}  Predicting the future is notoriously difficult. Who could have imagined, in the mid 1970s, for example, that by the end of the 20th century, computers would be as common in people‘s homes as TV sets? In the 1970s, computers were common enough, but only in big business, government departments, and large organizations.

}  Department= major (X):

   有人在说专业这个词时用的是department,其实正确的是major。我学的是心理学：I major in psychology 。
international department

   国际部。是国外大学一个比较大的分支，专门管international student　的。
Registrar’s Offices

　这个权利比较大，管学生记录，管注册，管成绩单，管发毕业证
academic programs

　一门专业
subject

　学科
course

　课，一门课，两门课 

}  University, schools, departments, programs,

　这几个词之间有递减的关系。University下面可能有business schools ; medical schools，department 和 programs一个专业合在一起，可以叫department。

}  These were the so-called mainframe machines. Mainframe computers were very large indeed, often occupying whole air-conditioned rooms, employing full-time technicians and run on specially-written software. Though these large machines still exist, many of their functions have been taken over by small powerful personal computers, commonly known as PCs.

}  air-conditioned:
A:That’s an awfully heavy sweater for a day like today.
B: Well, I’m going to be at a lecture in the auditorium most of this morning. And you know what the air-conditioning’s like in there.

   A: 今天这样的天气你穿成这样一定会很热的。

   B：我整个早上要去大会堂听一个Lecture，你知道的，那里的空调不怎么好。

   air-conditioned rooms 装有空调的房间。

}  In 1975, a primitive machine called the Altair, was launched in the USA. It can properly be described as the first ‘home computer’ and it pointed the way to the future. This was followed, at the end of the 1970s, by a machine called an Apple.In the early 1980s, the computer giant, IBM produced the world’s first Personal Computer. This ran on an ‘operating system’ called DOS, produced by a then small company named Microsoft. The IBM Personal Computer was widely copied. From those humble beginnings, we have seen the development of the user-friendly home computers and multimedia machines which are in common use today.

}  user-friendly/search engine friendly

   易于操作，好学/ 对搜索引擎比较友好，搜索引擎比较容易找到你的网页

}  Considering how recent these developments are, it is even more remarkable that as long ago as the 1960s, an Englishman, Leon Bagrit, was able to predict some of the uses of computers which we know today. Bagrit dismissed the idea that computers would learn to ‘think’ for themselves and would ‘rule the world’, which people liked to believe in those days.

}  Rule/conquer:

   rule the world统治世界，征服世界。同义词：conquer

   下面这个句子是看电视剧时看到的，用在口语中
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and I look at my life. And I feel like I’ve conquered the intellectual world.

}  Bagrit foresaw a time when computers would be small enough to hold in the hand, when they would be capable of providing information about traffic jams and suggesting alternative routes, when they would be used in hospitals to help doctors to diagnose illnesses, when they would relieve office workers and accountants of dull, repetitive clerical work. All these computer uses have become commonplace.

}  Alternative:
alternative fuels

   如果说你发现了新的能源，就是alternative fuelsalternative but to wait.

There was no

   没有其他选择，除了等，还是等。

}  Of course, Leon Bagrit could not possibly have foreseen the development of the Internet, the worldwide system that enables us to communicate instantly with anyone in any part of the world by using computers linked to telephone networks. Nor could he have foreseen how we could use the Internet to obtain information on every known subject, so we can read it on a screen in our homes and even print it as well if we want to.

}  communiqué

   公报，声明
China, Russia issue joint communiqué

   joint communiqué 联合公报

}  Computers have become smaller and smaller, more and more powerful and cheaper and cheaper. This is what makes Leon Bagrit’s predictions particularly remarkable. If he, or someone like him, were alive today, he might be able to tell us what to expect in the next fifty years.

}  What makes Leon Bagrit’s predictions particularly remarkable?
This is what makes Leon Bagrit’s predictions particularly remarkable.What makes you think we’re gonna break up?
This is what makes you think we’re gonna break up.

   这两个例子和段落里的红色字体部分是同样的句子结构，这里要特别注意从句的结构是陈述语序。

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