Lesson 51 Predicting the future
Listen to the tape then answer the question below. What was the 'future' electronic development that Leon Bagrit wan't able to foresee? Predicting the future is notoriously difficult. Who could have imagined, in the mid 1970s, for example, that by the end of the 20th century, computers would be as common in people's homes as TV sets? In the 1970s, computers were common enough, but only in big business, government departments, and large organizations. These were the so-called mainframe machines. Mainframe computers were very large indeed, often occupying whole air-conditioned rooms, employing full-time technicians and run on specially-written software.

预测未来
听录音，然后回答以下问题。 莱昂・巴格瑞特没能预测到电子产品发展趋势是什么？ 众所周知，预测未来是非常困难的。 举个例子吧，在20世纪70年代中叶又有谁能想得到在20世纪末的时候，家庭用的计算机会像电视机一样普遍? 在70年代，计算机已经相当普及了，但只用在大的公司，政府部门和大的组织之中， 它们被称为主机。 计算机主机确实很大，常常占据了装有空调的多间房间， 雇用专职的技师，而且得用专门编写的软件才能运行。