terminals, personal computers, and video games. Automated
teller machines (ATMs) and pumps at gas stations are closed down because of
unforeseen software snafus. The cost of all this downtime is
huge. 5. For example, it has been reported that British businesses suffer
around thirty major mishaps a year, involving losses running into millions of
pounds. These are caused by machine or human error and do not include human
misuse in the form of fraud and sabotage. The cost of failures in domestically
produced software in the United Kingdom alone is conservatively estimated at $
900 million per year. In 1989, a British Computer Society committee reported
that much software was now so complex that current skills in safety assessment
were inadequate and that therefore the safety of people could not be
guaranteed.