新奇事件簿 象牙海岸采用新的通讯系统（在线收听）

Ivory Coast has adopted a revolutionary new system of postal addresses that contain just three words. It means that for the first time ever, everyone in the country will be able to receive mail to their house or office. Up until now, people had to rely on post office boxes. There were only 150,000 of these nationwide and people had to rent them, which meant poorer people found it difficult to receive mail. The head of Ivory Coast's post office told the BBC: "We have 150,000 PO boxes for a population of nearly 24 million. That means a postal address is a luxury in Ivory Coast. We have to make postal access available to everyone." He said the three-word addresses would move Ivory Coast into the digital age.

象牙海岸采用了新的革命性的通讯地址，只有三个词语。这意味着这个国家的人有史以来首次在家里或办公室接收邮件。目前为止，人们必须使用邮政信箱来收发信件。全国仅有15万个信箱，人们必须租用，这意味着穷人很难接收邮件。象牙海岸邮局局长告诉BBC：“我们全国有近2400万人口，而只有15万个邮箱。这意味着在象牙海岸一个通讯地址非常难得。我们必须让每个人都有通讯地址。”他表示，三个词语的通讯地址将使象牙海岸进入数字化时代。

The Ivory Coast's new postal system is based on the what3words.com geo-mapping system. Its software has divided the world into a grid of 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, each assigned a unique 3-word address. The software uses latitude and longitude coordinates to precisely pinpoint a location on a global address network. The 22 numbers from these coordinates are converted into three easy to remember words that replace house numbers, street and city names and zip codes. A what3words.com spokesperson said: "Poor addressing might seem no more than annoying in some countries, but around the world, it hampers the growth and development of nations, ultimately costing lives."

象牙海岸新的通讯系统基于what3words.com geo-mapping系统。其软件将全世界分成57兆个3m x 3m的网格，每个网格指定三个数字的地址。该软件使用维度和经度坐标来精确指定全球地址网络上的位置。代表这些坐标的22个数字被转化为三个容易记忆的词语来代替邮政编码，城市名称，街道和门牌号。what3words.com发言人表示：“通讯地址不详在某些国家或许只是令人烦恼，但是在全世界许多地方这种困境妨碍了国家的然荣发展，最终导致生命的损失。”