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Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Sam.
大家好。这里是BBC 学习英语栏目的六分钟英语。我是萨姆。
And I’m Neil.
我是内尔。
In 1436 in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the printing press —— a machine capable of making many copies of the same page of text.
1436年，德国人约翰·古腾堡发明了印刷机——一种能够复印文本的机器。
Ever since, printing has been used around the world to produce books, newspapers and magazines.
从那时起，印刷术风靡全球，被用来制作书籍、报纸和杂志。
Printing technology has come a long way since Gutenberg’s time, but even today’s most advanced laser printers have only printed flat, two-dimensional objects… until now.
自古腾堡那时以来，印刷技术已经取得了长足的进步，但即使是最先进的激光打印机也只打印过平面的二维物体。而现在，情况发生了变化。
In this programme, we’re discussing 3D printers —— printers which can build solid, three-dimensional objects out of a variety of materials including plastic, concrete and metal.
在本期节目中，我们将讨论3D打印机——一种可以用塑料、混凝土、金属等各种材料制作三维固体物体的打印机。
Now, Neil, when you say a printer that can make solid objects, I guess you’re not talking about a normal printer. That’s right, Sam.
内尔，你说一台可以制造固体物体的打印机的时候，我就觉得那不是一台普通的打印机。没错，萨姆。
These large and complex 3D printers work in a completely different way.
这些大而复杂的3D打印机以完全不同的方式运行。
Unlike a sculptor who chips away at a block of stone to reveal a shape underneath, 3D printers work in the opposite way, building up physical objects by adding material layer on layer.
3D打印机的工作方式与雕刻家不同，3D打印机通过一层又一层地添加材料来构建实物，而雕刻家通过凿掉一层层石头来创造作品。
And the ability to print objects in this way is providing solutions to many problems, as we’ll be finding out. But first I have a question for you, Neil.
这种3D打印技术为许多问题提供了解决方案，下面我们将一一介绍。但首先我有个问题要问你，内尔。
Before Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing press, copies of texts were made by block printing, using hand-carved wooden blocks pressed into ink.
在约翰·古腾堡发明印刷机之前，复印件是通过雕版印刷制作的，需要手工雕刻木版，然后蘸上墨水。
So what was the oldest known text to be printed this way?
那么已知的以这种方式印刷的最古老的文本是什么？
Was it a) a religious teaching? b) a cooking recipe? Or, c) a love letter?
是 a) 一份宗教经文？b) 一份烹饪食谱？还是 c)一封情书？
I think it might have been a recipe.
我想可能是一份食谱。
OK, Neil. I’ll reveal the answer later in the programme.
好的，内尔。我稍后在节目中揭晓答案。
The idea of printing solid objects is not new, but it was only after the millennium that tech companies began to realise how it could be done.
打印3D物体的想法并不新鲜，但直到2000年之后，科技公司才开始意识到如何实现这个想法。
Here’s Professor Mark Miodownik, a material scientist at University College, London, explaining more to BBC World Service programme, People Fixing The World.
伦敦大学学院的材料科学家马克·米奥多尼克教授在BBC世界服务栏目的《人们修复世界》节目中讲解了更多内容。
As the millennium turned, patents expired and that meant people started making very cheap 3D printers.
迈入2000年，专利到期了，这意味着人们可以开始制造非常便宜的3D打印机。
And people started mucking about with them and going, "Hold on a minute! It’s not just an industrial tool. You can put them in schools, you can put them in universities. Ohh, it's actually really great for prototyping.
人们开始玩3D打印机，突然，人们意识到，它不仅仅可以应用于工业，还可以出现在学校里、大学里。喔，其实它真的很适合制作原型。
And then people got excited about it and it became the answer to everything. Everything was going to be 3D-printed!
人们很兴奋，任何东西都能打印出来。一切都将是3D打印的！
After the year 2000, 3D printers suddenly got much cheaper and tech companies started mucking about with them —— spending time playing with them in a fun way.
2000年后，3D打印机突然大幅降价，科技公司开始摆弄它们，也就是花时间以一种有趣的方式使用它们。
They realised that 3D printers had many uses —— for example, they discovered that 3D printers were great at making prototypes —— models of a product that can be tested, improved and used to develop better products.
他们意识到3D打印机有很多用途——例如，他们发现用3D打印机制作原型很方便。原型就是产品的模型，它可以被测试、改进，也可以用来开发更好的产品。
Professor Miodownik thinks these tech companies were surprised at how useful 3D printing was.
米奥多尼克教授表示，这些科技公司惊讶于3D打印机的用途之广泛。
He uses the phrase "hold on a minute!" to express this surprise or disbelief.
他用了短语“hold on a minute!”来表示惊讶或不可置信。
In fact, in turned out that 3D printers were excellent at making bespoke things —— objects which are made specially for a particular person.
事实证明，3D打印机在制作订制品方面非常出色。订制品是专门为特定的人制作的。
One area which 3D printing dramatically improved was medical prosthetics —— artificial body parts made specially for someone who has lost an arm, a leg or a foot, for example.
3D打印技术在医疗假肢领域大展拳脚。例如，专门为失去一只胳膊、一条腿或一只脚的人订做人造假肢。
In 2021, Stephen Verze, who lost an eye in a childhood accident, became the first person to be fitted with a 3D-printed prosthetic eye.
2021年，在一次童年事故中失去一只眼睛的斯蒂芬·韦尔泽成为第一个安装3D打印假眼的人。
It’s prosthetic, so the new eye doesn't restore Stephen’s sight, but it has boosted his confidence.
那是假眼，所以它不能恢复斯蒂芬的视力，但增强了他的信心。
Surgeon, Mandeep Sagoo, led the team at Moorsfield Hospital that operated on Stephen’s eye.
外科医生曼迪普·萨古领导着摩尔斯菲尔德医院的团队为斯蒂芬安上了假眼。
Here he is explaining more to BBC World Service’s, People Fixing The World.
曼迪普·萨古医生在BBC世界服务栏目的《人们修复世界》节目中讲述了更多内容。
In many countries, particularly the developed world, there are facilities for custom-making a prosthetic eye to match the other eye.
许多国家，特别是发达国家，都有订制假眼来匹配另一只眼睛的器械。
And that's an artisan process which is very time-consuming and requires real artistry on the part of the ocularist.
订制假眼是一个非常耗时的手工活，需要实打实的艺术技巧。
The ocularist is the person who fits the prosthetic eye.
制造假眼的人负责安装。
And so what we have been developing is a technique to automate the whole process.
我们一直在开发的就是一种使这个过程自动化的技术。
Even before 3D printers, prosthetic eyes were custom-made, a word similar to ‘bespoke’ which means specially made according to a particular person’s requirements.
甚至在3D打印机出现之前，假眼就是订制的。“custom-made”，这个词类似于“bespoke”，意思是根据特定人的需求特制的。
But the traditional way of making artificial eyes by hand is very time-consuming —— it takes a lot of time to do.
但传统手工制作假眼的方法非常耗时。
Nowadays, 3D printing can complete the whole process in just thirty minutes.
如今，3D打印机只需30分钟就能完成。
It’s great to see technology helping people, and amazing how far new inventions like 3D printers have come since the days of Johannes Gutenberg.
科技能改善生活真是太好了。自约翰·古腾堡那时起，3D打印机等新发明层出不穷、不断改进，令人惊叹。
Speaking of which, Neil, it’s time to reveal the answer to my question.
说到这里，内尔，是时候揭晓问题的答案了。
Right. You asked me about the earliest known text to have been printed using wooden blocks, and I guesses it was a cooking recipe… So, was I right?
对。你问我已知的用木版印刷的最早的文本，我猜是一本烹饪食谱。那么，我猜的的对吗？
You were… wrong, I’m afraid, Neil!
你......猜错了，内尔！
The oldest known wooden block print was actually a religious text —— the Buddha’s Diamond Sutra.
已知最古老的雕版印刷文本其实是一部宗教经文——《佛陀金刚经》。
OK, let’s recap the vocabulary from this programme, starting with mucking about, an informal way to say playing with something carelessly, not for a serious reason.
好了，让我们回顾一下本期节目中的词汇。从“muck about”开始，这是一种不正式的说法，表示随意地摆弄某物，没有什么正经原因。
A prototype is a model of a product that can be tested, improved and used to develop a better product.
“prototype”是一个产品模型，可以用来测试、改进、开发更好的产品。
The phrase hold on a minute can be used to express surprise or disbelief.
短语“hold on a minute”可以用来表示惊讶或不可置信。
Prosthetics refer to artificial body parts such as arms, legs, feet or eyes, which are used to replace a missing natural part.
假肢指的是人造手臂、腿、脚、眼睛等人造身体部位，用来取代缺失的身体部位。
The words bespoke, and custom-made describe something specially made for a particular person.
“bespoke”和“custom-made”这两个词用来形容为某个特定的人特别订制的东西。
And finally, if something is time-consuming, it takes a lot of time to do.
最后，形容一件事“time-consuming”，意为需要花很多时间去做这件事。
Goodbye for now! Goodbye!
下期见！再见！
