苹果引发教育新革命

The book is dead; long live the tablet computer.

传统课本短命，平板电脑万岁。

But wait a minute. Not so fast. Let's consider the evolution of learning. Thousands of years before books, man was depicting hunting scenes on the walls of caves.

但先等一下，别这么快！我们先回顾一下学习的演变过程。在书籍出现前的数千年里，人类一直都是在洞穴的墙壁上描绘捕猎场景。

As early as 2700 BC Egyptians were converting papyrus into thick forms of paper or parchment ready to receive markings from reed pens.

早在公元前2700年，埃及人便开始把纸莎草纸改进为较厚的纸张或是羊皮纸，以便用芦苇制成的笔记录文字。

In the Middle Ages in Europe monasteries became centers of learning. While some monks ploughed and grew crops, brother monks laboriously copied and illustrated bibles by hand on vellum or parchment.

到了中世纪的欧洲，修道院成为学习中心。当一些僧侣耕种农作物时，另一些同伴卖力地在牛皮纸或羊皮纸上抄写圣经，并手绘插画。

China developed printing, using signs cut into wooden blocks. Books were printed rather than written out by hand. Every candidate for the civil service boned up on Confucius' precepts in printed form.

之后，中国利用篆刻木块制成字体模板发明了印刷术。至此书籍已可印刷出版而并非手工抄写。所有文官的候选人都要用功研读印刷成册的孔子训词。

In 1273 a handbook for Chinese farmers and growers of raw silk was printed, according to Geoffrey Blainey, writer of A Very Short History of the World. Soon 3,000 copies were in circulation, at a time when the same task would have called for a year's labor by a monastery full of Italian monks writing out the books by hand.

《世界简史》的作者杰弗里?布莱尼表示，1273年，一本为中国农民和养蚕者编写的印刷手册问世。不久，便有3000本书流通于世。当时，若是同样一本书，则需要一间修道院里所有意大利僧侣花费一年时间才能抄写完。

The great leap forward in learning came thanks to the printing press. Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz in Germany was perhaps the first European to print a book using not only a printing press but also metallic type.

人类学习历史上的一大飞跃要多亏了印刷机的问世。来自德国美因茨市的约翰内斯?古滕贝格可能是第一位不仅使用机器印刷，还使用金属字块来印刷书本的欧洲人。

His techniques were copied and adapted. Thanks to the printing press, cheap books were possible.

他的技术被广泛采纳应用，因为有了印刷机，书本才会变得这么便宜。

And the rest, as they say, is history. Will Apple revolutionize learning? That remains to be seen.

常言道，剩下的事情地球人都知道了。那么苹果会引领一场学习的变革吗？让我们拭目以待吧！