今天分享一篇来自《经济学人》Espresso的短文“Light work: 3D printing”。先来说说Espresso，这是《经济学人》推出的新闻早报类app，Espresso是浓缩咖啡的意思（拿铁、卡布奇诺、摩卡都是在Espresso的花样）。顾名思义，这个App推送的也是言简意赅的信息。《经济学人》的写作上乘，但是文章较长，往往涉及到大量的习语、幽默，如果不查询文化背景很难读出其中深意，而Espresso App推送的资讯每条长度都在140-160字，也就是接近微博的长度；文章篇幅虽小，可是逻辑清晰，观点独到，通常是理性客观的信息，是很好的练习阅读的材料。同时，文章简短也减轻了阅读的压力，读完一段材料后还可以分析一下文章的行文逻辑，体会别人是如何用一百多字涵盖这么大的信息量的。
Light work: 3D printing
①Printing one-off 3D prototypes has become relatively commonplace. ②Proponents hope such methods could one day be routinely used to produce small batches of useful products without the need for expensive tooling and moulds, which can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars. ③But current 3D printers are painfully slow.④ Most take hours to build up three-dimensional objects layer by minuscule layer.⑤ Writing in Science Advances, two engineers from the University of Michigan describe a new 3D-printing method that promises to speed things up by a factor of 100. ⑥Timothy Scott and Mark Burns shone patterns made from two different-coloured lights into a vat of methacrylate resin. ⑦Blue made the resin harden; ultra-violet stopped that process. ⑧This allowed the researchers to quickly create sophisticated, smooth-sided objects, achieving speeds of around 2 metres per hour (compared with a few centimetres for traditional methods).⑨ The results were a lattice, a toy boat and a blocky “M” university logo.
先说说标题里面的“light work”， 我认为可以将light理解为两种意思，一是“光，光线”，二是“轻松的”。从文章得知，新的3d打印方式利用两种颜色的光线组合模式照射光敏树脂，使其固化成形，使得3d打印速度大大提高，不再慢得“令人痛苦”。
这段话总共9个句子，①②句提出3d打印已屡见不鲜，期望未来能广泛用于实用产品生产。③④句用一个But转折，点出当前3d打印的痛点——打印速度非常慢，从而引出新的3d打印方法，⑤到⑨句分别介绍了新的3d打印方法、大概原理、成效和成果。我们根据意群分开来看。
- commonplace :形容词,happening or existing in many places, and therefore not special or unusual常见的，屡见不鲜的;
- 比如：Computers are now commonplace in primary classrooms. 计算机如今在小学教室里很普遍。
- 作名词表示“平常事，常见事物;老生常谈，老掉牙的话；”
- the commonplace: something that is ordinary or boring 平淡无奇的事物； 同义词组：the everyday
参考译文: 打印一次性3D原型已经变得相当普遍。
②Proponents hope such methods could one day be routinely used to produce small batches of useful products without the need for expensive tooling and moulds, which can easily cost tens of thousands of dollars.
- proponent指” a person who supports an idea or course of action 倡导者；支持者；拥护者”,近义词advocate ;
- 比如leading/main/major proponent主要拥护者,首要支持者
- routinely常规性地; 例行地; 照例地
- batches of 几批
- mould模具；铸模
- tens of thousands of成千上万；数以万计
参考译文: 支持者希望这种方法有一天能常规应用于生产小批量实用产品，不必动辄就要花费数万美元来制造工具和模具。
③But current 3D printers are painfully slow. ④Most take hours to build up three-dimensional objects layer by minuscule layer.
- painfully slow“速度慢得令人痛苦”， painfully可以用来强调不好或有害的特性，表示“非常地”；
- three-dimensional 三维的；立体的；三度空间的；
- minuscule /ˈmɪnəskjuːl/： extremely small 极小的；微小的
- layer by layer逐层，一层一层
参考译文: 但是，目前的3D打印机打印速度非常非常慢，它们通过一层一层地堆叠薄层来构造三维物体，而大多数打印机完成这个过程都要耗费几个小时。
⑤Writing in Science Advances, two engineers from the University of Michigan describe a new 3D-printing method that promises to speed things up by a factor of 100.
- promise ： to make sth seem likely to happen; to show signs of sth 使很可能；预示
- speed up 加速; 使 (某物) 加速
- factor ：熟词僻义，表示的是 the amount by which sth increases or decreases （增或减的）数量，倍数
- by a factor of five/ten〔增加或减少〕五倍/十倍
- 比如：The real wage of the average worker has increased by a factor of over ten in the last 70 years. 近70年来工人的实际工资平均增长超过了十倍。
- 关于倍数增加问题：原文“increased 3 times/folds”,“increased by 3 times”,“increased to 3 times”以及“increased by a factor of 3 ”均应翻译为“增加到3倍”或者“增加2倍”，在这类句型中increase常被raise,grow,go/speed up,multiply等词所替代。
参考译文:密歇根大学的两名工程师在《科学进展》杂志上撰文，描述了一种新的3d打印方法，有望将打印速度提高到100倍。
⑥Timothy Scott and Mark Burns shone patterns made from two different-coloured lights into a vat of methacrylate resin. ⑦Blue made the resin harden; ultra-violet stopped that process.
- shone：shine的过去式，把…照向，照射
- pattern n. 模式；图案；样品
- be made from：与 be made of均意为由……制成,由…制造; 但略有不同：be made of制成产品后看得出原材料,而be made from制成产品后看不出原材料。
- vat :a very large container for storing liquids in〔储存液体用的〕大缸，大桶，罐
- methacrylate /mɪ'θækrɪleɪt/ resin ：甲基丙烯酸酯树脂,这是一种光固化树脂。
- ultra-violet紫外线
参考译文:蒂莫西·斯科特（Timothy Scott）和马克·伯恩斯（Mark Burns）提出了一种光照组合模式，让两种颜色的光线按照这个模式，把光照射进一桶甲基丙烯酸树脂中，蓝色光线使这种光敏树脂固化，而紫外线则能打断这个固化过程。
⑧This allowed the researchers to quickly create sophisticated, smooth-sided objects, achieving speeds of around 2 metres per hour (compared with a few centimetres for traditional methods). ⑨The results were a lattice, a toy boat and a blocky “M” university logo.
- sophisticate 复杂的，精密的
- lattice格子；格架
参考译文: 这使得研究人员能够快速地制造出结构复杂、表面光滑的物体，速度更是达到每小时2米左右 (相比传统方法，每小时仅仅几厘米)。打印成品有一个格子架，一只玩具船和一个密歇根大学的“M”字块状标志。
以上。
译文仅供参考，如有不妥之处，还请温柔指点
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