Part B Read the following text carefully and then
translate the underlined segments into Chinese. Your translation should be
written clearly on ANSWER SHEET 2.
An undersea fiber optic cable stretching from China to the
United States in a loop system more than 25,000 kilometers underwater will soon
expand China’s links with the world. The cable is expected to be completed in
the year 2000. This new fiber optic technology system will
transmit voice, data and images at up to a total of 80 gigabits per second. The
capacity of 80 gigabits per second is a massive speed advance on previous
technology, and allows the transmission of more than one million calls
simultaneously. (61) The $1.5 billion China-US Cable Network,
as it is called, provides a digital connection between China and the US, and
overcomes the small fiber optic capacity which has been available, and which,
among other things, affects the ability to expand Internet capacity.
(Currently all links are via satellite). China Telecom has been trying for some
time to set up a direct link with the US and this cable is a key project for the
ninth Five-Year Plan. China Telecom is also keen to own some of the fiber
capacity to reduce its costs. The cable will form a
self-protecting ring with direct conncetions between Bandon, Oregon and San Luis
Obispo, California on the west coast of the United States, and Shanghai and
Shantou in China. There will be additional sub-landings in Japan, Korea and
Guam. (62) This amazing breakthrough in fiber optic
technology for China is a joint investment by many carriers including, but
not limited to, China Telecom, AT & T, Sprint, Cable & Wireless, and
NTT. (63) The cable will be used for all communications such
as telephone line services including Internet connections and e-mail links.
Each of the investors will have the right to use capacity on the cable,
depending on how much they reserve through the cable consortium. (64) Internet, while no doubt taking a portion of the cable, is not the
primary motivation for building the cable. Expansion of all communication
services and overall quality is driving all international systems. The
Internet, however, is beginning to take a disproportionate amount of capacity,
and this will definitely drive some new pricing structures for Internet Service
Providers and end-users over the next couple of years. There are
already major fiber optic systems connecting China to the rest of the world
through Japan (which is then connected to other Pacific cable systems), Korea
(not currently available for use by North American carriers) and Guangzhou-Hong
Kong. From Hong Kong, cables are also available through Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam and Taiwan. (65) Most of these cables can be patched
or linked to other global or Asia-Pacific cable systems, giving China access
through fiber optic technology to most of the world from the international
gateways. The largest operators of cables in Asia are the cable managers
Singapore Telecom, KDD in Japan, and the US companies Cable & Wireless and
AT&T. The APCN cable from Singapore to Japan already has a
capacity of 65 Gbps but the new China-US Cable Network with its capacity of 80
Gbps will show the world the way of the future.