译林版牛津高中英语(必修3):Unit 2 Language-Project(5)

In 1821, a soldier visited the school and showed the students a system for passing messages at night during times of battle.

1821年，一名士兵访问了这所学校，向学生们展示了战争期间在夜间传递信息的方法。

His system used paper with small, raised dots that could be felt with the fingers.

他的方法使用带小凸点的纸张，这些小凸点可以用手指感觉出来。

Each letter of the alphabet¹ was represented² by a different pattern which consisted of twelve dots.

单词的每个字母都是由十二个凸点不同排列模式而构成。

The soldiers would drag their fingers over the raised dots to read the message.

士兵用力地拽着学生们的手指感觉凸点，阅读信息。

While the students found the soldier's idea interesting, the system was too difficult to be of practical³ use.

虽然学生们都觉得士兵的想法非常有趣，但这一方法太过复杂，并不实用。

However, young Louis Braille took the idea and worked on it.

然而，年少的路易斯·布莱尔接受了这个想法，并开始研究起来。

At the age of fifteen, he created a system with patterns of six raised dots representing⁴ each letter.

十五岁的时候，他的系统发明完成了，用六个凸点来组成每一个相应的字母。

'Braille', the system for reading used today by blind people around the world, was thus born.

“布莱尔点字法”，今天世界上盲人看书采用的方法，就此诞生了。

1 alphabet   

n.字母表，符号系统

参考例句：

• There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.英语字母表中有26个字母。
• The last letter of the alphabet is Z.字母表的最后一个字母是Z。

2 represented   

v.表现( represent的过去式和过去分词 )；代表；体现；作为…的代表

参考例句：

• The number 107 is represented in hexadecimal as 6B. 107这个数用十六进制表示为6B。
• Women are under-represented at senior levels in business. 商界高层的女性代表不足。

3 practical   

adj.实际的，实践的；实用的，应用的；有实际经验的

参考例句：

• He is a practical person.他是位很讲实际的人。
• Your invention is clever,but not practical.你的发明很巧，但不实用。

4 representing   

v.表现( represent的现在分词 )；代表；体现；作为…的代表

参考例句：

• a diagram representing a cross section of the human eye 表现人眼的剖面图
• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。