The Fax Machine 傳真機

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 hack 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.

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　　這篇描述文說明了傳真機是如何工作的以及它的好処。但是它也講了傳真機使用起來非常昂貴，而且人人都能讀懂所傳真的文字，所以建議我們慎用傳真機。文章有理有據，令人信服。

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　　傳真機

　　傳真機使辦公室的工作大爲改觀了，特別是在中國。你把一張紙放進傳真機，機器就會“閲讀”紙上的字，竝把字形變爲電信號。然後，機器把這些電信號送入普通的電話線路，傳送到另一部傳真機上，這部傳真機就把這些信號再變成字形。你可以想像這種機器是多麽有用，特別是在中國和日本這些國家，它們用的是方塊字，而不是字母。傳真機還可以用來傳送圖片、圖樣、地圖等等。

　　發送傳真比郵寄信函要貴，但是快得多。比方說，你可以把信息立刻傳送到國外，而寄信則可能需要一周左右。如果你要把一封信寄到國外不同時區的某処辦公室，你就可以發傳真，即使下班了，還是可以收到。不過有兩點需要考慮：第一，要記住傳真是人人都可能看的，因此要注意你傳送的內容！第二，不要什麽東西都發傳真，郵寄或用電子郵件傳遞一份長的報告，要比用傳真發送便宜得多。