MP3 and the Digital Music Revolution 数位音乐大革命
- 详细资料
- 创建于 2005年4月15日
- 最后更新于 2023年12月18日
- 发布于 2011年8月28日
- 作者：Mike Lee
- 点击数：594
課文朗讀
課文中英文講解
There’s a revolution going on: CD collections are disappearing; hard drives are bulging; and almost any song can be found with an Internet connection. This is the digital music revolution. It is a technology called MPEG Audio Layer-3 that started this revolution. Most of us just call it MP3.
有一项革命正在进行:CD收藏正渐渐消失，硬盘容量正渐渐扩充，而且只要与因特网连结，几乎可以找到所有的歌曲。这是数字音乐革命。一种叫做MPEG Audio Layer-3的科技发起这项革命，我们大部分人称之为MP3。
MP3 technology was invented by German researcher Karlheins Brandenburg in the 1980s. He created an entire technology call “audio compression.” Brandenburg studied how the human ear understands sound so that the least important parts of music could be cut out without seriously affecting the sound quality of the music. The result was that a song could be digitally stored at one-tenth of its original size. This is like changing a dictionary into slim magazine. Of course, some quality is lost by doing this, but hey, the compressed information is sure easier to work with.
MP3科技乃由一名德国研究员卡翰兹布兰登堡在1980年代发明。他创造了一套叫做「语音压缩」的技术。布兰登堡研究人类的耳朵如何听懂声音，以便能够把音乐中最不重要的部分删去，又不至于严重影响音乐的音质。结果我们发现可以以原来容量的十分之一数字化储存一首歌。这就像把一本字典变成一本薄薄的杂志。当然，这么做难免得牺牲一些音质，但是这种压缩过的数据绝对更好用。
Not until Napster hit the Internet did MP3 technology become widely-known. Then suddenly, the name “MP3” was everywhere. The original Napster may be gone, but MP3 technology certainly isn’t. Recent innovations like MP3 players, online digital music stores, and Apple’s iPod have changed the way we think about the music. These days, there are more advanced compression technologies that eventually might replace MP3, but MP3 will always be the original.
一直到Napster在网络出现后，MP3科技才开始广为人知。然后忽然间，「MP3」这个名词红遍大街小巷。原先的Napster也许已经不在了，但是MP3科技绝对不会消失。最新的产品，如MP3随身听、在线数字唱片行以及Apple的iPod等等，已经改变了我们对音乐的看法。最近，有更多先进的压缩技术终究会取代MP3，但是MP3将永远是本尊。
－By Iain Ferguson
Vocabulary
revolution [͵rɛvəˋluʃən] n. 革命
technology [tɛkˋnɑlədʒɪ] n. 科技
researcher [riˋsɝtʃɚ] n. 研究员；调查者
innovation [͵ɪnəˋveʃən] n. 革新，改革，创新
online [ˋɑn͵laɪn] adj. 在线的
More Information
bulge [bʌldʒ] v. 膨胀，凸起
MPEG Audio Layer-3 MP3的全名
compression [kəmˋprɛʃən] n. 压缩，压挤