The Fax Machine
The fax has greatly changed office work, especially in China. When you place a sheet of paper in a fax machine, the machine "reads" the writing on the page and changes the shapes of letters into electronic signals. It then sends these signals down an ordinary telephone line to another fax machine, which changes the signals back into the shapes of letters. You can imagine how usful this is, particularly in countries like China and Japan, which use written characters not letters. It is also useful for sending pictures, designs, maps and so on.
Sending a fax in more expensive than posting a letter, but much quicker. For example, you can send information abroad immediately, but mailing a letter might take a week or so. If you want to send a letter to an office abroad that is in a different time one, you can send a fax, and it will be received even though the office is not open. There are two other points to consider. First, remember that a fax can be read by anyone, so be careful what you send! Second, do not start faxing everything! It is much cheaper to post or email a long report than to fax it.
[点评]
这篇描述文说明了传真机是如何工作的以及它的好处。但是它也讲了传真机使用起来非常昂贵，而且人人都能读懂所传真的文字，所以建议我们慎用传真机。文章有理有据，令人信服。
[参考译文]
传真机
传真机使办公室的工作大为改观了，特别是在中国。你把一张纸放进传真机，机器就会“阅读”纸上的`字，并把字形变为电信号。然后，机器把这些电信号送入普通的电话线路，传送到另一部传真机上，这部传真机就把这些信号再变成字形。你可以想像这种机器是多么有用，特别是在中国和日本这些国家，它们用的是方块字，而不是字母。传真机还可以用来传送图片、图样、地图等等。
发送传真比邮寄信函要贵，但是快得多。比方说，你可以把信息立刻传送到国外，而寄信则可能需要一周左右。如果你要把一封信寄到国外不同时区的某处办公室，你就可以发传真，即使下班了，还是可以收到。不过有两点需要考虑：第一，要记住传真是人人都可能看的，因此要注意你传送的内容!第二，不要什么东西都发传真，邮寄或用电子邮件传递一份长的报告，要比用传真发送便宜得多。
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