新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 4t04a

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！The Telecommunications Revolution
[00:-1.00]A transformation is occurring
[00:-2.00]that should greatly boost living standards in the developing world.
[00:-3.00]Places that until recently were deaf and dumb
[00:-4.00]are rapidly acquiring up-to-date telecommunications
[00:-5.00]that will let them promote both internal and foreign investment.
[00:-6.00]It may take a decade for many countries in Asia,
[00:-7.00]Latin America,and Eastern Europe
[00:-8.00]to improve transportation,power supplies,and other utilities.
[00:-9.00]But a single optical fiber
[00:10.00] with a diameter of less than half a millimeter
[00:11.00]can carry more information than a large cable made of copper wires.
[00:12.00]By installing optical fiber,digital switches,
[00:13.00]and the latest wireless transmission systems,
[00:14.00]a parade of urban centers and industrial zones from Beijing to Budapest
[00:15.00]are stepping directly into the Information Age.
[00:16.00]A spider's web of digital and wireless communication links
[00:17.00]is already reaching most of Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.
[00:18.00]All these developing regions see advanced communications
[00:19.00]as a way to leap over whole stages of economic development.
[00:20.00]Widespread access to information technologies,
[00:21.00]for example,promises to condense the time required to change
[00:22.00]from labor- intensive assembly work to industries that involve engineering,
[00:23.00]marketing,and design.Modern communications
[00:24.00] "will give countries like China and Vietnam
[00:25.00]a huge advantage over countries stuck with old technology".
[00:26.00]How fast these nations should push ahead is a matter of debate.
[00:27.00]Many experts think Vietnam is going too far by requiring
[00:28.00]that all mobile phones be expensive digital models,
[00:29.00]when it is desperate for any phones, period.
[00:30.00]"These countries lack experience in weighing costs
[00:31.00]and choosing between technologies,"says one expert.
[00:32.00]Still,there's little dispute that communications will be a key factor
[00:33.00]separating the winners from the losers.
[00:34.00]Consider Russia.Because of its strong educational system
[00:35.00]in mathematics and science,
[00:36.00]it should thrive in the information age.
[00:37.00]The problem is its national phone system
[00:38.00]is a rusting antique that dates from the l930s.
[00:39.00]To lick this problem,Russia is starting to install optical fiber
[00:40.00]and has a strategic plan to pump $40 billion
[00:41.00]into various communications projects.
[00:42.00]But its economy is stuck in recession
[00:43.00]and it barely has the money to even scratch the surface of the problem.
[00:44.00]Compare that with the mainland of China.
[00:45.00]Over the next decade,it plans to pour some $100 billion
[00:46.00]into telecommunications equipment.
[00:47.00]In a way,China's backwardness is an advantage,
[00:48.00]because the expansion occurs just as new technologies
[00:49.00]are becoming cheaper than copper wire systems.
[00:50.00]By the end of 1995,each of China's provincial capitals
[00:51.00]except for Tibet will have digital switches
[00:52.00]and high-capacity optical fiber links.
[00:53.00] This means that major cities are getting the basic infrastructure
[00:54.00]to become major parts of the information superhighway,
[00:55.00]allowing people to log on to the most advanced services available.
[00:56.00]Telecommunications is also a key to Shanghai's dream
[00:57.00]of becoming a top financial center.
[00:58.00]To offer peak performance in providing the electronic data
[00:59.00]and paperless trading global investors expect,
[-1:00.00]Shanghai plans telecommunications networks as powerful as those in Manhattan.
[-1:-1.00]Meanwhile,Hungary also hopes to jump into the modern world.
[-1:-2.00]Currently,700,000 Hungarians are waiting for phones.
[-1:-3.00]To partially overcome the problem of funds
[-1:-4.00]and to speed the import of Western technology,
[-1:-5.00]Hungary sold a 30% stake in its national phone company to two Western companies.