温哥华英语口语 第 241 课：Maybe you need glasses. 也许你要戴眼镜。

Jake: Good morning. I'm Jake Seltzer, and this is "Hello America." Today, Stamford is a city of big office buildings. It didn't use to be. Fifty years ago, it was a city of factories. 早晨好， 我是杰克. 萨尔茨， 这是“ 你好， 美国” 节目。今天， 斯坦福德是个满是现代化写字楼的城市。但过去却不是。五十年前， 这里到处都是工厂。

Jake: At the Stamford Historical Museum, we looked at all the products that Stamford factories used to make. 在斯坦福德历史博物馆里， 我们看到了过去斯坦福德工厂生产的所有产品。

Jake: People used to call Stamford "The Lock City" because this company--Yale & Towne Lock--had its factories here. 人们过去称斯坦福德为“ 锁城”， 是因为这家名叫耶鲁汤尼的锁业公司曾在斯坦福德设有工厂。

Yale used to employ four out of five people in this town. . . The company could produce hundreds of locks in a day. . .They could produce millions in a year. 当时镇上每五个人中就有四人在耶鲁上班......公司过去一天生产数百套锁......一年能生产数百万套。

Jake: You can't find a typewriter like this anymore, but it used to be the most popular typewriter in the world. And a Stamford company used to make it. 现在你再也看不到这样的打字机了， 但它曾经是世界上最流行的打字机。斯坦福德的一家公司过去就生产这种打字机。

Jake: This is a postage meter. Pitney Bowes made the first one in 1919. A postage meter can stamp mail automatically. 这是盖戳机。皮特尼. 鲍在1919 年生产了第一台盖戳机。盖戳机可以自动为信件盖上邮戳。

But before 1919, it didn't use to be so easy. They used to stamp letters by hand in those days. 但在1919 年以前， 这项工作可不那么轻松。那时候人们都是手工盖戳。

Now they use postage meters. Postal workers could stamp about a dozen letters in a minute with this machine. 而现在他们用上了盖戳机。当时， 邮局工人用这种机器一分钟大约能盖十二封信。

Jake: Shaving didn't use to be so easy. Back then, men used to shave by hand. They couldn't shave in a hurry. . . . 过去， 刮胡子可不那么容易。那时， 男人们手动刮胡子。他们刮不快......

Then, Jacob Schick invented the electric razor. Today, men use electric razors, and they can shave quickly and easily. 后来扎考伯.史克发明了电动剃须刀， 现在男人们都用电动剃须刀， 可以刮得又快又轻松。

The Schick factories used to be in Stamford, but they aren't here anymore. 史克工厂过去曾在斯坦福德， 但现在不在这儿了。

Jake: Stamford workers used to make most of the world's glass tubes. At Machlett Laboratories, glassblowers used to make thousands of them every day. 斯坦福德的工人们过去生产世界上大部分的玻璃管。在马彻里特工厂， 人们过去每天生产数千只玻璃管，

A good glassblower could make a glass tube like this one in fifteen minutes. But he couldn't work for more than three or four hours without a break. 一个好的吹玻璃工十五分钟能制作一个这样的玻璃管。但他们不能连续工作三、四个小时，

It was too hot. Now most X-ray tubes are made by machines. 因为工厂里太热了， 现在大部分的X 光玻璃管都是机器生产的。

Jake: Stamford factory workers used to make all these products. Stamford used to be a factory town. 所有这些产品都是过去斯坦福德的工厂生产的。那时斯坦福德是个工业城。

Today, it is a corporate city with offices instead of factories. 现在则是一个办公楼林立的商业中心， 早已没有昔日那种工厂云集的样子了。

Jake: We hope you enjoyed our feature today. Please tune in tomorrow. I'm Jake Seltzer and this is"Hello America. " 希望您喜欢我们今天的节目， 欢迎明天继续收看， 我是杰克. 萨尔茨， 这是“ 你好， 美国” 节目。

Mike: What's wrong, Jake? We're done. You can get up. 怎么了， 杰克？ 我们已经录完了， 你可以起来了。

Jake: It's strange. During my report, I couldn't read the teleprompter. I didn't use to have trouble reading it. 好奇怪。刚才报道时， 我看不清提示机上的字。过去可从没这样过。

Mike: Maybe you need glasses. 也许你要戴眼镜。

Jake: Glasses! Last week I could read without glasses. 戴眼镜！ 上个星期我还可以不戴眼镜就能看清楚呢！

Mike: Hmm. I wonder what happened to you this week, Jake. 嗯， 杰克， 我想知道你这个星期是怎么了？