美国有线新闻 CNN 造福零售业的条形码

When it comes to retail¹ products, what does "UPC" stand for?

当涉及到零售产品时，“UPC”代表什么?

Unique Product Code, Universal Product Code, Unique Price Code, or Universal Product Co-op?

独特产品代码？通用产品代码？独特价格代码？还是通用产品合作社?

UPC stands for Universal Product Code, the standard barcode printed on the stuff we buy.

UPC代表通用产品代码，即印在我们所购买商品上的标准条形码。

Only the non-millennial² and maybe some early millennial members of our audience will remember using these, the walkman, floppy³ disks and, of course, VHS. You needed something to tape world premiere music videos. All of these things were inventions of the 1970s. And while today, their value is probably more nostalgic than usual, there are some devices of the disco era that are still helping⁴ us every day.

相信我们的观众朋友中只有非千禧一代，或者某些早期的千禧一代还会记得使用这些东西——随身听、软盘，当然还有录像带。你需要一些东西来录下全球首发的音乐录影带。所有这些都是上世纪70年代的发明。然而如今它们的价值可能主要体现在怀旧上，但仍有一些迪斯科时代的设备时至今日仍在日常生活中被广泛使用。

On June 26, 1974, a pack of Juicy Fruit gum made history when it was the first item ever to be scanned via a state-of-the-art technology: the barcode.

1974年6月26日，一盒Juicy Fruit牌的口香糖创造了历史。它是有史以来首个通过当时最先进的技术——条形码进行扫描的商品。

And now, more than 40 years later, as many as 5 billion barcodes are scanned every day across the world.

而现在，40多年后的今天，全世界每天都有多达50亿的条形码被扫描。

The code itself, you know, those black lines of varying width on the label, was inspired by Morse code. But the holy smokes component⁵ of the innovation was how it was scanned by lasers.

条形码——标签上那些宽度不同的黑线，是受到摩尔斯电码的启发发明的。但这一发明的神圣之处却是它是如何被激光扫描的。

Lasers had been the stuff of nerd fantasies until the early 1960s, when the Hughes Aircraft Company unveiled the first one at a press conference.

以前激光一直是书呆子幻想中的素材，直到1960年代早期，休斯飞机公司在一次新闻发布会上首次将其公开。

A Los Angeles newspaper reported the story underneath⁶ the headline, "LA man discovers science fiction death ray."

洛杉矶一家报纸报道了这一事件，标题是“洛杉矶发现了科幻中的死亡射线。”

But the fact of the matter is, no one really knew what to do with that new technology until that June morning in 1974 when a pack of Juicy Fruit gum in Ohio changed the world.

但事实是，没有人知道到底该如何利用它，直到1974年6月的一个早晨，俄亥俄州的一盒Juicy Fruit口香糖改变了世界，人们才真正了解该怎样运用这项新技术。

Today, barcodes are the unsung heroes that make everything from shipping⁷ to boarding an airplane, to keeping track of medication possible.

今天，条形码是从航运到空运的所有物品上必不可少的、是使得追踪药物成为可能的无名英雄。

But the biggest beneficiary is retail. Think about a grocery store from yesteryear. Every individual item had to be marked with its price, and the cashier had to manually input⁸ it into the register.

但最大的受益者是零售业。想想前不久的杂货店吧，那时每个单独的商品都必须标明价格，而收银员必须手动将其输入到寄存器中。

So, thanks to the barcode, you`re waiting in the checkout<sup>9</sup> line a whole lot less and the stores themselves benefited big time. The barcodes allow them to keep accurate, real-time inventory<sup>10</sup>. That`s a major advance in efficiency, even if it cost some grocery staff their jobs.

所以，多亏了条形码，收银台排队的人才少了很多，商店本身也从中受益良多。条形码保证了商品信息的准确性，使他们了解到商品的实时库存。虽然这让一些杂货店的员工丢了工作，但它却为行业效率带来了极大的进步。

1 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

2 millennial   

一千年的，千福年的

参考例句：

• Both Russia and America looked to the future to fulfill their millennial expectations. 俄国和美国都把实现他们黄金时代的希望寄托于未来。
• The millennial generation is celebrating the global commons every day, apparently unmindful of Hardin's warning. 千禧一代显然对哈丁的警告不以为然，每天都在颂扬全球“公地”。

3 floppy   

adj.松软的，衰弱的

参考例句：

• She was wearing a big floppy hat.她戴了顶松软的大帽子。
• Can you copy those files onto this floppy disk?你能把那些文件复制到这张软盘上吗？

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

6 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

7 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

8 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

9 checkout   

n.（超市等）收银台，付款处

参考例句：

• Could you pay at the checkout.你能在结帐处付款吗。
• A man was wheeling his shopping trolley to the checkout.一个男人正推着购物车向付款台走去。

10 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。