读经济学人学写作:人脸识别技术 (精读第五期)

Facial recognition is not just another technology. It will change society. THE human face is a remarkable piece of work.

脸部识别不但但是又一项技术。它将改变社会。人脸是一件非同凡响的作品。

The astonishing variety of facial features helps people recognise each other and is crucial to the formation of complex societies. So is the face's ability to send emotional signals, whether through an involuntary blush or the artifice of a false smile.

令人惊异的脸部特征多样化帮助人们相互辨认，并且对复杂社会的形成非常关键。人脸传达表情符号的能力——无论是通过不自觉的脸红，还是通过做作的假笑——也是如此。

解析：这两个句子结构比较简洁：A helps people do something and is crucial to B此处有同学会有疑惑，为什么此处可以使用do的动词原形，该处的语法规则为feel ，let make have 已经表示听，看的感官动词，后面接省去to的动词不定式。另外表示对……重要除了be important to，还可以把important 替换成很多其他的形容词，比如文中的crucial，essential，fundamental，significant等。第二个句子so is the face's ability，表示人脸能力也是如此，是倒装句的用法。另外此处to send emotional signals是动词不定式做了后置定语，大家注意哦，写作时，常见限定修饰名词时，除了用形容词，代词，定语从句，介词短语，还可使用动词不定式放在被修饰的名词后，因此此处的 face's ability to send emotional signals翻译是：人脸的传递情感信号的能力

People spend much of their waking lives, in the office and the courtroom as well as the bar and the bedroom, reading faces, for signs of attraction, hostility, trust and deceit. They also spend plenty of time trying to dissimulate.

人们把醒着的时间——无论是在办公室、法庭，还是在酒吧和卧室——大都用在阅读脸上的吸引、敌视、信任和欺骗的符号上面。同时，还拿出大把的时间试图掩饰。

Technology is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers' attendance; in Britain, by retailers to spot past shoplifters.

技术正在迅速地赶上人类读脸的能力。在美国，脸部识别被教堂用来记录信徒的礼拜。在英国，它被零售商用来识别以前的商店扒手。

解析：注意该句子的使用。简练的并列用法，同学们在写作中可以参考。首先参考中文，我们来翻译一下：在美国，脸部识别被教堂用来记录信徒的礼拜。在英国，它被零售商用来识别以前的商店扒手。In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers' attendance; in Britain, facial recognition is used by retailers to spot past shoplifters.观察原文写法我们会发现第二个句子省去了与第一个句子重复的地方 In America facial recognition is used by churches to track worshippers' attendance; in Britain, by retailers to spot past shoplifters.该用法我们可以在写作中模仿

This year Welsh police used it to arrest a suspect outside a football game. In China it verifies the identities of ride-hailing drivers, permits tourists to enter attractions and lets people pay for things with a smile.

今年，威尔士警方使用这种技术在一场球赛外逮捕了一名疑犯。在中国，它验证出租车司机的身份，允许游客进入景点，让人们用微笑付款购物。

Apple's new iPhone is expected to use it to unlock the homescreen. Set against human skills, such applications might seem incremental.

苹果公司的新iPhone手机有望用它来解锁屏幕。较之人类技能，这类应用或许看上去是多此一举。

解析：注意此处set against 表示与……做对比，把……放在一起考虑

Some breakthroughs, such as flight or the internet, obviously transform human abilities; facial recognition seems merely to encode them. Although faces are peculiar to individuals, they are also public, so technology does not, at first sight, intrude on something that is private.

有些突破，如飞行和互联网，明显地改变了人类的能力；脸部识别不过是对它们进行编码而已。尽管脸之与是独有的，但是，它们也是公共的。因此，乍一看，技术没有侵犯私有之物。

And yet the ability to record, store and analyse images of faces cheaply, quickly and on a vast scale promises one day to bring about fundamental changes to notions of privacy, fairness and trust.

然而，便宜地、快速地、大量地记录、储存和分析人脸影像的能力预示着，总有一天会给隐私、公平和信任等观念带来根本性的变革。