25 Incredible Inventions：Computers

Incredible Inventions Computers by Thom Anthony Table of Contents Introduction page 2 Chapter 1 Life Before Computers page 4 Chapter 2 The First Computers page 6 Chapter 3 Modern Computers page 8 Chapter 4 Today and Tomorrow page 12 Conclusion page 14 Glossary/ Index page 15 Comprehension Check page 16

令人难以置信的发明汤姆·安东尼计算机目录介绍第二页第一章电脑出现前的生活第四页第二章第一台电脑第六页第三章现代电脑第八页第四章今天和明天第十二页总结页第十四页术语/索引页第十五页理解检查第十六页

Introduction Take a look around you. Do you see any computers? Computers can be found at home or school. They help make clocks and traffic lights work. They are inside watches and cars, and many other objects. A computer makes this audio player work. Computers can be found in some clocks. The shape of this computer keyboard was designed for easy use. Computers can be used in an office for work. But they can also be used at home for fun. You can play games and songs on a computer. You can make art and music on one too. Learning about what a computer can do can be as much fun as using one. So, get ready to read about how computers have changed our lives.

看看你的周围。 你看到电脑了吗?电脑可以在家里或学校找到。 它们帮助时钟和交通灯工作。 它们存在于手表、汽车和许多其他物品中。 电脑使这个音频播放器工作。 计算机可以在一些时钟中找到。 这种电脑键盘的形状是为便于使用而设计的。 电脑可以在办公室里用于工作。 但它们也可以在家里用来娱乐。 你可以在电脑上玩游戏和唱歌。 你也可以用它来创作艺术和音乐。 学习电脑的功能和使用电脑一样有趣。 所以，准备好阅读电脑如何改变我们的生活吧。

Chapter 1 Life Before Computers One of the first things people made to help them keep track of numbers was called an abacus. It is made of rods and beads. By sliding the beads on the rods, people can do arithmetic. The Chinese abacus was first made about 5000 years ago. It is still used in some parts of China and Japan. This is an abacus. Amazing Inventions: The Calculator A calculator is a small machine that does math. You can use it to add, subtract, and much more. In 1650, two men in England created the first slide rule. A slide rule is made up of two rulers with numbers written on them. The rulers can be slid back and forth to solve math problems. The slide rule was used for a very long time. When calculators and computers came into use, most people stopped using the slide rule. Slide rules come in a number of different styles.

第一章计算机出现之前的生活人们最早制造的用来记录数字的东西之一叫做算盘。 它是由杆子和珠子做成的。 通过滑动杆子上的珠子，人们可以做算术。 中国算盘最早是在大约5000年前制造的。 在中国和日本的一些地区仍在使用。 这是一个算盘。惊人的发明:计算器计算器是一种做数学运算的小机器。 你可以用它来做加法、减法等等。 1650年，英国的两个人发明了第一把计算尺。 计算尺是由两个写有数字的尺子组成的。 尺子可以前后滑动来解数学题。 计算尺使用了很长一段时间。 当计算器和计算机开始使用时，大多数人就不再使用计算尺了。 计算尺有许多不同的样式。

Chapter 2 The First Computers One of the first computers was called the ENIAC. It was completed in 1946 and it was very big. ENIAC weighed as much as seven elephants and took up as much room as a house. Six people were needed to keep it working. It could perform about 500 addition and 300 multiplication problems per second. The letters ENIAC stand for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. Early computers had a lot of problems. They could only do one thing at a time. It cost a lot of money to build one. Early computers also took up a lot of space and created a lot of heat. They could break down easily. This early computer cost $20,000. Soon, smaller computers that could fit inside a home or an office were built. But they were still slow and expensive. So most people did not buy them. But people wanted to have them and soon they would be able to.

第一批计算机之一叫做ENIAC。 它于1946年完工，非常大。 ENIAC有七头大象那么重，占用的空间和一所房子一样大。 需要六个人来维持它的运转。 它每秒可以执行大约500个加法和300个乘法问题。 字母ENIAC代表电子数字积分器和计算机。 早期的计算机有很多问题。 他们一次只能做一件事。 建造一个要花很多钱。 早期的计算机还占用了大量的空间，产生了大量的热量。 它们很容易分解。 这台早期的计算机价值20万美元。 很快，小型电脑就出现了，可以放在家里或办公室里。 但它们仍然是缓慢和昂贵的。 所以大多数人都不买。 但是人们想拥有它们，很快他们就能拥有了。

Chapter 3 Modern Computers In the 1970s, a new, small device called the microchip increased the speed of computers. Now people could buy desktop computers that worked faster and cost less. Computers became more common in offices, schools, and homes. Many libraries have desktop computers for people to use. A microchip In 1981, Adam Osborne built a small computer that was also very light. It was called a laptop. Laptops can do the same things that desktop computers can do. But people can use them in a smaller space. Laptops can weigh as little as three pounds. Since they are light, people can carry them from work, to home, to school. They can operate on batteries too. This means that people can use them when they travel. People often bring a laptop computer on board a train so they can work while they're traveling.

现代计算机在20世纪70年代，一种叫做微芯片的新型小型设备提高了计算机的速度。 现在人们可以买到运行速度更快、价格更低的台式电脑。 电脑在办公室、学校和家庭中变得越来越普遍。 许多图书馆都有供人们使用的台式电脑。 微芯片1981年，亚当·奥斯本制造了一台非常轻的小型计算机。 它被称为笔记本电脑。笔记本电脑可以做台式电脑可以做的事情。 但是人们可以在较小的空间使用它们。 笔记本电脑的重量可以轻至3磅。 由于它们很轻，人们可以随身携带，上班、回家、上学。 它们也可以用电池操作。 这意味着人们可以在旅行时使用它们。 人们经常带着笔记本电脑上火车，这样他们可以在旅行中工作。