What Does the Multimedia Actually Mean?

   Literally, multimedia means two or more media.If the publisher of this book wanted to join the current hype about multimedia, he could advertise the book as using multimedia technology.After all, it contains two media:text and graphics（the figures）. Nevertheless, when most people refer to multimedia, they generally mean the combination of two or more continuous media, that is, media have to be played during some well-defined timed times interval, usually with the users interaction. In practice, the two media are normally audio and video, that is, sound plus moving pictures.

   In the multimedia environment, we have graphics and text at the same time, we can also add the photograph, animation, good-quality sound, and full motion video.All of the technologies make computers more interesting and much easier to use. For example,a multimedia program can play a segment of movie: a cat was playing a reel of thread, with mewing… The tableau can a be immediately captured and pasted to a text at the side of a paragraph of words.

   CD－ROM

   CD－ROM is an optical technology that is used to make compact disks for CD stereo systems; it has now been adapted to store data for computers.CD disk is an optical disc, on which data is recorded as a set of dips in the surface. When a laser beam shines across the dips,the reflected distortion represents the data.Optical disc has a 600 megabyte capacity and are well suited for the computer applications needing the vast storage.The playback effect of optical discs for music is very perfect,no hiss and crackle as with other photo-records.A computer system must have a CD driver that is designed to read the disks and translate the data into a form it can process. CD disks can store huge volumes of data and are very useful for reference material an encyclopedia, for example.However, as the name（read-only memory）implies, CD disks cannot be written on or changed in any way.
   一、全文翻譯

   “多媒體”到底意味著什么？

   從字面上看，多媒體是指兩種或兩種以上媒體。如果本書的出版者想加入當(dāng)前多媒體廣告的行列，那么，他就可以聲稱這本書已經(jīng)使用了多媒體技術(shù)。因?yàn)椋�畢竟，它包含兩種媒體，文本和圖形（插圖）。然而，當(dāng)大多數(shù)人談及多媒體時(shí)，他們通常是指混合了兩種或兩種以上連續(xù)的媒體，即，媒體可以在一段規(guī)定的時(shí)間之內(nèi)連續(xù)播放，并且通常伴隨著與用戶的交互。實(shí)際上，這兩種媒體通常指音頻和視頻，即聲音加移動(dòng)的圖片。

   在多媒體環(huán)境中，我們可以同時(shí)擁有圖形和文本，也可以增加圖片、動(dòng)畫、高質(zhì)量的音響和全動(dòng)錄像，這些技術(shù)使得計(jì)算機(jī)使用起來(lái)更有趣也更容易。例如，一個(gè)多媒體程序可以播放一段電影：一只小貓正在玩線團(tuán)，發(fā)出“喵喵”的聲音……，這個(gè)畫面可以立即剪貼到一段文字旁邊。

   CD-ROM

    CD－ROM原是一種用于制作CD立體聲系統(tǒng)的小型圓盤的光學(xué)技術(shù)，現(xiàn)在它已經(jīng)被用來(lái)為計(jì)算機(jī)儲(chǔ)藏?cái)?shù)據(jù)。CD盤是一種光盤，其數(shù)據(jù)以一組坑的形式記錄在光盤表面上，當(dāng)激光束掃過(guò)這些坑的時(shí)候，返回的失真程度就代表了這些數(shù)據(jù)。光盤有600兆字節(jié)的容量，非常適合需要大存儲(chǔ)量的計(jì)算機(jī)應(yīng)用。音樂(lè)光盤播放音樂(lè)的效果非常完美，沒(méi)有像用其他唱片那樣的嘶嘶聲和噼啪聲。計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)必須配備一個(gè)CD驅(qū)動(dòng)器用來(lái)讀取光盤并將數(shù)據(jù)轉(zhuǎn)換到計(jì)算機(jī)能夠處理的形式。CD盤可以儲(chǔ)存大量數(shù)據(jù)，這對(duì)于文獻(xiàn)資料的存儲(chǔ)非常有用，如存儲(chǔ)一部百科全書。然而，正如其名字（只讀存儲(chǔ)器）所指出的那樣，CD盤不能寫，也不能用任何方式改變其內(nèi)容。
    二、單詞

   1、literally 逐字地、照字面地

   translate a passage literally 逐字直譯一篇文章；

   2、interval 間隔、距離

   The interval between the two posts measures thirty meters.

   那兩根柱子間距30米。

   3、audio 聽覺(jué)的、聲音的；

   4、video（n） 錄象，電視，錄象機(jī)；（a）電視的，錄象的；

   5、animation 動(dòng)畫片；

   6、segment 部分；部門；

   The company dominates this segment of the market.

   該公司控制了這一部分市場(chǎng)。

   7、tableau 如畫的描寫，動(dòng)人的場(chǎng)面；

   8、optical 眼睛的、視力的、光學(xué)的；

   9、laser 激光；

   三、句型分析

   Nevertheless,[when most people refer to multimedia] they generally mean the combination of two or more continuous media, (that is, media have to be played during some well-defined timed times interval, [usually with the user's interaction.])