蘋果新專利：再不怕英文自動修正鬧笑話了

It's a curse that has serially embarrassed smartphone users. The iPhone's autocorrect function, which aims to fix touchscreen typists' inaccurate spelling, intervenes at precisely the wrong moment, correcting “hungry” to “horny” or making texters promise to “walk their dad”.
仿佛遭到詛咒一般，不斷有人因智能手機的自動修正而陷入尷尬境地。iPhone的自動修正功能本意是修改觸屏使用者打錯的字詞，結果卻大相徑庭，比如將“hungry（饑餓的）”自動修正成“horny（淫蕩的）”，或者導致發信息者要“walk their dad（遛爹）”。

But Apple may have a solution. The company has filed a patent for a fix that would see message recipients warned that the sender's words have been automatically corrected, preventing the confusion of seeing an incoherent or rude message.
不過蘋果公司已經找到應對之策。蘋果近日申請了一項專利，該專利會告訴信息接收者，哪些發過來的詞經過對方手機的自動修正，防止因文不對題或粗魯字眼造成任何誤會。

Currently, autocorrected words are presented in the same way as any other word, both when messages are being written and read.
目前，無論從發信息端還是收信息端來看，自動修正過的詞都和其他字詞是完全一樣顯示的。

Apple's proposal is that they would be highlighted using an underscore in both the typing window and when read by its intended target, distinguishing an autocorrected word from any other.
蘋果的新專利顯示，他們會在發信息端和收信息端，用下劃線的方式突出顯示經過自動修正的字詞，使它們區別于其它字詞。

So, for example, when autocorrect censors a message to “I can't ducking believe it”, the recipient will have more of an idea of what was intended. If the sender spots the mistake, a clarify-and-resend button would allow them to easily correct it.
比如，當系統自動修正了一句話，使之變為“I can't ducking believe it”，收信息端就會大概知道對方要表達什么意思了（因為有下劃線）。如果發信息方看到了這個錯誤，系統還配有“修改并重發”按鈕，可以讓他們輕松改正這個錯誤。

那些年，自動修正犯過的錯：
1. A traveller's surname was corrected from "Moss" to "Miss" when booking a flight. The airline refused to allow for the error, costing the unfortunate passenger ￡600
一位出行者訂機票時，其姓氏的"Moss"被自動修正成"Miss"。結果航空公司因為這個錯誤拒絕讓其登機，導致這位不幸的乘客損失了600英鎊。

2. A mother who asked a cake shop to make a birthday cake with a "wee blond girl" for her daughter was surprised to receive one with a girl holding a white cane after the crucial word was corrected to "blind"
一位母親給女兒訂蛋糕時，要求蛋糕店制作一款主題為“金發小美女”的蛋糕。誰知收到的蛋糕上，竟然是一個小女孩手拿白色拐杖——原來關鍵的"blond（金發的）"一詞被修正成了"blind（盲人的）"。

3. An enterprising teenager who knew his parents would deny his request to host a party changed autocorrect on their phones so that "no" was automatically converted to "HELL YES".
一位不達目的誓不罷休的少年，料到父母不會同意他辦聚會的提議，于是修改了父母手機上的自動修正設置，使"no（不行）"一詞被自動修改為了"HELL YES（當然沒問題）"。

4. A 16-year-old daughter who received a text from her mother asking "What do you want from life". The teenager and her father spent five minutes debating the profound question, until a second message corrected it to "Lidl"
一位16歲的姑娘收到了母親發來的短信："What do you want from life（你想從生活中得到什么）"。這位姑娘和父親一起花了5分鐘研究這個深奧的人生命題，結果母親又發來一條更正短信，她其實想說的是："What do you want from Lidl（你們想讓我從里德爾商店帶點什么）"。

英文來源：每日電訊報
編譯：杜娟