英语翻译One of the many things we take for granted in the twenti

英语翻译
One of the many things we take for granted in the twentieth century is the speedy collection and delivery of letters to and from all parts of the world at astonishingly cheap rates.A husband away on a business trip can write home to his wife two thousand miles away knowing that the letter will reach her in a few days.His special air-letter may cost him less than a loaf of bread or his own bus fare to work.This service,however,is a blessing of comparatively recent establishment.Until modern times the cost of sending letters privately was so great that the arrival of a letter was a considerable event and might even cost financial hardship to the receiver who had to bear the charges.There were,indeed,from the Middle Ages onwards,special messengers who carried state correspondence,and other messengers employed to go and return with news between the great monasteries or the great merchants' houses,but for centuries there was no public post service by which private letters could be sent.It was not until 1840 that the official organization known as the Penny Post was established in Great Britain and gave ordinary people cheap and efficient postal deliveries.The postal services since then have given us many obvious advantages.But there has been one result which makes us sometimes regret the passing of the bad old days.In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the arrival of a letter was a great occasion,and the letter writer knew it.He did not limit himself to brief information about his own health and ask about his correspondent's,but he would mention the things he had heard or the things that' happened around.

在20世纪的今天,我们认为理所当然的众多事情之一就是以令人惊奇地便宜的钱快速地接收来自世界各地的信件.一个在商务旅途中的丈夫在离家2000英里以外给他妻子写的信能在几天之后到达.他的特殊的航空信可能只会花他很少的钱,这些钱远远少于一片面包或者去工作坐的巴士钱.很显然,这项服务是最近比较受青睐的原因.在这项服务之前,发私人信件是很昂贵的,以至于接收信件成为信件接收者一件很值得关注的事情,如果是到付信件的话,很有可能导致收件者的财政困难.从中世纪开始,就有特殊的送信人进行州之间的通信,